Covewater Stand Up Paddle

My boyfriend and I wanted to go SUP and this is the place to go. There are 2 locations. I recommend going to the beach location as it is more convenient to walk your board over to the beach versus driving with boards mounted to the top of the car. More time to enjoy the sights and dolphins!

These guys are the real deal. I was passing through on a family vacation and wanted to rent a SUP board to surf for half a day and they set me up with a really nice demo board at a great price. (9’5″ F-​One Anakao) Keith was really helpful and gave me tips as to where to go for waves without running foul of the famous Santa Cruz rough surfer crowd. As it happens I was looking for a new board to step up my surfing and when I got home (I live in the LA South Bay) I decided the F-​One Anakao was the board for me. There is limited distribution so I decided to buy it through Covewater. They did a great job setting up delivery. They sent me a load of pictures of the board prior and during packing so that I had reference to its clean condition. And they gave great advise about accepting delivery (not to sign anything until the Board was unpacked in front of the delivery guy — again Keith did a great job on all of this). It worked out really well and it’s a fantastic board. Bottom line — they are knowledgable, friendly, very diligent, and are the sort of small business you want to give your business to. And don’t hesitate to consider a board purchase/​delivery from them if you are from out of town. In summary: a great surf shop that makes the shops down here in LA pretty mediocre.

I had a great SUP lesson with Helen today! I had a great time and can’t wait to go out again. This is a great surf shop!!!

I took 3 advanced SUP surfing private lessons with Dan and Oliver. Both were very friendly and helpful. They have excellent (I took the Fone 8’5″) boards and paddles, and I got a lot of helpful advice from Oliver that really improved my surfing. They also got me familiar with the spots around Capitola, and since they know many of the locals I felt more welcomed.
Highly recommended!

WOW! This is by far the best surf shop I’ve ever come across! I went to Norcal for a week to celebrate my wife’s birthday… So I knew I had very little time to waist. I’ve already organized renting for 2 days a board from their huge selection and 1 lesson to improve my surfing. Oliver was very responsive on email and the shop was open at 8:00am on the dot!
The board was in perfect conditions plus they stock for rent the simsup boards that I was planning to buy to great opportunity to test them (by the way they are awesome) they got me set with the simsup board, carbon paddle and straps for the rental car. Oliver also gave very good recommendations of where to go and park with out paying!
I was very lucky to have Dan as a instructor/​guide, and I had the best session ever! He took me to privates break away from all the other surfers and gave me very good advice and I really felt I’ve progress my surfing to the next level! So thank you Dan for that…

Josh is very instructor and very accommodating.
The beginner lesson for SUP is phenomenal and fee is reasonable. I will come back again soon.

As part of a bachelorette party that otherwise revolved around food and drink, we wanted to take some time to do something active. So we decided to SUP! Only one of us had any experience on a SUP, but we all had an amazing time. Olivier was professional, patient, and fun. He was a great teacher and took a ton of great pictures for us with a waterproof camera, which was very much appreciated. I HIGHLY recommend working with him, whether you are a beginner or an expert. Also, don’t be afraid of going in the open water. We (as a bunch of beginners) went to New Brighton State Park with Olivier for our private session and LOVED it. The wildlife and the views were spectacular. Enjoy!

Friendly, knowledgeable, great selection of high quality boards (even for rentals!). Definitely going back to them next time I’m in Santa Cruz.

These guys are the best. Amazing selection, great customer service, reasonable rental pricing. We’ve been happy customers for years. They want you to have a great experience. Could not recommend more highly.

Great experience. Same as everyone else. I rented a $ 2400 board for 30 bucks. There is no other place that does this. Add a nice friendly atmosphere. Dealt with 3 staff members. All helpful nice. Rent the night before if you want after 3pm any you just get charged for 1 day.

Olivie was an excellent teacher. This was my first time paddle boarding. However with the instructions and leadership of olivie, I felt calm and confident! I highly recommend taking a few lessons. The class size was small so the teacher was able to pay attention to everyone. Definitely will take another lesson with them!

Bought my first SUP Board from Keith. Wonderful experience. He had exactly what I wanted and did not push items I didn’t need. Sweet, kind and very bright young man! Give him a RAISE!

We are a small local business and used Covewater for a staff bonding experience and it was awesome!
Scott (the owner) was super easy to deal with ind was very accommodating to make it all happen. We had a lot of last minute addition and changes and he just rolled with it, which I greatly appreciated.
The confirmation email had very detailed instructions and was very helpful for everybody.
We met our French instructor Olivier at the Wharf in Capitola. He had boards, paddles and wetsuits for everybody (which were clean and in very good condition).
After a quick intro at the beach we went in the water and spent almost two hours paddling around, watching the wildlife (we saw otters and seals) and having a great time.
Olivier took a bunch of photos that we got the next day and they came out great.
It was a wonderful experience for everybody and I would highly recommend Covewater for your paddleboarding needs!

So much fun. My friend and I paddled all the way to the wharf and checked out the seals. Such an adventure.

I had an awesome experience with Covewater. Found them on Unilocal after I had planned my get away to Santa Cruz this past weekend. Keith was really quick getting back to me about rentals and info, based on my experience he picked out a board and reserved it for me so I would be ready to go when I arrived.
The rental process was really easy and fast.
I was a little curious how it would works since the store is not really near the water and I don’t have a rack for my rental car, but even that was so simple! Scott came out to help me load the board onto the roof of the car and strap it down– ready to go– and then helped me pick a great spot in Capitola to paddle out.
I had an awesome day– and you really can’t beat the price for the whole day. It’s nice because you don’t have to be out on the water rushing and can really just enjoy the scenery and all the wildlife in the water.
My goal is to eventually buy a board– and they actually have a rental to buy program where you can try different boards each time you go down there and they put up to $ 120 of rentals toward the purchase of a board– awesome!
I did decide to finally buy my own wetsuit when I was there. Keith was extremely knowledgable and provided me with a lot of information and options.
All in all, a great experience and I would highly recommend checking them out if you are in the Santa Cruz area and want to SUP!

First time here and new to SUP! Scott had the best customer service ever and even gave me tips on how to use the paddle, use your knees first, and how to get up on the board! I told him I heard about their company on Unilocal and I immediately got the Unilocal discount they are currently offering! He helped put the board on my car and gave me instructions on how to get to the harbor, etc… It was a great experience… I went to the Santa Cruz harbor but next time when I have more experience I would check out other areas! Such a great deal for an all day rental, Leslie was super nice too when I returned the board, will definitely be returning!

These people are so nice and helpful and professional. They have a fix for all of your concerns. They are by far cheaper than the places a mile away on the beach and you get the boards all day. And getting the boards transported in a tiny car is no problem.

I’ve had a fantastic experience working with Covewater on my first SUP purchase, they get my highest recommendation.
They spent a ton of time (literally hours) helping me understand the best SUP for what I am trying to accomplish and my local area — also the best and most generous demo policy I’ve ever seen so I was super confident in my final selection. They are a great advocate for the sport.
The shop hast the biggest selection I’ve seen and the team is very responsive to emails and calls with questions on anything. I live far from the shop and on more than one occasion they opened the store off hours so I could pick up a demo when I was in the area.
I hope these guys do well, we’re lucky to have them in the region.

We had so much fun with Covewater today!
Our guide was Leslie and she was super friendly and patient. I had Groupon-buyer’s remorse as soon as my knees hit the board and I was sure I’d capsize over into the water. Leslie’s instructions kept me safe & dry as I stood up and then I enjoyed 2 hours of fun, paddling around the harbor.
I can’t wait to use my newfound skills to rent paddleboards from Covewater in the (very near) future.
PLUS– the money you spend on renting from Covewater goes to the cost of a new board if someday you decide you need one of your very own! I think that’s a really cool policy, and I was surprised to learn it!

All day rental for Stand Up Paddling for $ 28! Preeeeetty awesome :) just be sure to tell them you found out about them through Unilocal and it’ll be $ 28. At first I thought it was an additional $ 5 off more if you check in, but that’s for purchases of $ 35 or more. It’s still cheap without it!
I’m pretty sure everyone gave it 5 stars because they had a great time and it was cheap, which I totally agree on. However, the only thing I didn’t like was how the worker didn’t tell us how to put them up on our car. We didn’t even realize it wasn’t next to the beach, which was a bummer. It took us the longest time to put them up! Covewater did provide mats to tie on top of our car, but he didn’t tell us how. It’s understandable since he was the only person working there, but it took us 3 tries so it got a little frustrating. Once because we realized the biggest board had to go on the bottom, twice because we didn’t know the mat was supposed to go BETWEEN the hood of the car and the boards, and the third time was when the worker came and helped us out.
We had never done SUP before so we asked for the easy route. They took us to the Harbor, where the water was calm. Boats/​ships were all around, so i didn’t like how I kept running into them sometimes lol. But that was just me! None of my friends did haha.
There was an otter that did keep popping up so I thought that was cute!
Overall it was a fun experience. Maybe I’ll come again and won’t run into the boats next time =P