SUP yoga participants do downward dog on Cunningham Pond. 
Yoga students reach to the sky. 
Cobra stance on paddleboards at Cunningham Pond. Credit: KIERA MCLAUGHLIN / Ledger-Transcript 
Participants move from plank to lifting opposite arms and legs on their boards. Credit: KIERA MCLAUGHLIN / Ledger-Transcript
Most people have heard of hot yoga or even goat yoga, but now the Peterborough Recreation Department offers Stand-Up Paddleboard yoga, known as SUP yoga, at Cunningham Pond.
Sharon Akers, a 500-hour certified yoga instructor, leads the classes on the pond weekly for experienced and inexperienced participants.
In her third year of teaching SUP yoga classes, Akers said her students have fallen into the water at a higher rate than in previous years.
“I think it has to do with the fact it’s been a hot season and people want to be in the water,” she joked.
According to Julia Chidester, program director at the Peterborough Rec Department, the director discovered Akers’s work in Concord and wanted to offer classes in the Monadnock region.
Akers has been practicing yoga since she was 17 years old; over the past 30 years, the hobby has slowly become a career.
“The last 15 [years] or so have been a lot more focused, very regularly on doing yoga, to the point of an addiction,” she said.
She became a certified teacher 10 years ago, and since then has expanded to SUP and hiking yoga.
Currently, she works at SUP YO Adventures in Concord, where she got her certification.
Akers said her practice first started when she was playing around on a paddleboard at home, not knowing how popular SUP yoga actually is.
“I was like, ‘Oh, paddleboard, that’s kind of the size of a yoga mat,” she said.
Through trial and error, she taught herself before her certification and now enjoys teaching others.
Even for experienced yoga participants, SUP yoga requires different strengths and patience.
“What’s challenging on the floor and what’s challenging on the board are two totally different things,” Akers explained.
Amy Kleine, a close friend of Akers’s and a participant in the SUP yoga classes at Cunningham Pond, completely agrees.
Akers remembers her first visit to Cunningham Pond with Kleine approximately four years ago, when Kleine commented that the area was perfect for SUP yoga.
Now, Kleine can attend classes in her hometown. She also is a regular participant in Akers’s more traditional yoga classes.
“She’s a great instructor,” Kleine said.
The first round of sessions runs until Aug. 17, with the second running from Aug. 24 through Sept. 7, each Monday and Wednesday from 5:30 to 6:45 p.m.
For more information, visit the Peterborough Rec Department website at peterboroughnh.myrec.com/info/activities/program_details.aspx?ProgramID=30228.