East Hampton - Stand-up Paddle Boarding (SUP) came very easy to me; I was an experienced windsurfer, so standing on a board moving forward was nothing foreign to me. What was foreign to me was trying to find calm conditions as most of my 20s and 30s were spent in search of wind and waves, with SUPing I wanted less wind and flat waters. I also had no instruction, so I am self-taught and spent many hours searching the internet for "how-to" videos made by Todd Bradley and other SUP enthusiasts. I certainly cannot say I fell in-love with SUPing the first time I stepped on a board, it was a gradual symbiotic relationship. SUPing helping me build my core muscles back after my son was born and I have helped to bring SUPing to women on the east coast by making it accessible.

Here Gina stands alongside one of the custom DIVA boards she makes for women. These boards are lighter, shorter and easier to maneuver in the water.

SUPs slowly made their way to the East Coast in the summer of 2006. There may have been ones imported from the West coast but they were hard to find in stores and shipping was expensive as most boards were 12 feet long and weighed over 40 pounds. As a result, Scott Bradley, my husband and a lifelong water man, commissioned a local board shaper, Mike Becker of Nature Shapes in Sayville to build him an 11' x 30" polyester board. It was heavy but it got the job done. I remember watching him way out on the Atlantic - it looked like he was sweeping the water and moving so slowly.

I think one of the biggest reasons I did not have that amazing "ah-ha" moment that I have seen hundreds of women have when they get comfortable on a SUP, is that I had no instruction or instructor. My husband, a great surfer, wave and distance SUPer doggedly tried to get me to listen to his instructions and like the stubborn wife I am, I would not listen. I also found his approach to the sport and mine were so vastly different that things like paddle stroke, stance, board size and paddle length were not in synch. I spent the next few years figuring this all out and taking my girlfriends paddling and teaching them what I was learning myself.

It was this slow progression of learning and watching women that led me to start my business Paddle Diva, a women's stand-up paddle board center. Some of the first things I learned were that women need much smaller boards and the perfect paddle length. In the beginning women (me included) used what was in the garage, our husbands or boyfriend's gear. So the boards were too heavy and unwieldy and the paddles too long and sometimes a blade that was too wide.

Having a lightweight paddle also makes a huge difference for paddling. As soon as I got my skills honed and got tired of lugging our 11' Jimmy Lewis, I started to gravitate towards my husband's SUP surfboards, as they were shorter - between 10' and 10'6". They were so easy to load on the truck and even easier to maneuver in the water for me.

With the birth of her second child, James, shown here with his father, Gina Bradley found that SUP was the best way to build her core muscles.

I believe that when trained properly women can be on much shorter boards that are lighter, and because of those two factors they will get out on the water more frequently! One of my biggest reasons for not SUP'ing in the early years was the fact that I could not load on to my truck any of the boards in our quiver: we had a Jimmy Lewis 12' distance board, and an 11' all arounder and one of the 10'8" tri-fin surf model (that at first I was terrified to get on because I was told it was for "surfing" and that seemed so daunting). However, once on this particular board, it became my board of choice from everything to group distance cruising to SUP'ing small waves.

One thing we are finding is that the SUP boards are in fact getting smaller and lighter for both men and women. There is definitely a need to have a board for cruising and one for surfing (should you choose to do both). One of my absolute up and coming favorite boards (as I am still trying to master it while spending the holidays at our place in Rincon, PR) is the small 9'3" wave boards. Finding balance and coordination are key with the smaller boards on the ocean in waves, also it has a perfectly tuned paddle blade size as well as shaft size.

I am finding that I need a narrower blade as I need less energy to pull quick short strokes through the waves and a shorter shaft than I typically use for cruising. This board is also my board of choice for my fitness and distance paddles as I work my core even harder keeping balanced and tracking the board straight.

SUP is still in its infancy for the East Coast. There are so many who have yet to experience what I have been so lucky to indulge in every day. Even in the winter, I still suit up in my Kokatat Dry suit and head out. For me SUPing has become my livelihood but it has also become a way of life. As soon as I step out on the board and start heading towards a sighting or slosh over the waves, everything and anything that stressed me out dissipates. It's just me and the board and the water, all in unison, all working together to move forward.