Stand and deliver

Troy Archer and Walker Higgins want Baton Rougeans to step out of their comfort zones, step up their workouts and step into the great outdoors.

And there’s one other thing. They want people to walk on water. One of the nation’s fastest-growing water sports is stand-up paddle boarding, known as “SUP,” and every Thursday afternoon, the two have been meeting with a growing group of paddlers at Baton Rouge Beach on University Lake.

“We don’t swim in it,” says Archer, owner of Spectrum Fitness. “We come out in our shorts with our phones in our pockets, and we kick off our shoes and just go.” These are afternoons on the water. Mornings are a bit more intense. A free Tuesday morning “paddle fit” class has board sprints, sand runs and fitness ball. If Higgins had his way, there would be squats, too.

The longtime fitness trainer says he stumbled onto paddle boarding while on vacation, and something just clicked. “I had to have one, and now it is just one of the things I do on top of everything related to fitness,” he says.

The classes are free largely because both instructors are distributors of the boards, which retail for anywhere between $1,000 and $3,000. They earn commissions on any boards sold.

Higgins has led trips down the river from Southern to LSU, and this winter, he plans to find out whether it is possible to duck hunt from a board.

“I hope that in a year or two we will have 20 people out here in the afternoon,” Higgins says. “We have this great park, and we can be out here enjoying it.”

Find Archer and Higgins’ SUP group “Paddle Battle at Baton Rouge Beach” here.