Does anyone here have experience with river or whitewater stand up paddleboarding?

I know SUP is often not popular with kayaks and rafts, but I like kayaks, rafts, and last summer I played around on a SUP on a small set of rapids, and it was a lot of fun.

But, I was using an inflatable paddle board that was not mine, and I realized that the dang center fin was a real liability. That thing could easily break on a small rock.

So I stopped the river/small whitewater SUPing because I didn't want to damage someone else equipment.

I've been thinking about it ever since and I can't figure out how to solve the problem of the fin.

SUPing without a fin sucks because you can't steer. But if you have a fin and run a river, it's dang near guaranteed to break.

Does anyone know anyone that SUPs on rivers that has a solution to this? Thanks.

I've run all the class II III rivers around here on my earth river board. It's a tri-fin, 3'wide 11' long inflatable. I'm no hero, but I got better after a few mishaps. Kneepads are your friend

Kneepads are a great idea! Do you wear a helmet? I was thinking when I was doing it that it wouldn't be a bad idea if I had a helmet on.

Have you ever had a problem with your fins breaking? That seems to me to be a problem, but maybe it's not as bad as I'm guessing.

Always wear a helmet and pfd for sure. Knee and elbow pads can be used depending on how low the water is. I would not recommend using a leash on whitewater until you learn more about that. There's a special attachment you can use to use a leash safely on the river, but NEVER attach it to your ankle and body on a river, there have been recent fatal accidents related to this, especially on rivers.

I generally wear a helmet on all rivers. The leash I attach to my rescue vest. Any type of rope in the water has some danger to it. Make sure you can release yourself from it. My board has 3 short hard plastic fins. I need to avoid things that come within about 4" of the surface, but I've failed at this a few times and the knee/shin guards showed their merit. First time on Wenatchee I didn't have them, smashed knee into a rock and walked funny for a while. I've since learned to fall 'better' but ya don't always have control of it.