On a recent summer evening on a calm stretch of the Farmington River in Canton, a group of 11 people came slowly and quietly downriver.

That people gathered on the east bank to watch was not surprising.

This was a floating yoga class.

Each member of the group was atop a paddleboard essentially a bigger, more stable surfboard moving from one yoga pose to another. If the board was the yoga mat, the river, the sky and all of nature were the yoga studio.

It was one of the first manifestations of paddleboarding and yoga in Connecticut, a fusion of the rapidly growing new paddle sport with the ancient practice of yoga.

Paddleboard yoga sessions began on the Farmington River in late June, a collaboration of Collinsville Canoe & Kayak, which rents and sells paddleboards, and the neighboring Yoga Center of Collinsville.

Paddleboarding in recent years has boomed nationwide, with board sales soaring. "We've tripled our sales from three years ago," said Jon Warner, who owns the canoe and kayak shop with his wife, Sue. The latest trend, seen now from California to Florida to Connecticut, combines paddleboarding and yoga. It is increasingly popular, with classes on the Farmington getting larger each week.

Dotty Craig of New Hartford already has participated in several paddleboard yoga sessions and finds them special.

"Yoga on a mat in a studio is a mind, body, spiritual connection," she said as the session ended. "When you get out on the water, something surreal happens, and it is just that much more fantastic."

Paddleboard and yoga sessions on the Farmington are led by certified yoga teachers and open to anyone, even those who have never been on a paddleboard or practiced yoga. They are held on the section of river behind the canoe and kayak shop.

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Paddle Board Yoga Popular Along Farmington River