A sport described in recent years as one of the fastest growing in the world has reached the waterways of Suffolk.

Suffolk’s Alyson Alexander has started a meetup.com group called Suffolk SUP. The acronym stands for stand-up paddle boarding, a sport that she says combines a physical workout with mental conditioning.

“As a child, I always loved the water,” Alexander said. “Going through college, and that all goes by the wayside. You get a bit older and you go back to what you are naturally drawn to.”

Alexander said the group is just getting started. It has about 29 members online, but they haven’t all met at the same location at the same time.

“We’ve had a couple of meets at Bennett’s Creek Park, and we’re hoping to grow this group larger,” she said.

Alexander used to work for VB Surf Sessions in Virginia Beach, and that’s how she learned to stand-up paddleboard.

The group plans a demonstration day soon for the public to learn about the sport, but it has not yet set a date.

The sport gives the abdominal muscles and core a good workout, Alexander said. “It’s really up to you how much you want to turn it into an aerobic exercise.”

It can be a relaxing paddle, or it can be stepped up a few notches to get heart racing and blood pumping.

“It definitely has a lot of benefits from an aerobic standpoint,” according to Alexander. “And as far as being therapeutic, you can incorporate yoga and other things that help with other conditioning, other than just physical.”

Alexander hopes the group will generate enough enthusiasm to be able to meet at least weekly over the summer.

“There’s definitely a big following,” she said. “People are curious and want to try it out and are interested.”

One attraction of the sport, she said, is that it’s like surfing in that it uses a board on the water, but you don’t need waves.

However, of the several different varieties of stand-up paddle boarding, one does incorporate surfing. Yet another combines whitewater action.

Alexander said her group could meet at locations other than Bennett’s Creek Park, since several members are from the Newport News area.

“We just set out for between two to four hours to paddle up and down the creek,” she said. Weather conditions are a huge factor, as calm water makes for easier paddling and balancing.

For more information, visit Suffolk SUP on Facebook.