We have a stretch of our local river that is flowing gently (half walking speed). pretty high volume, but no weird currents etc, just flowing gently. Is it possible to use an anchor and do SUP yoga here, or would that ruin the whole yoga experience?

The anchoring will make the board go left and right a bit, so I'm not sure if that would be too distracting?

i think its a good idea idea J. I have talked to another Yoga SUP instructor that works in moving water and she usually has her classes tie off to an anchored line with plenty of room between them or they each take out a small anchor. She says it works really well so she can teach the class and everyone is in the same orientation so they can see and hear her as she teaches. She said that trying it without tying off to something was like

I've done my classes both ways and prefer anchoring. Yes, it can be a bit distracting with the boards moving from side to side, but not nearly as distracting as floating away. Unless you have a class all on the same board type, and with the same body size than they will float at different speeds and I find it more distracting when some are slowly drifting and others are paddling back to the group because they were quickly carried away. Depending on which of my locations I'm teaching out of I have a long rope that we can hold up to 10, they take their leash off and wrap it around the rope with the paddle and then I anchor myself separately and have to be backwards on my board to face them. At another location it's easier for everyone to be individually anchored so they paddle out with their anchors and drop it where they choose. The leash is still taken off but just the paddle is attached to it.