Apparatus for rowing in the direction the rower is facing has a base frame. A main bearing for a lever with hand grip and another for a lever with oar are in the base frame. A linkage connects the lever with hand grip and lever with oar to form a counteracting four-bar linkage system. The oar lever is the driven arm of the four-bar linkage and is linked to a rotary drive that has a main axle and virtually coaxial actuator rod. The hand grip lever rotates about its axis and is mounted to a bearing body within the base frame. The hand grip lever actuates an actuator that is virtually coaxial to the main axle on the bearing body. The actuator engages with a seesaw mounted on the base frame to shift the actuator rod of the rotary drive to rotate the oar.

The present invention is a stand up paddle board with left and right oars attached to left and right transmissions respectively mounted in the hull of the paddle board. The hull of the paddle board also includes a bow, stern and foot pads upon which the operator stands on. The oars pivot around an oar pivot in a longitudinal direction and paddle arms attached to the oars pivot around an arm pivot in a longitudinal direction. The paddle arms terminate in at a lower at a paddle so that when the operator urges the oars in a rearward and forward motion, the paddle arms pivot around an arm pivot and propel the paddle board.