Santa Barbara and Malibu
October 10, 2008
I poked my way down the California coast, looking at inaccessible surf spots, monster kelp beds, and cold-looking water until I reached Santa Barbara. I pulled into town and made my way to the beach. I had planned to look up the infamous Wardog once I got there, I figured he’d have a secret spot or two I could get him to share. But it was late on a Saturday, so it seemed unlikely that he’d be at his shop. The surf looked small, but there were a couple of SUP surfers out with the crowd of longboarders, so I decided to get wet. Tossed my board in the water and paddled out. I caught a few nice rides, but it was pretty dinky. I went for a long paddle along the beach, intending to quit when I got back to the shore and head further south for the night. But when I got back to the little surf spot most of the folks had gone home, the water glassed off, the sun was going down in a big ball of orange, and the waves were looking clean and nice.
Santa Barbara
A family of young kids on longboards with their dad were shredding the heck out of the waves, doing long noserides and showing a lot of style. I slid in and caught a bunch of nice rides, played around, let the kids try my board, surfed until pitch dark.
Local Santa Barbara SUPer in little swells
By then I was hungry and I remembered an italian restaurant I’d had a great meal at many years ago. I drove down the shoreline and there it was. the place was packed but there was room at the bar, so I had a great meal and some nice wine. Turns out the place was so busy because Jeff Lorber was doing a CD release party there. Hard to believe a jazz great like Jeff Lorber was playing in a little restaurant, but there he was. I stayed for the music, and by the time I was ready to leave it was too late and I had too much wine to push on. So I found a place to stay on the beach and slept like the dead until 9:00.
The surf looked a little bigger, but I wanted to try Malibu, so I hoofed it on down the coast. Coming into Malibu I saw a lot of interesting looking breaks, but no SUPers at all, and flocks of surfers. Usually a great break has a lesser break nearby that no one uses that’s perfect for SUP, but i didn’t see anything like that. I drove through Malibu without seeing a SUP, but I was determined to try this famous spot. Finally I say two guys on SUP boards in the middle of what looked like a solid raft of surfers.
I pulled into a parking spot and pulled out my board just as both of them quit. I didn’t even get to see how they were surfing the spot. I paddled out and went looking for a wave that wasn’t packed solid. No joy. So I paddled North, past all the houses, looking at all that ridiculously expensive real estate getting pounded by beach break. I didn’t see anything that looked rational so I paddled back to the break and took a couple of rides at the far southern end.
Malibu SUPer
I saw the lifeguard walk down the beach looking at me, so I figured I might be out of bounds somehow, though I didn’t see any markers or flags, and there wasn’t anyone in the water. While he was headed my way I took one more ride, and wound up in about five inches of water. I could see the pebbles and rocks under the nose of the board. I dove into the face of the whitewater, so I didn’t get munched, but the whitewater and my board dragged me over the pebbles and we both got a little beat up. I walked up the steep bank and the lifeguard said “that’s a really dangerous place to surf”.
Next… Del Mar and Mission Bay.
Another SUP article–from Virginia Beach, VA
August 5, 2008
By Laine M. Rutherford
Correspondent
At first glance, the two men seen out past the breakers and the surfers off of 45th Street seemed to be doing the impossible: walking on water.
A longer look during a morning surf session last week showed more. The men were standing on boards, propelling themselves with paddles, practicing a sport that’s creating a wave of interest in Virginia Beach this summer – Stand Up Paddle surfing.
The trend – called SUP, Beach Boy surfing and other names – is already hugely popular in California and Hawaii and began lapping at the Virginia Beach shoreline a few years ago.
This summer, enthusiasm swelled as surfers and other athletes began embracing it with the same excitement they give to reports of double overheads in October.
Translation: they’re getting stoked on SUP.
“I didn’t know there was anything left to do on the water that was this much fun,” said Rick Romano, a local artist and avid SUP surfer. “It’s fresh, it’s new and it’s very addictive.”
Romano first tried the sport three years ago after visiting legendary surfer Laird Hamilton’s home in Hawaii.
“I saw these boards in his garage and heard the great things he had to say about it and I knew I wanted to do it,” Romano remembered. “You couldn’t get boards here then, so I started paddling on an old windsurfer, lopped off the end of an old kayak paddle and went out like that all summer long. I’ve been doing it ever since.”
Romano’s equipment has improved over the years. He now counts four “real” SUP boards in his quiver and has local access to the latest products. He cites Freedom Surf shop on Laskin Road and Surf & Adventure Co. in Sandbridge as the first area shops to carry SUP products and to promote the sport locally.
Gear consists of an epoxy board and a paddle, usually made of carbon. Boards average 11 feet, weigh about 20 pounds and are 30 inches wide with a turned up nose. Traction pads usually cover the surface. The average paddle is 80 inches and has a scooped end.
“It’s definitely an investment,” Freedom Surf owner Dave Shotton said of the $1,500 tag for board and paddle. “But once you’ve made that investment, you’re set. Three generations, from 8 to 80, can ride the same board.”
Shotton took up the sport when he bought Freedom Surf last year.
“We spotted the trend and knew it was coming, but if I was going to talk the talk, I knew I had to walk the walk,” said Shotton, who used to be surfboard sales rep. “I was hooked immediately.”
Shotton, 41, is one of SUP’s chief local proponents and part of a North End contingent that hits the waves nearly every morning and evening. He is also a witness to the popularity of the sport at the Beach. Since the beginning of the year, he has sold about 50 boards.
“There are so many benefits to it,” Shotton explained. “It’s a great core exercise, you can stay in the ocean longer, later in the year and on flat days, I’m still out, getting exercise, and enjoying the water.”
The learning curve is steep, comparable to snowboarding.
“It can take three hours or three days, but once you get it there’s no problem getting up and getting out,” Shotton said. “Right now it’s mainly surfers, but we know it’s going to expand.”
A ripple of SUP opinions
In town to host a surf camp last month, Robert “Wingnut” Weaver borrowed a board for a quick SUP surfing session. Weaver, who is a member of the Surfers’ Hall of Fame, gracefully dipped his paddle in the water, using it to traverse the board and carve turns in the small waves he rode to shore.
“It’s super fun to do and it opens up a whole new realm of wave riding,” the Santa Cruz resident said. “It’s just a great workout that gets people outside and gives them another way to interact with the ocean.”
Not everyone is riding the wave of support for the new sport. D.J. Joyner, 25, an employee of Freedom Surf, counts himself among the “haters,” those who find the big boards offensive. For D.J., and others, SUP boards have replaced longboards in the chain of “haterdom.”
“I consider them canoes; you can’t bring canoes into the lineup,” the Hilltop resident said. “They can catch absolutely everything and they do – they’re people who don’t know how to share. There might be a place for them, but it shouldn’t be near surfers.”
Sandbridge resident Bill Gassett stresses good surf etiquette to those who try out the boards multiplying in his backyard.
“This is such a positive sport that anyone can do – we don’t want bad behavior rippling through to cause negative attitudes,” said Gassett, 48, a retired Navy deep-sea diver. “Because this is not a fad, it’s something that will change a lot of people’s perspective on how they can enjoy the water and more people are doing it every day.”
The sport is evolving as it gains popularity. Boards are becoming more specialized – refined for conditions and uses, such as distance touring or racing. SUP surfing is showing up as a category in surf contests and other water events.
New terms are coined daily, such as “downwinding,” where a vehicle is dropped off miles away from a starting point and surfers make their way down the coast, running with the waves and the current.
“I’ve seen it grow exponentially this year,” Romano stated. “And I think this is just the tip of the iceberg. Whoever embraces this sport now is going to be a frontrunner. It’s going to be fun to look back and say, “I remember the early days.’”
Laine Mednick Rutherford, Laine.R@cox.net
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Midwest SUP
August 4, 2008
People are definitely catching on that SUP is great for inland lakes and rivers. Here’s an article from the Minneapolis Star about SUP in local lakes and a company that’s doing a good job of selling and publicizing SUP as a core workout and fun activity.
Stand-up paddling
Stand-up paddling melds a surf sport with a core-strengthening workout. No waves required.
Last update: August 4, 2008 – 10:08 A
Lake Calhoun is a choppy mess, little swells and whitecaps whipping up as windsurfers drift by in the breeze. I’m standing on the water, legs spread, feet solid on the deck of a surfboard.
Sunlight cuts through green water, seaweed gliding by beneath. My hands grip a paddle for propulsion, long reaches and pulls moving my upright frame through the wind, away from shore.
“You got it!” shouts Tara Krolczyk, owner of LakeSUP, a Minnetonka-based surfboard reseller. “As easy as standing on a sidewalk.”
It is a Wednesday evening in mid-July, and I’ve come to try a sport new to the Midwest. Stand-up paddle-surfing has roots in Hawaii, where the discipline was created decades ago as a means of flat-water transportation. Over the past three summers, stand-up paddling — SUP, for short — has sent waves through the surf industry.
“SUP is probably the fastest-growing current trend in surfing,” said Sean Smith, executive director of the Surf Industry Manufacturers Association in Aliso Viejo, Calif.
Smith attributes the sport’s popularity to its versatility. It can be done when there are good waves or no waves at all. It’s also great exercise, he said.
Further bolstering the sport, surf stars such as Laird Hamilton and Dave Kalama have embraced SUP. ESPN recently reported that World Cup skier Julia Mancuso cross-trains standing up on a surfboard.
Hollywood types including Matt Damon, Jennifer Garner and Pierce Brosnan have been caught on camera SUPing, drawing populist fuel to the fire.
SUP scene in Minnesota
Krolczyk formed LakeSUP in May after a family vacation to Florida. A former professional dancer and Radio City Rockette, Krolczyk, 38, fell in love with SUP after just two hours on a rental board off Key Largo.
“It was an amazing core workout,” she said.
LakeSUP sells stand-up surfboards and paddles on its website (www.lakesup.com). Krolczyk runs free monthly demonstration clinics on area lakes and travels to give private lessons.
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Tara Krolczyk founded LakeSUP in May after spending a couple hours on a board in Key Largo, Fla.
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Making Waves: Predicting Your Next Great Day
March 22, 2008
“Where do waves come from, Master? Why are there forty foot waves at Jaws when they’re just head high at Kenaha. Does swell period have anything to do with pregnancy or sanitary napkins? Why are there sets? How come we surf monks can’t get chicks.”
“Ah, grasshopper. These are all hopeless grommet questions, but then you are a hopeless grommet. Wax my board and polish my paddle and I will enlighten you..”
Wind makes waves. First ripples form, then the ripples give the wind something to push against and it shoves the ripples into chop, then waves, then big humping life-sucking victory-at-sea mackers if everything goes well. [Read more]