The Naish Columbia Gorge Paddle Challenge (CGPC) is a Festival celebrating the sport of Stand Up Paddling in the beautiful Columbia River Gorge. The Paddle Challenge will feature a Distance Downwind Race, a Course Race, a Team Relay Race and a recreational, non-competitive Paddle for the Park, a fundraiser for the new Hood River Waterfront Continue Reading
I beat Dave Kalama at the inaugural Big Winds SUP race in the Columbia River Gorge at Hood River. Finished about five minutes ahead of him–long enough to get off my board, walk up to the deck above the river and take pictures of Dave, Robby Naish, and Michi Schweiger crossing the finsih line. So Continue Reading
I hope readers don’t mind these totally off topic videos. I don’t go scouting youtube for this stuff, but I get a lot of email correspondence from fellow nutcases, and it seems lately that whacked videos, especially as related to race cars or doing extreme extreme (uberextreme?) stuff makes up a large portion. So, this Continue Reading
One of our fine members posted this in the Forum section as a video link, and then helpfully moved it to Youtube so we could conviently move it to the magazine. So here you go–Ikaika Kalama & Kainoa McGee ripping up Pipeline on Stand Up Paddle Boards:
I turned the corner onto South Kihei Rd and saw whitecaps. Big, fluffy spraying-off-the-top whitecaps, and chunky swells even with the short fetch from Maalaea Bay. Perfect for a fast downwinder to the Four Seasons beach. Diane was dubious as usual, she considers anything beyond a gentle zephyr to be life-threatening, but I couldn’t wait Continue Reading
In the last segment we revealed our high-tech weighing and measuring processes aided by a $39 scale, some home-made calipers, and a tape measure sacrificed to rapid corrosion after being submerged in the saltwater pool at Ponohouse. So now it’s on to the beach. We had a few people who had conflicts arise and had Continue Reading
Written by Tom English www.AlohaWealth.com When people ask me why I surf with a paddle, my response is usually, “because it’s fun”. But when I think about it, it is really about the speed and power that a high performance board and paddle make possible. The paddle allows you to lean into turns harder and Continue Reading
So you are ready to buy a high-zoot carbon fiber paddle and tweak it to make it all yours. Please don’t tell me you already bought one and it’s precut. If you did, skip way down to the taping section. This part will just make you uneasy. If you’re considering a wood paddle you’ll have Continue Reading
This ebook is being written in four parallel paths: Basics; Surfing; Theory, and Conditioning. It will also eventually have a lot of pictures and video added. I have an outline, a shot list, and plans for the videos, but they have to wait until I can get to them. Chapter 3 of the Basic track Continue Reading
I have a lot of waterproof cases–I love having music along when I do a distance paddle. So I have a H2O Audio case for my Video iPod. Then I wanted something smaller, so I got the H2O Audio iPod Nano integrated headphone/case designed for swimmers. Works great. But then I decided I wanted to Continue Reading
Fishing from a stand up paddle board is a natural–you can get it into the water easier than even a kayak. You can see down onto reefs better than you can on any other craft I’ve experienced, and you can fish comfortably in places any boat would fear to tread–kelp beds, shallow water with waves, Continue Reading
We’ve had a little flood of paddle news. Brad Gillespie sent us a review of a new Gillespie blade (how about reviews of the rest of the line, Brad) and Bob Long from Mission Surf in San Diego sent a review of the new Warner Advantage–Warner’s new Fiberglass offering. And last weekend I got a Continue Reading
Ke Nalu reader Bill Gasset sent a link to another local story on SUP, this one from Virginia Beach, VA. I wish I’d had a SUP board when I lived there during my stint in the navy back a lifetime or two ago. Here’s the link. http://hamptonroads.com/node/471881 The Virginian-Pilot © July 10, 2008 By Laine Continue Reading
Before you start paddle surfing you need to assess your swimming skills and your ability to handle yourself and your board in surf. Any watersport is dangerous, and good swimming skills are a necessity, even if you only do standup on flat water and lakes. Leash: Wear one. Even on a lake. When you fall Continue Reading
I did three hours this morning, before watching the F1 race (a GREAT race btw, Hamilton was amazing, overcoming a truely boneheaded pit strategy by McLaren that left everyone scratching their heads, and Nelson Piquet JR got on the podium with a very lucky second, though I certainly don’t discount the fact that he managed to hold Massa off, who probably damaged his undertray going all rallycross when Hamilton block-passed him.) I didn’t figure my mileage for three hours but it wasn’t much since I was fighting a headwind for the first half, but I doubt I did ten miles.
Ke Nalu is a big experiment, and one test was making people jump a small threshold to leave comments (register and respond to a Captcha spambot test). The result is not many comments. I consider comments to be the lifeblood of online publishing, so I’ve turned all that off for the time being. I’m still Continue Reading
The new issue of Standup Journal is on it’s way to newstands (most Border’s Bookstores now carry it). Here’s a teaser courtesy of publisher Clay Feeter–the cover and first three spreads. These are lightboxed–click on any picture to zoom it to full size.
I’ve found a great use for SUP boards–entertaining grand kids. I attached a carrier to my Starboard 12’6″ recently, planning to use it for fishing and camping, but the grandkids who have been here for a week (God give me strength) took full advantage of it.
The Prolific Paddler and Paddlebuilder Ernie Johnson sent me two great photojournals for races he’s done recently. This makes three stories so far from Ernie (and makes all the rest of you look like slackers–how ’bout getting those stories to me–you can’t just be sitting around reading about this stuff!). Ernie Johnson and Tony Mueller Continue Reading
Kind of an old video, but a lot of people have been talking about paddling techniques lately.
A couple of weeks ago Diane got a new long lens for the Nikon–a 180 to 500MM. I just downloaded the pictures to my computer–some of them are pretty neat. She put the long lens on our big tripod and this was the first shot she got: Here’s the second: Nice job, kid. Some waist-high Continue Reading
Bonga ripping Michi Schweiger From Naish International attended the Noosa Surf Festival which ran from March 2 to March 9, 2008. He sent us this photojournal story:
I’m feeling pretty good about this second issue. Yes, it’s staggering to it’s feet a little, I still have numerous articles and features to finish up and add to the mix, But it’s not April 1st yet–I’m about a week ahead of schedule in releasing this issue. I’ve decided that a staggered release over the Continue Reading
This is chapter two of the BOOK section–we’re doing one chapter a month Boards and why you would choose them The first issue is the right board. For a rank beginner there’s almost no such thing as too wide or too long. But once you start catching waves or riding in difficult conditions like chop Continue Reading
A lot of Paddlesurfers are returning to the sport of surfing after perhaps a long hiatus, or perhaps never surfed at all. Many of you will eventually get into bigger waves and experience the joy of bouncing around in whitewater or retreating from a crashing lip by hugging the bottom. One critical skill you must Continue Reading
If you’re beginning stand up surfing then I suspect you’ll find this very helpful. This is a collaborative document that will reflect the knowledge of anyone that has something to contribute. I’d like to include your perspectives. They don’t have to carefully written, just informative. I’ll edit and polish to make the document readable. Introduction–cautions Continue Reading