Another SUP article–from Virginia Beach, VA

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

Comments Welcome

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 going to work to minimize the spam, but I need to hear from all of you readers about what you like and don’t, what experiences you have, and where you’d like this publication to go.

The venerable Ponohouse blog had several postings with more than 100 comments. i don’t expect to see that level–there are a lot of places for SUP folks to spend time online these days. But I do value your input. Please comment.

How to Paddle Straight

Kind of an old video, but a lot of people have been talking about paddling techniques lately.