It’s All Over but the Shouting the Report Card on This Cool New Sport of Ours
“Sucks. Totally lame. This will never catch on…and my leg hurts!” That was me. The Way Back Machine is set to 2007. I’m trying out my girlfriend’s new 12-foot Laird standup board for my first sup experience. We are at a North Coast beach break. The waves are head high, punchy and mostly closeouts. Even though the board is as new as the sport, it’s still old school. At least as old school as a new fad like standup paddling can get. No deck pad, no handle, and only one tiny lump of wax to cover almost 36 square feet of slippery deck. At first glance the strange new board looks just like any other longboard…if Paul Bunyan surfed. Even Babe the Blue Ox would have a hard time schlepping this one around. I get the full girth of the new sport when I carry the big Laird.
Paddling prone out past the impact zone, I stand up on the outside with a bad case of the wobbles. Despite Jell-O legs, I’m somehow able to turn the board half way around and paddle for a swell. The wave is a quick right and for some unknown reason, the board is stuck on the wrong rail zinging hard to the left, resulting in the first of many crashes to follow.
This story is from the Fall 2016 edition of Standup Journal.
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This story is from the Fall 2016 edition of Standup Journal.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Sign In
Where Do You Take The Girl Who's Been Everywhere?
As a surfing sports ambassador, Californian Paige Maddison pretty much has free reign to travel where she wants—and that’s exactly what she has done for the past three years: solo exploring more countries than most of us can probably locate on a map. This summer she decided to check out North America and is currently road tripping in a custom-fitted van, longboard in tow, brightening lineups from Tofino to San Juanico.
Sounds Of Silence In The Last Frontier
Where all you hear is water dripping off your paddle blade…and the occasional explosion of a 200-ton, calving glacier
One Last Ride!
Always kick out and paddle back for…
The West Side
It’s All Over but the Shouting the Report Card on This Cool New Sport of Ours
Voice From Sup Pioneers
LET’S HEAR IT FOR STANDUP PADDLING… and to those intrepid pioneers who jumped into the sup scene before there was a sup scene!
Thickening Our Hawaiian Skin In Chil
Last spring, Carine Camboulives, Manu Bouvet, and their two daughters left their Maui home for a coastal village in Chile for a half-year-long house exchange and sup adventure. Between this South American country’s endless point breaks and mountain lakes, there is a new life to embrace, experience and share.
Original Seed
Sup's Cali Connection
Costa Rica Sets the Stage for The Progression Project
A Movie Reflecting paddle-Enhanced At its Highest Level
Barbados
Returning to the love of freesurfing
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Prepping for your hawaii trip begins at home.
