Hi Fives IanR,
The reason people care is that over time they have invested a lot in there particular passionate persuit of their niche in the sport and their position!
In my situation I was resigned to believing that I would never see anything like shortboard performance on anything I was capable of riding. It simply would not happen as I could not invest the time to generate the fitness level required.
With SUP if the ocean is blown out I just head to the flat water and train doing paddling, kick turns, forced nose rides, etc that allows me to improve, waves or no waves. I get an awesome workout that has ripped in excess of 20kgs of me in 10 months! And i get to have fun too with the whole family, I cant see my family shortboarding???
Then along comes radical shapes 29-30 inches wide that I have been told for years wont work, lets face it they do and they work well! Shapers down my way wouldnt even entertain boards this wide, fancy putting your label on a freak board like that!!!!! I knew they were doing them in Hawaii and they worked exceptionately well for big buddas.
SUP is breaking a lot of rules, protected positions and history and people as a rule dislike change.
Lots more change to come, you can fight it or come for the ride its that simple!!!!!!!!
As I said the cat is outa the cage, I dont care who rides what I think we should try everything and respect each others right to have choice.
But everyhting is ruled by how much fun you have IMHO
Phill

