The Waterman League has cancelled the remaining two events of the Standup World Surf Tour, due to be held in France and Morocco.

That means this week's US Open was the final event in the series. As a result Caio Vaz & Izzi Gomez claimed the championship titles after three men's events and two women's events. The Brazilian leg of the tour was cancelled a couple of months ago.

Bad news given this was the major elite series for SUP surfing.

As far as I can tell, the remainder of the Standup World Racing Series, also run by the Waterman League, will still be run.

www.mensjournal.com/

Maybe we just have to accept what SUP surfing really is - bloody great fun, but not as good as short-board surfing at the elite level...

The WSL runs a great comp because there are zillions of people watching Kelly and Mick etc. do what they do so well (and even with that I think they almost went broke a couple of years ago). The guys you see surfing SUP are either essentially short-board surfing (but not as well as Kelly/Mick) with a paddle in their hands (e.g. in a barrel or on a BIG wave), or they occasionally do something with the paddle that enhances the ride - but something that is not appreciated by non-SUP riders.

It may sound cruel, but when I see the great (young) SUP riders in vids, I think they are only on the video because they are not good enough to be on the surfing world tour. They are 100X better than I am, and they inspire me, and I love watching, and it makes me want their board - but I am not the general viewing public. (But most of them are on tiny boards that you hardly recognize as a SUP.) And when 95% of proners don't like SUP riders (putting it politely), there goes a big chunk of the market (unless there is a chance of the competitors being taken by sharks).

So it seems to me that unless the SUP makers bank-roll the event, they won't be viable at the international level. Or SUP riders need to find new things to do with the paddle that get the attention of the general viewing public.

To set the record straight I am a 53 year old SUP surfer who started SUPing because of a dodgy back, but who would never go back - SUP surfing is way more fun IMO.

cantSUPenough said..
Maybe we just have to accept what SUP surfing really is - bloody great fun, but not as good as short-board surfing at the elite level...

The WSL runs a great comp because there are zillions of people watching Kelly and Mick etc. do what they do so well (and even with that I think they almost went broke a couple of years ago). The guys you see surfing SUP are either essentially short-board surfing (but not as well as Kelly/Mick) with a paddle in their hands (e.g. in a barrel or on a BIG wave), or they occasionally do something with the paddle that enhances the ride - but something that is not appreciated by non-SUP riders.

It may sound cruel, but when I see the great (young) SUP riders in vids, I think they are only on the video because they are not good enough to be on the surfing world tour. They are 100X better than I am, and they inspire me, and I love watching, and it makes me want their board - but I am not the general viewing public. (But most of them are on tiny boards that you hardly recognize as a SUP.) And when 95% of proners don't like SUP riders (putting it politely), there goes a big chunk of the market (unless there is a chance of the competitors being taken by sharks ).

So it seems to me that unless the SUP makers bank-roll the event, they won't be viable at the international level. Or SUP riders need to find new things to do with the paddle that get the attention of the general viewing public.

To set the record straight I am a 53 year old SUP surfer who started SUPing because of a dodgy back, but who would never go back - SUP surfing is way more fun IMO.

so true.

The SUP tour is just short boards with a paddle…95% of SUP riders would never ride boards as the pros use. I would love a minimum liters that at least floats be used..make it more like SUPping in general. The pros sink to their knees and deeper if they stop paddling.

writing was on the wall as soon as boards went under 9 ft.

it wasn't sustainable then or now imo.



its a no brainer which one people will watch- short board every single time x 100.

sup surfing is like rugby . better to play it then have to watch it


make it ten ft and forget the rest

Have to agree board size should be limited , remember Dave Muir he was a big unit , no way he could compete now.

AndyR said..
That big news and bad news..
World surf league needs to take over the Sup surfing tour. How good is the short board, and big wave tours. They run a world class tour.

Like the Olympics,never gonna happen.

Pity, I was even enjoying watching the odd bit of this year's Huntington comp. While I am not a big fan of the tiny SUPs, a few of the competitors were pushing some really nice moves. I was also enjoying Dave Kalama's commentary.

What Sup surfing probably needs is for things to start moving at the club level with a circuit of club run weekend comps. SUP/paddle judging criteria, open division, 10', age ladies, good social events and prize draws ....., This is where people are going to start getting interested and board sales are going to start moving. Eventually things might work there way upwards?

It would be perfect if the comps were as friendly as longboard comps were back in the turn of the 90's when the East Coast clubs ran some excellent weekend long events.

To me everything went downhill when longboarding became mainstream and the glossy magazines appeared, certain "judges" broke off and Surfing NSW got involved. When the money started moving the comps lost their spirit, and became mechanical money spinners.

It would be so nice to this minute to be having a few beers after the now defunct October Longweekend Steel City Malibu Club Classic (Newcastle) with the typical bag of goodies laughing about some healthy sportsmanship.

Wouldn't be hard for SUP to break free and become something of its own. If it relagates to "underground" so be it. Beats going too big too fast, turning plastic and collapsing again?

I would break the competition into classes that formulate the rider weight verses board volume.

I echo the concerns some have in pushing this sport and I was thinking about this earlier in the week between sets on a super clean chest to head high+ day. What I was thinking is how my wave count was easily *10 to 1 verses the prone surfers and how that would change radically if most of us were on sups.

*In spite of the tons of waves I got, I swear I wasn't being a hog or cutting anyone off because most of the prone surfers would park themselves in one place and never move.

A client of mine a few years ago made a doco following the World Surfing Tour.

The big sponsors of the tour told him that they make most of their money from their female clients.

Selling stuff like swim suits and dresses etc.

All the other stuff they make and sell like wetsuits and boards etc. cost too much to make, transport etc. and there is too much wastage from unsold stuck etc.

So they probably need to start attracting females to the events.

laceys lane said...
The first step is to admit your a wave hog

When I was prone surfing pretty much all i was doing doing was watching others hog all the waves so it's nice to be on the other side of the fence...the surfers complaining about being called off are not concerned about sharing the waves around only about themselves...

Zeusman said..
I think Lacey has a point.

Since the boards went sub 9, it has pretty much narrowed the competitive field to little/young guys that weigh less than 80kg. Doesn't leave much hope for us average sized folk.

Hardly say you're average size mate!!!

SUP racing should be included in the Olympics rather than that strange drop knee kayak thing you never see anyone actually doing in real life, just make it 12'6 and off we go, people high up in the industry should be working to make this reality.

I surf on a SUP nearly everyday and quiet frankly I really am not interested in watching sub 60kg young kids in SUP comps where as in real life its guys like me over 40 who actually ride surf SUP's at the local beach.

Give me WSL any day, just concentrate on getting SUP racing into the Olympics where it belongs