SurfershaneA I hear you. I'm sure it is good to back in the water.

SUP surfing is growing in NJ. A lot of guys that were good shortboarders are now suping and ripping on them.
For me a shortboarder for 30 years where my biggest board was a 5'10. Now I'm supping all the time b/c the fun factor is off the chart. More waves, longer waves, when its big I can take off on bombs way outside. I can ride 1' waves and do turns little floaters and have fun. My water time has increased.
I hope it doesn't grow.

I love it. I will never stop.

Surgolrun wrote:
Surf and Waves - modern prone thruster, no compromise cutting edge and will always be the pinnacle of wave riding and design.

I do,t feel that way. Yes it is non compromise on a proper wave, but where I live (Netherlands) we have crappy chaotic short period windwaves. There are people sitting in the water for 1h+ with a shortboard to catch 2 waves that they can barely surf because those boards are simply 99 out of 100 days not suitable for the conditions while with an Longboard or Sup you can catch lots of waves. Design wise the shortboards are hardly innovative anymore. Nothing really happened since the Tomo design.......I dare to say Sup is the last decade way more innovative.

Here in the Netherlands the numbers on the lakes and canals are still increasing. Mostly inflatables due a couple of reasons: we are very high populated making ground for houses etc very expensive. so most of us don,t have a huge house with mega garage to store stuff and short spaced an Inflatable comes in very handy. Same with cars: they are in general relative small to mid size so a sup won,t fit in. Now is small a relative term, but an Ford F150 or Toyota Pick up is an huge stand out car here..
In the waves the numbers are more or less the same. mainly hard-boards over there.
3weeks ago we enjoyed Holiday in Bretagne-France, a place we have been lots of times and I see each year more Sups.
Funny: the bigger the waves the more Sups you see, even on pure glass 3-4m days

Personal I used to love racing and long tours but due physical problems that is just not possible but still love to sup in the waves.Right now waiting for 2 new Smik boards that can arrive any day from now..
what did change in my personal number of Sup wave sessions is wing-foiling.
Till last year I was SUPing in the waves with till 18knots and from 20+ switched to wave-sailing. often blown out crap, but I was on the water.
Oct 2020 I started with wingfoiling and since then it has to be really goog or with 10knots and above I,m playing with the wing-foil.Those long running bumps that take ages to form proper waves for Sup or wavesailing are actually pretty awesome to wingfoil. Since I started to wing foil I can go out 3-5 times a week and have 1minute rides where I used to travel half the world for. :)
Wingfoiling doesnt take the flight ;) it has in Australia but I see each month more people on the water, mainly because it suits so well our conditions: crap waves, too much wind for sup, not enough for exciting wavesailing, but in that gap between Wing foil suits perfectly.

Jon Frank recently wrote about legendary film and documentary maker Werner Herzog.
In an interview with Jensen magazine, Herzog shared his thoughts on skateboarding. Herzog, who (admittedly) knows nothing about skating, said he has the feeling that skaters were among 'my people' mostly because skaters accept trial and error, and, that the effort to improve requires great commitment and determination - and is most often met with failure.

Werner went on to discuss his film The Great Ecstasy of Woodcarver Steiner from 1974, and he went on to talk about ski-jumping in Bavaria as a young man. 'Perseverance and risk-taking are two characteristics that cull the herd quickly'.

I agree with Herzog. SUP is not dying, but a great many who try won't persevere for their own reasons, and perhaps even more will squib when faced with risks they are not comfortable with (which is cool) and they'll slowly fade away, and thus the herd will continue to be culled. And others will come along and some will persist and push themselves, and inspire others. This doesn't mean it's dying - it's actually evolving.

supthecreek said..
On Cape Cod, we have a very strong and growing SUP surf crew
Many good SUPsters mixing with surfers in the lineup and we all get along just fine

Honestly, I can't imagine life without SUP surfing... I love everything about it and get somewhat offended when it is considered less than surfing. I don't accept 2nd spot to "surfers"... I just go surfing, on my SUPs, and I fit in wherever I surf.

I have always felt that SUP has added a lot of dimension to my lifelong surf experience.

Every day, I talk to people all over the world that are buying Surf SUPs

Wow STC, that's quite a crew!
Reminds me of a discussion that was had a while back, about what a group of SUPs would be called.
My favourite is a "forest" of SUPs

I regularly surf in a group of 5 or 6 SUPers here on the NSW Central Coast, that's my direct mates. Then there is a bunch of other SUPers. Definitely not dying here.

I'm not sure if SUP is dying , maybe slowing.

Reasons IMO......

New boards are quite expensive for someone new to the sport so that scares off some people into trying the sport for the first time. 2 - 3 K plus paddle.

Retailers such as the Surfboard Warehouse used to flood the market with cheaper boards across a range of sizes which allowed many people to get into the sport with a paddle for less than the price of a big brand board. Since Tim left SBW the sup range has all but dried up which left a big hole in the market for newcomers.

Guys who know what they want in a board will always go to the bigger brands to achieve the performance style they are chasing.

Local SUP shapers have all but disappeared up here on the Goldy except for DEEP and Phantom. Many of the old crew from this site used to froth over a post from someone who had a locally made shape but they too are rare as these days.

I also think Foiling and Dinging is pulling a few guys towards that genre as many of my SUP mates have jumped ship and don't SUP anymore.

Maybe the travel restrictions from covid aren't allowing as many people to travel to the surf as before.

Finally when summer hits and the xmas holidays come more SUP's will appear on the water I'm sure.

One thing is for sure when I open my shed and decide which one of my 6 SUP's ranging from 7'10, 8'6, 10' to 12ft, I still get pumped and can't wait to hit the surf.

Jeroensurf said..
Surgolrun wrote:
Surf and Waves - modern prone thruster, no compromise cutting edge and will always be the pinnacle of wave riding and design.

I do,t feel that way. Yes it is non compromise on a proper wave, but where I live (Netherlands) we have crappy chaotic short period windwaves. There are people sitting in the water for 1h+ with a shortboard to catch 2 waves that they can barely surf because those boards are simply 99 out of 100 days not suitable for the conditions while with an Longboard or Sup you can catch lots of waves. Design wise the shortboards are hardly innovative anymore. Nothing really happened since the Tomo design.......I dare to say Sup is the last decade way more innovative.

Here in the Netherlands the numbers on the lakes and canals are still increasing. Mostly inflatables due a couple of reasons: we are very high populated making ground for houses etc very expensive. so most of us don,t have a huge house with mega garage to store stuff and short spaced an Inflatable comes in very handy. Same with cars: they are in general relative small to mid size so a sup won,t fit in. Now is small a relative term, but an Ford F150 or Toyota Pick up is an huge stand out car here..
In the waves the numbers are more or less the same. mainly hard-boards over there.
3weeks ago we enjoyed Holiday in Bretagne-France, a place we have been lots of times and I see each year more Sups.
Funny: the bigger the waves the more Sups you see, even on pure glass 3-4m days

Personal I used to love racing and long tours but due physical problems that is just not possible but still love to sup in the waves.Right now waiting for 2 new Smik boards that can arrive any day from now..
what did change in my personal number of Sup wave sessions is wing-foiling.
Till last year I was SUPing in the waves with till 18knots and from 20+ switched to wave-sailing. often blown out crap, but I was on the water.
Oct 2020 I started with wingfoiling and since then it has to be really goog or with 10knots and above I,m playing with the wing-foil.Those long running bumps that take ages to form proper waves for Sup or wavesailing are actually pretty awesome to wingfoil. Since I started to wing foil I can go out 3-5 times a week and have 1minute rides where I used to travel half the world for. :)
Wingfoiling doesnt take the flight ;) it has in Australia but I see each month more people on the water, mainly because it suits so well our conditions: crap waves, too much wind for sup, not enough for exciting wavesailing, but in that gap between Wing foil suits perfectly.


?

I have a Dutch Mate who got into kite surfing ages ago. He is genuinely a smart person. While he was in Australia he gave prone short boarding on a tri fin a go. He had fun. We get consistently decent swell around Newcastle Australia.

However, he was realistic that he was going to face a lot of crap blown-out conditions in the Netherlands, so went with a sail assist version of surfing. Likewise, I have had fun riding a longboard style SUP in the wind wells up North Queensland most short boardriders refuse to consider "waves".

Surfnbjj said..
I regularly surf in a group of 5 or 6 SUPers here on the NSW Central Coast, that's my direct mates. Then there is a bunch of other SUPers. Definitely not dying here.

Central Coast is like going to indo for paddleboarding. Especially for a goofy footer. Heading down Christmas and can't ****ing wait.

As I'm now in my seventh decade, two quotes/moments come to mind that may indicate that SUP surfing is not dying.
The first from Stacey Peralta's Riding Giants movie when an 80+ year old Paskowitz is catching a rolling wave on a 10ft something longboard saying 'get up Paskowitz, get up".
The second is from Dave Prodan's The Lineup podcast interviewing the legendary MR, who by the way has more talent in his left big toe than I have in my entire body, saying something along the line of 'At my age (64) I'm struggling to get me head around the pop up'.
Riding a stand up there ain't no pop up.
Enjoy!!

Yep ,at 65 now still loving it , actually bought a new 404 to get fitter for the waves as well, few here that have pulled out lately in SUP ,all-though saw a few new younger guys on sups every day at bribie ocean beach , great to see
Was up at Alex last weekend and still lots in the waves

Just had a couple of weeks break at Ulladulla, plenty of sups in the water. Got my first wave last week and been out 2 or 3 times a day trying to get more. Just another 60year old grom