Stand Up Paddleboarding, or SUP, may feel like it’s exploded onto the water out of no where in the last five years but it actually has a very long history. There are reported records of a form of Stand Up Paddleboarding having existed for around 3,000 years.
It’s thought that SUP originated in Africa where warriors would use the method to stand on their canoes and use a paddle to
propel themselves when they were attacking, fishing, or using the SUP as a form of travel. However, there are also records of SUP over many other regions including South America, Israel, Italy and China dating back thousands of years. Modern day Stand Up Paddleboarding, where a surfboard type board is used with a paddle, has its origins in Hawaii. There are some reports that Captain James Cook witnessed the Hawaiian people surfing in 1778 when he sailed into the Hawaiian
Islands.
The Hawaiian people would surf on canoes or boards carved from a Koa tree. These boards were very large, ranging from two to five metres and a paddle was used with the boards to paddle out and onto the waves. More recent SUP history still
has its basis in Hawaii from the early 1900s when surfing legends like Duke Kahanamoku and Bobby AhChoy were teaching surfing and would stand on their boards to get a better view of their students and sometimes using a paddle to steer the
board.
These surfers were at the helm of what became known as ‘Beach Boy Surfing’ and would often stand up on their boards with paddles. In the 1990s in Hawaii Stand Up Paddleboarding was starting to be taught as an alternative to surfing when there wasn’t enough swell. The practice began to gain a lot of popularity. In the early 2000s Stand Up Paddleboarding had started to become a discipline on its own, whereas previously it still had been an alternative surfing method. In 2003, Beach Boy Surfing or Stand Up Paddleboarding was added as a new category to the Buffalo Big Board Contest, and remains a category today.
By 2005, the potential for SUP and its explosion in popularity globally saw the sport diversifying into having its own tour and racing, as well as being used on rivers and other bodies of water other than the ocean.
WHAT IS THIS SUP THING? This opened it up for use for fishing, and more recently yoga and other types of fitness based
programs, due to it being a sport that was generally accessible to many people who perhaps felt surfing was out of their ability. The early 2000s stand up paddle racing was beginning to take off and stand up paddle boards were starting to show up at other prone paddleboard races as a demonstration of what the new discipline was.
In 2007, the world’s first inland stand up paddleboard event and race took place at Lake Tahoe in California. It was also in 2007, the first Standup Paddleboard magazine was published. However, it wasn’t until 2012 that SUP races became more
common, with the first Standup World Series championship races, and a new industry where paddle boards are specifically
designed for the type of water they are to be used on was born. This includes alternative types of boards, like inflatable
SUPs, which are perfect for travelling. The new wave of interest in Stand Up Paddleboarding has changed the surf industry and made it more accessible. For many people, surfing had become a multi million dollar industry, open only to the elite
few. SUP however was something that just about anyone could learn to do very quickly, including those who may not have the flexibility and strength for surfing. Add that to the ability to SUP on rivers, which opened up the opportunity to people who didn’t live near the surf, and SUP was beginning to be used as a replacement to the canoe or kayak as a water based
activity.
By 2009, the popularity of Stand Up Paddleboarding was positioning it as the single fastest growing paddlesport in
North America, and thereby elsewhere around the world. In Australia between 2010 and 2014 Stand Up Paddleboarding had tripled in popularity, with many reports that one of the biggest take ups of SUP is by women. Due to a lower centre
of gravity, women were becoming more adept and skilled at paddleboarding than men. There are lots of opportunities
to have a go on a SUP without having to lay out the cost for boards and paddles. Many places around Australia hire boards for relatively little cost, and most often start with an introductory lesson to get you started. Stand Up Paddleboarding is some of the best fun you can have on the water.
What’s the worst that could happen?
You’ll fall in and get a bit wet.
Check out the range of paddleboards and full article in our October Edition http://liquidlifeandleisure.com.au/magazine-editions/
