Shape A Few Minds Please

General Discussion
1

Shape a few minds please …

Watching the explosion of interest in Paddle Boarding is also to watch the explosion of misguided souls and the souls that are guiding them. The latest, greatest, smallest, fastest, prettiest and the one that has the most fins seem to win every time. Paddle hard, harder, catch that wave, maybe, and if you’re still on your feet, keep paddling (even though you already caught the wave!) straight into the poor guy in front of you, the one you never saw and who, with great interest, has been watching you all this time trying to figure out where you thought you were going and how the heck to get out of your way.

The industry and the people making and promoting boards, paddles and all the other cool stuff are so busy trying to cash in they forgot the instruction book on good behavior, ethics, and a bit of Aloha. People who can hardly function on any surfboard at all are walking out with their expensive new Paddle Board straight for the salt and into the surf line up ready to rip a few turns. Sure!

I’m fortunate, I was introduced to Paddle Boarding by someone who has worked extensively creating and designing paddle boards for many years prior their most recent popularity. At first I was very reluctant, after the numerous calamities I had observed in the surf line up and with people in general, but my mentor began my paddling on the river. I was encouraged and returned to the river many times, and these hundreds of hours on the river have proven not to be just a healthy work-out but offered me many moments of quiet solitude against the evening trade winds pushing me along through and up the river and back to where it meets the sea (about 4 to 5 miles round trip). This training of the body core is important, as well as taking the time to understand your body’s center and learning to paddle and articulate your body and the board. It certainly did bring me to the salt more aware and prepared! The door opened up and I’m now paddling the coastline outside the outer reefs and my entire mental state has been “shaken” and taken to another level. The deep blue, coral reefs of the curious and a new world underneath, and now that you can relax on your platform of adventure you can really start taking in all in. WOW … and talk about taking some huge outside wave from a half a mile out and you can catch the reforms almost to the beach! You, the ocean, your friends and a lot of Aloha. All because I had guidance from someone who cared!

The moral of the story is, if the board manufactures care even about themselves, they might take some time in figuring out who is buying these boards and why. I’ve told my friends not to rush out and buy anything. The market is about to explode with a plethora of under-used, mis-used and never-used ST pop-outs in any color you want. The rush in will represent the rush out, to cash out of that big boat of a surf board, that no mater what size you’re on will look very small when you can’t seem to look like the guy in the magazine and you’re spending most of the time floundering around.

It’s a big opportunity for a person or surfer to make the bridge to this unique access point to adventure. Chance always favors the prepared mind and the body.

Aloha to All

Laki Lapu

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        WOW !!
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Truly Words of wisdom!!! Ahui hou - Wood_Ogre

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Amen…

I’ve had mine for several months now and have not paddle surfed it yet…

I’m having so much fun exploring the many lakes up here and expanding my understanding of Puget Sound on mine…The early morning “through the steamy fog sessions” are almost pre-historic in vibe…The late afternoon beatings, paddling into whitecapping inland saltwater craziness, is truly a working out…The building in of strength is obvious after five minutes even on flat water…

After I log at least another 100 hours, and the ocean conditions (no crowd) warrant, I’ll go stand up paddle surf…No hurry, I’m having too much fun on the flat water…

The idea of an included instruction book would go a long way to establishing cred if you’re a manufacturer, hint, hint…

Paul

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Standing Up For the Right of Way

Standup Etiquette: Common Sense Isn’t So Common

by: Scott Bass w/ Brian Keaulana

The growth of standup paddle surfing is undeniable. Cutting edge shapers in Hawaii and California can’t keep up with orders, let alone design evolution. Industry hardgoods players have ramped up production boards, and the used standup boards disappear from Craigslist within hours of being listed. But if your finger isn’t on the pulse of the surf hardgoods industry all you need to do is look in the ocean. From downwind paddlers working out their core to surfers paddling into waves at your local break the growth is obvious.

And the stoke is obvious…unless you are NOT one of us.

If this is the case you generally fall into two camps: 1) curious and want to try it or 2) fearful and want to see the whole thing disappear. Either way the growth has and will create some ‘situations’ in lineups regarding etiquette.

In an effort to deflate any of these uncomfortable situations in the water I caught up with C4 Waterman’s Brian Keaulana for some general rules regarding standup paddle surfing etiquette.

“Okay Scott, but unfortunately common sense isn’t so common,” said the gracious Hawaiian recently at Makaha. “There are idiots on all kinds of different boards: shortboard, longboard, bodyboard, whatever. It’s not the arrow, it’s the indian. These rules can apply to every surfer on one level or another, no matter what you ride. What we are trying to do here is turn assholes into assets, I’m familiar with that.”

  1. JUST BECAUSE YOU CAN, DOESN’T MEAN YOU SHOULD

Most SUP surfers have no problem getting their wave count. “If you are out there doing laps and not letting others get set waves, you are out of line,” explains Keaulana. “Stop hording and start enjoying.”

2) GET OUT OF DENIAL

If you think the #1 rule (above) doesn’t apply to you it probably does. “First sign of a kook is denial,” says Keaulana. “Denial is the byproduct of the ego, the bigger the ego the bigger the denial. The bigger the denial the bigger the kook.”

  1. SEARCH

These boards let you surf places you might not have otherwise surfed so take advantage of that. Search out new frontiers. “Dave (Parmentar) uses the aviation analogy. The birth of aviation meant we could expand our frontiers in a peaceful manner or bomb the shit out of people,” says Keaulana. “Let’s not repeat history. Don’t bomb the shit out of people. When the opportunity arises, when a new swell lights up an out of the way spot, attack those new frontiers.”

4) KNOW YOU ABILITY/MASTER YOUR EQUIPMENT

Most surfers who try standup surfing consider themselves fairly advanced. But putting a paddle in your hands is a foreign experience. Believe it. It is not easy. “Go out on your own for a few weeks,” says Keaulana. “Even if you think you are Kelly Slater, you will be humbled. The paddle and the board should be an extension of your body. Until they are, stay out of the way.”

  1. SIT IN THE CHANNEL

After catching a wave, instead of paddling back out, kick back in the channel for five minutes. The other surfers will appreciate it. “You are already sticking out like a sore thumb out there,” says Keaulana. “Chilling on the inside for a few sets will keep the swelling down.”

  1. COMMUNICATE

Call out approaching sets. Use your vertical position as a benefit to others. “Not only do I do that, says Keaulana. “Over here (Makaha) I see sharks, whales. I let others know who and what is sharing their home with us. You call out a big tiger (shark) and people are real happy you’re standing up and seeing things.”

Hopefully some of Brian’s rules will be heeded. Etiquette is such a slippery slope. Often times proper etiquette goes by unnoticed or unappreciated. I’ll let waves go by, hoping the crowd on the inside of me will appreciate my discretion, only to watch surfers with more mouth than ability stumble and grumble their way to frustration. Then they’ll misdirect their frustration born of inadequacy toward the guy having fun, me. Nevertheless, I won’t let underappreciated etiquette efforts stop me from continuing the righteous course and either should you. There are plenty of kooks, let’s not add to the mix.