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Stand up Paddle Surfing
Paddle Surfing (also known as SUP or Stand Up Paddle) was born out of the waterman traditions of Hawaii.
From simply standing on a large board and catching waves, PADDLE SURFING has exploded around the world into many different ways to enjoy any body of water, be it inland or the ocean.
PADDLE SURFING is many different things to many different people but ABOVE all it is about FUN, FITNESS
offering an amazing sense of WELL BEING that comes from gliding across any body of water.
This website is dedicated to the PURE STOKE that we call Paddle Surfing!
For more info contact Balmoral Paddle Surf on 02 9905 8826 or email info@paddlesurfing.com.au
Here are some short video's of the many ways you can enjoy Standup Paddle or Paddle Surfing!
World's smallest Sup Surfing Video from Robert Pirie on Vimeo.
ANYWHERE, ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD! VERY COOL FOOTAGE FROM SRI LANKA!
Sri Lanka - Stand Up Paddle from Blueline - Santa Barbara on Vimeo.
More on Paddle Surfing
These are LINKS, so CLICK on the words to go to that part of the page
Paddle Surfing is for the whole family!
One of the appeals of Paddle Surfing is that it allows almost anyone to paddle around and enjoy our beautiful coastline.
The real enjoyment of Paddle Surfing comes from basically just having fun.
Paddle Surfing is an easy, non threatening way to get into enjoying the ocean.
On a bigger board, progressing into waves is easy. It also adds the dimensions of fitness, well-being.
Our harbours, esturies and river mouths become our playgrounds.
In fact, anywhere where there is a nice stretch of water, women, kids and families, are taking to the water.
Paddle SurFIT women's programs.
WOULD YOU RATHER BE SWEATING IT OUT IN THE GYM OR FEELING THE RHYTHM OF THE OCEAN?
Stand up paddle (SUP) surfing is one of the world’s fastest growing water sports. A total core and cardiovascular workout, flat water stand up paddling works your entire body and mind and now you can get involved.
Join a group at Balmoral Beach as we paddle our way to fitness while enjoying the beautiful Sydney waterways!
Benefits
- low impact, full body cardiovascular workout
- tones and strengthens core muscles
- targets arms, abs and thighs all at once
- improves balance and co-ordination
- builds confidence in and out of the water
Our 60 min sessions are suitable for all ages and fitness levels. We provide you with a board and paddle suited to your ability, as well as the opportunity to get FIT, meet new people and have some fun at the same time. No previous paddling experience is necessary. You just need to be able to swim and should be in reasonably good health.
Regular weekly sessions Mon and Wed mornings at 6.30am and 9.30am and Sat mornings at 7.00am, with classes starting from as little as $12 per person.
Or get some friends together for a time that suits you. We can organize a fun day out paddling to un-crowded beaches for your Hens Day, Mothers Group, Christmas Party or other special event.
Get a workout from the “toes to the nose”!
To register or find out more call Yvette 0438 897 719 or Riss 0400 119 338
FITNESS
One of the real benefits of Paddle Surfing is that you get a solid workout without even knowing it.
Beside the obvious 'paddle fitness', there is a solid leg and 'core workout' when handling and turning the board.
The full CROSS TRAINING benefits of Paddle Surfing are only just being realised. If you are training for a sport that requires balance and overall body strength and you are tired of sweating it out in the gym, then you will find Paddle Surfing blows away other forms of cross training.
BEWARE, however! It is only good for your back and core strength if you take it easy. Going too hard when your body is not accustomed to the new exercise can do more harm than good. See your practioner if you are having back or shoulder problems and make sure yourt paddle is cut to the right length - 8-10" (20-25cm) longer than your height.
Here is what one of our local Physiotherapist's - Suzi Fisher had to say about the fitness benefits-
Is Stand Up Paddle Surfing (SUP) the Ultimate Workout?
Stand up paddling challenges many components of fitness - balance, strength, endurance, co-ordination, flexibility and core stability.
Apart from the exhilaration of being on the ocean SUP makes you work your cardio-vascular system, balance, strength, power, co-ordination, and core stability with every paddle stroke.
If you have been looking for a low impact workout that gives you both a cardiovascular workout and gives you a functional core workout then stand up paddling could be the answer. Stand Up Paddling feels like you’re standing on an exercise ball, swimming and cycling all at the same time.
SUP is a surprisingly demanding cardio workout relying on both your arms and legs for endurance and power. SUP activates the core muscles, switches on the stabilizing muscles of the ankles, knees, hips and shoulders.
Paddling a SUP board also offers a truly functional core workout. For many years PILATES has been considered the ultimate core program. The benefit of SUP over pilates is that it works your core while in standing – which is how our core muscles are designed to be worked. Pilates focuses on mat and machine work-outs which don’t truly replicate how the trunk muscles are designed to work. Although Pilates offers a wonderful introduction to core stability your back is tested when pulling and pushing in standing more than it is while lying on the floor.
Whether you’re a baby boomer, triathlete or just returning from injury Paddle Surfing offers a fun challenging high intensity yet low impact stability workout. And the best part is you’re chasing waves not pounding the pavement or locked in a gym.
History of Paddle Surfing
The first stand up paddle surfers emerged in Waikiki in the early 1950s, when the post-war tourism boom saw Matson cruise liners deposit thousands of thrill-hungry Americans on the beach under the shadow of Diamond Head. Naturally, they wanted to try their hand at the new sport of surfing, or at least take a canoe surf under the expert guidance of a Waikiki beachboy. And there were plenty of beachboys up for the job. Duke Kahanamoku and his brothers were a bit long in the tooth by this stage, but in their wake had come a whole new generation of beachboys who lurked under the banyan trees flirting with pretty heiresses until their bosses, the concierges of the luxury hotels on the beachfront, waved them into action for the benefit of another troop of newly-arrived thrill-seekers.
There being no point in risking life and limb in the pounding breakers unless you had a photo to prove it, the beachboys were called upon not only to teach the sport but to photograph it, and the box brownie cameras of the day made that rather difficult. No one can now remember who was the first – maybe it was one of the Ah Choy brothers, Leroy or Bobby – but one of the beachboys came up with an ingenious idea. He borrowed a paddle from an outrigger captain, hung a Kodak around his neck and paddled into the break standing on his redwood hot curl board.
To fall was to destroy an expensive camera, but put them on a board and beachboys can do anything, and soon full-frame photos of Cindy-Lou’s first wave, shot from right there on the same wave, on the next board if you can believe it, were de rigeur for the tourists. Inadvertently, the beachboys had invented a new style of surfing which, naturally enough, became known as “beachboy surfing”.
This went on at Waikiki right through the ‘60s and ‘70s, until even longboards got smaller and cameras became waterproof, yet no one really picked up on the fact that, with a few basic refinements of equipment, beachboy surfing could be big fun. Well, no one that is except a few beachboys like the incredible John Zabatocky, who started to surf with a paddle to take photos and soon adopted paddle surfing as his only surfing discipline. Still going strong in his 80s, John is a true pioneer of SUP, along with Bobby Ah Choy, who made the final of a SUP event in 2007, just weeks before his passing.
The renaissance of SUP can probably be tracked to a long summer flat spell in 2000, when serious watermen like Laird Hamilton and Dave Kalama on Maui and Brian Keaulana, Mel Pu’u and Bruce De Soto at Makaha, seized on the idea of paddling their tandem boards as fitness workouts. It didn’t take them long to realize how much fun this aspect of surfing could be. In 2004 Brian Keaulana introduced SUP as a division at his father’s famous surf event and party, Buffalo’s Big Board Classic at Makaha. It was hugely popular, got major media coverage and the seal was broken. SUP was up and running.
Interestingly, in Matt Warshaw’s definitive Encyclopedia of Surfing, published in 2003, there is not one reference to stand up paddle surfing. Just four years later you can Google almost half a million references to it, and SUP cultures are emerging in every part of the known (and unknown) surfing world. With events like Australia’s famous Noosa Festival of Surfing and Malfunction following Brian Keaulana’s lead in creating SUP divisions, and barely-surfable locations like England’s Brighton Beach hanging their hats on SUP, the potential for growth in the sport is enormous.
So enormous, in fact, that SUP surfers can stand by for a backlash from board surfers at crowded breaks. But with world champion surfers like Hawaiian watermen Keaulana, Kalama, Hamilton and Kalepa, 80s shortboard star Tom Carroll, Pipe Master Rob Machado, longboard champions Joel Tudor and Josh Constable, and former tandem champion Chris de Aboitiz setting the standard and becoming role models for the new/old sport, it seems likely that a code of conduct will allow everyone to enjoy the waves.
Our thanks to Grant of standuppaddlesurf.com.au for this article.