What is up with all of this SUP bigging up rubbish you have been filling out your daily updates with recently?
Is there nothing more of interest out there in the massive windsurfing world?
What next boogie boarder gets up on one knee?
Kitesurfer spins aimlessly in circles?

Is this the new direction now the BOARDS mag bandits have got there long fiddly fingers into the mag?

SUP loving printed mags bending over for the board producing advertisers who are trying to sting the frustrated windless readers up to £800 for a thrill they could get from an old bic calypso and a cut down oar.

SUPs may have there place in fat, lazy waves or flat water cruising but please don't force this barbage onto real windsurfers.

It's hard enough to get away from the things nowadays at real surfspots, why they haven't been banned from busy beaches is a question which should soon be answered before a serious accident forces the point.

Michi Eskimo is most famed in Maui for doing daily SUP coastal runs in a pair of tiny speedos, which would almost guarantee him a cover from the old boards editor. I don't care if all the top UK pro guys are riding SUPs, they are either jumping on their sponsors bandwagons or lame enough to think surfing is beneath now.

Have a flick through SUP mag and see how everybody is trying to sell you the idea of how great it is to SUP.(P.S I only flicked through as it's is always better to understand your enemy)

True adrenaline sports such as windsurfing don't need to go on and on about how amazing it is, one go and your hooked.

So please give us more windsurfing news and no more of this unforgiveable pushing of Strangely Ugly Pastime in your mag.
If I want to see people bent over and grunting away like a chimp I'll search out b@tchseeker.com.

If surfing is compared to skateboarding,
Body boarding would be rollerblading and
SUPing would be the recent trend of crap skooters that plague todays skate parks with a little handle to help the under fives or more talentless balance.

nice rant big z
great to hear
SUPing does have its place for us middle aged types who find it difficult to pop up on a surfboard due to dodgy hips etc.
but i agree, lets have some proper windsurfing journalism, not constant product updates
there are loads of things going on out there
keep ranting

What an absolute load of rubbish. I've windsurfed for about 25 years now, and find paddleboarding is the ultimate compliment to windsurfing. As far as adrenaline rush, have you actually tried paddle boarding in double or triple over head, I guess not. Open your mind

I'd rather have the flu than a SUP

I agree with J that SUPs are a perfect compliment to windsurfing. Having just returned from Tiree I saw a relatively portly chap catching some powerful waves at Ballevullin that I had no chance of catching on a 7'0 as the wind was so off shore that it was holding me back whilst paddling (and the fact I'd been windsurfing at the Maze all day too) He openly admitted he was a rubbish normal surfer but he was catching some monsters and ripping them up with relative ease on his SUP, where's he shame in that?

The viewpoint you get whilst paddling is the same as lining up on a windsurf board just without the sail, so it's excellent for learning where to be on the wave.

Also the Pros have SUPs from their sponsors yes, but only as yet another means of getting on the water when the wind is rubbish. It sits alongside proper surf boards, mountain boards, Turfdogs and all their windsurfing kit too. Just another weapon in their arsenal of toys...lucky gits!

i don`t see what all the fuss is about, as an extra board in your quiver they are brilliant. i would definitely have one if funds permitted . ok the paddling bit i find boring as hell , but what i do like about them is when the wind drops and the waves don`t it means you can still get out and play. more toys = more time on the water as a wise man once told me

I have tried SUP quite a few times and it is very very boring compared to surfing or wave sailing. I couldn't understand the appeal. I have down down winders on Maui and had them in waves several times but can't work out what the fuss is about - certainly not an adrenalin sport. I have seen some good guys ripping though - but then I though why don't they just ride a normal surfboard - if you can rip on an SUP then you will get even higher performance out of a surfboard.!. My experience was enjoyable - but slightly boring. The marketers are trying to make their money - and are trying to create an image out of it - that's obvious. They are linking SUPS to the whole outdoors type 'waterman' and trying to create an element of cool. Saying that I have friends who have found a whole new love for the ocean because of them - they were to unfit for surfing (they are older surfers) and this was a suitable option. Horses for courses I suppose.

It's not SUP lameness - it's SUB lameness - nuc sub runs ashore, but nothing is leaking...The cold war is over. So would Tiree also be if it was any less lame.

As I said if the waves are super soft and you are so desperate maybe, but if the waves were over waist high and powerful why would you waist your time on a paddleboard. The question should be have you ever experienced powerful double to triple head high waves on a surfboard and if so why would you ever paddleboard.
The point of this post though was why is this news even relivant to a windsurf magazine. The ex-windsurfer Eskimo, filmed by an ex-windsurfer, Seeger, crashing his strapped paddle board. Why!! Is that slightly interesting to anyone with a life.
The small kid bent over like a chimp with a stick popping what is actually a cheese whiz not an aerial as it wrongly stated.. Why!!!
There is a whole world of windsurfing going on out there. If the editor is to lazy to go out and find it in these days of global communication then its probably because he's too busy sticking his ass out spaz paddling crazily through a pack of surfers at Bantham.
Fair enough some people like enjoy SUPing. But learn from other sports. Keep it to yourself and you might have quiet little soft waves to yourselfs for ever. Keep selling it to dangerous untrained kooks to turn up on the worlds best surfbreaks and it will soon be banned. Personally I favour the later then you can look at going snow paddling, fit one of those monstrosities in the board rack and the Alps could be your new playground.
But hey, you could just go snow boarding.

I don't really get your point, if you are like most people having fun and most importantly get that all important freedom feel you get when you are on the water, (which to me is what windsurfing / water sports are all about) then no matter the support you are using as long as you are on the water.
SUP is the main answer to catching waves when you wouldn't be able to surf, or enough wind to windsurf them, basically another way to spend time on the water. I don't see any issue in trying too push the boundaries further and trying bigger waves if you have the skills. Nothing says anywhere that you have to have a short board to be in a big wave and nothing says they are reserved to only surfers, in fact surfers may have had exactly the same attitude you have toward windsurfing, originally windsurfing was mainly sailing on flat water, it only progressed because someone tried it on waves to make the sport that it is today, it's when you try our new stuff that you make the sport improve, it's called evolution.
As for why the industry is talking about it well it's fair to say that most windsurfing brands are the first one to have launch a range of boards, the other reason maybe would be that it targets windsurfers that want to have a go at surfing without having to be a pure surfer (we don't all have to look like beach-bum to be surfers), especially when you see some of the surfer attitudes towards beginners!
I find your judgement on SUP rather narrow and ignorant, it's another way of having fun! if you don't like don't do it, but obviously you are missing something somewhere!
Exo

Ask Tom Lowe what he thinks after Lairds board twatted him.

Nothing against SUP, but 'pushing your boundaries' in bigger surf is not something which should be encouraged on a beginners board with a paddle in your hand... maybe fine on the outer reefs of Maui with no one around but not on the beach breaks of Devon/cornwall/etc..

why not on cornish/ devon breaks ? am i not allowed? are they your beaches? sorry if i s u peed on your break

Nobodies owning anything, just saying that SUPs shouldn't be encouraged on busy beach breaks in big waves with people 'pushing their boundaries'. 150ltr boards bouncing through a busy line up isn't such a good idea surely?

As long as the person SUPing can handle their board it's not really very dangerous to others....it's those #####ing goat boaters (http://www.garyluhm.net/surfing/ks0075a.jpg) you gotta be scared of, stealing all the waves, then bouncing towards you in the white water with no way of stopping!!!!!

i see your point basil and agree fully , but i think it boils down to the individual and their knowledge of, or lack of , respect for other water users. luckily we are not plagued by them here on choppy island, sup`ers that is .

I agree with Big z
Lets have more windsurfing,i don't come here a read about standup goat boating.

Fair play, we hear you. Got to say we're not exactly filling news up with SUP though, and reckon this thread demonstrates that there is certainly an interest - even if that's a strong hatred - in it amongst windsurfers. Point is, it was only two little movie clips of what else two windsurfers had been getting up to at the (lighthearted) end of two consecutive days' news. Really barely even gets a mention otherwise, and trust me, there's no pressure for us to promote them (or, in truth, anything really) from 'on high'.

Anyway, I'm not going to promise you'll never see SUP here any more than you'll never see kitesurfing or strapsurfing if it's newsworthy, but point taken!

Haha, this is all very funny.

I feel sorry for the guys who work really hard to bring us good news on here everyday. SUP is closely linked to windsurfing, so why shouldnt it get a mention. The industy is struggling, and many shops im sure have been kept afloat by SUP through the past few windless years-no windsurfing shops would be the death of our sport. Windsurfing is a very complex sport for beginners to pick up....if people buy a sup, then they can get into windsurfing for peanuts after by just buying a rig. If no one gets into windsurfing, there wont be any windsurfing in years to come and then online mags like this wont exist.

The dude who started this forum sounds like a surfer - he has that smelly attitude that most do! Not open minded at all. Go rant on a Surf forum.

I SUP surf, get loads more waves and on a short sup, the performance is better than you would think (but then you have never tried it) I can surf bantham at high tide on a tiny swell and surf breaks that you cant access on your surfboard unless you want to paddle for miles.

I agree, SUPs can be dangerous in the line up and users MUST be responsible! but how can you say 100 surfers packed into the corner at Bantham all going for the same wave can be safe!!!

Open your mind!

There have been the odd day where ive thought an SUP would be a good idea... HOWEVER it always comes back to this... I could be getting into the wave a fraction latter but once up its fourteen and a half thousand times more smashable on my longboard...

When i have kids i probabily will buy one tho.. As a play machine i think it works...

There we go then, a off topic self obsessed view..

Hello,
Firstly I have nothing against SUP. I am happy for people to do what ever they please as long as it doesn't negatively effect others.
It is clear how ever that all those defending SUP stating they can get more waves than they could on a surf board have clearly never tried a surf board suitable for the conditions they actually choose to surf.

One of you quoted that you could get into waves in a strong offshore wind better than you could on a surf board? So standing up and presenting your whole body to a strong offshore wind is more efficient than laying down and paddling, err no it was purely the fact that your SUP has probably got 150L of volume. A long board or bigger short board would have seen you get in to the waves just as quick, in a more critical position and you could then go on to actually do a turn or get barreled. Like windsurfing you have to choose a board of suitable volume, length and width to suit the waves you are likely to encounter and dependent on your weight and level of ability. Plus talk of getting more waves is also floored. On a surf board suitable for the given waves you can remain in the surf impact zone the entire time, duck diving and rapidly positioning ones self to be in the critical take off spot on the wave. Once on a wave you will surf it till it closes out or goes fat into deep water and then flick out or jump off. Two or three duck dives and a short paddle will then see you back in position. This isn't the case with a SUP unless the waves are tiny or the period is one of dreams. Busy line ups can obviously limit wave counts at some breaks but the argument for SUP there would be simply sneaking priority by catching the wave whilst it is still very fat and undeveloped however this is purely the old game of finding the biggest possible boards you can to claim priority just for the sake of it with a total compromise on performance which is some thing which shouldn't happen at a surf break as it spoils it for all.

There is obviously a place for SUP and there will always be people who want to be different from the norm but the point of this post is that it isn't windsurfing and it is only closely related for those who use them with sails which seems to be very few and far between these days with a lot of the new SUPS not even having any kind of mast track or fitting. Why is that ? Because they clearly think the windsurfing angle of SUPING is not cool ... yet the posters here defending SUP and raving about how it is associated to windsurfing can not even see that SUP itself wants nothing to do with windsurfing anymore....

I have had a few demo SUP session in some decent waves in Ireland and elsewhere but always ended up ditching the paddle and paddling the board in a traditional way. I could position myself better and paddle harder than any one standing up. Thing is once your on the wave the boards are massive and that is not a sacrifice I would ever make myself. The original long board surfers used to have boards with enough volume to allow them to sit on there knees whilst paddling out however they wanted boards to perform better so the boards evolved and they reduced the volume so the surfer laid flat to paddle using the length their body to stabilize the board. With SUP in waves your compromise to allow even the most accomplished rider to stand up and paddle is what is questionable. SUP was reborn or developed which ever you choose to believe as a novelty by people with too much time and waves to burn in Maui. The marketing guys suddenly caught on and feed a load of guff to the world and here we are today. Fine they are fun and there's no shame in paddling about where ever you like if you are capable to keep yourself and others safe from your equipment but don't regurgitate the same old marketing filth about getting waves earlier etc etc and moaning about surfers who aren't open minded.

If you were honest and said "I LOVE SUP AS I CAN CATCH WAVES FURTHER OUT SO I GET PRIORITY OVER THE TRADITIONAL SURFERS AND THAT SUP REQUIRES LESS SKILL AND TIMING THAN TRADITIONAL SURFING" then you would get a lot more respect although you still wouldn't be popular.

I am going to go out on a limb here and say that it seems you can actually group the SUP surfing wind surfers by their willingness to compromise performance over the requirement for effort / development of skill as this makes them " GROOVE RIDERS " which the "dick shone hairy" defines as " UNWILLING TO DEVELOP, UNWILLING TO LEARN, UNWILLING TO ASPIRE, UNWILLING TO UNLOCK POTENTIAL AND TOO WILLING TO SPEND £800 ON A BOARD THAT WON'T EVEN FIT IN YOUR VAN!"

I bet you all have multi fin boards too but hey thats a different thread all together !!

May battle commence !