CATEGORIES

Five Minutes With

Recognising the market need for dedicated foil boards for standup and prone take offs that are more specialised than adapted truncated SUP designs, Sky Solbach, shaper at Fanatic has created the fortuitously titled Sky SUP and Sky Surf boards. We caught up with him to find out about the development process and what it means for the end user i.e. you and us.

Reductionist Theory

Red Paddle Co has announced a new paddle board that could start a revolution. The Compact 96 is a full-sized SUP that folds down to half the size of a regular inflatable paddle board without compromising on paddling performance, while the smaller packed size of the Compact gives paddlers the convenience of being able to easily carry it around town, jump onto public transport or store in the boot of your car, with space to spare. The ultra-compact nature of the package also allows for long term storage within small cars, smaller apartments on-board boats and in your van.

The F-Word

Traditionally we view failure as a negative, Finn Mullen argues its an important part of improvement in SUP and every fall, flop and flunk is a valuable part of the progression process.

City To Sea

Lena Erdil and Kai Steimer switch plans with the caprice of the Sinop wind on a trip that takes them out of Istanbul and onto the Black Sea…

Ten Years After

When you’re having a good moment, say on a trip somewhere you thought you’d never get to, or after the best surf you’ve ever had, or finding yourself at last planing with a foil, or perhaps even better - getting a new dog or addition to your family, do you ever think about what your ten-years-younger self would have thought if they knew it would be coming up?

Le Morne-ing Of The Earth

After 11 hours in a stress position, otherwise known as coach class, Valentin Illichmann and I finally land in Mauritius. Flung out in the Indian Ocean some 800km offof Madagascar with only Reunion for company, its closest neighbour in the other direction is Australia (where interestingly they also drive on the left).

Practical Progress

Progress in our modern world is a given. We innovate more, we advance – it’s the human way. But sport is cruel, progress is not always a linear path, more a zigzag, back and forth towards the next level. Finn Mullen offers some practical tips for an aspiring SUP surfer looking to keep their progress on track.

Composite Or Inflatable?

A great polymath once said, if N is the number of boards you need, and S is the number of boards you own, then N = S +1. This month, we’re going to look at your next board purchase, and how to zero in on the construction that you need.

Go Big & Go Easy

Surfing must be one of the hardest sports to learn. But learning to surf on a SUP is probably even harder.

Disneyland

Every now and again I’m reminded that no matter how messed up things get, there’ll be a little sequence of events that remind me that everything is in order. That even though life may get a little repetitive, if you allow yourself to open up to the possibilities and just go with it and you may just have an experience of a lifetime.

The 64th Parallel

Iceland is everything that you have ever heard and more. It is the most stunning of countries with vistas that will truly blow your mind. It should beckon to all those looking for adventure.

The Marquesas Expedition

Many Years ago, I read an inspiring book called “Fatu Hiva”, written by Thor Heyerdahl, also known for his daring journey on the Kon-Tiki from South America to French Polynesia.

Future Primitive

Timm Kruse is the first man to stand up paddle the entire river Danube alone, from the Black Forest in Germany to the Black Sea in Romania. 2000 miles through ten countries in fifty days. Here is his story.

The Nile Special

The difference this year was that I had started working with Loco Surf and more importantly, paddling their iSups. My background is in kayaking but over the last couple of years the lure of white water stand-up has been shifting my attentions. I booked my Loco Amigo onto the next available flight on Skyscanner and that was me committed. The thirty hours or more traveling with a rolled-up sup was seamless; if you will excuse the unintentional pun and mixed metaphor.

Buy Once, Cry Once

Every day is full of decisions to make, some don’t mean that much to us, some do. Shall we have muesli or avocado, chai latte or tea? In the long run, it doesn’t really matter, however some decisions we face are a bit more meaningful: do you buy the car you really want or maybe something more economical and roomier for the family? You’ve got to such decisions right for an easy life. The streets aren’t full of Lamborghinis, they’re full of Qashqais.

Never Too Late To Join A Great Party

I’ve got a bit of a confession to make. Without realising it till quite recently, I’d been allowing the ‘shortboard mentality’* to creep in. You know, that box you voluntarily put yourself in when you’ve in fact got the whole world to explore.

Parallel Lines

We should never forget that the longboard is where it all started for surfing, and also where it all started for SUP. A SUP longboard makes for a long list of wins without much against it: you can cross distances as easily as on a 'big boy' 9'6 cruiser but with refined rails that let you surf with style. A performance tail lets you crack it off the top without wobbling on the paddle back out like a pro-board. In short, easier to paddle, suds better. Starboard have just released their long-awaited Longboard SUP range and we spoke to shapers 011ie greatly, Zane Schweitzer and Benoit Carpentier to find out the design inspiration for these boards, and more importantly, how they surf.

Simple Harmonic Motion

The other day I was looking at how tidal flow can be represented by a sine function (up and down wavey line) and it occurred to me that I’d seen the undisturbed surface, amplitude and wavelength before somewhere else in the sea. Yes, the surf! Not just a hat rack eh.

NOW IT'S STARTED

For me, the long hot Summer has been a double-edged sword. It’s been great to be super busy getting new people into the sport but it’s also been a long time without much in the way of waves and wind.

Reality Check

It’s fair to say that the average surfer these days is more desensitised to the idea of heavy waves than the average surfer of twenty years ago. That’s not because people are necessarily surfing heavier waves; Philip Edwards first surfed 6ftPipeline way over half a century ago in 1961. But because we’re seeing a lot more of it. It does make you wonder, could I do it? Could I sell the house and live in the tube? What does it take to make a wave at one of surfing’s ultimate proving grounds? The wave in these photos in particular has held fascination since it exploded into the pages of surf mags as ‘the beast with no back’; sucking up from below sea level to throw surreal submarine tubes. We spoke to Benoit Carpentier and Shakira Westdorp (fresh from taking the women’s sup surf world title in China) on the technicality and reality of making it out alive…

Catch The Sun

It’s fair to say, for as long as we’ve had paddleboarding we’ve also had digital photography. We’re now at a stage where we’re spoilt for choice with incredible optics on our phones, gimbals, affordable drones and DSLRs but a good photo won’t take itself. The adventure of photography is discovering new locations, perspectives, times of day even, and capturing that moment. Photography can add another element to your paddling sessions, giving direction and purpose to your search, and your session continues long after you get off the water as you work through your images looking for the pot of gold. We spoke to Allen Meyer to get some insight to setting up a great shoot…

Towards Salvation

For their eco-ride series “The Green Wave”, Carine and Manu and their two daughters went on a trip to document an inspiring new initiative: in the Chocó region of the Pacific coast of Colombia, surfing has become a form of therapy as a means to heal young kids’ traumas from often violent pasts. They discovered a project that goes right to the heart of the community. .

Test Reports - Step On

Of the many advantages that a sup surfer has over their prone brethren, one of the biggest and most fundamental is potential water time. You may live several hours from a breaking wave but unlike a prone surfer, time spent on flat water with your new board is not time wasted.

Nature's Training Schedule

The concept of periodisation will be a familiar one to anyone who has trained for sup racing, or in fact, any athletic sport.

Are Atlantic Storms Getting More Intense?

It seems like every low pressure gets a name these days. Are we just hearing more about them or are there really more of them?

Desire Lines

Flung far out into Norwegian sea, the Molde Archipelago forms part of Norway’s Romsdal Peninsula, the corner’ of this long, tall country that marks the division between the lower regions and the long run up north. Although it sits at latitude 62 degrees north (Anchorage, Alaska is 61) Molde is caressed by the same Gulf Stream that warms Norway’s British neighbours to the south west. It’s mandatory that you’ll bring your paddling kit, but can we also make a strong suggestion to bring a fly rod too? The fishing is quite literally ‘off the hook’…

Flow Motion

The thing I love about living in Western Australia is its vastness. Having scoured its coastlines for over three and a half decades, with the aid of a new toy (a wee little Zodiac bought for tow- in foiling) the doors have opened to areas of that I’d previously been to, but never had the means of accessing. Until now.

Cool County

If you want to explore a county in Ireland with your SUP, the one with the longest coastline on the island seems a good place to start. County Donegal has over 1000 kms of wild shores and is often called the ‘forgotten county’ due to its remoteness. Finn Mullen gives a guide to its waters.

On All Fronts

Originally from Perros Guirec in northern Brittany, Alexis Deniel was a regular from a very young age on many national and international surf and longboard competitions before he turned his focus to SUP surf about ten years ago. His radical and powerful style and mental fortitude quickly propelled the charismatic Breton rider into the French vanguard of the sport. At the end of his 7th season on the APP Tour, he managed to secure a 7th overall ranking for 2018 which has only poured more fuel on the fire. We caught up with the two-time European champion to find out where it started, his thoughts on the APP Tour and where SUP surf is headed…

Get Started In Foiling

Foiling has quite simply taken over my free time for a few months now. The sensation of lift, speed, hovering above the wave, turning with the slightest twitch of a foot and riding across a wave so slopey that in real terms you wouldn’t give it a second glance has completely captivated me. The new skills won in hard-fought battles have given me such rewards, riding on never ending waves with such velocity in the most pathetic conditions, that to me the foil is king and long live its continued development.