CATEGORIES

Out Of Time

Another loud explosion. We looked at each other with a mix of excitement and worry. What would we see up there? We were walking towards Mount Yasur on Tanna, one of the few very active volcanos in Vanuatu which was considered ‘kind of ’ safe to view up close. It was still a two hour hike ahead but the noises were already worryingly loud.

With Friends Like That...

One of the ways in which SUP is unique in the boardsports world in that it’s very easy to teach someone new how to paddle, even when compared to surfing. And especially when compared to windsurfing or kitesurfing.

Kombucha In Chiba

I was in Hawaii when paddle boarding had just been born, or more accurately reborn, but still hadn’t grown up enough to leave its parents, Laird Hamilton and Dave Kalama.

Long Haul Trucking

In the searing early summer continental heatwave, Tuetonic power couple Paulina Herpel and Valentin Illichmann resolved to cross Germany from Dresden in the south east to Hamburg in the north west. Their modus operandi would combine the traction of the locomotive engine with the propulsion of the paddle.

Change For Good

Finn Mullen explains why if you want to keep improving your performance, then you have to keep changing your game and why variety rather than specialisation in training, is now recognised as a positive attribute.

Applied Force

Whether you’re paddling into a relentless headwind, sprinting to catch a race leader, frantically digging for a set wave, or even towing clients back to base, there’s the same dominant factor working against you: the force that pushes back against your blade as you paddle through the water.

Life Learning

To foil, or not to foil, that is the question. Finn Mullen muses on what he has learnt in trying to find the answer.

The Endeavour

7 miles from shore with the end at last feeling possible, I found myself in a spontaneous, unspoken race with Alan Stokes and Ben Skinner. Both career professional surfers, both still in their prime, and both still with a competitive fire that the previous 25 miles had apparently not quelched. They were both quick! I will remember this as the most painful hour I’ve spent on a paddleboard, including the time I broke ribs on the Isle of Harris.

Get Psyched #12 Expedition Red Lines.

Your paddle skills are in place, you’re tuned into your lovely touring board and those distant horizons are calling you in. It is time to go on an expedition! But before we strap the boards on the roof and head for the nearest coastline, what does it actually mean to go on ‘expedition?’

Uprising

Our story happens in France. It involves a trailer loaded with stand-ups, surfboards, foils and all kinds of gear to make the most of the conditions, five young riders and a photographer. A real watersports gathering where there is only one rule: to be in the water regardless of the conditions.

A Forgotten Place

At sea for a year and a half on our sailboat Maloya, an Océanis 411, we are sailing around the world in search of ideal spots to enjoy our favourite watersports of SUP, kiting and windsurfing.

Flow State Interview: Ginnie Betts

I first met Ginnie on a sup instructor training course, though I knew her name from her victory at the 2016 Battle of the Thames. Two things were immediately apparent – firstly that Ginnie was a naturally rapid paddler, though she might deny that herself, and secondly that she was incredibly modest about her ability. See point one, QED. Since then we’ve paddled together, and crossed paths plenty of times and Ginnie is currently sitting 12th in the APP women’s overall race ranking, but I realised I still didn’t really know what had made Ginnie so quick. So, in between races and work, we caught up with Ginnie to find out the mindset, skillset and toolset behind her performance….

A New Perspective

In the interest of field research, we’ve been conducting an experiment on an unwitting participant. You might know that we edit this magazine from a clifftop lair overlooking the Atlantic Ocean which also serves as an instructional base for ocean sports, and recently, we’ve tasked one of our new coaches, young Frankie, with paddling every single day after work regardless of conditions.

Ten Storm Force

A yacht supported downwinder in open water Mediterranean is up there with heli skiing Whistler, or being towed into empty G-Land. But if the numbers are saying 50 knots and 6 metres, how much do you think you could stand?

On The Pulse

It’s the end of September, and my working season is over and after few winters spent in the Canary Islands, I decided to take a trip to Indo.

The Yukon River Quest

Each year in the height of summer, a surreal challenge unfolds on the third-longest river in North America. The Yukon River Quest is an annual ultra-marathon paddling race across SUP and various other disciplines, taking place in Canada’s Yukon Territory. Teams from around the globe come to challenge themselves in this self-supported, non-stop paddling odyssey through some of Canada’s pristine and untouched wilderness.

The Way Of The Dragon

The two-day, Red Paddle Co Dragon World Championships is an event like no other. It involves teams of four from across the world battling it out on a mighty 22-foot inflatable ‘Red Dragon’ board to be crowned the ultimate victors.

Paddle Science #16 - Sprint And Distance Fitness.

I admit it. Thanks to the Boardmasters Storm I haven’t been out on the water today. I holed myself up in the gym and rowed 5000m. I split my session into 10 sets of 500m with a one minute rest period in between. Sounds easy right?

Logging In

I am sitting in a tuk-tuk carelessly sneaking through the chaotic traffic of Colombo way faster and way more dangerously than it should be. All around me I pass by thousands of people looking busy with their everyday lives. Drivers, beggars, porters, passengers, policemen with white gloves, buddhist monks dressed in orange, schoolboys in uniform, street food sellers, and hordes of ordinary people just going somewhere. I wonder what they do all day. I wonder what their reality is like. I came to Sri Lanka to experience first hand the spirit of a country in which everyone these days seems to be interested in.

Endurance

A great shout erupts from the centre of fifty neoprene-clad people clustered on the dark banks of Loch Ness. The wind whips and pulls at the group of paddlers, all of whom are fortified by a dram of whisky, as the sound of Scottish bagpipes signifies the first grey light of dawn. With it, the true scale of Loch Ness stretches out before the challengers, as dark, ferocious gusts claw at the surface of the black water and bands of sleet and rain cut at bare flesh.

Paddle Science #14 - Blood Testing

We can be doing all the right things: for example eating a low carb diet, following a training program, but it is not easy to know if our blood glucose levels are in the right range, or if overtraining is leading to chronic inflammation.

Lost In Koh Chang

If the newly crowned world champion sup racer gives you a tip-off to visit a place, it’s probably worth more than a casual glance. Daniel Hasulyo has just taken the technical race title at the ISA event in China, and if you’re wondering what his training schedule runs like, it looks a bit like this…

Between Storms

It’s deep winter. Boots, gloves and hood are ready to go..., but I have been very fortunate and grateful this year (thanks to some awesome support from my key sponsors ION, Fanatic SUP International and Nik Baker K66) to have not needed the aforementioned items – yet.

Prohibited Items

I’d almost forgotten about the weariness with which airport staff– from check-in personnel to baggage handlers look at you when they see you bumbling your way through departures with a large board bag.

Small Minded: Wiping The Slate Clean

A few years ago I wrote about a perceived ‘eddy’ of lower and lower volume surfing paddleboards spinning away to the side of the sport’s mainstream. A veritable closed shop of elite riders chasing shortboard surfing-esque performance atop pieces of equipment that increasingly resembled just that: a surfing shortboard.

The Great Route

Data can only tell us so much. Environmental researcher Michael Walther wanted to make a more qualititave invesgitation into the effects of the anthroposcene on the remote west coast of Greenland. As he saw, climate change is altering not only the extent of the ice, but more crucially the way the ice behaves. The impact on the people that live there was profound.

On Europe's Amazon

The Danube Delta is one of the wildest corners of Europe. A labyrinth of jungle-like waterways bedecked with climbing vines that hide kingfishers, pelicans and floating islands leading into a mystical world of deep forests and rivers. Sadly like any paradise, it is under threat.

Clinical Trials

I’d been sitting in Bali chilling and surfing with my girlfriend for the last few weeks, when I got a WhatsApp message from Ollie, Starboard sup product manager, asking if I could stay around for a bit longer. He was coming out to the “island of the gods” for some testing and said he would like my help with that. Well, it’s not often you get invited to test the next generation of SUP toys from a bunch of crazy innovators - so, of course I immediately accepted!

Improving Technique

I am fortunate to be able to introduce a lot of people into paddle boarding, inspiring them to the love of the sport. Within two hours of beginner SUP session, people get a flavour of SUP and learn the basics.

Connor Baxter

Coming here for the second stop for the APP World Tour was quite amazing.