Theres a lot of people here with a lot of diferent stories and I bet theres some classics,so Ill start.Once upon a time a silly dumb 30 year old decided to play football again,got smashed needed knee surgery,decided to buy a long board to get back into surfing after the op.He decided he liked this new form of surfing and as his knee got stronger he stayed riding this loooong board despite the howles and screames of disaproval from his piers.Now as a loooong boarder living in 6' thruster ville he often felt alone and somewhat diferent but he was having fun and that made it all worthwhile.He often wondered if there were others like him but didnt know where to look.Till one day he discovered a comp happening and thought he'd check it out(but the best way to check a comp out is to go in it right ?)so he did.And on the morning of the comp there he was bleary eyed after a late shift but ready to go (kind'a).It was deadset hilarious after that because after moping around for a good hour he found he was in the first heat and was lucky to hit the water in time but scraped through with a lucky third.So here he was back in contest ville.He met a great bloke cooking snags and had a chat then decided to watch the comp(after all that was the idea in the first place)After a few hours the anouncer called the first heat of the Stand Up Paddle Boards ("WHAT"who are they???)I'd actuallyseen all these giant things lying on the grass earlier,so anyway out they went 6 compeditors in 1'-2' waves all standing up paddling around hastling eachother,well I thought this was funny,odd,diffrent,strange,funny quite funny actually and as I continued watching this guy got this wave and deadset riped it apart.THAT WAS IT.It took another few comps(observations)to take that last step,but I was never in doubt from that time on that I was going to be one of those silly buggers out there having all the fun.
i smashed my back and pelvis up really badly. the surgeons gave me 2 choices cortisone till my back was completely rooted and a op or a op which they thought i was to young for and success was not that crash hot for benifit. went to rehab for a year but just coundnt stand all the vanity. so decided to become a feel sorry for myself self medicated piss head
my rehab physio used to ring all the time to see how i was going and i would tell him,just getting fatter. after another 3 years he told me about sup,i laughed when i looked it up but went with a paddle with him,hooked i was,considering the only water fun i was told i could ever have was to find some german mates with aglass coffee table. could not believe how much i missed the water. so went and bought a sup and strated getting stronger and more stoked,so the girl bought 1 my son got 1 and well i have a few now
now im back into skating,down hill,bowls and cruising have lost close to 25 kg and just bought a longboard of a super cool breezer,cheers mac62 one pimp though cause all this could have gone bad without the time and patience from the super cool people at roar,thanks very much guys sorry for being long winded but im proud and stoked with my story and how my life has changed,so yeh sup saved my life and im bloody stoked
Staying at a mate's on Kauai'i 7-8 yrs ago,tweaked a lower disc surfing the month prior so had been taking it easy,no real swell,so went for a swim and sat there for an hour watching Terry Chung [Kauai'i Legend] having a ball on this massive tandem board with an outrigger paddle was hooked and hadn't even tried it.
Seen pics of Blane Chambers 'canoe paddle surfing' kneeling down to paddle and was blown away. Next Jamie and Mick Dibetta were riding them at the Alley. I put in an order for a board as soon as I could sell my Fender Strat on Ebay to pay for it.
Living in the Currumbin area there was no choice, epicenter of the sport in Australia.
Having a mate who wanted a sup and having another who had just opened a sup store I drove him down and they did a deal Ron House 12 footer,My mate who sensed I was bored taking a 12 month brake from work started hounding me to have a go,not much fun two blokes one board,my mate told me about this awesome site you can ask/learn all about sup's,so thanks to my mate you lot have to put up with me sorry.
So off I go research and the 11.4 Naish was the go so I was told,now have a PSH.
Now as a longboarder I only use my sup out the backyard on flatwater,so a Fanatic 12.6 would be nice,just got to stop ordering Longboards.
Thanks for the kind words Chrispy
you know what i bought a kahuna skateboard and bigstick.... realized i was goofy not natural and thought wonder what this is like on water?
hired a 27 inch wide board could not stay up longer than a few secs... and thought well that sucked.
the guy that hired the board to me said try a 30 inch its like chalk and cheese.... went one more and hired a mana 32....
wife tried too..and loved it
so we bought 2 boards...then another 2....then another 1...now think i want another 1...now also have dragged 2 longboards out of the garage, loving it all, with another being made on order
also have the boat on the market for sale....hardly do any work....
this sup thing has ruined my life
I took up surfing in my late twenties,i started on a short board but soon moved to a longboard.I surfed 2 or 3 times a week til i was 34.Then i got sick(Brain Tumour) and lost my sight so surfing sort of slipped down the priority list. A few years later i started to get motivated again and spent a summer on a boogie board so i could get used to the ocean and sunlight again. The next spring when it started to warm up i started paddling my longboard in the Noosa River. We kept seeing people riding these stand up paddleboards and i kept saying to my brother that i'd like to try that cos i reckon i could do it. So as my birthday present he took us for a lesson with the local sup school(Stand Up Paddle Surfing Noosa). Best birthday present EVER!!! Started on flat water for a few weeks then went out in the surf. I'm out on most days now catching more waves than i used to when i was "normal" The longboard is now gathering dust and the booger has become a kids toy!!
Partially tore my glenoid labrum tendon off the shoulder while training for IM and could not go in the ocean at all due to the surgery and rehab (8 months) and got really pissed off about it
Had a go on a mates sup board and realised I could paddle so hunted down an old Oxbox off ebay (thanks sis) and paddled in the bay all the time, spent so much time there surfing the little waves during the rehab period it was a no brainer to keep doing it and when I started back on the short board there was good strength and fitness already so I could hook right in...
Its another way to stay in the ocean and enjoy the lifestyle
Im in a similar boat to brownie.
Used to Booger hard when I was younger, and entered a few comps got some placings, etc. Had an awesome time over the years. Then tagged along with my brother to boxing one night out of boredom and was hooked on that. Boxed for a few years and was trying to moveup weight classes so was hitting weights hard as well. Then I blew out my labral tendon on bench one night, after surgery and 8 month recovery, I tore my supraspinatus tendon (rotator cuff) on my other shoulder. I think it was from just over using it trying to let my left one heal. I was only 27 yrs old.
Was so bummed out about not being able to do anything for roughly 18 months, I had a lot of time to reflect. Found myself wondering when was I at my happiest over the years, the answer was out in the water, with my mates, surfing for hours and feeling so stoked just to come away from a good session, not trying to kill myself in the gym or have someone trying to kill me in the ring.
Too old too bodyboard so thought I would give SUP a go. Never looked back. Its funny how you always get drawn back to the water I reckon.
like chopz, i used to body board when i was young, it's somewhat awkward when your older, went from a bodyboard to a racing mal(clubby board) cause i used to do surf life saving, still do, didn't like the idea of going strait on it so became pretty good at wave riding on it, fun in the big stuff, had a little stint at kneeboarding and longboarding, still have all of my boards and still dable in everything, but got into sup when i had a go on a mates sup, was an old windsurfer couldn't balance for ****, brought my first sup a month later and now shes my new mistress, lovin' it
Jarryd
SUP started because my partner said I should give it a go. At the time I was riding short and long boards with the same mentality as some of the crew we all meet today (I'm never going to try that, it's not surfing, friggin goatboats etc).
Anyway with a history of water sports (surfing, body boarding, kayaking, slsc, swimming etc) and coaching, I finally gave in and had a go one day in the local creek, thought yeah this is going to be easy and fell straight of the board into the water. But once I got the hang of it I was hooked. So much so that all I seem to ride these days is a SUP.
Good to see so many varied stories out there in the breeze. Especially the ones that have come back to water sports through SUP.
well started surfing at a very young age got totally engrossed in the hole shortboard thing even developed an addiction to it ,,,, to the point of obsession..
Went into the manufacture side of shortboards for many years then with Sydney crowded line ups and my new love of mountain biking started surfing less and riding bikes more... Till one down hill jump went wrong! Sent me to hospital by chopper ride(thanks goatman for finding me) for a lengthy stay and lost extension to my elbow...after Hearing goatman had taken up SUP and totally writing him off behind his back to finally getting one for rehab training only..... then game over... hook line and sinker the new addiction begins...SUP love it
or the short version Goatman got me into it!!!
Always wanted to surf, but sharks scare me silly...sitting on a board with my legs dangling - freaked me out, totally. Watched from the couch and beach for years, moved to Lennox and saw some sups with these to guys tearing it up with no dangly bits, Wangchang! Still scared silly - but have discovered most everyone else is too.
I was a bit worried about posting this topic being a bit new to the breeze.I'm glad so many people have made comments.I already knew there was quite a diverse group of people on the forum and I had guessed that there would be some very interesting stories out there and there is.For me its kinda giving me a mental picture of the people on the forum,giving the avtars a bit of charicter so to speak.So keep em coming its been all good reading so far.
I got into SUP after catching up with an old school friend who I hadn't talked to for over a decade. When I finally tracked Ivan down he had just started his own SUP company (Coreban) after helping others test their SUP equipment for a couple of years.
I hadn't been in the water for a surf for ages but Ivan persuaded me to give SUP a go and I have had a ball ever since.
I was just to fat to ride anything else, but have lost 30 kg and look out world, fit as all f--k now thanks to sups and 10 boards later [10th board arriving soon] if a certain person gets there finger out.
Never surfed before, in fact never really into any watersports before. Spent my youth laying on the beach (like all good surfer girlfriends) but I didn't go in the water much, specially if there were waves, rocks, seeweed or anything less than crystal clear water! And I never went out past waist deep for fear of all the 'critters' that live out there!
For the past 10 years we had been living 15km inland and were heavily into horses – showing, endurance riding etc but 4 years ago we moved back to Huskisson. My husband, Jack Mack, who has been a short boarder for 30 years, had always drooled over the little bay waves at Husky saying 'If only they were 2 foot bigger'. He heard about this new Stand Up Paddling sport. Before you know it, he was paddling around the creek on an old windsurfer board and a home made paddle. He decided to go to Sydney & get a lesson on a proper SUP & hey bingo, two weeks later we had an 11'6” Southpoint delivered!
I had my first go on Currumbene Creek on Australia Day 2008. The creek is full of wildlife and I remember screaming and nearly falling off the first time I saw a stingray. It was about 1.5m across and went directly under my board! Not a great start. But over the next couple of weeks, while the husband was at work, I found myself sneaking out on his board.
At first I could only make it half way up to Huskisson but within about a month I had built up fitness and could make it up to Husky Spit and back (5km trip). It was at this point that husband talked me into going out the river mouth and into the little one foot waves.
This was the TURNING POINT! Once I caught my first little wave I was totally hooked: Within a week of my first wave I had bought my own board and was paddling nearly every day. Winter set in so I bought a wetsuit. The weather got even colder so I bought booties: I was addicted!
Since we had always done some form of competition with the horses, it was natural that we would do the same with SUP. Comps provide the greatest incentive to improve & provide the greatest inspiration on how to improve through watching the best SUPers strut their stuff. We have made so many wonderful new friends through SUP and now we do a couple of big 'holiday' trips to events every year: each one is a bit like a family reunion where we catch up with all these great guys n girls.
And now for the good news. I have dropped two clothes sizes and my physio says that my knee without the anterior cruciate ligament as just as strong as the other one. I am fitter and happier now than when I was 18. Who says you can't take up a totally new sport at age 41.
Merimbula Mambo Nov 2008
Kingscliff Malfunction 2011
Hey Scotty...lost it all briefly then it slowly improved for a couple of months after surgery but has been stable for about 9 yrs now. Classed as being "Legally Blind" but it's more like extreme tunnel vision if that makes sense.
Well, Mel you have hit your groove. Especially since you weren't a water person earlier.
I surf (some would argue). and sailboarded back in the 80' s and early 90' s. First time SUP I jumped on a 12' Laird in 1' waves. Paddled out and caught a wave first thing and thought this could be good. Bought a board and then seemed to struggle for ages. Catching waves seemed to get harder and was thinking that first time must have been a fluke. Persevered and now a year on seem to SUP a bit more than surf. None of my surfing mates are interested and snarl at me. It opens up a whole new area in that you can get away from crowds and surf a wave that the other guys aren't interested in. Or paddle the river or bay and still be on the water even if the beach in onshore and micro or too huge.
I was in Maui and they were just everywhere. I thought it actually looked a bit naff and can remember thinking nah. Got home and thought wouldn't mind giving it a go, went for a ride on a Naish mana and I was gone. Now on a star board that I can sail as well. I spend more time on the water now then anyone, I'm either SUPing windSUPing or sailing.
I didnt think there was enough kooks in the line up....so I joined in having never surfed before.
after being the dominate waterman in every discipline on the goldie for so many years, i needed the challenge of supping for a month before i was the best at that too(not)
now lets see you master a LB best of both worlds
