its simple guys and girls
get the kids into it and make it "fun for them"
remember being a grommet and having to go to mum n dads sporting events and having to hang around all day bored off your freaking head 
god i do.....golf without drinking beer is boring as
lets make these events not about the "elite crew" and their waxed chests and more about a family atmosphere where kids wake up in the morning and are frothing to go to mums or dads big race cause "they too" are there "to race" n have fun and experience what we all love n enjoy
from a sponsors point of view "point a to point b" races suck b@lls as you want crowds to stay in the one spot and not have to see a pack of crew disappear into the distance after a minute from the starting gun just to do a car shuffle 10 or 20 km away to see them reappear at a finish line n "game over the fat lady has sung" or "coarse races" that go off into the distance and competitors look like ants "ITS GOT TO BE UP CLOSE N PERSONAL" so punters can see and feel apart of the action
mixing it up
and also have some sort of entertainment in and around the event. so that everyone just doesn't leave straight after the winners are presented with their prizes or in some cases lack of prizes or just leaving straight after the race and going home...... create an atmosphere!!!!!!! that may even draw in non paddlers etc.
i know that none of our aussie based sup related companies have big bucks to throw around
so its a hard slog for all the organisers to generate a prize pool
but its the little things that count
this is a great thread
keep up the froth you freaking sup frothers
over n under.... dogbreath
Maybeee i should wax my chest , probably drop 2 kilos at least
I think those inflatable boards are the go for attracting newbies , maybeee the clubs can get a sponsorship from the likes of Naish Starboard ECt to have these boards available for newbies to use in club rounds , races ect.Surely they would be interested , gives them good brand exposure , wouldnt cost them a fortunate , those boards wouldnt cost a lot to make i wouldnt think. The next logical step is to hit the schools , by introducing a sup course. This could be possibly done through Surfing Australia , good for them to increase the base of their membership , beyond just surfers also.
I could get sup introduced at my school today if I could get my hands on 20 boards for not much. But with paddles and a trailer it is very exy. It is very expensive for a school to have that much kit so will not happen.
Out source to Sup schools is probably the way to go and there are a few options with that.
Surfing Qld has a great initiative going taking stand up paddle to western schools. They have the trailer and gear.
Friends of mine out in Goondiwindi are paddling their river system etc.
It is progressing as a flat water sport.
Our club also has a grant in application that will hopefully allow us to get 10 inflatables so that members can bring a friend to use at club days or events. This is in the effort to grow the enthusiasm and have some fun. If they enjoy it the may buy their own and continue and thus help the industry as well.
I've been teaching high school kids sup for there weekly school sport on the Clarence river at grafton over 50 km inland for the last 5 years.
Good to see crew taking it inland as there are some great stretches of water that get limited use.
The kids love it too
They are spewin that I've been on the road so much in the last 6months spreading the love of sup for surftech and they are stuck having to do some other lame activity like cricket or netball... Hahaha
Mick DiBetta and Kelly Margetts are holding a free 5 week junior program for kids at Throwers House in Currumbin creek every Saturday afternoon at 3pm. The first one was held last Saturday with a turnout of about a dozen kids aged between 5 & 12 both girls and boys. It was a fun but instructional hour and a half in which all kids came away with some new skills. It didn't matter if they were paddling there dad's surf sup, a 14'er or custom grommet size race board the stoke was on all their dials 
surely flat water racing only isn't the answer- please
imo its a stepping stone when you live on a coast.
just about every paddler i know wants to paddle in the ocean. even people who have only started aspire to get out there.
its like buying a 6'1 surfboard and paddling it in the creek.
definitely have no interest in that at all. to have flat water only would get some newbies, but you might lose the faithful.
part of 'its too hard in the ocean theory is people are getting narrow fast boards to early and then can't do it in the ocean.
you just can't expect to get a board and two weeks later start paddling seaway to seaway.
i'm cranky that most of us have put the time in to get ok at the ocean caper just to have some suggest its all to hard lets keep the racing and paddling at the pirate pk.
sellout. do we really want only soft people doing the sport or is it a novelty sport- every one can turn up and be a racer.
i never seen anyone suggest buy a surfboard and you'll be ripping in three weeks and get a widcard in the quicky pro!!!!
theses flat water fun suggestions surely can only be for the rank novices and kids
I'm sure I would hate flat water racing too if I was trying to do it on a board totally unsuited to the task.
I work in a high school on probably the most famous creek for supping in Australia.
I have tried to get SUP going for sport for the past 5 years and so far only Jake Jensen and Kiahli Dorries has taken it on and are killing it.
Cost of buying boards for a school is huge, and most kids don't ride them because they basically can't transport them on their bikes.
I have hired Jacko and his boards and they loved it, but the cost of buying their own SUP kills them.
Who is the Surfing Qld contact for the trailer/boards?.
I would even run an inter-school SUP race/surf comp on Currumbin Creek if we could somehow get a bunch of similar boards e.g..12'6's. Even a surf SUP comp would be awesome.
The future of any sport is in it's juniors
Doggie you could even bring up some of your kids crew.
Someone said way back in the posts that we feel like we're just tacked on to the event(noosa)."WELL" you are.The Noosa festival of surfing is.1) A showcase of surfing tallent both international and local and 2) A professional and amature international longboard competition.SUP has kind'a taken the spot of tandem surfing which seems to have all but vanished which makes us a novelty event in their eyes.For SUP to go forth and conquer we need our own stand alone events and then maybe we could one day use longboards as a novelty at our events.Firstly we need more partisipation at club level,at the moment SUP is UNCOOL with kids but it wont be long before that changes.With good strength and leadership come followers and with followers come more followers and so on.The best thing we can do ATM is spread the word we are here to stay and we're "nice".Also regarding competition levels,I have several friends that compete nationaly in (Winter swimming carnivals)these are all done on handy caps that are given at club level so you may have an 80 year old swimming against a 20 year old but the time difference bridges the age gap (a bit).I don't see why you couldn't have a handicap event maybe work out a formula.(age x weight = distance)so you could get a close finish.Anyway I'm getting a bit interested in racing and that only means one thing(WHERE AM I GOING TO PUT IT).
A few have had a brief mention of cost, It is IMHO still very prohibitive to get a family of four like mine into SUP racing or SUP surfing, that's four boards of various length, paddles, and leggies. All the gear is going to cost at a guess $??????, thousands of dollars, and that just isn't going to happen for most families.
I would like to see more social paddle days and less use of the word race. You will surely encourage more participation if it is more social. It might be just me but the amount of paddle demo days has slipped away from years previous.
Just a few thoughts.
Scott
- but I still find myself training a lot on the flatwater board out of necessity.
- but I still find myself training a lot on the flatwater board out of necessity.
Totally agree. For a sport to grow it is about the masses.
The more races there are on flat water the more the sport will grow. This in turns brings in the sponsors and the crowds to watch the surf and/or ocean racng OR more importantly TV COVERAGE.
Dosn't it make more sense if Joe Public knows he can have a go against his hero's or heroines' on the flat rather then be a spectacle in the ocean and ( then ) giving the sport away.
