History of Standup Paddle Boarding-aka-SUP

March 14, 2018

It’s hard to know when modern stand up paddling really began, but stand up has become such a diverse and vibrant sport it defies strict definition. It’s early roots are elusive as its modern surge into popularity. Even now only two things seem constant: we stand while paddling a surfing-style craft and we use a long paddle to propel the craft forwards. It seems that stand up paddling in some form or another has been around for thousands of years. Ancient cultures from Africa to South America used boards, canoes, and other watercraft propelled with a long stick to fish, travel, and ride waves. While stand up paddling may have developed in various places around the world, the modern surfing tradition has undeniable Polynesian ancestry. In 1778, Captain James Cook sailed into the Hawaiian Islands and became the first European to witness the Hawaiian people surfing. Modern stand up paddle surfing has its own Hawaiian roots as well. In the 1940s, surf instructors would take paddles and stand on their boards to get a better view of the surfers in the water and incoming swells, and from time to time they would surf the waves in themselves using the paddle to steer the board. Stand up surfing offered instant appeal and accessibility to all kinds of surfers. It allowed them to paddle to far away and little known breaks that were uncrowded, and it increased the number of waves a surfer could have in a session and the range of conditions that could be surfed. In fact, very quickly stand up paddlers realized that the “surf” could be taken out of it. All across the USA, and now in Europe and Australia, landlocked people have started using stand up boards as a replacement option to the canoe or kayak. Providing a great core workout, as well as increased visibility both above and into the water, stand up paddling as a recreational craft has now become mainstream. By 2009 it was the single fastest growing part of paddle sports in North America and in 2008 the US Coast Guard classified SUP boards as vessels like canoes and kayaks. Drawing on roots that are thousands of years old, stand up seems here to stay in the world of modern paddle sports.

(adapted from SUP World Mag)