SUP can be extremely frustrating sometimes. If you’ve progressed from flat water beginnings then you may be now wanting other ways to indulge your stand up paddle boarding passion. A variety of ways exist for this. Perhaps adventure paddling is your thing? Heading off round the next bend, to discover what’s there can be rewarding. Maybe it’s SUP racing. There’s nothing like pitting your paddling wits against others. Or maybe waves are your calling. The thrill of dropping into surf on a stand up paddle board is addictive…
SUP progression.
If you surf, in a traditional sense, then you require surf specific waves. By this we mean heading to your favourite beach that has regular juice surging towards shore. For many, this means heading SW and hitting up Cornwall, Devon or Wales. For the real hardy, there’s always the North Sea, Scottish and West Irish coasts. But waves – and ridable ones – appear on all our shores. You just have to be willing to look harder and ride different craft.
Enter stand up paddle boarding… There’s much speculation about SUP currently. Mainly about how it’s going to pan out from a participation point of view moving forwards. The COVID lockdown years have seen a huge influx of inflatable riders. And there’s no reason this won’t continue. The big question focuses on progression, however. As in, how do you entice stand up paddlers to progress? And which areas would they potentially focus on?
SUP waves aren’t surfing waves.
SUP surfing is an easy one as mosts SUP boards look like oversize surfboards anyway. At least to the observer. And with a stand up paddle board you don’t need the same kind of wave a surfboard rider would. With the paddle giving an additional boost and the board having more glide and momentum waves that aren’t really waves can be ridden.
The accompanying pics show smaller south coast swell being ridden backside. But also you can see shorebreak in the mix frontside. We’ll be honest: not all spots are like this. And we’re not suggesting paddlers put themselves in unnecessary harm’s way. There’s a definite risk of being chucked up the beach here. But if you know what’s going on and have the confidence SUP surfing shoredump, or surge waves like in the pics, is possible. And this opens up a whole host of otherwise disregarded wave locations.
Look and look again…
The next time you’re thinking of a SUP session and where to go do have a second look at your chosen venue. It may offer more than you think in terms of performance SUP options. Conditions don’t need to be over the top and XXL for some side sliding fulfillment.
Ultimately, if large numbers of stand up paddlers do progress and enter the SUP surfing arena then locations like this are great. It’ll keep numbers down at headline spots, thereby avoiding agro and biff in the lineup. Beaches are already super busy – especially at prime seasonal times. So anywhere that’s not mobbed is a great choice.
For more stand up paddle board related articles check the following out.
Then head over to NCW’s SUP products page here.