Stand Up World Tour

[Honolii]

I SUP for myself, not for others.

Of course you do, and so do I. But this is not you or I, it's an organization that will represent SUP surfers.

It's a moot point, I immediately recognize watermanleague's bland response--it's the one I give people when I'm really saying "kiss off, I've got bigger problems to solve."  And that's fair enough, it was just a piece of friendly advice, worth no more than I charged for it.

PonoBill,
I went back and reread the whole post. I get your point. It's about how the SUP surfers organization will be represented.
I got mixed up into it as there seem to be a lot of people who are worried on how the organization will represent themselves, as individuals, their image.
That's the point I was making when I said I SUP for myself , not for others.  An organization should not be the basis of why people SUP. People should look at themselves individually and ask themselves Why Do I Sup? Because it's trendy? Because my friends do it? They shouldn't worry too much about their image.
Let's say an organization becomes huge and mainstream, is made up of mostly flat water point to point poker run kind of thing. Call it whatever you want. This is what the general public perceives as SUP.  Are you going to stop SUP because this is a representation the general public percieves as SUP?
Not me, even when if it dies I'd still do it for my personal interest regardless how it's portraid.
I used to be a competitive bodyboarder for years, worked in the industry, etc. Think, Kainoa Mcgee. No, I'm not Kainoa, nor at his level, but he's what a lot of the general public do not know about bodyboarding and how core it is. We were represented by the general public themselves, recreational tourist with no skills, body flopping on boards in the shorebreaks. Did that stop the core bodyboarders? No, but it sure made it conscious for others who were worried about their image and also to surfers who were "threatened" by their existence. When the tour cycles, ups and downs, and on the down cycle, no money, that's where you see who's in it for the image/$$ or for the love of it. I've done it no matter, even now, when it gets over double overhead and clean, I'll take out my sponge and dropknee snap the hell out of the wave more so than a lot of surfers would take off or functionally ride it, not going straight. It's about function. There's so many breaks here on the Big Island you can't surf unless you are very experienced, but the bodyboarders will rip, pull in barrels, airs, on them. These are dry sucking reef breaks breaking 10 yards in front of lava rocks but makeable, if you know how or have the right equipment.
Anyway, I'm going off on a rant here as I get emotional about things I'm passionate about. All I'm saying is people should not worry about how things will look for their image, whatever, that's just insecurity. They should just be doing things for themselves.

Aloha, going paddle right now...
Honolii

[SUPGlobal Matt]

I am looking forward to the tour and hopefully BSUPA will be able to work with it somehow to give it an international feel.

I hear what you are saying Honolii - its really easy for surfers or any other water user to grab onto a negative image (a kook floundering in the line up on a SUP) and apply it to all of us, while forgetting, or never knowing about all of the really core guys who are ripping. 

[Shameless self promotion]My next editorial is about this very subject - coming soon [/Shameless self promotion]