Messages

46

SUP General / Re: Is foiling even related to SUP?

« on: June 19, 2018, 07:25:13 PM »

Yeah, I get foiling is very popular right now, but I'm waiting for the conversations to get back to standup paddling. I don't care that other people foil — it's just that it doesn't interest me.

My worry about foiling is that it will take SUP more and more into the high end. I still think we need to remember that for SUP to stay popular, beginners need to keep trying it.

Not sure I'd call it "very popular". It's a niche within a niche within a niche. I'd guess less than 1% of all SUP owners/paddlers have even heard of it much less tried it. It just so happens that a few people who regularly visit this site are really into it right now, they're posting all about so it LOOKS like a bigger thing than it really is. I have no plans to ever try it but it looks interesting and probably fun when you get the hang of it, I'm just not sure it is very closely related to SUP.

Less that 1 percent?  That's a stretch in my opinion.  Yes as far as SUP board owners who have actually tired it and likely even who are interested in trying it.  But as far as hearing of it?  I don't know a single board owner who's never at least heard of it but maybe I'm in a bubble.

I think even surf SUP is a tiny fraction of SUP overall. This is what I see, maybe things are different elsewhere- I teach for a kayak/SUP retailer/school. We offer ACA SUP instruction for beginner lessons as well as for surf. We teach about 100 beginner flatwater students every season. We rent to several hundred more (flatwater). While we have offered SUP surf lessons for the last 4 years we have never has a single person sign up. Not one. ALL of the SUP boards we sell are either general flatwater (most) or race (few). If you surf then you see folks surfing. If you foil then you see folks foiling. It's easy to think it is more common than it really is but in either case it probably is a small bubble compared to the hidden masses.

47

SUP General / Re: Kai Lenny riding the new SIC Maui RS!!!

« on: June 19, 2018, 02:32:56 PM »

Looks like he found a new home.

48

SUP General / Re: Is foiling even related to SUP?

« on: June 19, 2018, 07:01:21 AM »

Yeah, I get foiling is very popular right now, but I'm waiting for the conversations to get back to standup paddling. I don't care that other people foil — it's just that it doesn't interest me.

My worry about foiling is that it will take SUP more and more into the high end. I still think we need to remember that for SUP to stay popular, beginners need to keep trying it.

Not sure I'd call it "very popular". It's a niche within a niche within a niche. I'd guess less than 1% of all SUP owners/paddlers have even heard of it much less tried it. It just so happens that a few people who regularly visit this site are really into it right now, they're posting all about so it LOOKS like a bigger thing than it really is. I have no plans to ever try it but it looks interesting and probably fun when you get the hang of it, I'm just not sure it is very closely related to SUP.

49

Classifieds / Re: 8’3” x 29.6” x 4” x 119L. Vector, Carbon, 5 Fins, Rail Saver $750

« on: June 18, 2018, 06:13:52 PM »

where are you located?

50

Random / Re: Why Laird Hamilton is still making waves...

« on: June 16, 2018, 03:41:42 PM »

The benefit to your feet from going barefoot (or near barefoot) isn't from any improvement to proprioception, it's from rebuilding the structural integrity of your feet.

51

SUP General / Re: Is foiling even related to SUP?

« on: June 16, 2018, 03:25:36 PM »

Yes, dailybread (kaiser1) i believe started a post at surfermag.com.

OMG! They will KILL him! Foiling ain't gonna fly over there. No way

52

SUP General / Re: Is foiling even related to SUP?

« on: June 16, 2018, 03:03:14 PM »

Foiling is related to SUP as much as it is to prone surfing, tow-in surfing, wind surfing, kite surfing, and even sailing.
Attach a foil to any of those water crafts, and they instantly become related, you could even call it a marriage.
But wait, then there's this!

Do you think the prone surf forums have a page for prone foil surfing?

53

SUP General / Re: Is foiling even related to SUP?

« on: June 16, 2018, 03:01:51 PM »

If you are standing up on a board while paddling, aren't you stand up paddling?

I guess so, but it just seems like some invisible line has been crossed and you're not SUPping once you get up on the foil, It LOOKS different

54

SUP General / Is foiling even related to SUP?

« on: June 16, 2018, 09:07:34 AM »

Is it me or is foiling even related to standup paddling? I don't even know what it is but it doesn't much look like stand up paddling to me. Does it even belong on this website at all? Or should there be a new one created just for foiling? Discuss. I'll be here with my asbestos suit on.

55

Random / Re: Why Laird Hamilton is still making waves...

« on: June 14, 2018, 04:54:58 PM »

There are at least three very different systems involved in what we call "balance". They are integrated to produce the phenomena we call "balance" but they are very different things. One can probably not be changed but the other two most certainly can.
1. First is the sensory input system. The brain needs information about what is happening to the body.
2. Next is the brain processing that input and deciding what to do about it. And finally...
3. The skeletal-muscular system actually carrying out whatever action the brain decided on.

When it comes to the first step- sensory input- "proprioceptors" are just one of at least three different input systems along with vision and inner ear. Proprioceptors are different than "proprioception" as defined in the article. Proprioceptors are nerve endings in tendons and muscles that send stress information to the brain. They are either stimulated (and send a signal) or they are not. I am with the camp here that you cannot train to improve the function of the sensory input system. Therefore, wearing boots to mask nerve endings in the feet (different from the proprioceptors but similar result- signal information sent to the brain) is not going to improve their function when the boots are removed. In fact, I would argue that any time spent in boots (inaccurate input) is valuable time lost to training the brain to react to accurate sensory input. (Along with proprioceptors you also receive information about position and movement from vision and the inner ear vestibular organs.) Arguing that masking sensory input will help improve that system is the same as saying vision can be improved by wearing a mask or hearing can be improved by wearing ear plugs. It doesn't work that way. Luckily though you can train to improve the two other parts of the balance system.

What "balance training" refers to are the other two pieces of the "balance" trifecta. First is the brain's processing of all the sensory input it receives. The quicker it makes sense of the input the quicker it can enact a reaction plan. That's where repetitive practice comes in, the more often you receive specific sensory input the quicker the brain recognizes what it means and the quicker it can do something effective about it. As an example, think of when you first started SUSing. I remember when I first started, incoming swell hitting my tail from behind would always throw me backwards off the board. It was a completely new feeling and I didn't know what to do about it. After about 20 or 30 times of falling over backwards my brain had figured out what that feeling was and knew what to do about it. It's not the speed that the signal gets to your brain, that is fixed by biochemistry, it's how long does my brain take to recognize and understand what those signals mean.

Finally, what are you going to do about it? After your brain has recognized what is happening to the body and has decided on a plan to change the future, it is up to your muscles to actually pull it off. Are they strong enough to offset the momentum of your falling body? That's why basic strength training is so important to balance; it really is all you have to change the future position of your body.

56

Random / Re: Why Laird Hamilton is still making waves...

« on: June 13, 2018, 02:05:32 PM »

Laird has the 1-in-a-million genetics of a professional athlete such as a football or basketball player. A combination of size, strength, stamina, drive, grace etc. that are all off the chart. With those genes in place, his fitness could be achieved via any one of a dozen variations of what state of the art training programs pro athletes use today. The reason he stands out is because he is playing in an arena that neither requires nor really rewards those genetics. If he were a pro football or basketball player his body type and fitness would be utterly unremarkable compared to his peers, he'd be average among them. It's almost a joke. It's like an adult playing soccer with a bunch of U-10's and running circles around them with everyone crying, "look how good he is, look how good he is!" No shit.

57

Random / Re: Why Laird Hamilton is still making waves...

« on: June 12, 2018, 03:04:38 AM »

Holy cow!  Holding weights in overhead water in a swimming pool and jumping to get a breath?  Sinking down to the bottom and repeating over and over?  That sounds pretty tough.

Really? I was just thinking how easy and achievable that sounded - like the sort of thing I’ve done for fun for many years. It’s not hard. Much easier than some of the other things that Laird does. I doubt it helps your swimming a huge amount though. If you want to swim well, you have to swim, not jump up and down on the bottom of a pool. But he’s got a brand to maintain, so has to generate wacky new exercise ideas to fill the lifestyle magazines and sell his coffee enemas or whatever it is he sells. Special golf balls to roll your feet on, perhaps, to go alongside the motorised golf cart? You gotta love what this guy has achieved in the water, and SUPers have a lot to thank him for. But he’s becoming a kind of self-parody. I feel that the Laird brand is about to jump the shark.

Agree 100% Kinda sad to see really.

58

NorthEast / Re: Anybody hit 1st Beach today?

« on: June 10, 2018, 03:33:45 AM »

The channel 12 news weather report showed a live camera clip of 1st at 0630 this morning. There were two SUP's out there. Anyone?

59

SUP Safety / Re: ACA SUP Certification

« on: June 07, 2018, 09:47:45 AM »

I am running an ACA L1/L2 in Westport Mass on the weekend of June 29, 30, July 1st and I have 2 spots available. Message me here if you are interested or call my phone number in the post up above.

60

Technique / Re: Turning for incoming wave

« on: May 30, 2018, 01:47:59 PM »

I don't turn around (180 degrees) to catch a wave. I have my board parallel to the oncoming swell, not facing it. When I see the wave I want coming I take 2 or 3 sweep strokes to time a 90 degree (not 180 like if you were facing out) turn so that I am now in position to take off just as the wave reaches me.