Why the zone has gone south

[kayadogg]

I miss BigDongSupper and his aluminum board.

[red_tx]

BOOM! EXPLOSION..... DISTRACTION>>>>>.. NOTHING MORE TO SEE HERE.

please focus more on hot chicks on stand up paddle boards thread

just to jog your memory.. Here is page 8 of 111.
https://www.standupzone.com/forum/index.php?topic=15352.105

thanks team
-red

[PonoBill]

Probably. My first wife thought everything was, including the war of 1812.

[lucabrasi]

Interesting thread, interesting timing.

This is my first time logging onto the 'zone in prob 3-4yrs.
I used to be addicted.  I had the SUP bug, and loved this forum.  Zone and email, didn't need much else.

I enjoyed the personalities and over time, found the 'Random' area as/more interesting than the SUP content.
Then someone who posts a LOT on here started sending me PM's telling me to piss off (paraphrasing).
'Cause I'm not funny, or adding the right kind of value, or whatever.
That pretty much did it for me; way too busy to re-live 8th grade in an online forum.

I also think the member 'ban' that took place a few years back took away some very interesting contributors.
Anyhoo, Paddle on!

Whoa.
Yeah, I miss you here as well.

Just ran across this thread....trying to figure something out.
Yeah, honeymoon over as has been said very well here already by many.
I don't pop in here as often anymore either...
For me, I started chasing a little white ball around pretty seriously 3 summers ago.
My house is on a couple of courses and have lived here close to 20 years. I decided to get a cart and a pass 3 years ago and....there you go.
I would much rather paddle but going across the street vs. going 30-45 minutes to the lake and well.....across the street wins out on the daily basis.
Vacations, outings, excursions, etc. still all revolve around water and paddling but going out for the afternoon is more about jumping in the cart and smacking the crap out of a ball.
There really is something about hitting that stupid thing when you hit it good.

Anyways......long live the zone.
I really love this place and everyone here and it really still is the only forum that holds my interest and I really participate in.

[surfcowboy]

Love this place.

I’d like to know a bit more about the policies that get people banned.

I’m with Ralph, The Purge was real and it hurt this forum.

Colas, Leper, SupJuan, boludo (that guy can surf!!) now SUPUK who was really our most innovative builder next to DW. A lot of great content left. I hope it was worth preserving the minimal ad content that remains. I hope this doesn’t get me banned but I do wonder as a businessman if perhaps a Parlay is in order as the industry crumbles? If there’s little to no money to be made why not have more eyeballs?

Honestly, I felt that none of those folks were as intrusive as some of the legit advertisers who regularly hijacked threads with impunity.

As to Facebook groups, the thing about local boards is that you have the human connection as PDX said. You don’t wanna be a jerk because people will see you in the water.

Interesting stat on the level of female participation on those. Also backs up my opinion on the “Hot Chicks” thread. It hurts us, especially after the year we’ve all had. Seems like it’d be a no-brainer. Kill that or basically never have a decent number of women on here. They have voted with their silence.

But I love it here. It’s better than most and I’ve made friends and learned a lot from folks here and for that I’m grateful. Hell, the zone taught me that I mostly want to surf prone lol. Who’da thunk it?

[JEG]

this zone change me

[ukgm]

now SUPUK who was really our most innovative builder next to DW.

He's still building and documenting some nice foil technology on his facebook page.

[kayadogg]

now SUPUK who was really our most innovative builder next to DW.

He's still building and documenting some nice foil technology on his facebook page.

Was supuk booted or did he leave on his own?

[Admin]

Colas, Leper, SupJuan, boludo (that guy can surf!!) now SUPUK who was really our most innovative builder next to DW. A lot of great content left.

Of that group only Colas was removed and he (like Ralph) was sent a silly number of messages prior to that happening.  I think SUPUK is still here. 

[Area 10]

I think supuk has been occupied with non-SUP projects of late, and when he is on the water, is almost exclusively foiling (which, predictably, he is now very good at).

[supsean]

as a new "zoner", I have certainly found this site to be an amazing place to see the progression of the sport, especially in the technique postings. Already several parts of my SUP Surfing, mostly safety related, have been enhanced. It certainly sounds like a few years ago both the freshness of the sport and the site gave it a real community. And I feel like I'm late to the party.  But I still have enjoyed the people who keep on keeping on. Thanks y'all for keeping it going! 

[TallDude]

I love to see the SUP stoke continuing. I've been posting for more than 8 years now. I've learn a lot from some great people I met here. Some of whom I met in person after meeting them here and surfed, paddled or raced with them. I hate Facebook, and have never Instagram'd or Tweeted. I surf and paddle when I have time, and rarely plan to join up with anyone. The Zone is a nice break from my daily computer grind. So I'm basically taking a break from work right now. My office staff is two cats, who stare at me when they are awake.
I have SUPUK's email as well as others mentioned in this thread and have surfed and or corresponded with some of them privately.
The reality is life is about change and finding something new. SUP was new and everyone was running to jump on the band wagon. I've surfed and lived a the beach most my life, but there have been years that I never went surfing. Sailing, windsurfing, mountain biking, skiing, golf, brewing beer, photography, etc. etc. Lots of things I've done and obsessed with, but still more to try SUP is core to my fitness. It replaced going to the gym, and I love it for that. It's got me back into surfing and reacquainted me with my ocean roots. If I find some new fun exercise that is better the SUP, I'll do that. I love that the SUP surfing lineup has been reduced. It just means more waves for me. I'd like to see the SUP racing scene back to the old simple 5K 10K 20K paddle what you paddle days. It's heading that way too. As long as Admin is up for it, I'll probably be here.... 

Hey Charlie ....

[surfcowboy]

Admin I stand corrected. Thx for addressing this head on. Glad I asked.

I’m in touch with Charlie too. If you remember I went to his shop! Totally get why some move on. Eases my resentment to know those exits were voluntary lol.

I’m not going anywhere either. Love the site.

[Admin]

I’m not going anywhere either. Love the site.

We have always really enjoyed running the Zone.  Bias aside, it is my most interesting read of the day.  We could not have expected such an odd but insightful group to assemble around a sport enthusiast site. 

The sport is at an interesting point.  It has cooled from a boil.  There is a lot of brand fallout as sales move from the initial purchase madness to replacement cycle mode.  That is where we are in North America.  Overall interest is down just a tick.  The mass market is healthy.  The high end has dipped, but what remains is substantial.  The strongest players are enjoying the rapidly waning competition and are thriving.  That will continue as it did with ski, skate, snowboard, mounatin bike, wake, bmx, etc through their similar patterns.  There have always been very profitable companies in each of those sports.  The urge to cut expenses during a sales downturn can happen (see the Distressed Mullet thread) but that is typically followed by a big, "oh shit!".  We are here for those who still want to compete and we offer them access to the entire Stand Up enthusiast market.

[Luc Benac]

No problem with the site at all :-) and understand the vagaries of a public forum with its in and out, rational or outrageous depending on the point of views.
One small point that would make it even nicer would be the ability to see update and follow subsets of the forum only.
i.e. the foil would have its own section and if you (I) do not want to see any posts in that section showing in the "Unread Posts" than I can do that and so on and so forth
Thank you for your work.