Sup surfing growth stagnant?

[Admin]

Kteboarding and Windsurfing are looking none to great either:

[Roundhouse]

Here in Florida I think SUP is just now kicking in. I hope it plateaus but I doubt it. Here the crowd was mostly all younger during transition from longboards to shortboards, twenty, maybe twenty five, while now to it is eight to eighty.

I saw a bumper sticker a decade ago that said “if you used to surf, you never did”. That hurt since I seldom got out anymore having a day job. I have since simplified my life, accumulated a quiver of SUP and longboards, check the waves most every day and hope to be still riding at eighty.

[juandoe]

not my seat of the pants impression down here.  For the first 2 years, I saw one other guy.  Now, I see 7 or 8 each session.

[maui wave warrior]

Seems very much the opposite over here. On any given day of surf especially on the south shore I see way more SUP than Prone. My guess is that its 3 to 1 on many of the days and growing. I actually anticipate about 80% of the line up at many of our popular breaks on Maui will be SUP within the next year. If you ask the shop owners they will tell you that SUP is their most popular selling board. Maybe its different outside Maui but its going like gangbusters over here.

[noa]

I think everyone knows that the real growth of sup will not really be in the waves. It will be in recreational flat water and cruising use. For the sportier crowd it will be downwinding.

[stoneaxe]

Not here either....finally starting to see others out there and the word from the shops is that sales are pretty good.

[Rdubach]

"Boards are as Cheap as surfboards."

Yes, you can find some that are as cheap as surfboards.  But you will be buying a new one every 6 months.  These aren't small boards and in any sizable surf a cheap board will snap in half (hopefully not on your head).

I for one dig the sport.  I haven't really touched any of my other boards since making the switch.  I ride a 10'6" right now and really love it.  As for getting caught on the inside, it's all about technique to get back out.  You have to spend time in smaller surf gradually getting better at getting out past the breakers, just like you do with  a long board. 

Bottom line is, it's not cheap, people love it once they get on the board, but it's not cheap.  I rigged a pulley to take the boards down from the 3rd story of my apartment building to help with the space issues.  If you like it and can afford it, most people will figure out a way to store it.

[Gdub]

I rigged a pulley to take the boards down from the 3rd story of my apartment building to help with the space issues. 

Sorry to hijack, but we have to see pictures or a youtube of this.

[Rdubach]

I have yet to video or get a shot of it.  I will do it this weekend and get it up on youtube for your viewing pleasure.  I will paste a link here. 

It's pretty awesome actually as it incorporates a pulley and a zip line.  All for the love. 

[Sup-position]

Hey 1Tuberider.
You were in my town!
Give me a call next time you are down here I'll let you
rock the Starboard 8'5" X 29-1/2" Pro if I still have it.

www.Sup-position.com
Huntington Beach, California, USA

[Smokey Carter]

I don't know where you guys have been surfing but I c SUPs everywhere: strands, 204s, Creek, of course Dog Patch,  Middles, Cardiff, San Clemente Pier, Riviera....They're (we're) everywhere.

[1tuberider]

Yesterday the sus = the prone group 2 sus and 2 proners.   

Both of the sus'ers were locals as well as the proners but I would not count that as growth.

When on south shore of Oahu last month I saw more sus'ers there than elsewhere but not at the main breaks.  Most of the pack was down by outriggers.  When I sus'ed the town breaks very few were out, mostly beach boys from the rental racks. When I surfed Steamers I was the only one, at Rincon only 1 other and Cowells one other eventually came out.

Counting the surfers in the lineup the sus crew was not there.  Same with HB while hundreds were surfing.  And here in the far north I know of no new sus'ers from our area.

If the industry were to target surfers and get them on board the growth factor would be huge.
I saw it with the short board revolution. I believe the bobbers in the lineup would benefit greatly by sus.  Maybe their afraid of being associated with the gay, but my gayness is a smile from ear to ear after having ridden so many so well, and getting hooted into sets that many of the bobbers just can't take. 

They gotta take note and see the benefits.  I know there are many really good sus'ers also showing the way. Performance boards have replaced the tanks and performance levels of good sus'ers is beyond most of the bobber crowd and those really good bobbers should be taking note.


Some say the growth is there in their area, the charts show the growth on a negative trend in general but that cannot apply to all areas.  Has down under commented on their trends?  But my travels lately on the West Coast did not reveal much sus interest and in Hawaii the hard core surfers don't even want to talk about sus.  That I gathered from partying with some local north shore surfers. It appears that Tims comment about the sport being gay is the attitudes held by many surfers seems accurate.

Anyway my next road trip is far off. Thanks for the offer Sup-position. If I get back to your beach it will be in October.  I'd like to take you up on it then if the offer is still available. If not in October then it may be years before I get back to HB.

I guess were just the black sheep of surfing.  Bring Dora back, he would fix it.

 

[RecSuppa]

In Brazil, it seems to me it's getting bigger and bigger, and not only surf / wave kind of SUP, but also flat water and races too, all along the coast from North to South. Some stats from the southern shore of my town, Recife:

Late 2007 / early 2008: just me.

Late 2008 : me, my brother and another guy

Mid 2009: 5 constant paddlers at the breaks.

Early 2010: about 20 paddlers everywhere in Serrambi Beach and counting.

Coolest part of it is to see some guys I used to surf with in my teenage years, that at some point drifted away from the sport, are now coming back to water through SUP. Some of them don't go to the breaks anymore, but we can meet and paddle together to the lagoon, or into the river, have a few beers and watch the sunset. Windsurfers and Kitesurfers are also getting into it, so it kind of brings the tribes together.

[Weasels wake]

What's "windboarding" 

[lord_sup]

one thing is that you'll hit the top end of one's skillset in average waves quite quickly. SUP surfing is difficult to master but by the nature of the design, the top end is much lower than on conventional equipment. I see the biggest improvements in really small or really big waves