history of stand up paddle boarding

History of Stand up Paddle Boarding

Tyler Swartz

12/04/2012

Stand Up Paddle boarding, probably more commonly known as or SUP, but also in some distant parts known “SWEEPING” is derived from deep Polynesian roots. Polynesians would stand up in their canoes and search for fish to spear. Early settlers such as ship Captain James Cook in the 18^th century, recorded watching canoeists sit in their canoe and catching waves and riding the tide. Thus, came “Stand Up Canoeing”. The Hawaiian translation for this is “Ku Hoe He’e Nalu” which means” to stand, to paddle, to surf, a wave.”

Now a day, the popularity of the ever vastly growing, modern sport “SUP” has been continuously originating in the Hawaiian Islands since the 1950s, when a group called the Beach Boys of Waikiki started standing on their long boards and use “outrigger” paddles to paddle out and about taking pictures of the tourists ‘trying’ to learn to surf. This is when the term of “Beach Boy Surfing” originated, which is just another name for Stand Up Paddling.

The Beach Boys of Waikiki brought the sport into world spectrum when they saw the opportunity to make some bank. After WWII, there was a huge tourism boom. Matson cruise liners dumped thousands of thrill-hungry Americans on the beaches of Waikiki under the shadow of Diamond Head. Its only natural they would want to try their size at the sport of surfing, or at least take a canoe surf under guidance of one of the many working Waikiki beach boys. After Duke Kahanamoku and his brothers got sick of the tourists, they formed a new generation of beach boys. These new prospects would lurk under the banyan trees and on the beach flirting with the girls, and often times harassing the tourists, until their bosses, waiting on the beach front, would call them to action for the site of another ship of newly-arrived thrill-seekers hit the horizon.

This hustle went on in Waikiki through the 60s and 70s. Eventually long boards got smaller and surfing began to change, but the SUP community never really realized the fact that, with a few basic refinements of equipment, beach boy surfing would be become would wide fun. Until a few beach boys like John Zabatocky, who started to surf with a paddle to take photos and soon, paddle surfing was his only form of surfing. Still going hard in his 80s, John is a true pioneer of SUP, along with Bobby Ah Choy, who made the final of a SUP event in 2007, just weeks before his passing.

Today, you can find people SUPing down rivers, and skim boarding along the coast line at any beach, in any state, or country. All thanks to the Polynesians and their canoes, and the Hawaiians and there hustle.