SurfingSports Standup Paddle Surf & Standup Paddling BLOG

Bill Foote (Maui) is in town...he'll be helping us unload a container of his awesome SUP's in a few days...including the highly anticipated new 9'10" x 29.5" wing swallow high performance wave ripper...it's clearing customs right now...

Jason and his family were in town for a weekend getaway...he is a firefighter who was deployed from LA on the last two Santa Barbara fires...we met them at our fav Italian family restaurant Petrinis...locals treated them to dinner to show appreciation for his (and all of the firepeoples) courageous efforts to save lives and properties...we invited him down to a demo we were doing and he took us up on it...standup paddling for the first time with his very cute (and precocious...;-) daughter, Allison...





Kenny K came down from the Central Coast to fill his king of all Sprinter Vans up with a couple of more SUP's...a Naish Glide and a Starboard 8'5" Pocket Rocket...here's Kenny's customized pad job...









We had the pleasure of hooking up Lori Ann David and her family with a couple of new Starboard SUP's...she is an amzing landscape designer and architect...organic farmer...drives a classic '54 GMC pickup truck...











Steve's '56 Chevy is pretty sweet as well...





Lots of folks riding and picking up our Imagine ECO SUP's lately...including a couple from Northern California who flew down in their plane to pick one up...
Here's a 10'6" in Brian's Jeep...and, Greg has his ECO stoke going as well...

Labels: paddleboard warehouse, paddleboards direct, Santa Barbara standup paddle sports, Standup Paddleboard store, SUP store

Since we are well into the first full week of Summer...and half of our clients are women (wahines) who have been buying lots of the great Naish SUP's from us lately...we thought we'd share a few pics with you to further stoke that Summertime fun...





















Images courtesy of NAISH INTERNATIONAL COPYRIGHT © 2009 ...

Labels: Naish standup paddle board, Naish SUP, Santa Barbara standup paddle sports

Snowboarding world champ, Terje Hakkonsen, surfing with the new 12'6" Starboard Cruiser TAC Edition...available through us by special order...



TAC Edition is a must have collector's item in limited edition wood technology...
Starboard developed this wood technique back in 1994...
(will be available in four sizes...9'x30"...9'8"x30"...10'5"x30"...12'6"x30")

Terje catching the SUP wave in Oslo, Norway...











This video shows Terje in his (frozen) element on the first descent of Peak 7601 (Valdez, Alaska)...







Here are a couple of shots of our original Starboard 12'6" Cruiser woodie...we have a 12'2", also...no...they are not for sale...;-)





Our Chocolate Labs that hang out in our shop are not for sale, either...so , don't ask...;-)

Labels: Santa Barbara standup paddle sports, Starboard Terje Haakonsen SUP model, Terje Haakonsen standup paddle, Terje Haakonsen SUP

Now that summer is officially here and heat waves are starting to fire up...it's time for all of our cold weather climate friends to get out on the water and chill...;-)

We're stoked for all of our new clients this week, from Washington...Utah...Idaho...Colorado...Minnesota...Michigan...Wisconsin...Illinois...Indiana...Ohio...New York...all the way up to Maine...and all through New England...get out there and enjoy...












Oh yeah, baby...Summertime in Northern Michigan...


Kid Rock All Summer Long Music Video

Labels: 2 piece SUP, river standup paddling, Santa Barbara standup paddle, Summer

Lots of things going on at the shop...thought I would mention a few before the list gets too much longer...;-)

Curtis SUP fins are back in stock...$100...





All 3 sizes of QuickBlade Kanaha SUP paddles in stock...8.3"...8.75"...9"...





New SUP paddles from Hobie...all carbon ($299)...or fiberglass hybrid ($227)









Stoked Steve picking up his new Naish 11'4"...definition of C L A S S I C...







Speaking of classic...
We just customized a Starboard 10'5" Drive in Classic construction for Montecito Philip...a little different than the one we did last week for Philip from Ventura...







A few shots of the new Naish Glide in AST construction...$1599...









Lastly, a few shots of the new Bill Foote 9'10" x 29.5" x 4.5" wing swallow SUP...
We have a container coming in at the end of June...also, onboard will be some of the Bill Foote 11' x 30" models...

Colors are red, yellow, sea foam, blue, and orange.
All have handles and grey pads...$1395...

Labels: Bill Foote SUP's, Curtis fins, Hobie SUP paddles, Naish standup paddle board, QuickBlade SUP paddles

Everybody knows that we're a core hardware company...boards...paddles...accessories (bags, leashes...etc)...but, every once in awhile we stumble across a great soft goods product...such is the case with our new loose fit Standup Paddle Sports branded VICTORY KoreDry rashies...these aren't your everyday run-of-the-mill rashies...KoreDry fabric is truly a revolutionary technological advancement...

This product has been laboratory tested at UV UPF 50+ rating, equal to SPF 150+ !!!

H20 actually beads off of it when standing under a shower...

Labels: Santa Barbara standup paddle sports, UV rashguard, Victory Koredry rashguard

Naish flatwater standup paddling fun...12' Glide video...



Check out the new Naish 11'6" window board...



More Naish videos here...

Labels: Naish Glide, Naish standup paddle board, Naish SUP

Multi-functional...multi-sport...the Starboard SUPer 12'6" is the KEY to fun...
Also, makes a killer standup paddle fishing platform...incredibly stable...MSRP $1499...





Hook a Severne Synergy sail rig package up to your SUP when it gets breezy...and sail faster than any human can paddle...

Labels: Severne Synergy, standup paddleboard windsurf, Starboard SUPer 12'6", SUP sail

Another pad iteration that we put together for Jim, from Ventura yesterday...
A nice Father's Day present his family gave him the green light to purchase...
Quite a bit of this going on, lately...

Jim is a life long surfer that hasn't been getting in the water enough lately...sound familiar?...;-)

His son, an avid outrigger (OC-1) paddler, is leaving to attend University of Hawaii on scholarship...classic dads and grads story...sounds like a nice pay back for dad on a reverse visit...;-)

This is the 11'2" Starboard Drive in "Classic" construction...





He topped it off with a color coordinated 8.3" QuickBlade Kanaha paddle...this is the smallest QB blade...in addition to the standard 9", we have the 8.75" on the way...

Labels: QB standup paddle, QuickBlade SUP paddles, Starboard 10'5" Drive Classic

A few snapshots and customer testimonials from THE STOKE FACTORY...

Anna is stoked with her new Starboard 9' Fish...



Ready to roll with the inflatable HandiRack...



Meanwhile...Doug in New Jersey is scoring a new Hobie 10'2" Chuck Patterson Stinger wave ripper...Mango with yellow gold camo pad...SWEEEEET!!!







Here's mine...nice rocker and volume distribution...



Getting ready to install the yellow gold camo pad on a client's Starboard 10'5" Drive in Classic construction...



Same board with a blue pad installed for Philip from Ventura...



Ship 'em in...ship 'em out...seems like everyday is Christmas at the Standup Paddle Sports stoke factory...







Lots of people drop into our store to buy their paddleboard direct from our paddleboard warehouse...we have well over 100 of the best standup paddleboards in stock, and more on the way daily...

Labels: Hobie SUP, paddle boards direct, paddleboard warehouse, PADDLESURF SANTA BARBARA, Santa Barbara standup paddle sports, Starboard Standup Paddleboards, SUP

Big Fred came in to demo a couple of boards yesterday...and left with a Starboard Whopper...10' x 34"...he's a great surfer...which is difficult for bigger guys...now, with this board he has the "great equalizer" in the surf zone...;-)







Big Scott also hooked up with a Whopper...







10’0” x 34” The Whopper::

Probably the most significant breakthrough in SUP since the paddle was introduced. Extremely stable at 34 inches wide, it provides stability for a beginner to paddle through the most turbulent white water or other difficult conditions. It has reasonably good glide and it turns on dime while paddling. The extra nose kick makes it almost impossible to nosedive, catching even the smallest white water waves with ease. The stability makes it a breeze to paddle into waves, with the BIG surprise being that this board actually rips in waves. It’s truly a fantastic wave board for most conditions, and is surely the most versatile wave dedicated SUP board ever shaped.

Great for kids , too...

Labels: Santa Barbara standup paddle sports, Starboard Whopper

Several dozen more standuppers were hatched today at our standup paddleboard demo in Santa Barbara...

We had over 60 people show up to demo boards and get help with their SUP purchasing decisions...heaps of kids also took to it...

We had folks from several counties away attend...as well as from the UK...















A few more snapshots in this GALLERY...

Labels: Santa Barbara standup paddle sports, Santa Barbara standup paddling, Santa Barbara SUP Demo

After lots of trial and error trying to match fins to the state of the art, standup paddle racing hulls that our paddle racing team have been racing on, we have started working with fin guru, Curtis Hesselgrave...

Curtis is a legendary fin designer and self-taught mechanical engineer...

He has come up with a couple of fins that are working quite well for us...both, on canoe nose racing SUP's...and, on surfboard nose racing SUP's...









Curtis will also be manufacturing some of my popular WARDOG fin designs...

The Fin Man

Designer Curtis Hesselgrave develops new, better stabilizers on a wave of 'trial and error'

By Terry Rodgers
STAFF WRITER SAN DIEGO UNION TRIBUNE

Fin makers historically have been among the most eccentric artisans in the surfing world.

The legendary Tom Blake, who in 1935 was the first to attach a fin to a surfboard, was a mystic loner. George Greenough, whose flexible, raked-back fins were inspired by the dorsal fins of dolphins, remains a stony recluse in the Australian outback. Fin box innovator Tom Morey, who renamed himself "Y", is a classic mad scientist.

One of the current masters of fin design, Carlsbad's Curtis Hesselgrave, has pursued this specialty with both passion and precision. If he has any loose screws, they are well hidden.

A self-taught mechanical engineer who also knows a thing or two about physics, Hesselgrave, 59, has approached fin making over the past 30 years as both an art and a science.

His favorite technique?

"Trial and error," he said. "It's a powerful sorting process to come up with a good design."

Fins are an integral part of any surfboard.

"You can't separate boards from fins," he said. "The board is a planing hull. It's skipping like a rock across a pond. Fins give you the character of how a board will ride." "My job is to provide a service to the board builders," he said. "I'm helping them with fins that allow their boards to work better."

He is a walking almanac of knowledge on how fins work.

"A surfer on a tri-fin board is using only two of the fins at any given time," he said. "When he's moving across the face of the wave, the outside fin is just along for the ride."

Raised in Nyack, N.Y., on the Hudson River, Hesselgrave briefly attended the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn before finding work as a lab assistant at Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory. He spent seven months at sea with researchers who were documenting the theory of plate tectonics. By age 20, he'd been around the world.

A personal turning point came when he was befriended by Ray Hicks, a NASA aeronautical engineer, who trained Hesselgrave in the fundamentals of science. At age 22, he moved to Laguna Beach and quickly discovered surfing.

In 1971, he fell into a job working for Mike Hynson's Rainbow Surfboard Co. A year later, he was hired by Bill Bahne of Fins Unlimited, whose adjustable fin-box systems for longboards would become the industry standard.

While always hovering around the surfing industry, Hesselgrave explored some side roads, too. He spent years in the skateboarding industry as a magazine writer and promoter of the sport.

Designing the now-defunct Del Mar Skateboard Ranch helped him realize his talent for engineering.

By 1982, he was manufacturing surfboard fins at his own shop in Escondido.

At the end of the decade, he was swept up in the windsurfing craze. He designed fins that in 1990 helped sailboarder Pascal Maka set the world speed record for sail-powered craft at 43.6 knots (50.2 mph).

The fins Hesselgrave designed for windsurfing came in handy during the late 1990s, when tow-in surfers complained of having trouble turning their boards in waves over 30 feet.

Working with Hawaii's Laird Hamilton, he designed fins for a tow-in board that were slightly concave on the inside surface, a feature that increases stability at high speeds. It evolved into a four-fin board that became a breakthrough.

"This has enabled modern tow-in surfing (where surfers are towed into waves by partners on personal watercraft) to become what it has become," Hesselgrave said. "Fins were a huge part of building the bridge to that new frontier of surfing."

This fall he left Future Systems, a Huntington Beach-based fin company, to rejoin his longtime friends Bill and Bob Bahne at Fins Unlimited in Encinitas.

The company recently acquired a computer-driven milling machine that can make sophisticated fins at high volume. Hesselgrave adores it. He can design a three-dimensional fin on his laptop computer and the machine will make a precise copy.

His current experimentation is exploring how flex in fins stores and releases energy. Template, foil and flex are the three controlling factors that determine how a fin performs, he said.

"Flex is the least understood design component in all of this," he said.

Looking to the future, he envisions advanced designs that will speed up classic longboards by 20 to 30 percent.

"We're not done, not at all," he said. "Surfing is still a neolithic culture. We're still in the new stone age. We haven't reached the Bronze Age yet."

Labels: Curtis fins, Curtis Hesselgrave, Santa Barbara standup paddle sports, SUP fins, WARDOG fins

The first ever Whitewater Stand Up Paddle Nationals went off this
weekend in Glenwood Springs Colorado. The Colorado river was aver
11,000 cubic feet per second or in other words BIG! With water temps
in the 40's over 20 competitors battled the swollen Colorado River in
a 3 part competition combining downriver racing, slalom, and wave
surfing.

Dawn Patrol on the river
Early morning focus, determination, and visualization...



One of the most interesting aspects of the event were the
wide and diverse backgrounds of watermen and women who participated
and came together for the event. Competitors came from as far away
as Hawaii, Utah, and Wyoming to compete and test their skills against
the river and each other. The first event started at 10 am at
Grizzly Creek on the Colorado river where each class of paddlers
lined up and started all together with just 2 minute intervals
between classes. This was a 6 mile downstream race to Two Rivers
Park through class II and III whitewater.

They started with the fastest paddlers last so there was tons of passing in the rapids and tactics being used to make moves and find the fastest lines down the
river. The the main battle between Charlie MacArthur and Dan Gavere
in the men's pro class culminated at the finish with Dan G edging
out Charlie by a mere 2 seconds in nearly a photo finish. Next was
the Slalom race which is a timed race where each competitor races
down a class 2 rapid while having to make marked gates by paddling
upstream. There were 5 upstream gates with judges at each gate to
insure each paddler passes through in the proper direction. Many of
the competitors had never done a slalom event before and enjoyed the
technical challenge and fun it provided.

After the slalom the event ended they moved down to the infamous Glenwood Springs Whitewater Park featuring "The Wave". Each competitor got 3 one minute rides on
the wave with their single best ride being scored. With a giant flow
of 11,000 CFS just being able to get on the wave was a huge
accomplishment. Once on the wave competitors could, carve, smack,
and slash for points from the from the judges. We saw moves like
ollies (Dan G), spins (Nolan/Charlie/Liam), coffins (Hobie), one
footers, and a plethora of unique and traditional surfing maneuvers
from the competitors.

Sweet Success
Photo: Dan Gavere
Paddler: Nikki Gregg
Location: Glenwood Springs Whitewater Park



The results for the Slalom and Surf were not announced but for the Overall the results are as follows (these are unofficial):

Pro Men Overall

1st Dan Gavere-OR
2nd Charlie McArthur-CO
3rd Noland Martin

Pro Women
1st Corral Ferguson-CO
2nd Jenny McArthur-CO
3rd Nikki Gregg-HI

Amateur Men's
1st Bill Mellenthin
2nd Seth Holar
3rd Earl Richmond

Thanks to Paul Teft and Charlie McArthur for putting this together.
Also a big thanks to Werner Paddles, Nikkigregg.com, Smith, Surftech,
Sweet, Astral, Kokatat, Supsports.com, and Bomber gear for their
support.

Labels: Colorado SUP, river standup paddling, whitewater SUP