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News Surfing vs. Stand Up Paddle Surfing – a study begins
Study to investigate if SUP gets more ocean time
by Howard Swanwick
24/10/2007:// Stand Up Paddle Surfing is a new surfing sport to hit the UK, although its Polynesian roots are very old dating back to a time before Captain Cook first landed on Hawaii on his ill fated visit in 1779.
The sport consists of a large, usually 10ft or longer, surf board, which the surfer stands on all the time, not just during wave riding. The surfer paddles and manoeuvres the board with a canoe type paddle that has a long shaft.
The sport has recently been taking off in the United States, with demand for equipment outstripping supply, and has started to make inroads into the UK with a handful of riders nationwide and the first national competition, held in Watergate Bay during September 2007, which 27 competitors attended.
One of the appealing factors about stand up paddle surfing is that it can be done in waves too small, or not powerful enough for normal surfing. The use of the paddle (which gives riders somewhere in the region on three to four time more paddle power than normal surfers) means that these smaller waves can be surfed, making it the perfect sport for the often less than perfect surfing conditions in the UK.
The UK is blessed with a huge variety of coast line and therefore surf beaches and reefs, but due to our continental shelf we do not get the consistency or quality of wave that other countries experience. Stand up paddle surfing allows surfers to increase the amount of days the surfer can spend in the ocean, surfing waves. Or does it? A study is now being carried out by the Stand Up Paddle Surfing website (http://www.supuk.org) to determine whether stand up paddle surfers will get more time surfing than regular surfers.
Matt Argyle, a surfer and a stand up paddle surfer, who is conducting the study comments “I am always being told that stand up paddle surfers get more time surfing waves than conventional surfers, and it got me thinking, as some days are too small for regular surfboards, but on the other side some days are too windy for stand up paddle surfing”.
Started on the 1st of October 2007 the study will be carried out in Bracklesham Bay, a surfing beach just over 1 hour from London, close to Chichester, and will run for a year. The results will be published on the website. As the results are collected the website will be updated so that the progress of the study can be followed.
For further details and the results of the study so far, please go to this web address : http://www.supuk.org/supvssurfing.php
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