Pre-season Training on the North Shore...Oahu!

Spring Break on the North Shore of Oahu was unbelievable!
We were on the water every day SUP surfing or paddling beautiful down-winders.

This was a classic "dream trip", made that way by the truly gracious Aloha of some amazing people. First, our friends on the North Shore: Jen, Petey and Thatcher for stoking us out with the post-card location and access to some incredible paddling.

Blane Chambers and Austin Yonehiro, the heart and soul of Paddle Surf Hawaii, gave me a great deal on a demo PSH custom board to use during our stay. I bought a fresh Kialoa Pu'u from them as well and I was blown away with the paddle. The Pu'u will be my race/every day blade from here on out this season. Super clean catch and release, the light weight, the shaft/handle shape is perfect and the face size felt great in all conditions. What ever concerns I had on the smaller blade, vanished out on the water. I was able to accelerate on to waves and small wind bumps and I felt strong at the end of a good down wind effort.

Last and definitely not least on the mahalo list, is Gordon Saker who designs boards and has them made by Casey. Where Blane is cutting edge and pushing the performance envelope, the Gordon/Casey is definitely more of a traditional surf board in shape and construction.

Just to be able to paddle two distinctly different SUPs in varying conditions was such an honor and an eye opener. Both platforms are beautiful and I miss them already. If I could, I would try to own one of each. The 10'x 28 1/4"x 4 1/4", thruster fin, PSH was way too small for me, by the dimensions, and in reality I could paddle it into bigger waves than I have ever been on. I was able to paddle confidently in all but the gnarliest trade winds, and it didn't matter what you were on at that point. I paddled into a small line-up of guys at Sunset (right/out-side) and the friendly guy was the only other SUP surfer on a PSH. He tipped me on the reef/do's & dont's, then split off for home. A Hui Ho and Mahalo.

Blane knows his trade and I will have to try to get a PSH into my quiver.

The Gordon/Casey is shaped like a thick, single fin, gun at 11'6" x 28" x ?". I surfed a clean, 3 foot Hawaiian (head-high+ by east coast measure) at Freddies, just off to the left at V-land and it was a magical day. As fast as I could drop in and turn back out to catch the next set, all alone for two hours...I was tore-up from the floor-up! This board was versatile in the down wind runs as well. Thanks again G-man, enjoy the Stellas.

I can't/won't begin to critique the boards as I am the epitome of a neophyte to the SUP scene. Suffice to say that every minute I spent moving across the Pacific on these fantastic watercraft was epiphanic!

I "surfed" Sunset, V-land, Freddies, Haleiwa, Chuns and Kawela Bay. We cruised some sedate early morning paddles on still waters and we had a couple of epic down wind runs from V-land to Log Cabins (approx 3-4 miles). Oh yeah, throw in a 20 mile, Hawaii Kai, down wind, one-man outrigger relay race the day after we landed, as a warm up event!

We landed back at the "Beach" here in Virginia today to 45 degrees and rain.
I already broke the promise to myself to go out no-matter-what and get some miles in.
My only goal for the remainder of the day is to survive until 8-9PM and then dream about the warm waters of the North Shore.

Aloha,
Dukey Pau!

We Have Gear!!!

In order to start up a successful SUP series we need gear…everything from paddles to boards and a trailer to tow the boards to the races.
The plan was to make the inject of SUP Racing into the ECORA sanctioned events as easy and stress free as possible for the individual race organizers.
A “plug & play” concept was proposed at the ECORA yearly meeting and received well by the east coast outrigger club representatives.
Show up with boards and paddles, send the opposite gender out on the SUPs when the men’s/women's OC-1/2 race kicked off and flip-flop the racers when they head out on their canoes for the next race. Keep track of the times to ease the logistical burden and make sure we have trophies for the win/place/show SUP competitors. Easy day.
Oh yeah: keep the distances shorter for the first few races and guarantee only down-wind runs! Cake.

Without going into a long dissertation on the trials and tribs of finding a board sponsor, we got very lucky and completely stoked out by a local board shop and board distributor. Freedom Surf Shop in Virginia Beach, Virginia is owned/operated by Dave Shotton and they sell Jimmy Lewis Stand-ups which are distributed by Real Kiteboarding, down in Buxton North Carolina (THE Outer Banks), Trip Forman proprietor.

Jimmy is well known in the kiteboarding and surfing world, especially by those individuals lucky enough to reside on Maui. JL has been right there with the emergent crop of forward thinking SUP Board innovators. This year he has hatched a quiver of very cool SUP boards, from a 9’8” performance surf SUP to a 12-Ohhh! SUP gun.

Jimmy recognized the need to craft a Distance SUP for those that like to take their SUP sessions in longer doses. The 12’6” x 29” x 5” Distance board has a great shape and is a perfect tool to bring to the races. The attitude at JL Surf leans towards a standardized “One Design Fleet” concept. The idea being that going to a SUP race should be as easy as packing your paddle/shorts, getting on a plane and showing up at an event with a platform to paddle on waiting for you. Keep it simple, fun and most of all easy. A fleet of 12’6” JL Distance boards will make this possible for us on the east coast. Eventually some of the exotics will make the trek to the right coast or possibly get built out here and then we will have to create classes…or not.
That debate will come about when the gear shows up.
For now, we got Jimmies and we owe Dave and Trip a huge mahalo for leaning forward to make it happen.

Dave gets it. He sees the popularity of Stand-up just starting to form here and he is taking some significant risks to get boards out on the water for us to use in our racing series. He is in contact with one of the premier paddle makers in the industry; Kialoa SUP paddles will be spot-lighted as the paddle of choice for the inaugural ECORA SUP Race season. Dave and Meg Chun, along with legendary Makaha waterman Mel Pu'u, make beautiful paddles and we are stoked have them in our hands.

We will have other sponsors and equipment high-lighted as the season opens then moves forward.
Life is good…now if we can get the wind and wave to cooperate.

Oli Oli and Malama Pono
Dukey RD

Aloha Nui Loa!

Welcome to S.U.P.E.R.

The sport of Stand-Up-Paddling has re-emerged around the world and what is so obvious to those that partake is still epiphanic to so many that are just now sampling this awesome form of watermanship for the first time.

There are some outstanding SUP blogs out there and I am in no position, nor do I desire to compete with the state of the art SUP surfers that share their knowledge and spirit with the rest of us.

Outrigger paddling opened up a whole new world to me some years back and my heart is still in to cranking out some miles on the water...I just like standing up while I am doing it for the time being.

The S.U.P.E.R. site will follow along with the East Coast Outrigger Racing Association's (ECORA) introductory season of SUP racing while showcasing the equipment, venues and obviously the paddlers.

Oli-Oli and Malama Pono,

Bill aka "Dukey Rum Dumb"