Stand Up Paddle Forum

Billy and I started messing around with stand up paddling with our friend Mike Cooney during the winter of 2005. At the time, there was a pretty small number of stand up paddlers on island. The majority of the participants were skilled water men including the likes of Laird Hamilton, Dave Kalama, and Archie Kalepa. Than there was us. Regardless of our lack of skill, we managed to have lots of fun. Fast forward to 2007 and the sport has begun to explode. We have seen evidence of stand up’s growth both on the water and online. Stand up paddlers are an almost constant site paddling down the North Shore coastline of Maui. One friend described a veritable conga line going down the coast while he was surfing a local break. Whenever I go over to West Maui, stand up paddlers are fixture in the lineups of almost every break south of Lahaina. We also see the growth in popularity online. I am always amazed how many people come to this site searching for information on stand up paddling. When I first started posting on the subject back in the spring of 2005, we were one of the few online resources with any information on the subject. Now, there are numerous sites and articles discussing the sport. The latest online resource on stand up paddling was started by old clients of ours. The Stand Up Zone is a forum to discuss gear, technique, stand up events, or just the days waves. It is just getting going, but it appears to be attracting some good discussion.