Stand Up Paddle Surfing in Hawaii - StandUpPaddleSurf.net

[singlepic=1839,188,125] I think this is Evan's first wood paddle, the Leleo Kinimaka dove tail stand up paddle. As you may have seen on previous posts, wood paddles give that softer, gentler feel, and not to mention, they are just absolutely gorgeous. I'd say true works of art.Check out the video as Evan shows us his new stand up paddle.(click thumbnail to launch video)Evan Leong: My new Leleo Kinimaka paddle. Check out the nice wood, in lay pieces. The thing I like about this paddle is this handle, itrsquo;s just really nice. If you look at it ndash; I donrsquo;t know if you can see it but it just, it really fits in your hands. Itrsquo;s really comfortable right here in your hand like that. Irsquo;m not sure what kind of wood itrsquo;s actually made out of but if you look at it, itrsquo;s just absolutely gorgeous paddle. And the inlays that are here on the blade. If you look at that and put a little inlay of the big island and then therersquo;s something else -- different kind of inlay right there. Therersquo;s a slight dihedral if you look, you can see. And therersquo;s little bit of convex on the top part of it and this dove tail thing or whatever they call it. Anyway, itrsquo;s a super nice paddle and I got it at Tropical Blends.

[singlepic=1997,125,188] Doug shows us his custom 10' wood veneer stand up paddle surfboard made by Ted Spencer from Australia. The board as you can see doesn't have an air vent compared to Doug's other custom-made ones. He explains that the wood veneer has a solid, sandwich-like construction so that the air expanding is the last of his worries on this type of board.Doug claims that Ted has done something unusual with the board, which he says gives the board bite and make it feel like you're riding on an edge.(click thumbnail to launch video)[gallery=31]Evan: Little woodie, huh?Doug: Little woodie, woodhellip; actually it is foam core. Itrsquo;s is Styrofoam core.Evan: This is more of a classic kind of look.Doug: Yeah kind of a classic look.Evan: Kind of got a lot of concave going on. Thatrsquo;s what it looks like, huh?Doug: A lot of concave going on. Therersquo;s a pretty pronounced V back here. This board is probably the first stand up surfing board that Ted Spencer made. Ted Spencer is from Australia; former professional surfer and a very talented shaper.Evan: What do you use this board for then?Doug: This board is just like ndash; when I feel like really getting in to a good feel, a nice rhythm and a different feel because thehellip;Evan: More cruising or something or what?Doug: Actually, yoursquo;d be surprised. This board is not a cruiser. It may look like a cruiser but the way Ted made this board, itrsquo;s so very free flowing board that just glides. You can do pretty much anything. It has a pretty nice pivot turn, it nose rides really well, it has got a very soft rail. But the funny thing is, and I canrsquo;t figure it outhellip;Evan: This rail is really soft.Doug: Itrsquo;s very soft but for some strange reason, and only Ted knows this, is for some weird reason it has bite; it feels like yoursquo;re riding on an edge. And I canrsquo;t understand and he canrsquo;t tell you.Evan: Maybe itrsquo;s this concave.Doug: Itrsquo;s something. Itrsquo;s some transition back here and he is a master craftsman.Evan: You know what this concave looks like? It looks like a concave on a Jimmy Lewis kiteboard. You know what I mean? Itrsquo;s like the water skis have it, have this flat, this area that goes flat and then concaves in and flattens out with a softer rail so it sucks water to hold you inhellip; thatrsquo;s what it looks like.Jeff: Yeah.Doug: It has got this reallyhellip;Evan: Got kind of a lot of V going on in the back, huh?Doug: Yeah a lot of V. The turn on it is really interesting. Itrsquo;s morehellip;Evan: More smoothy, smooth kind of really wide turnshellip;Doug: Yeah itrsquo;s very smooth but it does this really nice pivot turn that just ndash; I canrsquo;t explain. When I first saw the board before I rode it, I looked at it and said, ldquo;Oh this rail is too soft and this and that.rdquo; When I actually rode it, it blew my mind out.Evan: What does the top look like?Doug: Actually all he did was basically, he kind of (____) the deck a little bit buthellip;Evan: It really looks like wood when you look at it.Doug: Yeah, itrsquo;s justhellip;Evan: The thing really looks like wood.Doug: He is the guy for wood veneering here in Hawaii. Hersquo;s really good at what he does.Evan: So this one you just left the pad normal. You didnrsquo;t cut it out.Doug: I didnrsquo;t yet. But now that I am feeling this board more I think Irsquo;m going to put a deck pad in there.Evan: Oh you want to figure where it was at.Doug: Right, right. But I know right back here on the tail it will be fine. But itrsquo;s a good reference point. But itrsquo;s really different kind of from everything else.Evan: This is a custom board?Doug: This is a custom board, yeah.Evan: So how come on this custom board therersquo;s no more air valve ...

We get to see another board design at Wet Feet, a Bill Stewart 11'6" step deck manufactured by Boardworks. One standing feature of this board is the step deck, which you'll see on the video.It has a double-wing pin tail, which can handle fast and steep waves like a long board. The board is typically designed for big guys -- a thick 5 and 16th inch thick middle plus a tapered nose and tail.(click thumbnail to launch video)[gallery=30]Wet Feet: Now this is a Bill Stewart board, which is being produced by Boardworks. Wersquo;re also to bring out the C4 stand up board. Very interesting outline and lay up on this board ndash; the most dramatic thing and obvious is the step deck, which you see here. It has got some really interesting rails on the tail. It has got a double wing pin tail, which is basically do handle faster waves, steeper waves. So even though itrsquo;s a big board, itrsquo;s got the long board. This board can actually handle some speed and some decent surf.Evan: Is it fast?Wet Feet: Yes, it is. You can also nose ride it with a full nose like this and if you get a center, middle perspective, you can see that the board is about five and a sixteenth thick in the middle, right here. And then itrsquo;s very tapered in the nose and the tail. It can float a larger guy.Evan: How does the bottom look?Wet Feet: The bottom is also rather interesting. It has got a double concave and a tail here. Some V brought forward and then it flattens out in the mid-section.Evan: Itrsquo;s pretty common for that.Wet Feet: Yeah, it is. But what is unusual is Bill Stewart has done a really subtle bevel along the edges. It starts about two inches from inside the rails. So thatrsquo;s a performance feature. Thatrsquo;s help the board release on turns.Evan: And then yoursquo;re riding two plus one? Itrsquo;s kind of a big fin they put on this, huh?Wet Feet: Yeah, thatrsquo;s actually not the stock fin. Thatrsquo;s a little more fin than they provided.Evan: What does it come with stock?Wet Feet: It comes with an 8-inch fin stock, and two-side bites.Evan: Three-inch side bites?Wet Feet: Yeah.Evan: Ok, cool.

[singlepic=1994,188,125] We get a short preview of the Makai Softop 11 Ft Stand Up Paddle Surfboard from the guys at Wet Feet. As we see on the video, the board has a soft deck ideally for people who are concerned about landing on the board hard or want something that is family and user-friendly.The performance is manageable for a board of this type. I think this is good as an entry-level board.(click thumbnail to launch video)[gallery=30]Wet Feet: This board is an 11-foot soft top, designed by Craig Hollingsworth in California. Itrsquo;s called the Makai stand up, soft-top board; very user-friendly, good for folks who arenrsquo;t used to dealing with surfboards perhaps concerned about landing on the board hard or they want a board that is family and user-friendly.Evan: Whatrsquo;s the response on something like this?Wet Feet: More forgiving. It has been great. Itrsquo;s a really good entry-level board. Craig Hollingsworth has done something interesting too with his finset up and then itrsquo;s a quad, which will help loosen it up. Itrsquo;s not really a performance board but that will help in the performance.Evan: Is it pretty stable?Wet Feet: Yes, it is. The width really gives it some good stability.Evan: So itrsquo;s just kind of a sheet ndash; like a body board-type, not really a hard foam.Wet Feet: Right. Sleek bottom like a body board. It actually has four stringers in it. Four PVC stringers so that addshellip;Evan: Try to keep it from getting mushy.Wet Feet: Right.Evan: Kind of got a lot of nose rocker.Wet Feet: Yeah, it has got some good kick in the nose.Evan: Kind of cool.

[singlepic=1751,125,188] This board surfs well as we learn from Jim of Tropical Blends Surf. He adds that he has had one of his longest nose rides on the Bernhardt 10'6". The rocker is pretty much accentuated on this one to make it perform well on the waves.There's a double barrel on both sides but the board is relatively flat all the way. This board maintains a hard edge which Jim says is unusual for mass-produced boards.(click thumbnail to launch video)[gallery=24]Jim: The white definitely makes sense. So anyway, thatrsquo;s the 10rsquo;8rdquo;. Letrsquo;s look at another one, slightly smaller. I think we started talking about how to carry the boards. Well, itrsquo;s part of the conversation here. This one actually represents another way that wersquo;ve thought, a way wersquo;ve come up with to how to carry the board. Once you put the pad on, this particular string is only here for a visual but we put a much shorter piece of string on here and this ndash; your pad will be right on either side of this. But basically, this is a thing that just comes out from a box right? And basically, what you do is you just pull this out a little bit and that becomes your handle so it makes it very easy to carry and get down to the beach. Itrsquo;s handy, unobtrusive; itrsquo;s pretty much gone. So this was just another way we tried to figure out how to do a handle. Wersquo;re continuing to experiment with this and develop other options as well. This particular board is a 10rsquo;6rdquo; and itrsquo;s a little bit more oriented towards surfing and almost specifically nose riding. I beg your pardon?Evan Leong: Looks like a nose rider.Jim: Yeah. Itrsquo;s pretty much a performance board almost ndash; letrsquo;s call it a Waikiki board or a little softer point breaks, that kind of thing. Irsquo;ve actually ridden this board quite a bit and this board surfs very very well. Itrsquo;s kind of amazing how well its surfs and I swear you can come up here and stand on this nose and eat your lunch up here; sandwich, picnic, put a chair, sit down. Irsquo;ve had one of the longest nose rides ever on this board. And you can kind of see the rocker thatrsquo;s in it. A little bit more rocker than what wersquo;ve shown in the boards in the past. The two that we have seen so far have a little less rocker, and a little bit flatter and more towards paddling. This one is a little bit more towards surfing and in surfing you need a little more rocker to make the board loose and make it want to go and perform in the waves.Man: Will this be a hard board to learn on?Jim: It would be a little more difficult. But look at your stature, look at your size. Yoursquo;re not an overly large person.Man: Thatrsquo;s right.Jim: Everything is relative. The other thing is too ndash; keep in mind I have demos of every board. Of every model, we have demos here. We also have a rental fleet. So you can take a demo out for the afternoon, try it out, see how you like it. Itrsquo;s enough of an investment that you kind of want to follow through on that.Evan Leong: Show us the rail design and stuff like that. Let's take a look at that.Jim: This particular board is designed by Kyle Bernhardt ndash; by the way the two previous boards were made, I call him Ed Angulo or ldquo;Masterrdquo; at his trade. Ed Angulo made the first two designs that we saw. This particular one has a little more foil through the tail ndash; not quite as much volume through the tail. Hersquo;s also got a nice soft rail on it. Hersquo;s got some edge if you notice; therersquo;s some edge along here, which is unusual in mass-produced boards. If you feel, most of them will have a softer, rounder feel here. These guys have the ability to keep the edge.Evan Leong: Is that rail tucked? Does it tuck in at the bottom?Jim: Yeah, this is actually, I would call this a soft surfing rail. What am I trying to say md...

[singlepic=1947,125,188] Doug Lock talks about the Brian Caldwell 10' stand up paddle surfboard and shows us around its shape and explains its dimensions. He says that the board is good at riding four to five foot waves, and mentions the new concept on its nose shape called the bottleneck concave. The all-around shape of the board helps it perform well as a long board for nose-riding and short board for tail-riding. Interesting.This board is pretty light even though it's hand-shaped, as you'll see on the video.(click thumbnail to launch video)[gallery=29]Jeff: Itrsquo;s Dougrsquo;s custom board. Let Doug explain the design on this.Doug: Well this is Brianrsquo;s new creation and itrsquo;s hand-shaped EPS foam.Evan Leong: How heavy is this thing?Doug: Right around maybe 20 pounds around there -- pretty light.Evan Leong: Oh so even though itrsquo;s hand-shaped itrsquo;s pretty light then?Doug: Fairly light, yes. It has got ndash; with the blend of materials, it has got a blend ofhellip; the layup is different from any other lay up that I canrsquo;t say. Itrsquo;s top secret.Evan Leong: Kind of cool, this pad thing, huh?Doug: Yeah, the stop pad. Basically what it is is our stop pad that we get manufactured, basically we just get the deck pad, trace it out, cut out all the pad, put the stop pad. That way you know where yoursquo;re foot is.Evan Leong: So whatrsquo;s going on with this tail?Doug: Well, the wing swallow. Theoretically you want to be a short board when yoursquo;re riding the tail, and you want to perform more as long board when yoursquo;re up on the nose. And Irsquo;ll explain that a little bit once we flip the board over.Evan Leong: So this will make it ndash; on the tail it turns faster.Doug: Turns faster, more responsive; it can handle bigger waves so the tail is pulled in. But itrsquo;s really stable. The board tracks really nice, it tracks really straight and the fin set uphellip;Evan Leong: How long is this thing again?Doug: 10 feet.Evan Leong: 10 feet, ok.Doug: So if I flip it over. Irsquo;ll try to show you this interesting bottomhellip;Evan Leong: When you guys make these customs, do you always make a certain design or you guys make it where itrsquo;s always design changes per person kind of thing? I mean if you want to surf, do you recommend this kind of tail set up and this shape for people who want to surf.Doug: This seems to be, to me, the most ndash; the free-est surfing as far ashellip; it looks like a lot of fins; it looks kind of staggered because therersquo;s a lot of fin going on. But with this four-fin set up and this keel in the middle, this keel makes all the difference.Evan Leong: It just keeps it straight or what?Doug: To keep the tracking straight but also at the same time it gives it bite. So the board has that, since itrsquo;s so wide, you need this center fin to keep it tracking.Evan: It looks like not too much V on this board either, yeah?Doug: Just mostly back, slight here, but major on the end here.Evan: Oh so behind the fins.Doug: Behind the fin, right.Evan: Interesting.Doug: Itrsquo;s mostly flat in here but as you can see this chime, right here therersquo;s a slight chime that rolls off from the edge here.Evan: What does it mean chime? Seems like a little bit of a ridge almost.Doug: Right. Itrsquo;s a ridge that comes down before the rail.Evan: I donrsquo;t know if you can see that. Kind of right here.Doug: Right there, right. And if you look down the board you can actually see the outline from the chime. This is where yoursquo;re riding on a lot of times when yoursquo;re planing but when yoursquo;re sitting in the water, this is all in the water for stability. When yoursquo;re up planing, this is the surface that is actuallyhellip;Evan: What width is this board?Doug: 28rdquo;.Evan: I...

[singlepic=1812,188,125] We hear from this two-part video a discussion between Jim of Tropical Blends Surf and a Pro Surfer about stand up paddles. They talk about the different aspects of the paddle -- from the grip to the blade -- and even the history and global influence put into the stand up paddle.I think the bottom line here is that stand up paddle surfing is still in its early stages and it's good that people are out to try new stuff for the sake of the development of the sport.(click thumbnail to launch video)[gallery=26]Jim: So itrsquo;s all good. Itrsquo;s all good stuff and I carry them all. And I try tohellip;Man: This stuff is impressive. Thatrsquo;s good forward-thought. I always believe in reducing the blade size. Because look at this, itrsquo;s way bigger than this still. You know what I mean? Look at this, itrsquo;s way bigger than this.Jim: And look at how efficient we are with just our hands. But now you do have a part of your forearm thatrsquo;s working too right. Thatrsquo;s exactly what the thought process was there. ldquo;Letrsquo;s stretch it out a little bit. Letrsquo;shellip;rdquo; I tried the Infinity one, the one that is upside down, and I like that one to a certain degree too. But I felt like I needed to be a little more consistent with what I get in the water.Man: Itrsquo;s weird, like, itrsquo;s all these paddle influences from different paddles around the world. Because if you look at Infinityrsquo;s paddle, thatrsquo;s like a very African river paddle.Jim: Itrsquo;s like thehellip;Man: The Amazon River paddle, thatrsquo;s what it is.Jim: Yeah, yeah. And when you look at it, itrsquo;s like a shape of a leaf, right? Itrsquo;s so cool. And you know, they have been paddling like that for forever. Tens of thousands of years.Man: And I think another thing with those things, the African river paddles, I think theyrsquo;re shaped like that too to push off the bottom, like, to (_____).Jim: That makes sense too, doesnrsquo;t it? Itrsquo;s just cool that there are that many different things. But anywayhellip;Evan Leong: What equipment are you riding now?Man: I ride Dave Parmeterrsquo;s shapes. C4 paddles, but I have been trying a bunch of different stuff, a bunch of different paddles. But Irsquo;ve always been riding Daversquo;s boards.Jim: Yeah, Dave is a really really talented guy ndash; very very talented guy.Man: Hersquo;s just my friend ndash; and like started with him and just keep on going. We have like, ldquo;Thatrsquo;s my crew.rdquo; And we have development coming there then we have all of our little brain tank then we go show up at places then we see what other people are doing and then we see what Dennis is doing, and then we see maybe when Leo comes over, see what his trip is. And now that there is more flair, there are more guys coming out of wood work too, different shapers taking all there own interpretations.Jim: I think thatrsquo;s the beauty of the sport right now too. Wersquo;re such in an infancy stages that wersquo;re just going through all these things. Take surfing back 50, 60 years thatrsquo;s where we are.Man: For sure. Thatrsquo;s why itrsquo;s so exciting. And itrsquo;s even way more adaptable than surfing because if you think about it, I surfed this morning on pure swell over shallow reef. And it was flat. It was like nothing. It was just like a bump but you could still do it. And then you get the whole downwind aspect, like once you get downwind stuff; you know you expand into downwind. Thatrsquo;s almost as fun as surfing if not more fun.Jim: I live in (____)hellip;Man: Yeah, you know the grounds are right out there.Jim: So I just go right out behind my house, about three times a week I paddle out to the (____). And everyone ask me, ldquo;Do you paddle back?rdquo; You got to be kidding me I paddle back.Man: You drive back. ...

[singlepic=1976,188,125] Here's a deal from Wet Feet...deck pad, fin, leash and $50 off a paddle for only $125. This is something worth considering especially for beginners.What's better is that the board can be customized through a wide choice of their deck pads, fins and leashes.(click thumbnail to launch video)[gallery=30]Wet Feet: Things that we really take pride is that we have what we call a value pack in the store for all of our stand up boards. You can either buy the boards as the board itself or we have a value pack where it includes deck pad, fin and leash and itrsquo;s only 125 dollars more for deck pad, fin, and leash ndash; and that is a 250 dollar value. So itrsquo;s kind of cool because when they buy the board they can pick whatever deck pad they want to customize it to their look. They can pick whatever fin they want from our huge fin selection. They can pick performance fin, classic fin, squirrel fin. So they can pick any fin that they want. They can pick their leash. We have your standard leashes and we also have these new, these are 12 and 14-foot coil leashes and itrsquo;s interesting because wersquo;re just giving these a try and theyrsquo;re stretched to 12 and 14 feet but they donrsquo;t have all the drag that a really long 12-foot leach would have. So these are kind of cool. Itrsquo;s a new thing that wersquo;re giving a whirl to. The other thing that we do to get your board customized is with the deck pad, you can pick any deck pad you want, Wet Feet. We got a lot of other deck pads and then we will custom cut out the deck pad so that you can select your kick pad and inset it.Evan: Do you have an example?Wet Feet: We have an example. Itrsquo;s not here. No, we donrsquo;t have an example. But it would be likehellip;Evan: I saw Dougrsquo;s one.Wet Feet: Yeah, like Dougrsquo;s would be the example. So we have a huge selection of deck pads that you can choose from. You can pick whatever deck pad that you want off the wall. Wersquo;ll inset that into your stand up deck pad so that that way you can customize it that way. Some of the other things, a lot of people, some of the boards are big and heavy or theyrsquo;ve got family, theyrsquo;ve got kids, we have these custom handles. Wersquo;re the only ones who carry these. These are custom made for us and we put these on your boards. So we got the handles that we put on to the boards. You donrsquo;t have to have handle holes in your boards. Some of the boards have already handle holes where you just screw this down. Thatrsquo;s cool. But we have these handle insets where you stick them on your board and then from there you can screw your handles on. So thatrsquo;s really cool. That has been a really popular ndash; people put them up on tops so their kids can hang on or they put them anywhere they want to tie stuff down for fishing, or for carrying their board wherever they case may be. The other thing we do, which is great, when you get a paddle, as part of our value package, you get deck pad, fin, leash for $125 plus we take 50 dollars off of a paddle ndash; the price of a paddle when you buy a paddle at the time you buy a board. And with the paddle, we have this paddle guard that we put on to protect your paddle and it also helps protect your board so that that way you donrsquo;t ding up your board. In addition to the paddle blade guard, we use a very thing, clear grip kind of a deck and what we use with this is two things; we use this either to put on your paddle as a paddle grip, which is nice because it is not fixed so it doesnrsquo;t undermine the dimension of your hold. Some paddle grips are a little bit thick so you donrsquo;t have. It gets a little too fit. But this, we put on, and its actually clear, and put it on as a paddle and what we also do is on the boards like this one for example, we put the clear protection on the side of the boards so you canrsquo;t see it, itrsquo;s ...

[singlepic=1802,188,125] We hear from this two-part video a discussion between Jim of Tropical Blends Surf and a Pro Surfer about stand up paddles. They talk about the different aspects of the paddle -- from the grip to the blade -- and even the history and global influence put into the stand up paddle.I think the bottom line here is that stand up paddle surfing is still in its early stages and it's good that people are out to try new stuff for the sake of the development of the sport.(click thumbnail to launch video)[gallery=26]Jim: You know what, off the top of my head I say 8rsquo;6rdquo; and 7rsquo;8rdquo; or something like that. Definitely smaller 80-pound, 90-pound kids. Thatrsquo;s sort of a result of many conversations and some experiments that wersquo;re doing.Man: I like the concept ndash; just how much pull you get just because you have long deeper blade so you can go deeper or just tap on the surface for shallow. Then you donrsquo;t get like yaw, you know what I mean, like for big blades. Unless you got a 14-foot, 15, 16-foot board, yoursquo;re just going to go across the channel then big blade is good, because all that rail, the board is just going straight anyway. But the shorter you get the more yaw you get and the less blade you can ndash; itrsquo;s weird huh? I think that has to do with how big this is. Like how much blade you got on there is dependent how big a board yoursquo;re riding here ndash; because for smaller boards you need smaller blades.Jim: Whatrsquo;s interesting about what yoursquo;re saying is, if you take a regular blade, letrsquo;s just look at our friends here for a second. If you look at where this is placed when you dig it in the water, right? Now I dig this through the water and I got all of my surface area basically at one place and if I want to take this a little, itrsquo;s very difficult just tohellip;Man: hellip;tap on top.Jim: hellip;just to get a little bit of this paddle especially when the board is like this. And as I was saying to these guys earlier, ldquo;How many times are you ever parallel to the water like you are in a canoe? Yoursquo;re always something, up, one way or the other.rdquo; You take this paddle and if you want half or you donrsquo;t need that much of a dig, you can take that much of a dig. You want the whole thing you got the whole thing.Man: The only good thing about like a shorter fuller paddle for different applications is as a cane, like Irsquo;m falling over, ldquo;Whoa!rdquo;, or Irsquo;m turning, ldquo;Whoa!rdquo;Jim: But you got the same area, almost the same if we were to measure the actual area of the paddle on that one, itrsquo;s almost the same. Wersquo;re actually going to do another one. The newest one I have coming take a quarter inch all the way up on this. Like I was saying to these guys earlier, Irsquo;ve got a customer who is helping me on this project. He is the director of hydrology at Pearl Harbor, so hersquo;s literally a rocket scientist for water.Man: Right, hydrodynamics, yeah.Jim: Yeah, and hersquo;s telling me that we have a direct relation to the efficiency of the paddle and ndash; X equals work, right? If we pull this stroke through, what is the efficient area of this to actually give us the work we want? So we both we went out and paddle a few times with this and we decided that this experiment is going to go with the next, a little bit smaller size.Man: Check it outhellip;Jim: Bigger shaft ndash; the shaft is too narrow.Man: And you know, itrsquo;s weird because wersquo;re so in like the development and like every season we lsquo;re going to keep on seeing new stuff thatrsquo;s why itrsquo;s exciting you know, because then you got the guys, the fans of Keo loa, and those guys like those paddles because the shaft is small. And then so some people go, ldquo;Oh, I can wrap my whole hand around it.rdquo; But then other people go, ldq...