There must be something in the water at the moment, everyone seems to be breaking up. It's most likely due to the upcoming northern hemisphere summer, but never has there been so many team changes just after xmas! 

The changes aren't so much in Stand up paddle - the kite boarders are going nuts with world champions jumping ship all over the place. But this week one of the biggest names in Stand up paddle has decided to leave his close relationship (not that close, geez!) with Naish SUP.

Dave Kalama, who is probably the most respected paddler in the stand up paddling community, has this week released a short blog article explaining the split from Naish. Until then, many in the community didn't believe the press releases and labelled the reports as pure gossip. Here's what Dave had to say about the split however: 

"Like any relationship not everything was perfect, it doesn’t necessarily mean one or the other is at fault but rather an evolution of different paths. The Naish company path is naturally driven by corporate responsibilities. My path is driven by personal goals, the challenges of the lifestyle I follow, and creative freedom. Robby runs his company very efficiently, and like any good, strong leader it goes his way, and that’s as it should be. It is his company, he has taken all the risk and made all the decisions that go along with being successful. But unfortunately for me that meant more and more that there wasn’t much room to make my imprint on the company. At the end of my contract I had to make the difficult decision to renew and carry on with the status quo or do something different."

For some, this bombshell could mean the end of a long history buying Naish boards. Unfortunately for Naish they've had someone of a shocker year in 2012; first with the death of their only shaper Harold Iggy, and now the loss of their leading team rider.

Check out the full story in Dave Kalama's blog here, and read the community response in the forums. 

#News #StandUpPaddle #Naish #Paddling