What Stand Up Paddling brings to surfing.

By Stuart Murray

I used to call myself a surfer and to tell you the truth I was pretty happy with that. Living what I thought was the dream life by the beach. I grew up in a surfing backwater and left there to spend my years travelling the globe in search of the perfect wave.

We all stop somewhere and I settled down enough to carve out a career as a surf coach. I had also grown enough to appreciate the waves that rolled up to my local beach. I did not feel the need to complain too much about the flat spells, the tough conditions or gripe about the crowds. I had learnt the ways of getting a few waves on busy days and how to get one in an onshore.

I noticed though that for many around me the joy was gone. Many
came from habit as at least a salt water anaesthetic would numb
the madness of their busy life, blunt the knife edge of the city and
silence the deafening roar of their own negative thinking. They
surfed but the joy was gone.

As a 12 year old I watched a TV show about brave men zig zagging
down large waves in Hawaii with the names like Larry Blair and I
was filled with awe. Scouring surf mags fuelled my passions and
after I bought my first car the travel bug was set. The mags themes
looking back now seemed to revolve around the search for the
perfect wave, sex and improving performance.

Surf coaching has taught me so much. I notice more those in the
surf who were not so skilled or confident and those intimidated by
the bustle of the crowd. In contrast each winter I would watch a
lady of 60 years plus walk into the water every day in a bathing suit
and swimming cap and body surf a few waves on her own and think
that she was the true surfer. One year she did not come back and I
wonder what happened to her. Other times I would take the time to
give a tip to those struggling or suggest a safer area for those new
surfers lost in the arts of the rip while trying to not interfere. Slowly
for me the joy was coming back...

One day I was injured and as a couple of mates surfed I patched
together a driftwood shack on the beach for relief from the sun.
From my humble shelter I watched with wide eyes two people
paddle around the headland while standing on boards. I had never
seen such a thing and they paddled into wave after wave and my
life changed forever.

Trying this new sport I became a complete beginner and was nicely
humbled. Ask Laird Hamilton and Kelly Slater about their first days
and they will relay a similar story. I persisted and soon enjoyed the
freedom of hidden gems. Waves never surfed before, uncrowded
waves, true surfing camaraderie and a new label for myself. I had
been working on the classic waterman skills of swimming surfing
and paddling and with this came a new set of values.

I now class myself as a waterman with the values of the simple joy
of sharing the ocean and respect for the community and
environment. Waterman to me is an attitude not a measurement of
skill.

Our labels, surfer, longboarder, windsurfer, grommet, old man,
chick, surfski, body boarder, clubby etc have been too long used to
divide us. They are not ok when used as weapons to divide. A
long boarder who said to me as I paddled past his peak "your not
going to surf here on that are you?" conceded I had a valid point
when I replied "It's not the equipment that's the problem it's the
user."

Our kids watch us and our discrimination or joy becomes their
habit. A new generation of Stand Up Paddle kids will grow up with a
cracker set of values from the waterman ethos. Stand up Paddle
offers surfing the gift of reminding us of a cracker set of values.
Values of the ocean we share and the people we share it with. The
simple joy of sharing the ocean and respect for the community and
environment.

The gift is now on offer to the surfing world.

I use this as a loud opportunity to state to all all Stand Up Paddlers
to not use Sup as a way to get one over another.
My snapshot of Sup etiquette rules is summed up here.
Some of the gifts of sup are learn to let some go, smile and hoot
for others, call the sets, surf the crappy uncrowded wave, explore
the empty wave round the corner, surf to your skill, watch the sky
and read the ocean and leave the surf a better place than when you
entered it.

Brian Keaulana reckons it's the Indian not the arrow and I reckon
we can all check ourselves next time we surf and that's a gift to a
sport screaming for air and a timely call back to the simple joy of
sharing the ocean.

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