Sup surfing can be traced back to the hawaiian beach boy culture. Until the middle of the twentieth century, local beach boys would standup paddle out, at waikiki beach – cameras slung around their necks – to take pictures of tourists, on outrigger canoe excursions. From the mid-1900s, however, interest in standup paddling began to wane, almost to the point of extinction.
The trend finally reversed around the turn of the 21st century, when a highly influential group of hawaiian watermen – most notably laird hamilton – “revisited” standup, as a flat-water way of keeping fit. These watermen soon realised, however, that standup paddling offered an incredible amount of potential – both as a promotor of core-fitness, and as an alternative way of enjoying the surf.
With such a notable stamp of approval on the activity, standup soon began to be taken seriously, as the surfing community began to wake up to what is now considered to be the fastest growing watersport in the world.
