Darkstar: SUP Session

So what do I do on the weekends to get away from the office?

Went out for a fun session yesterday with Hampig. Beautiful blue skies, clear water and just a slight sideshore breeze. We paddled down from Kaimana beach across to pops and then back along the shore. I tried to snag a wave at Canoe's but waaay too many people all over the place. I went over to Queens and quickly hopped onto a wave no one wanted. Caught a nice right, and with the paddle was able to get ahead of the section and zip along the reform inside. I realized I needed to wax the nose of my board as I tried to cross step for a hang five. We then hugged the shoreline to get out of the headwind and caught another wave at Publics. I tried to get Hampig to come out to Old Man's with me, but a decent set sent her back into the channel for turning practice. I caught a couple of waves before my feet started to cramp up. All in all, another fantastic day in the water. Saw several other SUP boards launching when we left. They are going to need traffic control soon with all these boards around ;)

Stand up paddle surfing is an aspect of surfing that has seen a recent resurgence in the Hawaiian Islands. For those that are not familiar with the sport, it entails standing on a large longboard and propelling yourself with essentially a canoe paddle. It is a sport practiced at one time by the beach boys of Waikiki with roots that likely trace back even further. Recently, it has been picked up by watermen as an alternative way to ride surf and as a means of staying in shape. The level of surfing on stand up paddle boards has sky rocketed in the last few years with feats such as Archie Kalepa's crossing between Molokai and Oahu and Laird Hamilton's recent foray out at Jaws on a stand up paddle board.