S T A N D I N G W a V e s
Corran addison stands tall.
photo: courtesy imaGine surFboards
anotHer Man standing
“Whitewater SUP is not the bulk of the market,”
Gavere allows, “but it does represent an exciting
element.”
Even paddlers with modest abilities can ride a
SUP board on small surfing waves too slow for
most freestyle boats. Many of the river skills de-
BORED BOATERS STAND UP AND PADDLE ON BOARDS veloped from kayaking or canoeing are transfer-
able, but once on a wave the speed and carving
THE SIGHT OF SOME DUDE wearing body ar- Paddles develop their SUP paddle line, won the
advantage over a whitewater boat yields a com-
mour and wielding a long, single bladed paddle event and has been pushing the limits of whitewa-
pletely different ride.
while standing on a modified surfboard may seem ter SUP since he first tried it in 2006.
Beyond park-and-play, the downriver element
wildly out of place on a river, but it’s a scene that Gavere sees parallels between the nascent
of SUP is beginning to blossom as well. A hand-
is becoming increasingly familiar on inland water- SUP boom and the early days of whitewater
ful of new 2010 models will substantially increase
ways across North America. kayaking. “Currently we’re in the Dancer days of
river running options.
Stand Up Paddling (SUP) has been a fringe el- whitewater SUP and maybe the RPM days of surf
If catching eddies in a Dancer seems like the
ement of ocean surfing since its early days in the SUP. My analogy for its potential is that SUP is to
dark ages, then river SUP clearly has some grow-
1960s, when instructors and photographers used kayaking what snowboarding is skiing.”
ing pains ahead. But with the greater weight of
paddles to move around quickly on longboards. Indeed, SUP is the fastest growing niche of
the surfing industry behind it, expect SUP design
Over the past decade, Laird Hamilton—widely re- the paddlesports industry. According to Werner
technology to grow at a much more accelerated
garded as the all-time best big wave surfer—has Paddles’ sales manager, Doug Ragan, SUP pad-
rate than that of kayaking.
popularized the sport by riding massive waves at dle sales experienced triple digit growth in 2009.
“It’s fun to be on the leading edge of a new,
legendary breaks like Jaws and Teahupo’o on a Board manufacturer Surftech’s marketing direc-
growing sport again,” Addison summarizes,
SUP board. tor, Duke Brouwer, put the number of SUP boards
“trying to see what the limits are—in skills and
More recently, SUP has gained popularity with sold last year at well over 10,000.
equipment.” —Mark Scriver
everyone from wind-skunked kiteboarders and fit-
ness-focused hard bodies to veteran whitewater
kayakers. The diversity of environments and users
R E S C U E 4 1 1
is giving rise to a wide variety of designs, includ-
ing—in just the past couple of years—whitewater
park-and-play and river running boards.
beat the odds—learn the dynamic Hold
For long-time whitewater boaters like Dan Ga- As a whitewater rescue instructor, I see a lot of poor throw bag
vere, Corran Addison, Jimmy Blakeney and Jay technique. I can’t believe some people still try to hold the rope
Kincaid—some of river SUP’s leading innovators statically when tossing a throw bag to a swimmer. If you try to
and athletes—the lure of running rivers on two feet hold the rope like this, using only your arm strength, either you
is in the fresh challenge of learning a new skill set. or the swimmer will likely let go of the rope. Only about 50 per
“SUP has made river running fun again,” says Ad- cent of the time can you bring someone to shore in a class II
dison, owner of Imagine Surfboards and Surf School rapid using this technique; in a high volume class III your odds
in Montreal. “I reached a point where the only way drop precipitously.
to be challenged on whitewater was to be in mortal The best way to use your 65-foot throw bag is to leave about
danger all the time, and that gets old. What SUP has 15 feet of rope “tail” on the ground and throw the other 50 feet
done is make easy rivers a real challenge.” to the swimmer. This allows you to hold the rope dynamically,
Addison isn’t alone in his sentiments. The in- avoiding a sudden jerking stop. When the swimmer grabs
photo
augural Whitewater Stand Up Paddling National the rope, pull it tight, then let some of it go, pull it tight again,
: Vir
Championships, held last May on the snowmelt- let some go and so on. Avoid painful rope burns by allowing
G
swollen Colorado River in Glenwood Springs, the rope to pass freely through your hands when letting it out.
inia
Colorado, attracted over 20 elite competitors Let out about two feet of rope between each time you grab it
m
arshall
from across the U.S., many of them professional tight—the stronger the current, the more rope “tail” you should
kayakers or surfers. Dan Gavere, a world-class allow for the dynamic stop. —Eric Leclair
freestyle and creek boater who helped Werner
1 Rapid spring 2010
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