I feel like there are no heroes in SUP anymore.
im talking Australia here.
my notable heroes are Roger Saunders aka dog man, Jackson Close, Marty Cole to name a few.
i really love that they had a rebellion to them, there style was there own, almost a punk like stick it to the man ethos. What happened? Where are these characters?
To me, these characters defined "**** you".
sup has become too shiny and squeaky clean, where are these characters mongrels amongst the pack?

I guess they are foiling now :-)

Nah, I reckon it's just that SUP is super lame now.
too many retirees taking over the sport with absolute zero skills. I get it though, and it's good to see older crew enjoying the ocean. But personally I'm 42 and not 65
the only inspiration I get now is from the SUP dads crew
even the young sponsored crew are lame and have no heart, dropping like flies.
Exactly leading to my point there is no one exciting in SUP atm.
foiling is foiling, foiling is dope I love foiling but nothing beats stand up paddle in my opinion.
where are all the mad dogs in SUP?
not old dogs

When compared to other surf sports, the very nature of sup is just more lame. Big boards are inherently less manoeuvrable and more cruisie.
Not saying there's not benefits and a lot of fun for sups, but as a viewer, you don't get excited watching suppers riding at your nearest beach.
A bit like watching your average mal or glider rider.
( i know there are exceptions)

Actually, there are a lot of young radical SUP riders, but mostly from latin america.See the latest ISA full-length vids (aka Webcasts):

The full-length vids are VERY interesting to see how they paddle, manage the rips, position for the wave...

E.g:

My post is more so to the real raw characters in stand up paddle boarding. I couldn't care too much if you shred it not, where's the big personalities?
I just think it's something that is missing in today's sup scape.

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waihibeachsup said..
Nah, I reckon it's just that SUP is super lame now.
too many retirees taking over the sport with absolute zero skills. I get it though, and it's good to see older crew enjoying the ocean. But personally I'm 42 and not 65
the only inspiration I get now is from the SUP dads crew
even the young sponsored crew are lame and have no heart, dropping like flies.
Exactly leading to my point there is no one exciting in SUP atm.
foiling is foiling, foiling is dope I love foiling but nothing beats stand up paddle in my opinion.
where are all the mad dogs in SUP?
not old dogs

Well . As an 'old dog'.with not great skills who is still in great shape and keen to improve I was looking at your posts with interest.( As in coaching.)
Would hate my age to disappoint you. As an old dog I'll go elsewhere.

Sup is dead has been dying for a number of years all those guys you are referring too moved onto foiling years ago.

I'm glad the sport is smaller and less hyped, I remember as a surfer the feeling of invasion and attitude didn't go down too well combined with tons of inexperienced people jumping in. Still plenty of people contests and manufacturers. Leave the BS and personalities to surfing.

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waihibeachsup said..
My post is more so to the real raw characters in stand up paddle boarding. I couldn't care too much if you shred it not, where's the big personalities?
I just think it's something that is missing in today's sup scape.

Dogman is on instagram: www.instagram.com/dogman.1/?hl=en
These days, growing tomatoes, playing music, surfing and SUPing with his family...

He says in: www.instagram.com/p/Cbi8CO2B9Nk/?

I suffered some good injuries a few years back, which kinda kept me high n dry from sup surfing and kitesurfing for a long time. . ouch!!! Off the back of that I then tragically lost a young buddy of mine to a horrific shark attack at our local beach. That incident "TOTALLY" crushed my mojo for any kind of water sports activity. (Dark times for myself and everyone around my bubble)
Then fwarking COVID hit.. another kick in the nuts!!! Luckily for my sanity or more to the point my somewhat high level of insanity (whichever way you wanna look at it)?

Well said slsurf! SUP surfing is the most fun I ever had surfing (prone surfer for 30 plus years). Smile on my face ear to ear...... I don't want anyone else to do it.

Kai says it best:
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Thank god all the sup wankers have gone when sup first started all the guys with all the gear fked it up real fast sups where hated for a very good reason RIP sup

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Macaha said..
Thank god all the sup wankers have gone when sup first started all the guys with all the gear fked it up real fast sups where hated for a very good reason RIP sup

You're On track there, but also isn't that exactly what mals did for surfing when they made a comeback years ago? :)

Just a 77 year old dog retiree SUP wanker here with zero skills, wandering around the lineup looking to ruin someone day
Sheeesh... and I thought SUP was fun... little did I know

Be your own hero.

Hey Macaha there's a lot of negative sup hate in ur posts here, if not hate it's in that ballpark. It's an open forum and everyone's welcome to comment but your comments aren't relevant to the thread and more like you wanna have a bitch and lash out at sups.
This forum is and has always been an amazing melting pot of surfers who are stoked on sup surfing and even where there's disagreements it's done in a respectful and considered communication, not disimilar to the seabreeze longboard thread you regularly contribute to.
I wasn't going to respond to your bull** not only because you got owned by Rick's response but at the risk of it becoming that imbecilic tit for tat crap that just doesn't exist with these sea breezer supsurfers. What changed my mind is that the current topic on the seabreeze longboard thread is about you folks checking in on each other's mental health, which is bloody fantastic and commendable-good onya's. There's an irony in a longboarder lashing out at supsurfers when they too have tasted the ostracizing hate at times.
Anyway here's one of your posts from the mental health thread;

Macaha wrote:
Ok guys, I've been guilty of overthinking life in general, weather in sitting on the lounge, driving around or at work my mind mostly hits a negative spot, so then I think I've got to focus on the positive things in life. I'm always thinking man you should do this do that. I decided I needed to fill in my time. I finish work early everyday around 1.30 pm go home and find things to do in the garden however haven't downsized it's a small garden and lawn. So my list was to join the Burleigh longboard club (done) rejoin a gym, not there yet but did do tour of one close to home. Next is to get a new job because mine is so boring. Then I purchased season tickets for the football went last night titans got the win, was invited up to Suncorp Stadium Friday night to watch my favourite team the Broncos also got the win, this after I'll be going to the Burleigh Bears 5 min walk so that's 3 game in one weekend. So what I'm doing is filling up my life with the things I enjoy. Oh and yes many drink to bandaid hurt pain and suffering I do that but at the end of the day it's a bandaid which doesn't help longtime healing

Just read over your posts on that thread and reflect on your words and thoughts. I(f you want to enter the world of tit for tat spiteful comments I'll just post more of your comments back at you for you to reflect on. Drop the hate and if you don't have anything good to say then don't say it. We're all surfers who love the ocean. Peace and best of luck with your healing.

Hey mate super nice to call me out and to copy a post which I shared elsewhere you can continue to do so as you threatened to do so , I don't take threats lightly so fire away. Poor form BTY. I was involved in sup from the beginning I supported the retailers from the get go some are still friends they knew my posts were tongue in cheek we still laugh about it years later. I know most of these sup hero's and they are great people with talent. When sup started, people would buy a board and paddle without any surf knowledge and really screwed it up from the start, hence me giving those people stick and rightly so. FYI macaha is my second login the smart arse one. If you were around in this forum you would know that. BUT get real sup is dead, foil took over.

I have been sup surfing from the start of the sport in AUS and from my perspective things are better now for sup surfers than they were at the height of the sport, granted there are not many big personalities in sup now, but it sure is fun doing it.
There are so few sup surfers and foiling has become the focus of the negative energy from the short board crew.
No one cares about the random sup surfer anymore; you can just kind of be in the background catching heaps of waves while staying out of people's way and you will be fine; people actually hoot you if you do something that is impressive.
I'm also very grateful for the health aspects of the sport, you get such a balanced workout sup surfing especially if you do a bit of lay down paddling while you're out there.
When I go surfing on my shortboard I get a sore neck, shoulders and ribs. Sup gives me none of that.
So stoked that I found this sport, I'm going to do it till I simply can't get on a board anymore.

I thought a controversial post would get a bit of a thread rolling here. Thanks for everyone's input.
I'm the first to admit I have my head up my arse at times, call it arrogance call it passion, I call it both.
at 42 and been sup surfing for 17 years now I've seen the landscape change a lot.
people who thought they could make $$$$ out of SUP when it was hyped as fook, come and go.
cool to see people who have been here from the start still here with zero ego still representing.
heaps of young crew jump from board sponsor to board sponsor no longer to be seen.
I just started my sup and kayak business I've had a few first time sup paddlers this week.
feel like it's given me a different perspective on stand up paddling. Definitely still throthing like I was 17 years ago.

"Be your own hero" the inspiration behind 2026 ??