Stand-up Paddle Surfing – Duke Kahanamoku Ocean Fest, Hawaii, Waikiki
The Ladies Surf in Style in this year’s Duke Kahanamoku OceanFest Stand-Up Paddle Surfing held August 22nd and 23rd at Queens surf spot in Waikiki.
C4 Waterman, Honolua Surf and Blue Planet hosted the Stand-Up events for the men, children (juniors) and women.
The sport has grown leaps and bounds. This year’s event had 80 SUP surfers.
“I’m not surprised at all, to be honest” said Todd Bradley, one of the founders of the C4 Waterman company. “From the start, everybody we turned on to the sport got hooked. So to see all these kids and women and new-comers to the sport … I think its just the beginning.”
Stand-Up Paddle Surfing- also known as SUP is the latest and fastest growing ocean sport. It combines the basic elements of two ocean sports canoe paddling and long-board surfing.
Women surf the SUP with style
In 2007 C4 Waterman’s first year hosting an open SUP event and only one women who surfed along side the men was Maui’s Tiare Lawrence. Ms. Lawrence was of the first female to try SUP surfing. Ms. Lawrence as an outrigger canoe paddler and, short boarder, and Tiare was hand picked as the first top acrobatic performer in the Hawaiian version of Cirque de Soleil at the Ulalena Theatre. When I first saw her surf her C4 SUP surfing in big waves at Makaha, I was like whoa! I had ridden big waves for years, but this was a new angle of riding waves and Tiare was charging full on with a classic style in big waves with the boys.
Ms. Lawrence said “The fitness aspect is so rewarding.” When you go surfing you are lying down most of the time, so you work two times more muscles than surfing when you are doing SUP.”
