SUP – Stand Up Paddling

Getting started with SUP

Stand Up Paddling is one of the most versatile water sports currently available. You have certainly noticed the steadily growing number of enthusiastic Stand Up paddlers over the last few years. There is a reason for this. Paddling while standing engages nearly your entire musculoskeletal system within your body. Depending on the intensity, you can either do this sport at a leisurely pace, like a walk on the water, or as an ambitious full-body workout. The whole thing can be stepped up to a high-performance sport by competing with other paddlers. However, you choose to practice Stand Up Paddling, you will be making a valuable contribution to your own physical fitness and training your coordination, balance and agility.

The history of Stand Up Paddling

Stand Up Paddling has only been known in Germany for a few years. This water sport can look back on a long history. According to current knowledge, the origins of Stand Up Paddling can be traced back to the Pacific region. Probably the oldest tradition that has been passed down and is still practiced today comes from the Peruvian Moche culture (1st to 8th century), in which fishermen paddled out to sea standing up in sickle-shaped reed boats, the so-called “Caballitos de Totora“. Another origin can be found in Polynesia, where the traditional “Ku Hoe He’e Nalu”, which also dates back several centuries, was practiced. Translated from Hawaiian, it means something like “to stand, to paddle, to surf a wave”. The British navigator James Cook observed this early form of Stand Up Paddling off Tahiti in 1769.

In the fifties of the twentieth century, Waikiki surf instructors initially used large tandem surfboards in order to have a better view of their surf students and the incoming waves from a standing position. Stand Up Paddling was commercialized in the early 2000s. Surf legends like Robby Naish and Laird Hamilton were the ones who gave Stand Up Paddling a sporty touch, from which numerous disciplines have emerged to this day. Stand Up Paddling came to Europe as a new trend sport around 2005. See here for more on Surfing – the story.

Forms of Stand Up Paddling

Since the early 2000s, numerous disciplines have developed from the original form of Stand Up Paddling. The most commonly practiced form of Stand Up Paddling is Touring Paddling, where you paddle at a more or less sporty pace along predetermined routes on the water or simply discover the world from the water by paddling.
You can ride all kinds and shapes of water waves with the SUP board on wavy waters. In addition to classic surfing on ocean swells or wind waves at sea, there are many other ways you can harness the power of waves for water travel.
Stand Up Paddling also works in whitewater. Similar to whitewater canoeing, you can also practice this type of locomotion, standing up and paddle the same disciplines as while sitting. Or you can simply enjoy a sporty tour downstream.
If you like it fast, you’re in good hands with the SUP racers. Here you can compete against other SUP racers in the Sprint, Technical Race and Longdistance disciplines.
SUP Foiling is rather special and very challenging, where you can use a hydrofoil construction under your board that lifts you and your board out of the water at a certain speed.
If you prefer a more relaxed approach, you should definitely give SUP Yoga a try. In theory, you can practise everything on the board that you know from the Yoga mat.
If you think that Stand Up Paddling is an individual sport, then you’ve probably never heard of SUP Polo or SUP Frisbee.

What can you expect here?

I would like to delve deeper into SUP-related topics for you to get you even more interested in this sport. I will help you to find your way around the wide-ranging world of Stand Up Paddling. I will go into more detail about the individual forms of Stand Up Paddling, will also go into more detail about the different types of boards and will share my personal experience of Stand Up Paddling.

Your Timmi!