Not many new sports are invented these days. Only variants are left. Even many of the ones that emerged in modern times were only updated copies of ancient, historical ones. Almost all of them came from the need, the movement, and ended up in the great spectrum ranging from the playful to the most professional, between purity and health until the trap or even tragedy.
Plenty of modalities are simply adapted. It’s the case of paddleboarding or paddle standing up, with a long blade in a board somewhat bigger than the one used for surfing. Hence its acronym, SUP, or Stand Up Paddleboarding. In Hawaii, where it started, and the rest of America, it is ahead by many years already.
And, in recent summers, celebrities have dedicated themselves to put it in fashion. Leonardo diCaprio and his then girlfriend, Bar Refaeli, popularized it a few years ago. Now, Eva Longoria and Ben Stiller are big fans of it. The famous country singer Taylor Swift has also joined, and she has been practicing the sport -in quite an expert way- in Rhode Island.
Plenty of modalities are simply adapted. It’s the case of paddleboarding or paddle standing up, with a long blade in a board somewhat bigger than the one used for surfing. Hence its acronym, SUP, or Stand Up Paddleboarding. In Hawaii, where it started, and the rest of America, it is ahead by many years already.
And, in recent summers, celebrities have dedicated themselves to put it in fashion. Leonardo diCaprio and his then girlfriend, Bar Refaeli, popularized it a few years ago. Now, Eva Longoria and Ben Stiller are big fans of it. The famous country singer Taylor Swift has also joined, and she has been practicing the sport -in quite an expert way- in Rhode Island.
Image courtesy of BKL at Flickr.com
Rugby was born in the English town of the same name when the theology student William Webb Ellis, during a football game, picked up the ball with his hands in an unusual impulse and ran to the opposite goal instead of kicking it with his feet. It cannot be said that paddleboarding had a particular pioneer, but it may have very well been Duke Kahanamoku, the legendary Olympic swimming champion and modern founder of the ancestral Polynesian surf in the early twentieth century. He was quite old when the Beach Boys -not the singers, but the instructors in the famous Waikiki Beach- used oars to move and stood up to better see the arrival of the waves. Some continued this as an exercise and others as a way of training on the days with no waves. A Californian, Thomas Edward Blake, can be credited with the construction and development of the first ad hoc boards.
Paddleboarding can be practiced in difficult sea conditions, with waves, but it wasn't born for that purpose. The initial balance to stay upright on the board already requires effort and skill, but many exceed it. Staying for a long time in that position is not exactly the same as rowing or paddling in a canoe. In all Polynesian or Asian dugout canoes, many as catamarans, paddling is done with on one hand, but sitting down.
The great success of paddleboarding is its simplicity. It is almost a way of walking on water. The ability to sit or lie down to rest is always there, but the key is finding the right days of water and wind to not turn -as it often happens in many water sports- pleasure into horror. The advice of not going alone to prevent any mishap is obligatory.
This type of surf began as a companion, without any competitive vocation, but it was inevitable that all kinds of championships were created in different water conditions, or personal challenges over distances.
Paddleboarding can be practiced in difficult sea conditions, with waves, but it wasn't born for that purpose. The initial balance to stay upright on the board already requires effort and skill, but many exceed it. Staying for a long time in that position is not exactly the same as rowing or paddling in a canoe. In all Polynesian or Asian dugout canoes, many as catamarans, paddling is done with on one hand, but sitting down.
The great success of paddleboarding is its simplicity. It is almost a way of walking on water. The ability to sit or lie down to rest is always there, but the key is finding the right days of water and wind to not turn -as it often happens in many water sports- pleasure into horror. The advice of not going alone to prevent any mishap is obligatory.
This type of surf began as a companion, without any competitive vocation, but it was inevitable that all kinds of championships were created in different water conditions, or personal challenges over distances.
Image courtesy of Son of Groucho at Flickr.com
In Hawaii, competitions have been held for many years between the different islands. And there are always records, like the one imposed by Benjamin Friberg by sailing for 28 hours between the Hemingway Marina in Havana to Key West. Friberg, a jazz musician and lover of extreme sports, had made long trips by the Canadian Pacific coast, but in Cuba, accustomed to the trips of boat people in the weirdest gadgets, they had never seen anything like it. Even the professional swimmers who have tried it have failed. But they, as Friberg, were accompanied by support vessels. Very different from the rafters.
Paddleboarding can also find its precursors in reed horses, boats made out of reeds, typical of the Peruvian coast, and also Bolivian lakes like the Titicaca, where the Indians, for 3,000 years, have been rowing on their knees or sitting down. But rarely standing up. With rudders as oars, no less great effort between rapids and rocks. Polynesia in the Pyrenees. They stood with great effort on rafts formed with the same logs that they transported downstream to the sawmills. It was the best choice to take until the dam construction prevented it and road transport began.
The rafts or rays -due to the speed that they could achieve- were the old boards of that old form of paddleboarding. Just like the modern-day rafting, but standing up, there’s the big difference. Now the tradition continues at parties. It has not been entirely lost. The former Spanish minister Josep Borrell became a protagonist of the sport at the time. These are different times indeed. Most celebrities of the moment, from artists to athletes, and many occasional fans, don't know they are the rafters of modernity.
Paddleboarding can also find its precursors in reed horses, boats made out of reeds, typical of the Peruvian coast, and also Bolivian lakes like the Titicaca, where the Indians, for 3,000 years, have been rowing on their knees or sitting down. But rarely standing up. With rudders as oars, no less great effort between rapids and rocks. Polynesia in the Pyrenees. They stood with great effort on rafts formed with the same logs that they transported downstream to the sawmills. It was the best choice to take until the dam construction prevented it and road transport began.
The rafts or rays -due to the speed that they could achieve- were the old boards of that old form of paddleboarding. Just like the modern-day rafting, but standing up, there’s the big difference. Now the tradition continues at parties. It has not been entirely lost. The former Spanish minister Josep Borrell became a protagonist of the sport at the time. These are different times indeed. Most celebrities of the moment, from artists to athletes, and many occasional fans, don't know they are the rafters of modernity.