We offer you a few more choices in standup paddle board selection since the days way back in 2006, when we offered you the world’s first production epoxy molded SUP’s in two sizes and two colors…
The 2010 Naish SUP line has expanded to 21 boards…and the Starboard line in 2010 will be at least 27 wide…with 4 construction choices…
We are starting to see lots of “paralysis by analysis” when it comes to selecting a standup paddle board for you or your family…we are the experts in this field and WE’RE HERE TO HELP!!!
We’re the #1 standup paddle board store in the country…our expert staff makes it easy for you…when you are ready to purchase a SUP, you’re gonna have to trust someone…fact is, thousands of folks have trusted us to help them…we have a proven track record of over 10 years of providing great customer service…
Simply call us toll free 888.805.9978 or email i n f o @ s u r f i n g s p o r t s . c o m…there’s a link at the bottom of every page on our site…you’re welcome to come visit our shop if you can get to beautiful Santa Barbara…we’re open every day 10 – 5 PDT…we’ll get your SUP buying decision sorted out for you in no time…then you’ll be smiling for miles…just like these happy customers…
We have the best selection…best value…and the bestest and most knowledgeable service of standup paddle boards and paddles on the planet…we’ve shipped SUP’s to all 50 states in the country…our shipping experts are the best in the business…
We have a real store staffed by standup paddlers…we host free demos, offer lessons, host standup paddle races, and are involved in the community…
Please remember that you get what you pay for…don’t fall for the newest scourge that we’ve seen lately of the dozens of cheesy SUP websites popping up with no storefronts shilling cheap SUP knockoffs…boards are not created equal…construction technology does matter…
The Exocet Commando was ahead of it’s time…this is the copy I wrote for it when we got them in 2003…9’10″ x 36″…it had a fin in the back and middle of the board, that you could put in or pull out from the deck of the board…
“An extraordinary design concept that Exocet has busted out is the Commando. This unique watercraft is not only a two-person kayak, but also an all-around cruising style windsurfer. The built-in integrated wheel makes this a totally user-friendly, “must-have” essential addition to your quiver of watertoys. The whole family can use this multipurpose craft…you can teach on it, explore and tour, access remote areas and hard to get to windlines…fishing…standup photo platform…lash a sailrig and/or surfboard to the nose and paddle into some remote areas…surf and/or fish, then sail home…what are you going to do with it?”(MSRP $699 USD)
I used it with a converted kayak paddle to take pictures of windsurfing on the water, standing up…and, for standup fishing…
Zoom ahead to 2005 and Exocet launched the Kona line of longboard windsurfers… At 11’6″ x 27″, the Kona also did double duty for numbers of people as their first SUP…
Here is a guy (Gustav) that we sent a paddle to on the West coast of Sweden for his Kona…he became the first standup paddle surfer in Sweden…
we also shipped the first SUP paddles to Germany, Austria, Norway, Canada, Italy, New Zealand, and Australia…etc…in the early days…
In 2005/2006 the custom SUP market started to develop as those shapers with skill sets that could deal with shaping/glassing large tandem Clark blanks, or hot wiring a SUP blank from a billet of EPS foam got production rolling…
We could only get around 27″ out of a Clark tandem blank…pretty narrow in choppy conditions…the sport was called standup/falloff back then…;-)
I should also mention that we used surf wax for traction…
We flew Sean Ordonez over from Maui to build some homegrown SUP’s…
Deb in Spring of ’06 on her 2nd custom Sean Ordonez SUP…the first person to standup paddle on Lake Lopez…a real SUP pioneer…also, from what we can figure, she is very likely the first woman to standup paddle in California back in 2005…most likely the first in North or South America…we’ve crowned her our “First Lady of SUP”…;-)
Also, Lake Nacimiento…images from February of 2006 on a prototype 10’11″ “Stand Up Paddle”…waaaayyy back in the day before it became SUP…;-)
All of our early custom SUP’s did double duty as light air windsurfers…
The early days…it was fun pioneering…lots of firsts…
Early halcyon days of SUP on the Sean Ordonez “Big Red” prototype…it was blue…then became Big Red…;-)
Wardog, among the first to take the drop at this Central Cali Coast spot on the original “Big Red”…another first for the history books…;-)
Sean Ordonez during a visit to Santa Barbara…getting ready to paddle the prototype for “Big Blue”…
Prototypes of the Sean Ordonez “Big Red” and “Big Blue”…which were to become the first molded sandwich epoxy production SUP’s in the world…notice the double leash plugs…we were the first to establish these for standup boards because I had them installed on all of my big wave guns for survival in case of a leash break…I used 2 leashes at certain NorCal spots…
Our first container samples of the production Big Red and Big Blue SUP’s…
This was the first SUP for many standup paddlers…we shipped them all across North America and Puerto Rico…even, to all of the Hawaiian Islands…
We smile when we see chucklehead bloggers and other new SUP board companies sending us solicitations to buy ad space or boards and accessories…etc…claiming to be OG when they learned on one of our boards…or, one of the many that came long after…and, didn’t even realize that they were soliciting a pioneer of the sport on the mainland…;-)
There was no “paralysis by analysis” back in the day…picking a SUP was quite a bit easier…you were on a waiting list for container arrival…and, you had your choice of a 10’10″ blue one or an 11’11″ red one…our first logo die-cut SUP pads arrived shortly afterwards…as well as bags big enough to fit these SUP’s…
Deb shown with the carbon Pohaku standup paddles (later name change to C4)…we were a “master distributor” of these “high tech” standup paddles…the first retailer in California with stock to sell…sold like hotcakes by default…
After selling through several containers of the SOS SUP’s…we went on to open the first fully dedicated SUP store on the North and South American continents…that was thousands of SUP’s ago…with many more to come…
We had some killer weather and ocean conditions for the Santa Barbara Naish Summer SUP Race Series finale…
Top California standup paddle racers Ernie (EJ) Johnson, and his wife Andie, drove up from Dana Pt. to give the locals a run for their money last Thursday…
Here’s Rich Schroeder discussing the course with Bryan Fernandez, EJ, & Andie…
This stage of the fun standup paddle racing series may have come to an end…but, as a result of the standup paddling camaraderie experienced the last 4 Thursday afternoons at 6:00 PM, we’ve decided to continue to meetup for a social paddle…same time…same channel…come join us…paddle whatever you bring…of course we’ll have some state of the art race and distance boards for interested parties to demo…
All participants received an inaugural Leadbetter Beach Paddling Club t-shirt…
The top three male and female finishers now go on to compete with racers from 12 cities across North America for the Championship race in San Diego, CA on September 13th, 2009…they’ll have a chance to win a Naish 14′ Glide and a trip to Maui to compete in the 5th Annual Naish Paddle Championship…a 9.54 mile race from Maliko Gulch to Kahului Harbor…
There will also be an open race…EJ has added his name into the hat…which is sure to attract some other world class competitors…
The race was fairly close after the first lap…but, EJ never relinquished the lead…
EJ was getting some great glides from his new Brian Szymanski race SUP…and cruised into another 1st place finish…
Rich Schroeder had a great race for the silver medal…he’ll be representing Team Standup Paddle Sports in San Diego as the Santa Barbara winner of the Naish Summer SUP Race Series…
Adam Kirkcaldie pulls into 3rd place in this race and 2nd place overall in the series…Adam has brought some more great energy into the shop as a staff member…
Rob Graham finishes 3rd in the series and will also be representing SUPsports in San Diego…
Andie Johnson wins the finale on the wahine side and will be racing for us in San Diego…
Tami Starzac has also been paddling hard…and, will be representing us at the Naish race…
Rounding out the wahines going to San Diego to compete for the Naish North American Championship, will be our VP and CFO, Deb…also, 3rd place finisher in the 9 race California Winter Race Series…
Another of the wahine paddlers to take part in the Naish Series is Ashley Parducci…Adam’s gf…and, the granddaughter of one of windsurfing’s inventors…UCLA prof Allen Parducci…the other co-inventors were Jim Drake and Hoyle Schweitzer…
Standup paddling is a lifestyle…it’s a life transformational sport/activity that’s as good for your mind…as it is for your body, heart, and soul…
We often refer to standup as “yoga on water”…
We pride ourselves on having the best selection of standup paddleboards at the best prices with the best service…leave it to us to ensure that your purchase is optimized for VALUE and QUALITY…we’ll get your STOKE factor in the red zone…and keep it there…
Here’s a few of our SUP’s on display…our warehouses are full of the best SUP’s on the planet, just waiting to be adopted…
Over the weekend, we helped quite a few folks with their SUP and paddle adoptions…;-)
Here’s Dani and Colleen…just a few of the fresh wahine faces that will be seen paddling in our local waters…
These women are pretty kewl…lots of impressive accomplishments in their young lives…and, now they are immersed in standup paddling…we welcome them into our ohana…
All of our SUP’s are light, strong, and they have handles…which allows our female clients like these two, and many others that you’ve been introduced to on this blog, to simply strap their board on their truck and go paddling…no big thang…
We love getting phone and email customer testimonials from you guys…from time to time we also receive awesome hand written notes…here’s one from Colorado that we returned home to after our trip out to Utah and back…
Todd and Kass picked up a couple of SUP’s on their visit to Santa Barbara…after their vacation, they dropped them off and we packed them up and sent them out to their Boulder, Colorado home…
We’ve been so busy at the lately, that I’m just barely getting around to telling ya’ll about the JEVER SUP World Cup…a 3 day international SUP race / event that took place in Hamburg, Germany July 10 – 12 with 27,000 spectators…major sponsorship from Jever beer…the biggest standup paddle race to date, and a harbinger of things surely to come…
Mahalos to Eric Terrien for bringing us these killer images and vid clips…and congrats on his 2nd place finish…
SUPsports team rider, Ernie (EJ) Johnson was one of the 20 pro invitees…we’re really stoked for him, and proud that he was representing…he did great considering he only brought his 12’6″…finishing 5th in the long distance race…and, 6th in the sprints…
We’ve been getting lots of web traffic and requests from Germany for our tshirts and stickers, so we know that he was representing…;-)
Here’s EJ battling 3rd place finisher, John Hibbard…Starboard team rider…
EJ is such a humble guy with a good heart…stoked to know him and his wife… Here’s a copy of an email he sent to a bunch of folks in the SUP universe…
“I recently competed in a world class event representing my sport of SUP. What an Honor, for me to be involved in this first time event, representing the U.S.A!
Thanks to my friends and family and sponsors , for their support over the last two years of racing.
Special thanks to Wardog and Debbie from StandUpPaddleSports for their moral and financial support.
Mahalos E.J”
We hope to be able to announce some more exciting news concerning EJ soon…;-)
1st place went to Starboard team rider Ekolu Kalama…he was riding a prototype Starboard K-14…we’ve been helping to design and place the production version in the Starboard lineup…
During the Dave Kalama visit to our shop last week, the Naish guys brought along a notebook full of killer wave SUP images they scored on a trip to Indo…
Robby Naish was riding the new 9’3″…and ripping!!!
Check these out and I think you’ll agree…these boards are capable of doing most anything on a wave that a paddlesurfer is capable of…
That’s why these boards have been H O T…ultra lightweight, durable, and gorgeous…we only have a couple left…
Hey now… Sorry about all of the missed calls, shop visits, and emails today…but, our whole team is just getting back from the first race of the SoCal Ocean Racing Winter Series…at La Jolla today…
Team StandUp Paddle Sports carried the momentum that we had garnered from the Battle of the Paddle right into this race with another quite respectable showing from our team commitment to the developing sport of standup paddle racing…
:: Vicki Mills 1st Place SUP Women :: 1st Place OC-1 Women
:: John Becker 2nd Place SUP Mens Unlimited
:: Rich Schroeder 2nd Place SUP Mens Stock
:: Bryan Fernandez 3rd Place SUP Mens Stock
John’s start was kinda sabotaged…otherwise, we believe he would have had the gold…regardless, he still bested Eric Starnes, who came in 2nd at the Battle of the Paddle…no easy feat with 253 other competitors vying for the silver medal…
A few of our racers were missing from this post race photo…NICE boards!!!
Here’s 1st Place winner Vicki Mills…only her 3rd time on a standup board…but, her background is outrigger paddling…she still holds a record for Molokai racing from 1995…after this great initial SUP result…she paddled her OC-1 in another race with similar results…1st Place…GO VICKI!!!
Anyways…more pics and story later…off to dinner…
Oh yeah…thanks again for your patience today…it was worth it to our team…
To show our gratitude…and to pay you guys back for your loyalty and patronage over the last years…we’ve sold well over 1000 SUP’s… there will be lots of unadvertised specials at the shop tomorrow…come in…give a shout out locally (or toll free)…or just ping us on email…
Parting shot…fun surf the last couple of days…even with race logistics we still scored some fun ones in trunks…
P.S. What up with all of the wetsuit clad surfers in San Diego?!?!…the water temp is 66* F…air temps over 80*…
Nina Heiberg, the thirty-year Old Norwegian was only a teenager when she moved to Gran Canaria to become a professional windsurfer. After a few years on the tour she decided to take on kite boarding where she climbed up to the top quite rapidly due to her soulful style.
In 1998 Nina moved to Maui to study political science, even though her biggest drive at the time was to explore one of the world’s most famous waves. Maui gave Nina not only a lifestyle where she could be in and around the water every day, but also showed her the way to her soul mate Teiva Joyeux. The thirty-two-year old Tahitian has been a professional surfer and Quiksilver sponsored since he was sixteen. With a quite impressive record of surfing, tow surfing, windsurfing and kiteboarding he seems to charge the waves wherever he goes.
As for both of them, their lives have always been based around water. They seem to find their happiness when they are immersed in their passion, and have therefore naturally, maybe even unconsciously followed their dreams. Their professions today reaches over almost any water sport you can think of and they are constantly searching for the ultimate way of enjoying the waves. After Teiva’s first contact with SUP he was hooked, whether it is for cruising down the lagoon or catching waves at Teahupoo. Nina’s fire comes original from her long-boarding history, which she easily transferred in to Stand-Up Paddling in the waves.
The couple is full of hidden talents even outside the water. Teiva is partly designing clothes for Quiksilver and Nina is currently recording a music album.
Starboard is very proud Nina and Teiva Joyeux and welcomes them in to our team!
Another gorgeous paddling day in Santa Barbara helped stoke the turnout…and our shop booth scored a slam dunk…it was very successful for us, clearing out older boards to make way for the new boards that are on the way (as we speak)…and increasing the local standup paddling population by a dozen…pretty kewl…especially, when you think that most people in this town, the standup paddling mecca of North America, has already bought a SUP by now…
A big mahalo to our staff…John, Elaine, Bryan, Deb, and the 3 chocolate “mouseketeers”…;-) for helping to pull this event together, and also our booth at last weekend’s “Battle of the Paddle”…it’s more work than you’d think…
Santa Barbara’s Team Standup Paddle Sports has been training for the “Battle of the Paddle” this weekend at Doheny Beach…we have 8 racers competing…there are a bunch of boards in development that didn’t quite get finished for this race…but, we will be going for it with what we got with a little help from Starboard and Hobie…these guys and gals are committed…they are an inspiration and we consider them part of our ohana and will appreciate their efforts regardless of the results…
