Stand up Paddle Surfing In Thailand
When Svein, the owner of Starboard first invited me to try Stand Up Paddle Boarding in 2006, my first impression was,
"well this is actually very easy - and I like it!". Sometime later in May 07 we bought a stunning 12"2" Wood Starboard model and took it to a boat show in BKK , there was a big pond outside between the trade halls, the sort of green slimey kind you would not want to fall in. This is where I learned to glide around and fortunately I did not end up taking a drink until much later that evening :)
The boards were much narrower then, with a lot of influence from the Hawaiin Stand Up Gurus. My first attempts in the mushy surf proved to be quite humbling. (yes that is a broken kayak paddle I am waving about - it was not easy to get paddles back then). Or to find some good basic Paddle Technique lessons, which I have found, turn an arm waving maniac into a Slick Gliding machine in as little as 20 minutes.
As soon as I put a sail on it, I felt much more at home...In fact SUP's make awesome light wind windsurfing boards - as they get smaller who knows...
So I hung up my broken Kayak Paddle and for a while there I got into "small wave, wavesailing", I did a lot of this under-lights at night on Jomtien beach, so no photos.
Pretty soon I was doing some nice jumps....
and puling of some pretty tricky freestyle moves.
Kai, my brother-inlaw, he knew exactly what to do.
Of course not everyone could wait for a proper Stand Up Paddle Board....
Having a nice board and a decent paddle did not mean I had clue how to turn the darn thing!
Catching waves is not too hard, engaging the rail and getting the board to carve round proved to be slightly tricky.
Well, after a few good Utube movies and studying the photo's in the new Stand Up Paddle Boarding Magazines, I eventually realised that you can use the paddle to balance while you engage the rail at the back of the board to carve turns, little like using ski stocks to turn. No photographic evidence of this accomplishment exists to this day, but i live in hope...
After 14 years of revelutionizing the windsurfing market and 1,000's of hours of shaping and testing SUP shapes, Starboard release the 2008 collection.
First SUP Surf Trip to Phuket, Nai Yang Beach delivering head high sets, I found that catching waves and "surfing" are not necessarily the same thing. Watching Roger Kalamer with his smooth long board style on the 11'2" Blend or Jonathan Schmitt shredding short board style on his 9' inspired me to start training so as not waste precious time when I did get to visit Thailand's beautiful surf beaches again.
Even when it was windy I would grab an SUP and do some training, trying to catch and ride the tiny Pattaya wind swells. People thought I was crazy, wasting good wind to paddle my board trying to catch the wind chop.
I found that my body loved the workout - after about 6 weeks I had a lot of extra stength and explosive power to add to my windsurfing jumps. I also started to build my basic wave knowledge and trim the board and learn how to, and when to paddle and when to shift my weight to get a ride on even the smallest bit of swell.
The months roll on and now there are new Stand Up Paddleboard schools in Phuket, Koh Samui, Choompon aswell as at our home base at Blue Lagoon Pattaya. The new 2009 collection arrived with the stunning A4 Color Brochure, showing 15 new models of Starboard Stand Up Paddle Boards!!
We had to know which board to recommend for which surfer, so of course I felt obliged to buy a few different boards for "testing".
At Blue Lagoon Pattaya we always have a few different models of SUP on the water and available for you to try if you are in town.
South West Storms brought a little chop to Pattaya, then we found Waves in Rayong just 20 minutes away, Glass Bay 40 minutes away. Bangkok, city of 15 million people, Shopping malls with brands like Quick, Bong, and Rip doing great business. Even now few people know that now you CAN Surf 2 hours drive from Bangkok - thanks to Starboard SUP's!
We took 10 Starboard Paddle-boards down the River Kwai, we drove down to Phuket again with 3 SUP's and couple of surfboards in our tiny Nissan Pick-up. The car blew a radiator and we had to get towed into Phuket around midnight. We hired a big Thai style fishing boat and took a bunch our boards to Koh Samet, took the Drifters V8 moon buggy to Koh Chang, Put SUP boards on a Yacht and caught some glassy waves at Koh Lin Island. Did many night surfing sessions in front of Drifters Beach Cafe, what will our next adventure be? follow us on Twitter and stay tuned