SUP de nieuwe trend?

Van Bruce Barret uit Shoalwater, Australië ontving GSI recent onderstaand mailtje. Wat blijkt? SUP is geen nieuwe trend, maar een revival van de 40er jaren!

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Dear Bruce,

Having recently started surfing 4 years ago at the age of 48 I have become
interested in all things about surfing and have a collection of boards
ranging from 8'0" through to 9'6" which I use regularly.

Around 15 months ago when speaking with my Uncle I found he had been surfing
between 1939 - 1940. Having known nothing about this before we got chatting
and I came up with some surprising information and last week a copy of a
photograph we talked about.

The photograph is of Ray Walters at the age of 16 standing on his surf board
on the shore at Cottesloe Beach in 1940. Ray still lives in Perth and made 4
of these boards between 1939 to 1940 for himself and a few mates to surf at
Cottesloe - these days we would call them Stand Up Paddle Boards. He used to
tow the board tied between a pair of wheels with the other end tied to the
back of his bike then ride from Dalkeith to Cottesloe to go surfing. The
boards were 11' long x 2'6" wide and in the middle around 6" thick tapered
to the front and rear, the stringers were made of steam bent hoop pine and
covered with marine ply and painted with what ever he could get to seal and
colour the board.

Typical of many young Aussies who would give anything ago he and 3 of his
mates decided to paddle out to a ship moored in Gage Roads, Fremantle which
would have been about 5 miles from shore. He said it didn't look too far and
it turned out to be a really big ship, the Queen Mary in fact. He and 2 of
his mates gave up after getting about half way there as they were struggling
with paddling into the sea breeze, however one guy did make it to the Queen
Mary and he was so stuffed after the paddle he was taken aboard for a rest
and ferried back to the shore. Ray didn't get back to surf again and lost
the urge when he joined the Airforce during the 2nd world war, I dropped him
off the latest copy of Long Boarding so he would become updated with where
surfing is now.

Interesting to see what is old is now new again with Stand Up Paddle Boards.

Best wishes

Bruce Barrett

Shoalwater, WA.