Courtesy Of Surfing Australia

SUP’er James Weston

Australian Titles will this year be decided for the first time in the rapidly growing and now well established discipline of Stand Up Paddle (SUP) Surfing. Surfing Australia announced the inclusion of the Open SUP division into the Country Energy Australian Surf Festival to be run at Port Macquarie during August.

Globally, Stand Up Paddle Surfing has grown in popularity incredibly over the past three years with an abundance of surfers, longboard and shortboard surfers, including a stand up paddleboard in their essential quivers and many dedicating themselves 100% to this discipline.

“The quality of Stand Up Paddle surfers emerging throughout Australia and the world is exciting and there’s many past and present champions of the sport of surfing now very competent and devoted Stand Up Paddle surfers” said Surfing Australia Chief Executive Officer Andrew Stark.

“Take the two finalists at the recent Rip Curl Pro at Bells Beach, Joel Parkinson and Adam Robertson, both often seen in the line up riding waves on Stand Up Paddleboards, and then look at past champions like Luke Egan, Tom Carroll and Simon Anderson, all keen riders” added Stark.

“Stand Up Paddle Surfing has established itself in our sport and we are delighted to incorporate it into our Australian Surfmasters this year – the inaugural champion will take a special place in surfing’s history!”

Twelve surfers will make up the division this year, three from host state NSW, two from Qld, Vic, SA and WA and one from Tasmania.

The Country Energy Australian Surfing Festival, which incorporates the Oxbow Australian Longboard Titles along with the Australian Surfmasters will run from August 16 through to August 29 as a mobile event through the surf rich region surrounding Port Macquarie.

Honolua Ocean Paddle Race

30th of May 2009

For those that haven’t heard of this event the Honolua Ocean Paddle Race is the biggest open water SUP race in Australia. The course covers eight kilometres and starts at Snapper Rocks and finishes up at Currumbin Creek. Competitors will battle it out north up the QLD coastline in the quest to reach the finish line first.

This will be the 3rd annual Honolua Ocean Paddle Race and incentive for competitors this year has been boosted by a total prize pool of $4500. Connecting Southern Goldcoast has chipped in with $3000 making this the richest SUP event in Australia. The winner of the open mens unlimited division of this years race will also take home two return tickets to Hawaii kindly donated by Hawaiian Airlines.

SUP Vic will bring you the results as soon as they become available. We have had discussions about organising a similar race here in Victoria. We are looking at the bay as a more accessible option. We will keep you informed on any developments!

Laird talks about Stand Up Paddle Surfing. Pretty cool. You have to watch the ad first then click PLAY/PAUSE a couple times. Well worth it though. Not much action but interesting none the less!

We all know Luke Egan, one of Australia’s greatest surfers who competed on the World Tour for 13 years has been SUPing the past few years. He has been working with JS Surfboards and a few others to build high performance SUP boards and recently put this clip together to talk about his boards. Check out the below clip to hear a little bit about it and see him shredding! Custom Magic Carpet boards available soon….