♦ See the SUP Surfing contest in Huntington Beach, Southside, 2015 in this short video.
♦ While Huntington Beach sponsors numerous surf contests each year, both pro and amateur, Huntington Beach has few if any SUP Surf contests on an annual basis. Why is that?
♦ First off, many people openly don’t respect the sport; to them SUP Surfing is not legit; many say that SUP Surfing is not surfing – Call it fear, call it ignorance, call it bigotry. This is very similar to people in the past saying being towed into a wave was not surfing, no matter how many buildings tall the wave size – Funny, the person (Laird Hamilton) that rides the largest waves in the world also happens to ride huge waves on a SUP. Anyhow, there is not much interest in SUP Surfing outside the sport and there are few if any SUP sponsors. But no worries; we get more waves and more fun that way!
♦ Of those who say this is not surfing, can they even come close to doing what this SUP Surfer does in the image below?
♦ If they can have surf contests for dogs, sharks included, they can have them for people who rip on a SUP. So hopefully within the next few years we will see several SUP Surfing contests South-side. Sure, there would not be that many heats, but do we really need that, or do we just want to have the chance to enjoy the ability to compete.
♦ The shark left both the dog and the photographer alone – you can see the shark circled in red.
♦ If you have ever seen a video of Laird Hamilton on a SUP you can see just how much fun it is. He is the biggest wave surfer in the world; he rides 100 foot waves! He also rides a SUP. This guy is amazing! And he is great for the sport.
♦ So about the contest. It was way back in 2011, so I am not going to recap it as it is old news. But if you want to read about it, here is the link to the post. It was pretty cool to have all of these people come to compete in Huntington Beach to compete, and in 2011, which is near the inception of SUP Surfing.
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