Terminology

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SUP

Stand Up Paddlebording

Stand up paddle boarding and stand up paddle surfing are variations of surfing, where the person is standing on the board and using a paddle to propel himself through the water. Variations include flat water paddling for recreation, fitness, yoga, or sightseeing. Surfers also use it for racing on lakes, large rivers (river rapids – whitewater SUP), surfing on ocean waves and sometimes fishing. 

The modern form of SUP has it origins in Hawaii. In the 1990s SUP was taught at Hawaiian surf schools as an alternative way to surf when the waves were to small.

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Materials and design

Most of the new SUP boards use glass-reinforced plastic construction, it’s made of polyester or epoxy resin, that is compatible with the polyurethane or expanded polystyrene foam used in the core. Some SUP boards use a hollow wood construction instead of foam with epoxy resin. 

There are also, more convenient, inflatable boards. The core material is called ‘drop stitch’. Thousands of locked nylon stitches keep the board at a specific thickness. Pressure from specially designed hand pumps can inflate a board to over 30Psi. This creates a board not much less rigid than a hard board. This makes inflatable paddle boards durable and easy to transport. You can carry the board and the pump in a backpack.

The boards are generally longer than 9 feet (2,7 m),  and for more persons or families, they could be longer than 12 feet (3,6 m), with features such as padded decks and concave hulls; they generally have one or three surfboard-style fins in the stern for tracking. Boards can also be a short as 7 feet, typically made out of high-performance Carbon Fiber. Boards such as these are used in Stand Up Paddle Surf competitions (smaller boards are more maneuverable). Race boards, which range from 12ft6in to 14 ft, are usually made of fiberglass or carbon fiber.

Paddle

A stand up paddle is used to propel the surfer through the water while standing on a surfboard. The paddle is made of a three parts: blade, shaft and handle.

Paddles used for stand up surfing are similar to canoe ones, just little bit longer. They are usually made of carbon, fiberglass or wood with a flat blade.

Blades are designed with several shapes and features. Normally the blade has a banana peel shape, sometimes with a slight keel on the back side of the blade. Other commonly used shapes include diamonds, or oars. Different blade shapes are sometimes used for different types of paddling conditions: long-distance, flat lake water, or ocean surf.

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SUP’s Nose shapes

SUP’s Tail shapes

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