At 60 I got really sore in the groin and could not sit on my mal. eventually could not get up off the board without kneeling on one knee and then standing up. Just did not work on fast breaking Burleigh point so I bought a sup. Was told I had gone over to the dark side but in reality I saw the light. Still going at 70 but not as hard as I used to. I've got two 12'6 race boards and a 9'2 Sunova Speeed. Love the smaller glassy days.

Totally smashed my shoulder joint off the right side and can't rotate my right shoulder back in 98. Was always a short board surfer and longtime ski and outrigger paddler.
Tried knee boarding and didn't enjoy it then my mate from Hawaii emailed me pictures of Laird and Blane Chambers riding these big boards with their outrigger paddles. Made a 10.6 board and timber paddle and away I went and that was 13 years ago now. Owned boards from 17 Naish down to 7.10 Smik and totally hooked . When I started shortboard blokes where looking at me and were very curious so offered them a go and none could standup No agro then only curiousity.
Then not long after the sport exploded . Been fortunate enough to have been involved in the sport since its infancy and watched it take off.

Great yarn Creek. Thats another guy in the first pic. I think he played in the front row for the All Blacks.

ha ha.... I spent a month in NZ, but never got drafted by the team.

Love the before and after shot, better than Jenny Craig!

Tardy said..
A great subject.
i stopped prone surfing 10 years ago ,because my back couldn't handle it after rupturing it twice ...I tried to surf again ,but after 1 hour I had to come in ,the back bending upward was stuffing me .
i brought a SUP in2014 ,i caught a wave on it 2 weeks later ...and thought ,this is easy ,and no back pain .
25 boards later ,here I am ..


(I think it could be more than 25 )but still have 10 .

twenty five boards.....oh wow.....think 10 or 12 for me but still have 4

bearbusa said..
Just about to turn 63 this year, surfed all my life and started kitesurfing as well 20 years ago,
Wanted my wife to get in the water around 8 years ago a bit more as her surfing skills were a bit ,lets say tired so started SUP together , now she loves it and i have the choice of
Great waves ,go surfing , no short boards these days ,got to love the mid lenghts
Windy grab a kite
Both of the above and when flat, grab the SUP and the boss as well,
actually she Sup,s better than me so a win win and never have a problem heading to the beach allways happy to come or let me go

Probably sup more than the other these days as the boss drags me out now

Live every day ,until we drophopefully still doing it all for another 10 years at least

One other great thing about supping is the crew has been around a bit and mostly know surf rules etc unlike some of the lets say younger generation that would have had their heads ripped off years ago in the line up

Have never had a bad word said to me in or on the water from any SUP rider

Windsurfed and surfed forever but started to struggle more and more with paddling out until It just became too painful. I'd had two car v bike accidents and that last one damaged my shoulder. Rotations not good anymore.
Windsurfing just took over and I'd do other things during the doldrums.
Then I went to Indo and had a few surfs in the warm water and found that I could paddle for about 1/2hr. Re Hooked .
Convinced the family that a SUP would be great for our flat water but a wavey one would work for both ??.
Took ages to get enough core strength to survive the open ocean but I love it. Even started doing SUPsurf comps.
I miss the late takeoffs, duck diving and having an affordable 3 board quiver but love the extended wave count .
Most in the lineup have no issues with the boat, any grumps usually come from the Sunday surfers.
Most locals don't care what you ride as long as you have fun and share the stoke

Fell off a ladder and fractured my shoulder LH shoulder and my radial head on my RH...

Took me ages to recover and couldn't prone paddle for a long period. Started to use a sup and have not looked back.

cantSUPenough said..
A dodgy back, taking ages to get to my feel, being cold in the water, and catching too few waves made me try it.

But then I was hooked. And my life changed. I often ask the question why...

Before then I was working 16+ hours a day, 7 days a week on my business - for many years. Plenty of stress and travel and zero time for anything else.

But then I got pretty sick - things didn't look good. When I was healthy enough I tried a SUP. So, did my "near death" experience make me change my life, or did the fun of sup surfing make me change my priorities? Not sure.

I do know I haven't surfed much the past couple of months so I need to take a long hard look at myself...I have about 15 boards that aren't getting much use...

Happy for you to donate those unloved Acid's mate

MangoDingo said..

Gboots said..

Happy for you to donate those unloved Acid's mate

... Or that 14' Search CSE

Any time you guys want to borrow them, just drop around

First time I saw a SUP was some guy in a Suit paddling down the Yarra outside Southbank in Melbourne.Obviously a promo or something, I thought "what a nob , hope he falls in"
Windsurfed heaps so would hardly see them on the bay when the wind was up.
Joined a sailing club for the kids to get into and then started seeing more on the bay, usually posers with a dog or small kid on the front. The Nob thoughts still remained
Went up to Bataeu Bay north of Sydney for work was having breakfast at the Surf Club and saw these guys out having a hoot. They were carving it up and having a great time.
When they came in I was surprised that they were all old fat bastards like me. I thought got to give this a go, so convinced myself, bought a Sunova one and stated having fun

Hip problem caused pain straddling shortboard, had hip replacement, pain gone until other hip started to play up. Thought longboard might be the answer but didn't like it. Tried SUP thinking it would be easy -wrong but got hooked! Now had other hip replaced and have no thought of giving up. Love being able to surf in just about any size surf (as long as it's not too big!)

Gandalf said..
Hip problem caused pain straddling shortboard, had hip replacement, pain gone until other hip started to play up. Thought longboard might be the answer but didn't like it. Tried SUP thinking it would be easy -wrong but got hooked! Now had other hip replaced and have no thought of giving up. Love being able to surf in just about any size surf (as long as it's not too big!)

I have been having hip pain over the last month. Sciatica most likely. Only feel good after I go for a SUS. Sitting down at work and driving car is the issue .

Older thread, and I find the stories fascinating. Here's mine.In 1979, at 10yo, I graduated from a boog to a short board. The first ten years were great. The second ten the crowds and attitudes started to leave their mark, and the third ten+ went into a steady burn-out decline until I almost stopped surfing... I can hassle in the pack with the best of them, but having to put on my war face, and getting amped for the competition to come every time I was headed to the water lost it's appeal. About 15 years ago, I left the line up all together, and started using a sea kayak, or doing the big paddle to hit more remote breaks where I could surf by myself. Awesome at first, but being more cautious, more complicated, and lonely, eventually lost it's appeal. In July of 2017, I hadn't surfed in maybe two years. A co-worker who knew I was a surfer came to me one day and told me that he had taken up down wind SUP racing, what a blast it was, what great exercise it was, and that I should give it a try. Of course, the first thing I said was "SUP's are for kooks." I had seen a few people around on tankers trying to surf waves, but had no idea that SUP surfing was even a thing. I hadn't followed any surfing media in almost two decades. After thinking about it for a while, I thought a race board might be better exercise and less complicated than a sea kayak I was doing a daily paddle on (in), so I called a friend who owns a surf shop here, and asked what he had for race boards. I was a team rider for the shop many years ago (before the burn-out), and he gave me a new Kazuma 12'6" displacement board for maybe $1,500 less than retail here in Japan. I started paddling this board on the daily in a large bay I live by, and it wasn't long before there was a tiny summer swell making it into the bay. Some knee-high rollers going for hundreds of meters, off shore breeze, and I thought "I wonder if I can surf this thing?" The huge smile was instant, and maybe 50 waves later, I was completely hooked. Shortly thereafter, I realized I needed something better, so I bought a local brand, cheap pop-out 10'X32". Took it into some larger stuff, and broke the side fins out. Repaired and reinforced the back of the board, started doing SUP surfing research, and the world opened up. SUP made surfing possible almost every day of the year here. I started collecting SUP's and sold all of my short boards. Two and a half years in, 10 boards, back to surfing 3-5 times per week, and I still feel like a grom...again. I discovered the SUP surfing community here, and unlike the packed hassle of the normal line up, outer reef SUP line ups are friendly, and non-competitive. The biggest problem I have is the guy who got me into it is now also hooked on the surfing part of it, and while he's advanced quite well, he always wants to surf where the surfers surf, and I refuse to...LOL So many good waves here that SUP has made easily accessible. When he does surf with them, he then complains about being paddled around, burned, and all the other transgressions that are against "the rules" you read on the Internet...I've dislocated my right shoulder twice playing rugby, and it gets pretty twingy after prone surfing for a while. At first, I used this excuse to people who asked why I switched, but that was just an excuse. The reality is in what my one and only childhood surfing hero, Gerry Lopez, said: "SUP is just better." At 50, I don't do ACL-killing snaps, I surf below the lip, etc. I catch double the number of waves in a session. I surf when it's knee to double. I surf when it's all chopped up. Days I wouldn't think of paddling out on a short board, I'm frothing to get out there on a SUP. I'm having way too much fun to care if others think it's cool or not. I feel like it's given my my life back, and I'm in it for the long haul.