SUP News

The Stand Up Paddle Athletes Association is pleased to announce the completion of our first online race official certification on February 28th, 2015. SUP race officials from Italy, France, Spain, UK, Portugal and the United States made up the nine international course attendees. The initial feedback on the live online course has been very positive, giving us the confidence to move forward and continue to offer live online courses in addition to our in-person courses.   SUPAA President, Chase Kosterlitz, hosts 9 race officials during the live course on February 28th, 2015   SUPAA has now certified a total of 39 [...]

We are very excited to announce our upcoming eBook, SUP Training the Smart Way, coming March 31st.  With contributions from Olympic paddlers and coaches, professional SUP athletes, health and wellness experts and sports science doctors, we hope to provide a comprehensive and useful approach to SUP training and racing.   This SUP training program is designed to provide the tools and knowledge necessary to help paddlers maximize training time, reach peak performance, prevent injury and learn to train and race smarter, not harder.   In the coming weeks we will be giving you samples from the SUP training programs to help [...]

If you’re anything like us, you are getting excited for the 2015 SUP racing season to get under way. However, excitement does not always equal good training and results.   Don’t let your first SUP race creep up on you only to find yourself scrambling to train two weeks before. It’s too late.   Start your path to success today so that you are prepared to do your best once the race season begins. Whether you are trying to win the race or simply finish, here are five tips to help you see results this SUP racing season. Stay tuned for [...]

SUP racing is not always about elite athletic performance and carbon fiber boards. Stand up paddle boarding is often used as an avenue to do good for communities, children and charity. There are countless SUP events held around the world each SUP racing season that benefit amazing causes. SUPAA is proud to help event organizers put on great races while they work to do good in the world. In December of last year, SUPAA race official, Raul Delgado,  put on an event for the children in his neighborhood south of Lima, Peru. The kids in the event came from poor families [...]

Join SUPAA president, Chase Kosterlitz, for a live online SUPAA race official certification on Saturday, February 28th from 9 AM-2 PM EST (6 AM-11 AM PST, 3 PM-8 PM in Germany).   We know that everyone reading this may not be a race director themselves, but surely you know a race official who can benefit from this course. Share this information with them so that they can join the top SUP races in the world and put on a fun, fair and safe event.   We are offering this exciting opportunity to become certified through a live online course in order [...]

We want to thank all 784 stand up paddle athletes who completed the world’s first global SUP athlete survey. This survey was designed to help us better serve the interests of SUP athletes around the world. Next week we will announce the two winners of the NK Speed Coach GPS, SUP Training Stroke Analysis and our 9-week SUP training program. We will be releasing a selection of the exciting results of our survey publicly to help paddlers gain better insights into the SUP racing community. SUPAA members will receive the complete survey results with detailed analysis. Become a member to find [...]

As we come to the end of our first year we wanted to thank all of the athletes, race officials and industry personnel who supported SUPAA. It would not be possible to pursue our mission without the participation of these individuals.2014 Milestones In 2014, members from our board of directors traveled through Europe, South America, Japan, Australia and the United States to promote our mission. Without a set of unified rules and a clear vision, the sport of SUP racing will never reach it’s full potential. We are well on our way to establishing a clearer definition for what the sport [...]

SUP racing rules are suddenly a hot topic for conversation on the beach and online after last weekend’s Battle of the Paddle. The BOP saw a few false starts, missed buoys and other rule infractions that have become common at races around the world. The main controversy of the event surrounded a wave ridden by Connor Baxter and Kai Lenny during the elite race final. Both paddlers were on the same wave and exchanged fouls back-and-forth to the point that they fell off of their boards. Kai and Connor were not given any penalties after the race. We are not implying [...]

Topics of discussion from the 2014 SUPAA Session.   3:00-3:15 What have we done this year? 26 certified race officials on 3 continents with two more courses planned for Australia in Novermber/December. SUPAA members in 15 countries for 2014. Discussion on our consultation with the ISA to help facilitate with equipment, the rules and also running of the World Championship event in general (being part of the discussions when some penalties had to be given). 3:15-3:30 Discussion on our work with the Stand Up Paddle Industry Association (SUPIA), race directors, ISA and athletes. The SUPIA Summit proved to have very positive [...]

Stand up paddle boarding has an identity crisis. The sport is growing steadily every year and it can’t be boxed into one single category. Is stand up paddle boarding meant for surfing, racing, sprinting, whitewater running, freestyling, voyaging, downwinding, sunset cruising, yoga matting, workout platforming, fishing or duck hunting? The answer is all of the above and more!   SUP has such a wide range of uses and appeal because it is new and undefined. So often societies work to categorize what something should be based on preconceived ideas. We believe stand up paddle boarding is flourishing because our community tends [...]