Paddleboarding in its Pure Form
Whilst on the issue of purity, paddleboarding, a stand alone sport attributed to waterman Tom Blake in the mid 1920s, is another ocean sport where the absence of a paddle brings parity to the notion of purity as associated with surfing. Originally practised paddling prone on 120lb surfboards of the day, Tom, like many ocean sports visionaries, designed a craft more specific to being paddled by hand efficiently as a primary design prerequisite rather than surfed.
In 1928, Tom Blake arrived at the annual Surfboard Paddling Championships in Waikiki and using his purpose made hollow, paddleboard which he had designed two years earlier and such, the first of its kind, he won and caused a stir with his radical new design. Again in 1929 he won with an improved design and the orders flooded in despite many 'locals' wanting the design banned, being as it was not a surfboard by rights.
In 1930 he smashed the race record by almost three minutes paddling his 16', 60lb cigar shaped board against solid boards of 100-125lbs. Following the race, a meeting was held, the outcome of which, was that though some wanted to keep the old Hawaiian style surfboards, it was conceded that this was the start of a new era in board design, specific to paddling prone using the hands. A year later designers were madly working on new board designs for paddleboarding. The rest is history.
The challenge for todays SUB designers, is to design boards specific to the purpose of being first and foremost powered by paddle-power while providing a stable platform, thereafter, dexterity in the surf, glide in the flat and a combination of everything while chasing a following sea.
Today the undisputed 'Worlds Best Ever' paddleboarder is Australian Jamie Mitchell, an eight time straight winner of the Molokai to Oahu race and a bunch of other major events, who incidently is an accomplished outrigger canoe paddler (with home I have raced with) and a world class stand up paddleboarder. Frankly, he's very probably the world's best stand up paddleboarder but he and we don't know it yet; instinct tells you it's so, it's a Zen thing. In 2009 he won California's Battle of the Paddle.
