Directed by the legendary warrior,
C ordilleras says, the island men strung
together long planks of bamboo.
“T hat is the original standup paddleboard,”
C ordilleras explains.
W ith carved wooden paddles used in
concert with spears, watermen paddled and plundered.
“W e — the Philippines, G uam, H awaii, Saipan, all
the islands — have been doing this thousands of years,
since the birth of the islands,” C ordilleras says.
But the root of SUP as we know it today extends long
after Polynesians found H awaii bringing with them their
tools. It came long after the chain of volcanic islands
were popularized by military families returning for vacations
post-W orld W ar II , and after the K ing of R ock
and R oll’s H awaiian film debut on the beach of W aikiki.
W ith the call of the big waves to lure them, travelers
in search of surf were led into the iron blue swell by
beach boys — surf instructors that could trace their
origins back to the legend. L ike their ancestors, they
used heftier boards and wide paddles to venture offshore
to take photographs of their students for souvenirs.
But standup paddleboarding did not become a sport
until it was uncovered by A merican big wave surfer and
co-developer of tow-in surfing, L aird H amilton, credited
for founding paddleboarding as a sport.
From M aui word spread to C alifornia and eventually
to the E ast C oast, where it is now the fastest growing
watersport phenomenon.
Loca l Pioneers
Some call Jason C olclough, co-owner of SideA rm Surf and
Skate, a pioneer. A long with retired professional skateboarder
and E astern Skate Supply president R eggie Barnes,
C olclough is known as the first area standup paddleboarder.
C olclough says he tried it in M aui one winter about five years ago.
“W e didn’t have standup paddleboards back then,” he says of the E ast
C oast, “So we had to use boards that were meant for tandem surfing.”
T o gear up for standup paddleboarding, C olclough ordered a 12-
foot M ickey M unoz Superglide board and called paddle-crafter Jim
T errell to order a paddle.
C olclough says, “It seemed like every time you came to the beach
people would ask you, ‘W hat is that?’”
W ithout proper gear, C olclough applied wax to the board where
his feet would need traction.
H e explains, “W e didn’t have traction pads and all that stuff.”
A bove: Jason Colclough brought the sport
of standup paddleboarding from Maui to
Wrightsville Beach about fi e years ago.
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