Out Of Hours
Most spots have a tide or wind window that dictate when they will be prime. Avoid those if you want to beat the crowd. SUPs have a much larger tolerance for conditions than most surf craft. By hitting low tide on a high tide spot for example, my wife and I have scored some blissful sessions to ourselves. Sure the break may be shallower but standing up you can see the rock boils and dry parts of reef better to negotiate past.
Bit of onshore wind and a crumbly lip can put many a discerning surfer off but the higher volume of SUPs means we can get in earlier and extract more from a softer lip. Think positively about conditions that others don’t want to surf in and you can get a lot from these sessions. Surfing free of crowds allows you to focus more on your own performance. ‘I wish there was more people out’, said no one ever.
Damage Limitation
SUP boards are big and human bodies are allergic to uncontrolled contact with them. The number one line of defence is your leash so make sure your have the best you can buy, you’ve checked it for wear and tear and that your leash plug and cord is also shipshape. If you’re in a close quarter situation and need to control your board, grab the leash close to the tail, making sure you don’t have any loops round your hand and absolutely no fingers in the leash cord. Keep good awareness of anyone around you and warn them if you think they are oblivious to a potential contact. Whether you are riding the wave or paddling back out, the onus is on SUP riders to stay clear.
If you get caught by close outs, think about how you can best avoid collisions, that might involve you pointing the board to shore and lying on the tail so you have some form of steerage. When paddling back out, paddle wide and hang on the inside until sets have passed, wait for the lulls. All of this will take extra time of course, but a lot more palatable than injuring someone.
If You Can’t Beat Them…
There does come a saturation point sometimes, where it just isn’t possible to find that empty peak or break and the crowd so intense that it may not be safe to have a SUP in the line up. Take the long view, would you have caught waves anyway in such a crowd, would you have had a chance to improve. There is one way to still get your wave count safely and that is get on a surfboard. Not only is prone surfing a great exercise to balance out tired SUP muscles but it also allows you to increase your wave knowledge and riding technique which can all feedback into your SUP surfing. Kai Lenny and Zane Schweitzer are two examples of SUP riders who are also world class surfers and with even the GOAT (Greatest of all time), Kelly Slater known to have ridden a SUP, there is clear common ground amongst the sports despite the haters.
We can’t control how crowds react to SUPs, but we can be mindful of our actions in a crowd. Despite best intentions there will always be a section of the surfing community that will never be pleased, for them there is only one answer – ‘Blame Laird!’ SUP
