THE NORTH EAST
WORDS & PHOTOS Joe Thwaites
As one of the first sup surfers on the East Coast it’s been amazing to see the scene develop over the last decade. In the early days sup was largely despised and it was commonplace to receive verbal abuse in the water which in some cases even escalated to fisties! Equipment was ‘basic’ with only a couple of manufacturers seeing any potential in the scene, boards were huge and often unwieldy which made transport and storage tricky. That said coming from a windsurfing and surfing background 11-12’ and 30-32” felt rather stable and the extra volume meant you could catch pretty much any size wave from one foot to overhead with the bonus of super early entry, which often left our prone brothers looking on with malice. The 50m ankle drags back to the beach, snapped leashes and long swims on big days were less fun but the good largely outweighed the bad. Fast forward to the present day with an array of high performance paddle surfing kit, much of which will fit inside a small hatchback, and the scene is barely recognisable.
