“The History, the pioneers, a sport for everyone ….. the future”

Mike Waltze Films has produced a brilliant feature length film documenting where the sport of SUP has come from, its history, the reasons why it has became the worlds fastest growing watersport and what the future now holds.

In a feel good kind of way That First Glide reaffirms to us why we all paddle – the freedom and fitness, the camaraderie and the ease…but in addition it gives us the history of surfing in Hawaii and where the sport of SUP was first developed in Waikiki Bay by its early pioneer ‘The Duke’ and then by the Ah Choy family to earn money from tourists.

That first Glides explains the sports original introduction and the surprising story of how it remained tiny for years until Maui’s watermen kicked off the boom when they started using paddle boards to train for big wave surfing.  It follows the fascinating story of how the sport began to capture imagination across the globe, how equipment developed  and created multiple disciplines that we now see in SUP.

It follows some inspirational pioneers of the sport as their quest to spend more time on the ocean led them to develop the equipment, brands , disciplines and competitive circuit that started to capture the attention of worldwide media.

Featuring some of the biggest names in the development of paddle boarding as well as current competition superstars such as Kai Lenny, Chuck Patterson, Robby Naish, Dave Kalama, Laird Hamilton and Gerry Lopez this film has a place in any paddle boarders DVD collection.  Perhaps unsurprisingly some of the big names took some pursuding before they got hooked on Stand Up.

“We suddenly realized that stand up wasn’t just for a load of old kooks….”

The film follows a traditional documentary structure that tells a great story, but will not blow you away with incredible camera angles or necessarily inspire you to drop everything and go paddling, but it gives you an awesome background to SUP, its history and  how it became what it is today.  It and makes you wonder what else we will see the Maui watermen create for SUP in years to come!

It’s certainly good value for money, with tons of footage and additional extras; when you think its wrapping up for credits you get more and more cracking footage from locations such as Hawaii, Tahiti and Namotu.  Buy That First Glide from many SUP shops across UK and Europe or online at thatfirstglide.com , sit back and enjoy the story…