Shortboarding with a paddle

Shortboarding has always been the benchmark of performance surfing. And the greats, like Kenny Slater, Daine Reynolds and Andy Irons (the list goes on) have always been at the top of this surfing style, and pushing the sport. Riding a small board sub 6’5” gives the rider the fastest board speed and turns possible… not to mention the air time! SUP surfing has been going that way since the start but it has only been in the last year that we have really seen the change. Now the boards are becoming smaller, and many boards around the 7ft mark are likely to be seen in 2014. Obviously, performance shortboard surfing will always be pushing the limits ahead of SUP surfing. But with SUP becoming more popular, many more young hotshots are getting into SUP, like Yuri Daberkow the young ripper from Brazil. In his riding you can really see his shortboard background coming into play – aggressive turns, fast lines and super small boards. Performance SUP surfing will surely be in a very different place in a years time with guys like this in sport. Lets just hope the board developments can keep up with it!

Aswell as shortboard SUP surfing, within SUP there will always be a place for every level, and style of rider. The future’s bright… the future’s definitely SUP.