ASI SUP Philosophy

ASI  remains true to the belief that stand up paddleboarding is not by default, a surf-sport, which would be to reject out of hand the art and skills associated with paddling, more pertinently, outrigger canoeing , if we embrace the contemporary understanding that the Hawaiian Islands are the crucible from where the sport has recently arisen.

Culturally, historically and anthropologically speaking, over several thousands of years, the act of paddling is a deep seated reflex, lifestyle and even a utilitarian extension of day to day survival associated with fishing, trade and at one time transmigration and warfare, embedded into the lives of thousands across the broad and culturally diverse region of Oceania and beyond, mutually exclusive to the machinations of the soul act of surfing and therefore elusive to the comprehension of the surfer.

Stand-up paddleboarding requires the use of a paddle, a canoe paddle by any other description, an outrigger canoe paddle in the first instance to be precise, and of course the use of a board.  As an outrigger canoeing coach and trainer of over 20 years throughout the Pacific, I have seen outrigger canoe paddlers gravitate toward SUP, some unsurprisingly at the very top of the sport  This synergy is no co-incidence.

While the slogan 'Only a surfer knows the feeling' holds true as a mantra to this tribal notion, so too 'Only a paddler knows the feeling' to which end the feeling is just as mutually exclusive being that stand up paddleboarding's greater sum of all its parts and niche interest are concerned with the propulsive power of the blade and therefore substantially greater than the sliver of interest of but a relatively few surfers, believing the power of the wave to be the all pervading power source for the sport. Paradoxically and significantly, the learning of stand up paddleboarding begins in flat, calm, sheltered waters for the novice, not in the surf environment and therefore any rational discussion as to whether a surfer or paddler would be better able to teach at the entry phase of the sport, is almost a moot point.

Surfing organisations who are taking ownership of the sport and seeking to convince national and localised governmental bodies and sporting authorities that SUP is fundamentally a surf sport, do the sport a huge injustice and would seem not to understand the very core fundamentals the sports roots.

Such is the confusion of definition, it is reflected in the nomenclature of the sport itself. Stand up paddleboarding, stand up paddling, stand up paddlesurfing, stand up paddle board surfing, stand up boarding, stand up paddle surf, stand up surfing, paddleboarding, 'Beach Boy' surfing, SUP`ing, SUP`ers.. It's hard to understand how a sport can successfully market and promote itself, when the collective masses, cannot agree upon a name, very probably because they are uncomfortable with it in the first place.

So fast has been the sports expansion, the tribal elders involved seem to have overlooked giving true consideration to an appropriate name to this run-away hybrid sport and so we have a somewhat undignified clumsy nomenclature, more fitting of a description than an intelligible, neat, tidy, universally understood construct.

All of this is not to say that we don't embrace the surfing element of the sport, far from it, we simply see this as an advanced variant of the sport and in doing so set out to apportion a rational, measured level of substantive definition and importance throughout the phases of progression of learning.

As an ASI Instructor, we aim to elevate your thinking and understanding of the sports grass roots to ensure its longevity, so that wherever there is a body of water suitable for learning, you will be able to educate to the highest of levels in such a way as to keep your customers safe and on a natural pathway of progression.