drift, perspectives in surfing

Words: Ethan Jackson/Clay Feeter
Photo: Glenn Dubock

Ethan Jackson, takes Clay Feeter to task. The publisher of Standup Journal has agreed to free up his jet-setting, SUP-macking schedule to speak to Drift’s most underrated and cut-throat contributor.

Lemme jump in here real quick, Ethan. I guess it would be cool to be seen as a jet-setter but in reality this sup explosion is filled with so much nitroglycerin that I can barely leave the office to paddle.

Really! I couldn’t make the Battle of the Battle because of our press deadline
…and when we crawled out of that deadline I had ELEVEN HUNDRED unread emails greeting me.

So, the only jet-setting I do is tossing my board on the car and jamming over to the NH coast for some sup surfin’…

EJ: Clay, let’s get straight to business here. Sorry… no softball questions, this is serious journalism. I can not be bought. What is the trigger for the growth of standup paddleboards (SUPs) across the globe? Why has it blown up? Why is Pierce Brosnan pearling and eating sand?

Before I get to your first question, I’d really like to express my strong feeling that our sport should NOT be called “SUP” but instead it should be called “sup.”

In fact Standup Journal always uses “sup” in our stories, never “SUP.”

EJ: Why?

I like to look at it the way other sports, like scuba’s name has evolved. When underwater diving first became popular it was called S.C.U.B.A.

And now it’s simply written “scuba.” Easy, no caps, no shouting. There is something very unfriendly about “SCUBA” and “SUP”…

Now, as to why the heck Pierce Brosnan is pearling up to his eyeballs on one of his several sup boards, I think Laird has something to do with that.

Laird Hamilton has turned so many people – and Hollywood stars – onto standup.

Our associate publishers Steve Sjuggerud from Florida, and Glenn Dubock from California  spent five hours with Laird last week in Malibu.

During their interview and sup sesh they were having lunch at a Malibu cafe, and up walks Sean Penn. He shot the shit with Laird for a few minutes while Steve and Glenn just went numb.

Anyway, the reason Pierce Brosnan and the rest of we mortals around the world are so jacked on sup is that is it THE biggest no-brainer sport in the history of the world…

I’ve been surfing since 1969 and windsurfing since 1979; both as you know are HARD to learn, so people quit left and right.

But sup, for 3 years I’ve been handing friends a paddle, shoving them off the dock and the only tip I seem to ever have to give is, “turn your paddle blade around the other way.”

EJ: Can you tell us, in a non-pitchy way, what your magazine is really about and why you think it has a place in the magazine racks?

Standup Journal is about #1: people whose eyeballs are popping out from their pure stoke of this ridiculously simple yet new and exciting sport.

I mean, think about it, you have a board, you have a paddle. And look at all the directions we are going: surf, cruising, rivers… and I truly think we will see freestyle sup emerging soon.

And #2, we are about “The Photographer.” I am a huge, huge fan of the gods that image makers are. Photographers have been getting a bit of the shaft with the plethora of websites that tend to run their work for little to no money, and those precious images tend to come and go on websites; the “lasting” quality we appreciate in, say, art galleries is not there.

Don’t get me wrong, if it weren’t for websites so much of what we at the Journal have accomplished (25 country distribution, etc.) would not have been possible so quickly…

… but we made a decision from the very start, June 2007, to produce the highest quality publication possible; kind of “going old school” in a world of Internet.

EJ: Why do you think people feel threatened by sups? Are people really just pissed that others are able to “stand” out further in the line up and catch more waves—like the “longboard renaissance?”

The only “threatened” people in the sup universe are surfers at mostly crowded surf spots, which – surfing – five years from now will make up only about 15% of the standup paddling population.

In other words the vast majority in the near future will be sup’ing on flatwater… inland…

That doesn’t mean we should avoid the hassles we see at surf spots today. It just means that, in my opinion, the guys who are now riding longboards will eventually be replaced by the guys riding sups in the lineup.

EJ: I admit I’m a fan of the sup in small surf as long as somebody isn’t using it to snake every wave. However, it’s a lot harder than it looks. How accessible is the price of entry to a young surfer? It seems like it’s a bunch of older dudes with money.

Ethan, Ethan, Ethan… haven’t you been watching VH1? Two of the most popular shows, “Daisy of Love” and “Antonio…” on VH1 have just recently featured sup, and those are both 15 to 32 year old market shows.

That’s the ticket with sup, it’s for everybody. We paddled into the landing after a 10-mile downriver sup session a couple weeks ago here in New Hampshire and three 10-year old boys were fishing with their dad.

Lemme tell ya, all those guys could do as we paddled in was bug their dad incessantly, “Dad, I wanna do that!”

Standup paddling is especially empowering to young women. It the the ultimate freedom tool. And as for cost, there are a lot more good used boards for sale now at great prices.

And with any killer sport no matter how old you are how much money you make you WILL find a way to pay for a new toy.

EJ: Are people not getting completely throttled in the line up when it’s head high on sups? I’ve seen the shots and it looks effortless, but what happens when you go over the falls with a 10’ board and your leash?

It’s not much different than a longboard. If you are a surfer it’s no big deal, if you aren’t a surfer then you go through the same things a surfer would go through anyway… BUT there is no doubt that catching waves on a sup board is way easier to learn.

I took my two teenage daughters sup surfing a mellow righthander point break last May. They have been doing standup for a couple years but never in the surf.

This was a deep channel, nice mushy rollers. Within half an hour their eyeballs were as big as golf balls, they were screaming at the top of their lungs, holding their paddles over their heads and going nuts; loving riding waves.

EJ: Finally, Clay, the question that no one else will dare ask, do sups get better gas mileage than SUVs?

Only when you do what I do: drive a Prius.