Tuesday, November 23, 2010

Surfers Walking On Water At Cosy Corner!

Rich Bartle of Strapper Surf has a passion for Stand Up Paddling, his key objectives were to promote SUP safety, engage with the local community, and let people demo the latest 2011 boards from Paddle Surf Hawaii and Naish International - 2 of the biggest players in the market.
The tents went up under cobalt blue skies as a gentle on shore drifted over the sand. Van loads of demo boards ranging from 14ft dedicated carbon fibre race boards to the latest 7’8 short board SUPs designed to tear the lip right off the top of the wave were ferried to the beach.
The crowd gathered in anticipation as they had seen the 2011 models in magazines and on the web, but now was the opportunity to actually get your hands on the real deal. The variety of people attending was amazing; short boarders, longboarders, stand up paddlers, mums, dads and kids. They all had beaming smiles ready and eager to get their hands on a board and a paddle.
Everyone was asked to register as safety was at the top of the agenda, and the Torquay Surf Life Saving Club was onboard to assist with RIB supervision of the event. Each participant was provided with either a yellow “Play It Safe By The Water” rash vest for those who were more experience or a blue rash vest for new comers to the sport. To further enhance safety, Surf Session Surf Coaching provided all new comers with a free lesson giving them a solid grounding in both paddling skills and etiquette in the water.
Cam Lamperd and Matt Lumley from Surf Sessions ran 4 group lessons on the afternoon and were stoked to see how many people wanted to learn and how keen they were on the sport. Cam said “After each lesson I told each group to catch 1 or 2 waves and then head to the beach” however each time Cam, Matt and the rest of the coaches had to round up the group and drag them back to beach as they were having way too much fun.
The hard core competition boys were checking out and comparing board against board, rocker against rocker and there was lots of talk about concaves, outlines, volume and the like. Everyone was searching for that new weapon that might give them an edge and they had a smorgasbord to choose from.
DJ, Cam, Roscoe and Talon did a fantastic job of keeping hunger at bay with a constant supply of smoking hot snags sizzling on the BBQ, and ice cold drinks in the esky. Wave after wave of famished stand up paddlers emerged from the surf and descended upon them until they finally ran out of food at 3.30pm.
The Strapper event was an outstanding example of the SUP spirit, lots of families attended with mum and the kids all having a go, not just sitting on the sand. If you measure the success of a event by how happy crew are at the end of the day, then the Cheshire car smiles in the car park meant this was all time.

Phill and Kristiana Page
Sea Me Surf Photography.
Simon riding the new 12' 6" Catalina from Naish
Cam testing the Naish AST Javalin







Photos by Phill Page & Dave Peterson

2 comments:

  1. Thank you Strapper for the opportunity to demo the Sup boards,we enjoyed the day :-)

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