So I was out surfing at a spot that over the years has been popular first with longboarders, then with short-boarders, then with "modern" longboarders, and now - increasingly - with stand-up paddle surfers.
It was really small and pretty weak and I couldn't help thinking about how at some point in the early 1990's it became next-to-impossible for anyone riding anything under eight feet long to catch a wave among the growing horde of reasonably fit surfers riding boards nine, ten, even ten-plus feet long.
So here's what I found interesting: when you take a look at the really long, wide and thick boards that stand-up paddle guys are riding today, and assume that these guys are for the most part pretty experienced, it's now extremely difficult for an average guy on a ten-foot longboard to catch the best set wave on a small, inconsistent day. After all, half the battle's been fought as the guy with the paddle is already standing up!
Where once the longboarder could sit deeper and cruise into waves long before short-boarders could even get moving, along has come the stand-up paddle surfer to exact the same sort of buzz-kill on the longboarder.
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