www.coastalwatch.com/news/article.aspx?articleId=11971&cateId=3&title=Interview:%20Dave%20Parmenter%20On%20Making%20Boards%20and%20Other%20Things&display=0#ixzz2acQkOGojextract from article/interview
Can you tell about your involvement in the development of the SUP? What it was originally created for? And how do you feel about it being used in the line-up nowadays??Beachboy-style surfing,? as we pioneers called it, had been around for ages but had never been modernized or taken to a more sophisticated level. Brian Keaulana, a true pioneer in many fields, especially water safety/rescue, took up this activity with a lot of zeal and within a few months revolutionized it to the point where it is recognizable in its present form. I was more or less the Tom Blake to his Duke Kahanamoku here, building all the prototype stand-up boards, including but not limited to the very first short SUPs and downwind raceboards.
What is now known as SUP was intended by Brian and I to escape crowds and move into uncontested realms further afield. While it could be argued that stand-up paddle surfing has spread people out more rather than causing more crowding, it is obvious that human nature being what it is, there are quite a few imbeciles abusing them just as they did modern longboards and leashes when they appeared. Just as dynamite and aviation were meant to benefit mankind, they all too often ended up being the tools of evil, and I find myself at present in the position of Charles Lindbergh, who spent most of his life championing aviation but who at the end of his life turned his back on it, as he was disenchanted at how the airplane had wrought so much destruction through the turmoil of the 20th Century.
I have always made it clear that nobody should be using SUP surfboards at any break with a history of use as a conventional surfing spot.
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