It's obvious the sport (in this country at least and possibly world wide) is dominated by participants in the 35+ age bracket. With talk of the explosion of SUP worldwide where are the juniors in Australia needed to develop and drive the sport into the future? With a couple of notable exceptions ie. Jake Jenson and Lincoln Dews challenging the old guard who else is coming through the ranks and what program's etc. will be needed for the sport to become established and not just a flash in the pan?

There's some work being done here in Vic on a SupGrom program.

DJ

Maybe part of the problem is transporting the boards. As someone who has to rely on other people to get my board to the beach i can tell you it's a pain plus i'm restricted to were other people want to go. I catch the bus to the beach and i see kids getting on with short boards or boogers who get to go wherever they want. Try getting on of these things around when you don't have a car and you might get some idea why young people don't take it up.[}:)]

^ and those camel packs are not cheap

Seriously tho,sure there are a few groms who's mum's or dad's sup into it but the groms don't think it cool just like longboardering so their into shortboarding, Marketing will help but your not going to get the numbers your chasing.
I'm not bagging sup just mhho.

my 11yr old son has been into surfing since he was 6 and sup for about a 2 years now. biggest issue is you have to pay $700-900 for a board they can use and not get pissed off trying to turn a 10foot boat. 8 ft tikki 26" wide lovin it when the waves are too small for shortboard. problem is once they hit teen age years peer pressure will take effect and i'm sure it then will be gay like every thing is, that every one else isn't doing. all i can hope for is the stoke is bigger than the crap he will get from his mates.

A more important question would be, is there a central organisation driving the direction of SUP? And if so do they have a strategic plan for the ongoing growth and development of that sport. How might attracting junior participants factor into that growth? Does the sport even need junior development right now, after all Lawn Bowls for instance has thrived for many years while only starting to try to attract junior participants in the last few years.

This is an issue I see in many large organisations, right now there is no focused direction. There is a lot of good work in putting together comps, training and participating. But it is ad hoc, it is done with individuals or small groups best interest in mind and not currently aligned with an overall direction.

Maybe that's not even what the sport wants right now, maybe organic growth is still the best thing? But if we want the sport to become established and not a flash in the pan some careful planing would be worthwhile. This may or may not include junior development at this stage, but an assessment of the benefits of a number of different positions should be considered and a single approach adopted.

I think the sport has already grown to a level where it wont go away, but some consideration to where the sport wants to be in 5 or 10 years might be worthwhile in answering questions like yours D. Of course the next question is who puts their hand up to run with this???

I'm really only talking about SUP racing rather than kids getting into surf sup. I'd prefer my kids to ride short boards in the surf.

I'm not sure that SUP is uncool amongst kids, at least for pre teens anyway. Both my kids aged 8 & 11 have been invited to SUP birthday parties on Currumbin creek and at our recent training group Xmas day the half a dozen kids there wanted to race each other across the creek all day.

What I think are probably the key problems in getting kids on sups are lack of an entry point into the sport i.e. youth based program's and a lack of specific kids equipment. A scaled down 9'6" board and kids size paddle costs considerably less to produce than a 12'6" or 14' and a hell of a lot less than sports like motor cross and a mere fraction of my daughters ballet fees They are also a lot easier than a big wide adult size board to learn the necessary skills.

Adapt there is talk of developing a junior squad locally that I and my kids are eager to get involved with. My hope is that others in other areas might do the same so that potentially we will see some future champs coming through the ranks that can compete and push each other and the sport forward. If the Olympics are on the radar then junior participation will be paramount.

62mac said...
^ and those camel packs are not cheap

Seriously tho,sure there are a few groms who's mum's or dad's sup into it but the groms don't think it cool just like longboardering so their into shortboarding, Marketing will help but your not going to get the numbers your chasing.
I'm not bagging sup just mhho.

Here's my young bloke Xmas day on his 9'6" x 24" Lahui Kai Barracuda Jnr Race. Looks pretty cool I reckon

p.s. he has a custom 5'4" short board as well.

laceys lane said...

rager said...

62mac said...
^ and those camel packs are not cheap

Seriously tho,sure there are a few groms who's mum's or dad's sup into it but the groms don't think it cool just like longboardering so their into shortboarding, Marketing will help but your not going to get the numbers your chasing.
I'm not bagging sup just mhho.

Here's my young bloke Xmas day on his 9'6" x 24" Lahui Kai Barracuda Jnr Race. Looks pretty cool I reckon

p.s. he has a custom 5'4" short board as well.

great news rager. your young fella already paddles better then you

That's only because he's modelling his technique off yours

rager said...

laceys lane said...

rager said...

62mac said...
^ and those camel packs are not cheap

Seriously tho,sure there are a few groms who's mum's or dad's sup into it but the groms don't think it cool just like longboardering so their into shortboarding, Marketing will help but your not going to get the numbers your chasing.
I'm not bagging sup just mhho.

Here's my young bloke Xmas day on his 9'6" x 24" Lahui Kai Barracuda Jnr Race. Looks pretty cool I reckon

p.s. he has a custom 5'4" short board as well.

great news rager. your young fella already paddles better then you

That's only because he's modelling his technique off yours

haha, no, can't be. saxon looks like a paddler in that shot


btw good topic

Just needs to be added to an elective in some schools PBC would be obvious right next to the creek , Coomera way have a few schools near the river and rowing course , varsity ect.Blow up boards may be an option to reduce costs. If i was a retailer i would be going to schools to have a chat.