Hard to really compare the two I reckon. I get more of a thrill in SUP but in different ways.

IMO Prone surfing is a lot more action packed, paddling and taking off when a lot closer to the surface and a bit more last minute is a buzz, then there is the looseness and way a surfboard rides. Good fun in its own way.

Sup surfing is a lot more enjoyable overall and I feel I can soak it all in a bit more, you see the waves a long way off and in a different way, the takeoff is a lot more certain and once on the face the glide is addictive.

My body also thanks me for SUP surfing, not as many injuries. The final reason I prob enjoy Sup more is the challenge of good waves and the freedom on them, a bit addictive!

I would encourage you to give prone a go, it will give you an appreciation and perspective if nothing else.

Come to SUPing 10 years ago after 40 years of surfing, I can say that it was just an extension of surfing with more thrills and power getting though sections faster and longer than surfing.
But I've some regrets about the time I take off and squeeze the tail of my 5'11" under the lip.

I have been surfing since before I was 10 years old. That was on a mat. From then on I have never stopped surfing. I am now 60.Through the years the boards have changed, but not the stoke. When I go for a surf I grab one from a quiver of sup surfboards and go surf. It feels the same, the wave, the glide... Though with the sup I am surfing a more advantageous platform in various aspects.
The weakness with a sup surfer without previous lineup experience is that they do not realize the advantages they have. The subtle differences between us and the others without paddle. That is when the 'fun' starts

Great thread.
Its funny, but I still kinda don't really differentiate in my mind. When I'm going for a paddle, I'm still just surfing the waves I catch - regardless of whether I've got a paddle in my hand or not.

There's that great footage in the movie, "That First Glide", with the Duke paddling into waves at Waikiki - no-one told the Duke he wasn't surfing that day.

In the same movie, Laird's talking about when he started SUPing waves at some of Hawaii's outer reefs, and he talks about some of the crew paying him out and he was totally bewildered and he goes, "...well, if it's not surfing, I don't know what is."

Without doubt, SUP adds whole other elements to the experience of riding waves, as others have pointed out, for me being able to slow myself down and read the sets and conditions is next level. I love being out the back, sometimes on my own, watching the colours change between the water and sky, watching animals feeding and chasing one another. Singing tunes in my head (or out loud) and letting melodies twist and turn into whole new songs.

The whole experience is an artful expression of my existence in that moment. It allows me to be in the moment and fully live (sorry, starting to sound like a Greenough/Chapman/Rastovich demon spawn).

I love calling others into waves - especially crew who are just learning. Seeing the stoke on their faces when they finally ride a wave is all time.
And there's zero hassle in the line-up, everyone's so much more chilled and happier.

When I grew up, the hassling was ferocious. We all wanted to be the next Occy or Matt Hoy and it became so tedious and painful just to get waves. It sucked the life out of being in the water.

SUP is the antithesis of that, it's a joy and I'm personally incredibly grateful for it.


No worries.
Rajneesh Mango

I was not a surfer. I was a sponger for 40 years. I loved dropping into waves like Sandy, the Wedge, and my local for many years was a nasty beach break in La Jolla at the end of Marine street. Never saw a surfer ever make a wave there.

I started to SUP because I wanted to be on the water without feeling like I had to wait for waves to get in the water. SUP allows that. Then when I accidentally glided on a boat wake, I was like wow, I got to get on a wave with a sup.

I am not a very good sup surfer and there are days I know I would have ripped on my sponge but there are more days where I am catching waves on my battleship of a sup that I wouldn't have even got in the water for on a body board.

My brother is a proner and has commented about why he dislikes sup surfers and it really boils down to wave count. We just catch more. He feels we cheat. As much as I fall fighting the wind does not feel like cheating to me. I feel I earn those waves.

I must be getting better because I have been the only guy out on days I know a proner will have a hard time with. Catch a few and the next thing I know the guys on the beach are in the water. When I leave, they are paddling hard but just can't get that little extra push that I was getting.

So, finally to the point. In my opinion, SUP has gotten me more waves on more days and I am overall happier than I was waiting for specific conditions to exist for the type of waves that stoked me on a sponge.

40 years surfing, the last three and a half on SUP. My sentiments pretty much mirror Creek's. I stopped surfing with others about 25 years ago, or so, opting to take a kayak to outer and more remote reefs. Having always been into paddle sports, the SUP just brought it all together. There is nothing easier about SUP. It's just different, all around. For instance, it may be easier to get in earlier on a fat burger, but on a draining, slabbing reef break, there's a lot more going on than just spin and go. It's taken me three years to get back to where I was on a shortboard, and I miss nothing. I have a friend who's in exactly your position. He's gotten pretty good on a SUP, but want's to surf, too. SO once in a while he grabs a mid length and heads out. Then he complains to me about the crowd not obeying "the rules." People back paddling him. People paddling back out right up the guts of the wave. Ditching their boards. Sitting in the way. All the things the Internet says they're not supposed to do LMAO Not in a million years would I get in that mess again. It almost ruined surfing for me, for good. SUP gave me a new lease on life.

Thanks for the confessionals guys! As one who started sup after never surfing at 50, its good to see that it is just a continuation of stoke for y'all. Its nice at 53 to be out there catching waves, usually more than the proners, (in a polite and I think generous way), and learning something new. I can't imagine learning how to prone, as my shoulders hate when I'm forced to prone paddle, and plus it took me a while not to suck at SUP surfing. Although I am jealous of the way that regular surfboards are much cheaper and fit into cars and airplanes better.

I am not from a prone surf background, started Sup surfing in mid 40's due to a physical condition and have had no real desire too prone as my short board heroes are the ripping Grom's... bloody water spiders... if only I learnt at their age
a quiver of different Sup's for varying conditions n mixing it up continues to progress my surfing and appreciation of the awesome chilled surf Sup'ers I've met on this surfing journey so far

copperdog1 said..

surgingsurf said..
I've never surfed, only SUP surfed.

Over the last few years I've got totally hooked and got pretty good but I still have that nagging doubt that maybe I should have devoted that time to learning normal surfing.

So, my question is for surfers who've become SUP surfers: how do you feel the two sports compare? Do you get the same thrill from SUPing that you used to from normal surfing?

Like most of the responders I came to SUP after years of prone surfing (and injury and the ravages of time). I can see the positives and negatives of both, but I am now a full time SUPper. I think the question for you though is a bit different - given that you're hooked and have become proficient, I'm not sure that taking up prone surfing would add anything to your SUP experience. So it's a question of whether you want to take up prone surfing for itself.

I think a lot of prone surfers came to sups because of injuries

Back,shoulder,problems ,the ****s with being out paddled and snaked by younger grooms.

Probably crowds have a lot to do with it,Surfing smaller waves that even mals can't pick up.

With the emerging foil and wing scene, you can sup ****tier waves and still have a ball.

Relatively new to sup surfing and still regularly surf shortboards, 45 yr habit I liken to saltwater heroin, except healthy and cleansing.
60 now and only motivations to give supping a crack was a sense of 'value adding' to the joy of surfing plus the unique opportunities it gives to surf different places & waves and all the benefits and joy that brings. I love the glide, it's not usually part of a shortboarders MO, and I look forward to linking manouvres to that sensation as I improve- ala STC and co. I find the humbling experience of beginning surfing again and kooking it and learning inch by inch a real pleasure and a fkn cack. What an honour to experience a form of surfing from scratch all over again.

So if you want to try surfing mate it's as simple as having a red hot go and as we all say "go for it", nothing to lose and the itch is scratched!

Can't envisage not surfing prone but definitely dedicating more time to sup surfing as the 'addiction' takes hold. Bit of an aside but my surfing mates are struggling with the fact one of their own could do such a thing cos I've paddled out a couple of times at our local rather than the tucked away spots but it's all cool. Mate told me this morning as we were having a surf they were all having a friendly dig at me and another sup/shortboarder mate supsurfing down the beach on the weekend. It's all good fun and I'd like to think crew like us are making some ground in de-stigmatising the negative supsurf thing.

I'd definitely try surfing mals initially as they're easier to learn on and there's a bit of synergy between them and sups, especially in the footwork dept. It's one of my achilles heels in learning to sup cos as a shortboarder there's minimal footwork and more weight movt.

Don't die wondering!

I Never Dwell on the past .

It's a new age and SUP is where it's at .

Tardy said..
I Never Dwell on the past .

It's a new age and SUP is where it's at .

Never any point in dwelling but no harm in reminiscing the past.

My background is surfing and I took on SUP 10 years ago. When I first saw footage of Laird SUPing I wanted to try that (Blame Laird ), but nobody was SUPing around here. Only in 2010, I was able to find a board (a big and heavy 10'6) and my goal was to SUP only when it was small. The other days I would just go shortboarding. But after one year, I was getting so fun and wanted to progress, that I mainly focused on SUP. And in a very short time I was already riding low volume boards, opening my own SUP business, started racing and doing a lot of downwinds (I live in one of the best places in Europe for downwind).

But last year, I picked a surfboard again (and also a longboard) and re-started surfing, especially when the waves weren't good (when it's good I SUP). But the problem is that I started foiling and wingfoiling, and now I try to foil or wingfoil as much as I can, so there's not much SUPing for me. I don't do downwind on a SUP no more (I had a Bullet 17'4 and afterwards a Bayonet 17'1), and this Summer I want to focus on downwinds on a foil. So now I only SUP when there's a good run of swell, and my surfing days are very rare again.

ah good old reminiscing therapy.
"Same same but different" would be the way my wife would explain, of course the act of surfing the wave is the same, fall line, bottom turns, reo etc but it's the subtleties that set each other apart. I had surfed from about 13 around the Newy area and due to life **** I moved to Victoria in '85 and took up skiing and windsurfing, got introduced to SUP at a windsurfing comp and bam I was hooked, I have recently renewed my prone surfing but this mainly to sit with my son and enjoy the chill.
I really think it's a worthwhile skill to sit with others and learn how the person not the act is different.

I surfed since about 14 years old and got ok, but still felt like I was spending far too much time trying to get waves amongst hardcore frothers who seemed to enjoy getting aggressive or just snaking all the time and got a little over it. Had some memorable days at Bells, Ti Tree and Raglan but kind of fell out of love for prone surfing a little bit, and chased the wind on my kite more often than looking for swell.

Then I bought a SUP mainly for flatwater paddling fitness stuff, but ended up taking it out in some sloppy 2ft for a laugh and had about 20x more fun than I was expecting.

Then it progressed to a full addiction and now its been about 8 years of SUP only, including some huge days surfing waves I never thought I would attempt on a paddleboard. And surfing so many places that would not be much fun on a shortboard, but are the best thing ever on a SUP with nobody else out.

Only now am I feeling the urge to challenge myself a bit more again so have a shiny new mini-mal that I want to master with the aim of getting into proper longboarding. I think noseriding looks like a great challenge, and my local beach has quite good waves for that sort of stuff.