SUP
I would consider myself a hard core sea kayaker. I’ve demoed and rented a few SUP’s. I prefer the touring displacement hull boards vs. the more surf oriented boards. Where I live, a surf oriented board would be a waste, but I could put some miles behind me with a touring board.
I have enjoyed them enough to attempt to build one. My project is coming along nicely and it’s been fun. While I would never trade my sea kayak for a long “touring-like” trip, I’ve seen paddlers gear up fof long trips. My true passion is touring and for me a paddle board would fall into the glorified pool toy and exercise toy category.
I’d want to hop off and on for hot days in front of the cottage. I want to sit my kids on the nose and paddle (with pfd’s). I’d be attached to the board with an ankle leash. I would keep the board at the lake home vs. having to haul all my kayak gear each time we visit.
You do get a different kind of exercise burn than you do from straight paddling. Of course you can go faster and farther in a kayak, but I’m not looking for 20 mile days.
I have other various wife, time and kid reasons for wanting to add one to my stable of paddle options. In all, I do think they are fun. Get on youtube and check out some of the races and you can see experts logging some serious speed. I’ve seen some amazing long-board racers catching wave train after wave train.
At this pace, maybe my board will be done before it snows. But who knows maybe by next summer the fad will have passed 
aaaand…cue self-appointed forum cop
Answers
A) The reason you see these “educators” is there are a lot of distributors and manufacturers’ reps out there trying to strike while the iron is hot. They know that if this is a fad, like windsurfing was in the 80s, they need to push hard and make their money now while the fad is going strong. Even if they are hoping it will be more than a fad, they know they have to achieve some critical mass fast. They can’t just rely on the geographies that are best suited to their products, they have to push them whereever there is water to do this. I think the reason why so many folks are jumping on the bandwagon is as I said before, these things seem like an easy approach to water - not “stodgy” and “old-fashioned” like they think canoes are, not tippy like they think canoes and kayaks are either.
B) I think the reason people aren’t wearing PFD is because no one wears PFDs on surfboards. And these things haven’t been regulated yet. States haven’t passed regs requiring them to even carry PFDs, because they are still seeing them as surfboards.
Why should we care if you get it?
A lot of people do get it. I like the fact that a lot of women now are getting out into the surf and ripping it up on SUPs, has certainly changed the dynamic in the surf zone. I surfed saturday with 8 20 somethings trying out SUPs and they were all avid board surfers and were having a blast on the SUPs, I was in a surf kayak.
And I'm no longer considered a menace on my 8' wave ski in the line up because of all the barnies out there.
It's a really good work-out on flat water and gives you a different feel for paddling; it's fun. I'm not so sure about not being fast. I was on a wide beginners board last week and a ranger in a kayak was trying to catch up to me to talk with me and could not do it. I did not realize he was behind me, I was paddling as hard as I could go and he was fat and old, but with good technique you can move along pretty fast.
How come you didn’t want to talk
to the ranger?
In North Carolina,…
If not in the surf, you are required to have a PFD when on a paddleboard like any other vessel.
I wear an inflatable belt PFD to meet the legal requirement. The SUP has much more buoyancy than any PFD.
I didn’t notice him.
I didn't have my glassses on and I almost ran over a sea otter (I thought it was a kelp bulb), he was trying to warn me that they were popping up unexpected in the channel I was paddling in.
Oh, okay, it sounded like you
were trying to outrun him 
Interesting
It’s probably the way it should be, but funny that you still aren’t required to wear one in the surf, where you are most likely to fall off, and maybe hit your head.
Leashes are required…
at most beaches.
If they required them for SUP they’d have to do it for surfers who would be hampered by PFDs.
PFDs and paddleboards- answer
seems I was wrong about there being no regs on PFDs for paddleboards. As Davbart stated, some states do have their own state-level regs requiring PFDs. Also, I did some research and found out in December 2010 the USCG declared that paddleboards are vessels, and therefore require PFDs
However, WPA at least at one point was trying to get them to revise the language so that if you are tethered to your paddleboard with a leash, the board itself counts as a PFD.
An additional note,…
I think the popularity of SUP is apparent by your use of paddleboard and everyone’s understanding that you meant SUP.
Prone paddleboards have been around a long time, and are important tools for ocean lifeguards.
I know World Paddler’s Association
petitioned USCG to amend the reg:
““if the stand up paddleboard operator is tethered (wearing a leash) to their board or vessel, can this be deemed as an alternate or replacement for having a PFD.” Most would feel that a stock (12’6”) or larger SUP board would be a better floatation device as long as the operator were attached to the vessel.”
I am not sure I understand the logic of that. PFD stands for Personal Flotation Device, ie a device designed to float your person. You kind of have to wear it in order for it to work. If you are unconsiously tethered to a paddleboard, it isn’t keeping you afloat, you are acting as a sea anchor for it.
And yes, I know all the arguments about PFDs not keeping an unconscious person face up, so if you are conscious and attached to the paddleboard, you can get back to it and get back up onto it. That’s fine, but if that is the logic, then it makes no sense that if you choose not to be tethered to a SUP, you have to have a PFD on the SUP but don’t have to wear it. If a conscious person is swept off his board and can get to it to put his PFD on, then he shouldn’t need a PFD because he can use the board as a PFD, right? But if he can’t get back to it, having a PFD on it is going to do him no good.
for anyone
Doubting the legitimacy of SUP, I suggest you do something. Go sign up in a good race with unlimiteds and 14 footers. After the race when they have beaten your kayak or canoe to the finish and are drinking a beer waiting on you, you can tell them about how slow, unmaneuverable, and a waste of time their sport is. I did this, and was absolutely amazed by the class of athlete I saw on those boards.
Ryan L.
Eyore dude EYORE!
EE - ORE
jeesh! where’d you grow up anyway?
And if he has the right to post a thread
on the wrong forum, why do I not have the right to call him on it?
Actually, there have been far fewer inappropriate threads on the Advice forum recently, but I take no credit for it. Apparently, people have half a braincell.
large and unweildy?
I like the comments about these large, unwieldy boards - coming from kayakers. Most boards are 12’6" or under (yes, some go to 14 for a particular race class, and sometimes even longer, but I don’t see as many of those). Most of my kayaks are longer than this. And these unwieldy boards are half the weight of any of my kayaks.
I lead kayak tours and also instruct. I have seen many new kayakers who control their kayaks at the same level as the description of boardies blocking the channel. I don’t think it is the vessel, just them being new and untrained.
So - you don’t get it.
That’s because you haven’t been paying close attention.
I doubted the SUP thing at first, but I’ve seen enough of them in use now to understand the potential advantages for some people.
Around here, they’re taking them down class 3 rivers now and surfing the standing waves on the way. When they fall off, they don’t have to worry about swamping their boat. They seem to have little trouble getting back on, with practice. They don’t have to learn to roll. They don’t need any special vehicle or heavier racks to carry them.
All in all - they’re a pretty low-maintenance and low-stress toy. Pretty appealing to the masses, and some paddlers are getting really good with them. And they are wearing pfd’s here.
What was the question?
Excellent response, Spadefish.
well…
I don’t have one and have never paddled one, but I can see it to some extent. I am an avid sea kayaker, whitewater kayaker and canoeist.
Paddling a SUP is kind of like a cross between paddling a canoe, a whitwater kayak and a surf board. I watched a video on it and there is more to it if you chose to be serious about it.
One might say the same things about rec kayaks lacking sophistication, etc.
The SUP apparently responds quite a bit to trim and moving backwards and forwards on the board to turn and in the surf zone, and you can spin it by sinking the stern a bit kind of like a whitewater kayak pivot turn.
Plus they look like a blast to surf.
One of the best sea kayakers I know has gotten pretty heavily into SUPs for surfing.
Matt