Stand Up Paddle Austin! Austin has become the Stand Up Paddle (SUP) Capital of the World!

Austin has become the Stand Up Paddle (SUP) Capital of the world. Stand up paddle surfing originated in ancient Hawaii. It went away for a long period of time and re-emerged in the 1960's. Then it washed away into obscurity again for 3-4 decades until it made a strong comeback at the onset of the 21st century. It then began to spread to other surfing regions around the world, such as Southern California, particularly Malibu, Newport Beach, San Diego and Dana Point. Undoubtedly, Hawaii should be and is considered the Home of (SUP) Stand Up Paddle Surfing and always will be.

So while Hawaii is the "Home of (SUP) Stand Up Paddle Surfing", there are several reasons why Austin, Texas has emerged as the "Stand Up Paddle (SUP) Capital of the World". The following are some of the reasons for it, followed by some facts to support it.

Austin, TX is ideal for stand up paddling from many respects. Austin is a fitness focused town, with Austinites eager to take on any new form of fitness. Stand up paddling is a total body workout. Its the perfect combination of many forms of fitness already popular in Austin: Running, jogging, walking, swimming, tennis, weight lifting, pilates, aerobics, boot camps, bicycling, rowing, kayaking, canoeing, etc. We refer to SUP as, "Exercise in Disguise", as stand up paddling provides for a full body workout while having fun, with low impact and even getting to spend time on the water. And, of course, Central Texas has many popular recreational lakes and rivers. Given all these factors, it was clear, SUP (Stand Up Paddling) was going to be huge in Austin.

SUP ATX, or Stand Up Paddle Austin Texas, was created to fill this obvious vacuum. Nick Matzorkis has lived on Lake Austin for nearly ten years, temporarily relocating to Malibu, CA in 2008 with the plan to return to his Lake Austin home in 2010. This provided for a "perfect storm" of circumstances leading to the creation of SUP ATX. Having moved to a beach house in Malibu Colony, just as Stand Up Paddle Surfing was taking off in Southern California in plain site from his beach deck, Matzorkis, a lifelong entrepreneur, immediately began stand up paddle surfing.

Matzorkis states that within five minutes of his first experience stand up paddling that the realization struck him that SUP, for all the reasons listed above, was going to be huge in Austin. That, with the right push, Austin would in fact quickly become the Stand Up Paddle (SUP) Capital of the World. By the end of his first stand up paddle experience, the idea for SUP ATX was born.

The SUP ATX "About Us" page details the process that then went into the development of SUP ATX stand up paddle boards, carbon fiber paddles, related SUP equipment and the marketing efforts to support the overall mission, but the end results speak for themselves.

- SUP ATX is manufacturing well over 10,000 SUP boards in 2010, which is four to five times more than any other stand up paddle board maker, making SUP ATX by a large margin "The #1 Stand Up Paddle Board Maker in the World", as an Austin, Texas based company.

- SUP ATX is selling more stand up paddle boards in total and in more countries than any other stand up paddle board maker, all branded with "SUP ATX", proudly spreading its Austin, TX roots via stand up paddle boards to all corners of the world.

- The SUP ATX Facebook page with well over 10,000 Fans as of May 2010, has by a multiple of about ten times, more fans than any other stand up paddle related entity on Facebook. This is the largest online community of stand up paddlers on the Internet.

- The SUP ATX Meetup Group based in Austin, TX, with with over 1,500 members as of May 2010, is the largest organization of stand up paddlers anywhere in the world. With five scheduled weekly Meetups on Austin area lakes, and with SUP ATX providing stand up paddle boards for those who don't have their own yet, approximately 500-1000 Austinites per week are stand up paddling. This is more than any other one city anywhere and is by far a large multiple of the number of stand up paddlers in any given week, even in SUP strongholds such as Malibu, CA.

- The SUP ATX website is the most visited SUP related website, with 40,000-50,000 monthly visitors as of May 2010.

- SUP ATX videos, widely published on YouTube, FOXsports.com, Facebook and the SUP ATX website are the most viewed SUP related videos on the Internet. "The SUP ATX Stand Up Paddle Journey from Malibu to Austin" has been viewed 3 million times online as of May 2010. This one video has been viewed more times than all other stand up paddle related videos combined that are published on YouTube.

The SUP ATX mission has been clear from the beginning: "To Spread the Sport of Stand Up Paddle Surfing from Oceans to Lakes and Rivers Across the United States and Around the World, Beginning from its Home of Austin, Texas, and to Establish Austin as the Stand Up Paddle (SUP) Capital of the World."

SUP Austin | SUP ATX - Stand Up Paddle Blog

One of the many things I find amazing about stand up paddling is the common reaction it draws from people seeing it for the first time. "I've never seen that before". Or, if they have seen it, something along the lines of, "I saw that once in a magazine". This is astounding to me. That in the year 2009 the great majority of well educated, sophisticated and well traveled adults across the United States and around the world have never seen someone simply standing on a floating board and paddling (myself included until not-too-long-ago)!

There seem to be a million ways human beings have figured out how to traverse water since the beginning of time; rafts, conoes, row boats, motor boats, jet skis, surfboards, water skis, ships, even submarines. Yet in the year 2009 most people around the world have not seen a human being simply standing on a floating board and paddling. Its so ironic given that stand up paddling seems to be the most natural and obvious way for human beings to traverse most waterways around the world.

Human beings are unique because we stand erect on two legs. The great majority of the Earth's surface is covered with water. Civilizations around the world necessarily eminate from and around water sources. Human beings are made up mostly of water. Yet, it has taken humankind until 2009 to begin to recognize stand up paddling as a viable means of water transportation; for exercise, recreation and functional transportation. The industrial revolution didn't make it possible. The techonological revolution didn't make it possible. Standing on a floating board and paddling was possible millions of years ago. Yet, what should be as familiar to most people around the world as a bicycle or a row boat, until now, seems to have been overlooked for the most part by humankind.