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.
