You beat me to it guys ! I am always keen to promote anything ethical and green as these issues are really important to me. I was talking to Andy from Airhead about setting up an ethical surf clothing company before Christmas, just really throwing ideas around, but these guys at Rapanui have beaten me to it, and they are local, so that makes it very cool. I hope to be seeing your stuff in the shops soon - good luck ! Press release is below :
Rapanui Clothing is an organic and sustainable clothing company based on the Isle of Wight. Powered by renewable energy throughout the product life cycle and only using natural fabrics, Rapanui has a fair claim to being the greenest clothing company in the world, on its credentials alone.
Set up by surfing brothers Rob and Mart Drake-Knight, 23 and 21 respectively. The brothers were motivated to influence environmental change after becoming ill from surfing in polluted waters. Mart wears scars from a skin infection caused by pollution; Rob spent three days of a holiday in France in bed due to sickness caused by field run-off.
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During the Stand Up Paddle Surfing competition last weekend I met up with Adriano from Indo Europe. Over the years I had been bumping into him via the Shore Surf Club and surfing with him at East Head and various other local breaks. I have been interested in balance boards ever since I broke my leg on a half pipe and the physio who got me back in action used several different types of balance board to return my balance, leg and ankle strength and rotation to full health.
I can certainly see the physiological benefits from being rehabilitated, but I was unaware of the edge it can give you for surfing and stand up paddle boarding, so here is the press release from Indo, writen by Adam Zervas, a pro surfer/SUPer :
Whether you are dreaming of doing an “Hawaiian style” paddle between islands, as they do in Polynesia, or a paddle at your local break - you are going to need a lot more fitness strength than you think. The Stand Up Paddle Board is exploding on to the market and is here to stay as part of our beach and ocean culture.
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Andy Cooper from airhead surf shop in Rustington has got the first lot of C4 Stand up paddle boards in the UK. Andy took it for a test and wrote up the results on his blog here. I am looking forward to checking this board out, for more info get in touch with the airhead crew.
We have just recieved this from the people at Global Surf Industries :
Klaus Buchmann had a revelation a few years ago - tired of his boards falling over and getting wax on both sides of them, he decided enough was enough and went about developing a device that would hang his surfboards off the ground using the board’s removable fin system. From Klaus’s handy work was born the Hang Up System. It is without doubt the biggest revolution in the merchandising of surfboards ever.
The storage and presentation of surfboards at the retail level is a challenge to say the least. With the Hang Up System the boards hang tip down this design allows for the boards to take up the most minimal space available. The hangers work on any hanging rail system, so surfboards can be merchandised in any part of the store, not just the board room.
Currently Hang Ups have been developed for the FCS and Futures fin systems with a Longboard Box hanger in development right now.
To allow the Hang Up System to be fully developed Klaus has entered into an arrangement with Global Surf Industries to manufacture and sell the product worldwide. “ I am super stoked to see my little invention being offered around the world. The feedback from everyone I have spoken to since I have developed the product has been fantastic. The deal with GSI is the icing on the cake for me, they have the infrastructure to make it happen quicker than I ever dreamed possible”, Klaus Buchmann.
GSI’s President and Managing Director, Mark Kelly said about the deal “ The merchandising of surfboards has been a real problem up until now. Many of the racking systems are expensive and cumbersome and they take up huge amounts of expensive retailing floor space. The Hang Up System finally allows retailers to have some flexibility. The retailers who are already using it love it and can’t imagine going back to the old rack type arrangement”.
To find out more about the Hang Up System go to www.surfindustries.com/hangups
It looks like a really interesting product for surfshops and for people who have alot of surf boards and a space problem ! I would like to see the longboard hanger, but you would need alot of headroom to store longboards and SUP boards on this system.
Josh from Preston got in touch with us to say how happy he was with Dave and the staff at Spot On Water, in Mudeford, Dorset (close to Christchurch and Bournemouth). Josh got himself a Jimmy Lewis 11ft board and a hybrid C4 Pohaku Carbon blade and wooden shaft paddle, which the Spot On Water guys arranged to have sent up to Preston for Josh.
Here is an extract from his email :
Hi,
Just wanted to let you know that I bought my SUP from “Spot on Water” in
Bournemouth.
Please add them to your list because these guys were really helpful in
getting my board up to the North.
Regards,
*Josh*
We got in touch with Dave at Spot On Water to see what SUP equipment they have in stock right now and they have the Mistral Pacifico, but they are waiting (like most of the UK) for a restock of Jimmy Lewis, Mistral, Naish and C4 Paddles.
You can get hold of the shop via the Spot On Water website or you can call them on 01425 272509.
Good customer service is so important when buying things like this - so share your recommendations thoughts with us by getting in touch with us via the SUPUK email address : info@supuk.org
More proof, if any was needed that Stand Up Paddle boarding is going to be huge. This piece of news has just been bought to our attention - Fat Face are running a competition to win a Starboard Stand Up Paddle Board (lets hope its the sexy looking red one with the wood veneer finish). These boards are really interesting as you can put a windsurf rig onto the board to turn it into a low wind freestyle type board. We at supuk.org hope to get out on one of these to do a write up soon - watch this space !
Go to the Fat Face SUP competition web page, fill in your details and thats all there is too it. The competition closes on 30th September 2007.
Looking to buy some Stand Up Paddle Board Equipment ?
Welcome to the first retail round up. As you probably know demand is high for SUP equipment and supply is low. So here is the round up of whats in stock and who is stocking it. Hopefully it will make your shopping easier.
Now that is as much as I can find right now, and I know that the boards fly out the doors of these shops. If you are a shop with SUP gear in stock and want to be included then please get in touch.
