ThePaddler 118
Whilst I tried kitesurfing (with limited success and numerous salt-water enema wipeouts) I was quite happy to windsurf when it was windy and surf when it wasn’t. The challenge with surfing in Kenya, and the south coast in particular, is that the reef is in some places 500 metres off-shore. This involves an exhausting paddle (especially on a 5’10’’ Fish) and leaves you a long way from safety if anything goes wrong. Local fisherman will take you to the reef on their ‘dhows’ but this requires a degree of forward planning and organization altogether at odds with the ‘Hakuna Matata’ vibe. Thus the development of Stand-Up Paddlesurfing was a revelation! We could now paddle to the reef in ten minutes, surf for two hours and still have enough energy to kite or windsurf all afternoon! And if it wasn’t windy it didn’t matter – rather than sitting on the beach getting bored we could take a bunch of people out to SUP on the reef, paddle and spearfish in the lagoon or explore the mangrove swamps.
We could now paddle to the reef in ten minutes, surf for two hours and still have enough
energy to kite
or windsurf all afternoon!
Boris started by ordering a pair of Naish Nalu 11’6” SUPs and has since added a Nalu 10’0”, a Mana 10’0” Soft-top and a Hokua 8’10” to the line-up. There’s a small scene in Kenya and Boris is the only importer of SUPs; there are no other surf shops but from time to time we get our hands on boards from Starboard, Surftech and other manufacturers and get to experiment with different shapes, fin configurations and constructions.