Email
Print
del.icio.us
digg
yahoo!
Comments
FeedStand Up and Paddle
Photo by Paul Tefft
It’s another beautiful summer day on the swollen and surging Colorado River. With soaring cliffs above them, rafters and kayakers line up to drop into the last major rapid of the busy Shoshone stretch of Colorado’s Glenwood Canyon. A long, tumultuous stretch of crashing waves and currents waits downstream.
Suddenly, the parade of paddlers’ attention turns from the cascade below to a strange, new sight. A lone man, standing up on a surfboard, is stylishly stroking towards the brink of the drop. All eyes turn toward the surfer in disbelief as he deftly manipulates his long, single-bladed paddle and long board. Charlie MacArthur drops into “Superstition,” gracefully balancing on his bouncing board. Paddling hard to keep his forward momentum, he blasts down the rapid in an act of balancing bravado.
MacArthur, the owner of the Aspen Kayak Academy, is a pioneer in the brand new sport of stand-up paddling whitewater rivers. This hybrid sport is actually an offshoot of an ancient form of surfing, which can be traced back to the early days of Polynesia.
It has been an interesting journey from tiny islands in the Pacific Ocean to the mountains of Colorado. The sport’s most recent history dates back to the 1940s, when the surf instructors on Waikiki beach used to stand up and paddle out to the break using a one-bladed paddle. As time moved on and fashions and board designs evolved, the paddle was all but lost in the history of surfing. Recently it made a return to surfing in the hands of some of the world’s most famous watermen, and the “new” sport has since exploded in popularity.
Today, stand-up paddlers are surfing ocean waves everywhere and the sport has burgeoned in popularity on wind waves and calm waters as a fun way to get a great all-around workout. It was only natural that as a fitness freak and avid stand-up paddle surfer, MacArthur mixed these pursuits with one of his many other passions, kayaking. Last year he was one of the first in the world to offer stand-up whitewater river paddling lessons. “We are really excited to be offering this amazingly fun sport through our kayaking academy,” MacArthur says. “Stand-up paddling on a river is actually quite easy and anyone can do it.”
The Aspen Kayak Academy (aspenkayakacademy.com) starts its aspiring stand-up river paddlers on calm, slowly moving water, and students can progress rapidly. Neophytes can swiftly advance from the scenic waters of the North Star Preserve to more challenging stretches of the lower Roaring Fork and Colorado rivers. After a bit of practice, enthusiasts can charge in and out of swirling river eddies and catch never-ending rides on river waves. “As the equipment for river stand-up paddling improves, I can see us tackling Class IV rapids in the future,” MacArthur prophesies with a grin.
MacArthur is actively attempting to make this prediction come true. He is currently working with C4 Waterman, one of the world’s premier stand-up board manufacturers, to design a river-specific paddleboard, as none currently exists. A custom prototype river board he helped design will be on the market in the near future. With MacArthur at the helm, the outlook for standing up while paddling down the world’s rushing rivers looks bright indeed.
