Select to expand quoteFoam said..
I would say the same as windsurfing non existent cost outweighs the joy
What!? Ok windsurfing is expensive but it is cheap compared to boating/yachting and is still pure joy - especially wavesailing.
I think there will be more restrictions on SUPs in terms of safety requirements.
More issues about if/where you can surf with surfers.
Downwinding should get more popular and get organised into clubs.
There could be some interesting developments in the industry in terms of how/where boards get made due to new manufacturing technology coming out.
no more surfers? they have all moved on/given up and taken up road bike riding and are jamming up all the car lanes?
7 footers
shaped by local surf shapers
fk off all the bog and paint, just simple construction, foam and glass but light somehow.
with the above 2 should be 1000-1500 bucks
wide noses but pulled in hip tails like an Al merrick.
vertical re-entries
barrels
a happy vibe between surfers, sups and mals providing you prove you are worthy to be out there.
bzz bzz bzz alarm goes off, time for work wake up.
good dream
Racing will either be a TV sport with plenty of sponsorship and professionalism, or it will have imploded and it will be virtually non existent. Sliding Doors.
If it does become professional, then at some point, all the leading competitors will realise that they are not Kelly Slater and they will stop wearing inefficient and counter effective apparel - i.e. board shorts. The women have already figured this out but the men are probably going to take at least a couple more years before the penny drops.
not much different to where it is now , surfing hasn,t changed much really in the last 20 years ,mainly more people doing it
SUPs are just too much fun. They are here to stay. They will always be affordable because there will always be demand. The design is simple and elegant. Nothing to set up, no bits to lose.
One thing for sure, they will be able to handle direct sunlight without delaminating!
Of course, there will be plenty gathering dust with bowflex machines and the rest, but everyone who loves the water, lusts for waves, and wants to stay fit will use their SUP.
In only 5 years' time very little will have changed. It will be Groundhog Day, mostly. Local shapers will have started to undercut Cobra-made boards price-wise because of the increasingly strong Chinese currency as China overtakes the US as the largest economy globally. So there will be more brands on the market, and maybe even some of the big brands will start experimenting with local production.
In SUP surfing, the 10ft category has started to dominate through sheer participant numbers, and people are laughing at the fact that comps used to be held on boards where competitors would be sunk to their knees between sets. We have started to introduce SUP-specific scoring criteria rather than ape surfing ones.
But these changes are still at an early stage. The lack of a coherent and widely accepted worldwide body to represent the sport, and the failure for the community to find a suitably charismatic and politically-adept figurehead means that attempts to improve the position of the sport relative to more established ones has failed.
A local shaper discovered a way to make boards that were virtually indestructible, light, and cheap. They were quickly closed down by the leading factories, who announced a merger then wrapped them up in legal red tape, patented the process so no-one else could use it, and then stopped using it, going back to the old ways, telling us that the new technology produced boards that didn't have the right "feel".
And every brand is now using handles like the SIC ones.
Up **** creek without a paddle
i reckon it will continue to grow in Europe and that will be the epicentre, will remain a niche sport in oz until it's integrated into the surflifesaving movement.no kids no future, more importantly no mums and dads forking out the hard earned for their grommies. Or a respected nationally body that everyone gets behind and supports. Australian paddlers to dominate racing and surfing well into the future.
If manufacturer and paddler reviews keep going the way they have for new board technology, we will all be paddling 10 inch wide boards that cruise at around 20 knots and race pace of over 30. 
I mean it seams every time a new board comes out is is way more stable than the last one and wow you won't believe how fast this is.
I get it. Board makers need to hype each design to keep a steady turnover to stay in business but sometimes i do get sick of the "unbiased" reports.
It certainly isn't going to be a fully professional sport covered by mainstream media and overflowing with sponsorship. Not knocking the sport but participation numbers are too low.
Olympic sport? Sure why not. But becoming an Olympic sport doesn't represent the pinnacle of success or guarantee a golden future, look at windsurfing. Who cared about the olympic windsurfing events?
Don't understand why people keep saying numbers are low, doesn't look that way to me. Everyone may not choose to race or go in surf comps, as far as I can tell numbers are booming. World wide.
its gonna get buisey at all coastal surf breaks when the back packers start using them beware of the kook euro in an your area soon .once they start travelling with them around oz, its will get interesting ,thats whats comming dudes .
Some poor bastard on facebook got his jaw smashed by a sup he said the sup went up the face as he was paddling for the wave and the sup in in the wrong hmm mm
If your prone paddling for a wave why the hell are you heading down the face into a sup
Select to expand quoteFoam said...
Some poor bastard on facebook got his jaw smashed by a sup he said the sup went up the face as he was paddling for the wave and the sup in in the wrong hmm mm
If your prone paddling for a wave why the hell are you heading down the face into a sup
Seriously mate, go to the Alley on any weekend and see how some of the SUPS paddle out and for waves.... it will leave you in disbelief
Select to expand quoteWhassup said..
It certainly isn't going to be a fully professional sport covered by mainstream media and overflowing with sponsorship. Not knocking the sport but participation numbers are too low.Select to expand quoteteatrea said..
Don't understand why people keep saying numbers are low, doesn't look that way to me. Everyone may not choose to race or go in surf comps, as far as I can tell numbers are booming. World wide.
In relative terms, numbers are low. Whassup is quite right, unless there is a dramatic increase in interest, competitive SUP will not feature on network television within 5 years. If you compare participation in SUP with major sports like golf, cricket, tennis, Aussie Rules, soccer, netball, etc, then you will appreciate that SUP is not even a blip on the radar.
The only massively popular sport I can think of where the prize money, sponsorship levels and media exposure are not underwritten by amateur participation rates is UFC/MMA. Maybe SUP racing needs to introduce a full body contact, last man standing, smack down format.
I too have seen some strange things at the ally.... A guy kneeling on a sup using a kayak paddle to catch waves and then standing up was up there with the strangest
SUP will not go down the same path windsurfing did, it will last. Simple as that. Too many great companies out there to let it do the elitist path that windsurfing took. gear that only pro's could get the most of and just way OTT for the average sailor to have fun on.
So many positives with SUP being easily accessible for everyone, you can choose what path you want to take, be it waves, racing, flat water, exploring, mucking around with the kids or just cruising by yourself.
Companies like Naish, *board, Fanatic, NSP etc are in for the long haul. Can you imagine someone like Robby Naish letting his company become elitist and so high end that the general public goes "Bugger that, too much effort". Windsurfing did, its come back in a good way but doesn't have the participation SUP has now or will ever have. I could be wrong but have been around long enough to see what windsurfing went through and Im sure the industry wont let that happen again.
I love both sports, windsurfing for a very long time and SUP since my 50th. We are very lucky!!!
The rise in pricing is a indication 4 years ago you could get the American boards for $1700 now 3 to 3500
The future of surf and SUP board manufacture could be shifted back to local shapers using a Kiwi company Kina Road's robotic shaping technology: kinaroad.com/
"Building boards is traditionally labour intensive, which is why high volume production typically takes place in low labour cost countries. This creates inefficiencies both in lead times and transportation costs. Our mission is to develop technology that achieves the efficiencies necessary to bring profitable surfboard production back to your local region. Kinaroad’s shaping module is available under a ‘shape as a service’ model, meaning we will deploy the system at our cost and charge a per shape fee for each board shaped. Unlike the existing shaping solutions (simple routers and CNC machines), kinaroad has developed a next generation robotic solution that automates the entire process including turning over of the board and routing of fin boxes. Boards of up to 14 feet in length are machined to within 200 microns of accuracy in under an hour, reducing the need for highly skilled finish shapers."
I think SUPS will rule the world one day. 
