STAND UP PADDLING with Mark Jackson
Our regular Stand Up Paddling (SUP) contributor is the energetic Mark Jackson, North Shore native and owner of Stand Up South Pacific Ltd. After 25 years competing and teaching in Hawaii, the Caribbean and the Mediterranean, Mark Jackson has brought Standup South Pacific to New Zealand. As a water sports instructor he has taught for many well known sports stars and celebrities. Some of his competitive results include: 1987 Wailea Speed Crossing 1st Place; 1988 Maui County Slalom Championships 1st Place; 2nd 3rd & 4th places in the Papa He’e Nalu Tandem Maui Surf; 2007 Maui Canoe & Kayak Club S.U.P. Division Champion; 2007 SUP Starbucks Maui to Molokai Challenge 1st Place.
Supliminal Advertising
Why the hype, the buzz, the trend, the addiction? Did someone sucker punch us with Supliminal advertising? How is it that Stand Up Paddling boarding is becoming the ‘Cruise Control’ switch for so many of us? Is it an aphrodisiac, an antidote to civilisation, an aquatic ascension or a cocktail of all three?
Slicing gently and silently through the sparkling Waitemata; a paddle; your saber, your sword of independence as you frolic like a searching albatross along the Hauraki Gulf realising blissfully that you’ve found that magic dragon from that land called Hanalei! This is the Yin of SUP. The soft!
Battling for supremacy, mano a mano on bombora sea waves. Blazing a trail, making a wake, wielding a blade. A striker on his chariot upon the channel in pursuit of his goal. The gold. The medal. The win. This is the Yang of SUP. The hard!
Once, while paddling off Takapuna Beach with my wife, just chilaxing and getting in the groove, I drifted into a Feng Shui autopilot, a cruise control if you will! Two songs surfaced, ebbed in my mind and stuck there like barnacles to a rock.
Smokey Robinson’s CRUISIN and The Rascals, GROVIN ON A SUNDAY AFTERNOON. If you’re generation X you’ll remember ‘em like yesterday! If you’re NOT, hunt ‘em down on YouTube and have a listen and I’ll bet you get one of them stuck in your head... all day!
I think for most of us that do Stand Up Paddle, Crusin is really what it’s all about. I realised that on our second ‘Paddle Play Day’ for the disabled kids of the Wilson Home Trust. (See issue 7 channel mag). Our next Paddle Play Day is Sat April 2nd.
For those of you who DON’T here’s your chance to get onboard, get a board and go ‘Groovin, on a Sunday Afternoon’ – We will hold a Sunday Special Stand Up Paddle for Christchurch – offering a lesson and one hour paddle session for $35.00. ALL proceeds will go to the Christchurch relief fund. Our mission is to rent 20 boards an hour for six hours. That would raise over $4000! Spread the word Sunday the 3rd, Stand Up South Pacific will be operating a STAND UP PADDLE FOR CHRISTCHURCH FUNDRAISER. At the end of that event we will give 10% OFF on all our S.U.P. boards, new and demo’d. See below for some of the toys we’re talking about.
If you would like some Stand Up Paddle lessons, or just have a one hour fun paddle, all equipment included with a free intro lesson, just look for our Stand Up South Pacific Flags right in front of the Takapuna Boating Club. Alternatively, call Mark Jackson on
0220 PADDLE 0220 72 33 53, or get online
www.standupsouthpacific.co.nz
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