I recently posted an opinion piece titled “The ‘ICF / ISA’ Olympic saga has become a propaganda war, and the real loser is the sport.”

The post stirred up plenty of debate as it spoke to a growing sense of frustration from the paddling community that the two federations care more about political games than the actual sport. “Selfish parents going through a bitter divorce” was the analogy.

In the end, the question didn’t seem to be “ICF or ISA” but rather: Do we need an international federation at all? And should we even bother chasing the Olympics in the first place? Is all this political BS really worth it?

SUP always has and probably always will be self-governing, so why do we even need an international governing body? Unless we desperately want to be in the Olympics (and neither federation has made the case why that would be such an amazing thing), then I don’t think we need either the ICF or ISA at this point.

But regardless of your take on the matter, it’s only fair to hear from the federations themselves. So immediately after posting the story, I shared it with the higher-ups in both federations and invited them to respond to the community.

Here’s what we got back. Take a quick read, and feel free to share your thoughts on Facebook once you’re done.   → READ MORE

After months of speculation and anticipation, it’s official: Denmark is set to become the first European nation to ever host the ISA Worlds, with the land of Vikings confirmed as the location of the 2017 ISA World Stand Up Paddle and Paddleboard Championship in a major announcement today.

In a clear nod to its Olympic ambitions, the ISA chose to announce Denmark 2017 during the Rio Games, and even went as far as sending Denmark’s most famous paddling export and ISA Vice President, Casper Steinfath, to Brazil for an Olympic-themed photo opp to coincide with the big news.   → READ MORE

Remember how we mentioned that the ISA was off to Turkey, Casper Steinfath in tow, to promote SUP to the Olympic world at some big sports conference? Well that happened yesterday.

Along with International Surfing Association President Fernando Aguerre, Casper showed the gathered Olympic dignitaries what stand up paddling actually is with a brief but enthusiastic demonstration during the SportAccord convention. Granted it was held in a luxury hotel pool, which is a long way from the Ka’iwi Channel or the beach at Dana Point, but I’m sure the novelty value alone would have made everyone in attendance stop and take notice. And no doubt that was the main point of the whole exercise: Spread some basic awareness to those in power.   → READ MORE

Remember that big article we posted last week about Stand Up Paddling in the Olympics? And about how the International Surfing Association (ISA) was doing a lot of work behind the scenes to push for surfing and SUP racing to be in the Games one day?

Well, here’s a specific example… Early next month, reigning ISA Gold Medalist and modern-day viking, Casper Steinfath, will join ISA President Fernando Aguerre in Turkey, where they’ll be pushing the cause of surfing and SUP racing to the head honchos of the Olympic movement at the big SportAccord conference.

But what exactly is SportAccord? And why should fans of SUP racing even care?    → READ MORE