Why I Started SUP ATX

Why I Started SUP ATX  Written in 2007 by SUP ATX Founder Nick Matzorkis

One of the many things I find amazing about stand up paddling is the common reaction it draws from people  seeing it for the first time. "What is that? I've never seen that before."  It's hard to believe that in 2007  the great majority of even the most well-traveled, dynamic and fitness-oriented people across the United States and around the world have never seen someone simply standing on a floating board and paddling! There seem to be a million ways human beings have figured out how to float on, recreate in, and travel across water since the beginning of time; rafts, canoes, row boats, inner tubes, motor boats, jet skis,  surfboards, water skis, ships, aircraft carriers, even nuclear submarines. Yet, in the year 2007 most people  have not seen a human being simply standing on a floating board and paddling. It's so ironic given that  stand up paddling seems to be the most natural and obvious way for human beings to traverse most  waterways around the world. Human beings are unique because we stand vertically on two legs. The great majority of the Earth's surface  is covered in water. Human beings are comprised mostly of water. Civilizations necessarily emanate from  and around water sources. Yet, it has taken humankind until the 21st century to put all these together and  recognize stand up paddling as a viable means of water transportation; for recreation, exercise, and  functional transportation. The industrial revolution didn't make it possible. The technological revolution didn't make it possible. Standing  on a floating board and paddling was possible millions of years ago. Yet, what should be as familiar to most  people around the world as a bicycle or a row boat, until now, has been overlooked for the most part by  humankind. Everyone who sees stand up paddling wants to know what it is, then want to try it, and when they do,  invariably love it. That was my experience and that's why I launched SUP ATX. To make this great sport  accessible to the greatest number of people possible worldwide. Stand up paddle boarding is a sport with  massive global appeal whose time has finally come. -Nick Matzorkis Founder, Chairman and CEO of SUP ATX