A D V E R T I S E M E N T
A D V E R T I S E M E N T
Jeff Basinger / Pamplin Media Group
Matt Spencer (center), high-fives Karen Wrenn after crossing the finish line in a recent standup paddleboard race around Ross Island. The sport is growing as a recreational pastime.
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Osprey, fish, deer and herons aren’t the only ones playing around Ross Island lately. Over the past two years, water-sport enthusiasts who’d otherwise be windsurfing at the Gorge, surfing at the Oregon Coast or dragon-boat racing at the Rose Festival are now hanging out here, near Oaks Park.
They’re enjoying a fairly new obsession called standup paddleboard, first practiced by pro surfers in Hawaii in the early 2000s as a way to stay active when the swells were low.
With no more equipment than a board and a paddle, standup paddlers say it’s an ideal way to work out while taking in the nature around you. Unlike surfing, it’s done in mostly flat water — which makes the Pacific Northwest’s lakes and rivers a natural fit.
Over the past few years the sport has boomed, spreading from Hawaii to the West Coast. It’s no surprise the River City has embraced it as well, considering Portlanders’ love of everything human-powered and quirky.
Standup paddling is to surfing what a cruiser bike is to mountain biking — a way to sit back (or stand up) and enjoy the ride.
“It feels like you’re flying,” says Matt Spencer, a Maui-born surfer who remained in Portland after studying at Lewis & Clark College. “You’re just standing up, moving at any speed you want.”
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