Paddle Boarding’s Biggest Trends in 2019

SAN DIEGO, California - 2019 was a year full of adventure, thrills, learning, and more. There were a few trends that caught on this year that caught the attention of our editorial staff here at Supconnect. Here are 3 of the biggest trends of 2019:

Foiling

Photo: Dominique Labrecque

Foiling has continued to keep the momentum through 2019 and we don't see it slowing down anytime soon. From the first few brands and early adopters who shined some light on this new SUP discipline in 2017 to now where almost all major SUP brands have a line of foil boards and more and more people are trying it. We're even seeing major events like the Molokai 2 Oahu, King of the Cut, Olukai Ho'olaule'a and more add foil-specific disciplines to their races. Only time will tell but here at Supconnect we have a feeling SUP foiling is here to stay.

Multi-Piece Boards

Photo courtesy: Sunova Facebook

Traveling with composite standup paddle boards is no easy feat, as most of us who have tried to travel with them have come to realize. From making sure to book airlines that even carry boards up to 14ft long to outrageous oversized luggage fees, big boards can cause big headaches. Many brands have tried coming up with solutions to this hassle and one of the solutions that we've noticed in 2019 were multi-piece SUPs. We saw a few Kickstarter campaigns propose their solutions on this idea as well as Australian SUP brand, Sunova, introduce their 2-piece race SUPs. The boards, specifically the ones by Sunova, have been used over the past year or so in major races and are performing quite well with athletes like Kelly Margetts, Yuuka Sato and Lina Augaitis riding these boards and winning events while doing so this might be the solution that we've been looking for...

Industry Consolidiation

Photo courtesy: Pelican International

Another trend that we've seen in 2019 was major shakeups and consolidation of the SUP industry. This year we saw major events like the Pacific Paddle Games being cancelled to brand aquisitions and mergers we've started to see a shift in the SUP industry. As is natural in all industries, the SUP industry is working through its growing pains and we'll be on the lookout for how this trend pans out.

For 2020, we predict these three trends listed above will continue to be topics that show up in your news feed. The only question is, what else do you think will trend in the new year? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below!

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