Kieren Taylor, Sup Surfer Turning Heads

Written by Andrew Cassidy

Kieren Taylor is a stand up paddle surfer from Australia with incredible progressive style, having come directly from shortboarding, who works as a pilot and with a few years of Saudi Arabia under his belt.

What this kid can do on a sup board will make your head twist. Photo: Phill Page.

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MERIMBULA, Australia – After hearing about his impressive win at the Roar Industries comp on the Gold Coast, I tracked Kieren down at the Mambo Merimbula Classic where he was living out of his van with his dog. We didn't see Kieren all that often out in the surf over the weekend but when we did, his silky smooth style sure turned a few heads.

Where did you grow up?
Angourie, Northern NSW.

Where do you live now?
Angourie. Just recently I moved back there. I've been all over the place. I lived in Saudi Arabia last year and I was up on the Sunny Coast until about four weeks ago and now I'm back at home again.

What were you doing in Saudi Arabia?
Working as a cloud seeding pilot, doing weather modification, helping them try to increase the annual rainfall by a couple of percent.

So you're a pilot?
Yep, that's my main job. I've been doing that since I was 23. I got my commercial licence then and I've been pretty much flying ever since.

Where do you work here back in Australia?       
I've been working for a company on the Sunshine Coast called McDermott Aviation and I was the one fixed-wing pilot in the company doing logistic support for a helicopter operation. They have helicopters over in New Caledonia, one does heavy lift work and the other one is on standby for fire work and if a part breaks or something they get massive fines for not having that aircraft available so it'd be worth them sending the plane that I fly over just to bring a part. So, I was doing a lot of that and flying crews around the place. I do charters as well. I flew Clive Palmer (the fifth richest man in Australia) a few weeks back out to a mine of his. Mostly just charters and logistics for the helicopter operation.

What's your nickname?
Kizza (laughs).

What's your surfing background?
I started surfing at about seven. My dad's from Kauai so I've spent quite a bit of time over there as well. I started paddle surfing about two and a half years ago. My dad was into it, he's a friend of Laird Hamilton's, they're good mates from Kauai, dad's a good windsurfer and knew Laird from those days, so he got me into it and I've been sort of 70 percent stand up since then. I still get on a shortboard when it's good but it seems like it's more fun on the paddle board probably 70 percent of the time. It has to be good barrelling waves for me to get back on the shorty now.

So you haven't really been into longboarding at all?
No never - always shortboarding and now SUP.

Can you run me through your first SUPing session?
It was on the north shore of Kauai, out near the end of the road right in front of my dad's house. It was on a 12 foot Laird and you've got to paddle out through a lagoon to an outer reef, it's a right-hander, pretty good barrelling wave. I didn't really catch much, I was just learning to paddle the board around, it's a big 12 footer and pretty narrow. Even though I didn't get any waves, just the feeling of standing up was a whole new kind of thing and I pretty much got hooked right from the first session. I had two surfs over there on it and then came back to Australia and I've been doing it over here ever since then.

So what are you riding now?
I'm on an 8'6" by 26" by 4" and it's made by a good friend of mine, Woody Jack. He's from Angourie as well and it's an evolution of three boards. We started on a 9'2" and I've had another board since then. We have it on file and we just keep modifying it, just to suit me a bit better each time. It's pretty close to what I want now. It's really good. I'm enjoying it. It's a rounded pintail. I went away from the swallow tail just to get rid of some of the surface area from the back of the board. It's got options for up to five fins. I've ridden it as a quad, as a five fin and as a thruster and I've pretty much settled on the thruster. It just turns tighter; I think rounded pins are good in a paddle board.

What about your best session on a SUP? Where was that?
I've had many good surfs on a SUP. Ummm, the best as far as just having a great time I'd have to say was at a place near home. No one really surfs this place, you're pretty much surfing on rock, at low tide it breaks in about a foot of water and it's just cobblestone rocks but at high tide with the right swell direction you can take off deeper. It's not good for shortboarding, it's always the same ride: you take off, white water rebound, reo, go out for a cutback and then get into the real shallow bit, two reos, another cutback and then pull off, it's almost exactly the same every wave. But I've had one particular day out there when I was just the only person around and it was just a magic surf and a magic day.

You're pretty keen on the comp scene these days?
Yeah, I won the Malfunction two years ago. I also went in the last Malfunction that was held at Snapper. That was probably the one contest that I've been in that's actually had decent waves and I made it to the final. It was a six man final and I got fifth. My dad got third (laughs). My dad's a pretty good paddle boarder. Then I've been in the Malfunction every year since then apart from last year because I was in Saudi. I got back the day of the final so I watched the final that Billy Watson won. Yeah, I'm into the contest scene. It's a good bunch of people. I love it. Now I want to start getting into the open ocean racing stuff, but I haven't actually done any down winders yet (laughs). I really like the idea of being out there riding runners and linking up waves. So that's the next part of it.

What about board design in general, where do you think that's heading?
I don't think it's heading any shorter than say eight foot. I think that's the bottom end of the paddle boards. With the paddle in your hand I look at it like shortboarding and I try to draw lines similar to what you would on a shortboard. You can ride an 8'6" like you might be able to ride a 6'10" shortboard because of the fulcrum and the extended arm with the paddle in the water. If you use the paddle right everything comes together and it's just magic. It's all about the lines that you can draw with a paddle board that makes it unique. It's just something totally different than what you can draw with a shortboard or a longboard.

What about the popularity of the sport? Where's that going in the next two or three years?
One of the beautiful things about paddle boarding is the variety of stuff you can do on them. You've got guys white water rafting on them and at the other end of the spectrum is flat water paddling. On the high tides, I like to go up and just look in the mangroves at fish and all that sort of thing. I think the flat water side of it is going to grow a bit quicker than the surfing side of it.

How's the acceptance of paddle boards on the north coast of NSW?
Obviously, some people have a negative image in their minds about it already and it's hard to break that. I've definitely had some negative comments directed at me around my home town - but each to their own and all that. It happens with all new sports, like kite boarding when it first came out. You have to work yourself into the system. I think paddle boarding is just trying to find its place. It will eventually but I think it's being stifled a little bit right now by the negativity of certain people and the problem is that you get one person that doesn't care on a big board somewhere and they can just do so much damage to the sport. My main motivation is to go around and make people psyched on the sport by being a good ambassador for it, rather than just going out there and trying to get every wave. I just want people to go, "oh, that looks really cool".

Who do you draw on for inspiration in terms of SUP surfing?
Probably Woody Jack - he's a really good paddle boarder. Oh, and my dad, he's good on waves too. But I'd say Woody mostly.

Final question, what do you love most about paddle surfing?       
The versatility of the sport and the amount of different areas in the sport that you can explore and the lines that paddle boards draw. There's nothing better than having a section that's not a total close out but it's crumbling a long way in front of you and you can drive the board around and use the momentum and get up onto the white water and just get around sections that you would never be able to make on a shortboard. Just drawing different lines I think, that's what really excites me about the surfing side of it.

Helpful and Guiding Links Related to Kieren Taylor:

Andrew Cassidy: See his contributor profile.

Andrew Cassidy: Become friends with Andrew.

Phillip Page: Befriend Australian Sup Photographer.

Australia Paddle Surfer Magazine: Visit Andrew Cassidy's Website.

What did you takeaway from the interview with Kierren Taylor?

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