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| Travis Grant on his custom NSP in 2012 - Image Dana Edmunds @danafoto |
SUP Racing - A brand perspective
In this, the fourth blog in my series considering the Olympic future of SUP Racing I move away from the Olympic focus and instead talk to Chris Chamberlain, Global Brand Manager for NSP, about the brand's racing pedigree. NSP are one of the biggest SUP brands with one of the most successful race teams on the circuit right now and Chris has great insight into the history of SUP racing with NSP.
Chris C and I first crossed paths when I was working on TotalSUP and we reconnected after he started to read my Olympic SUP series and now… here we are.
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| Chris Chamberlain, NSP. |
Chris, welcome to my blog! It is great to have you here to shine a light on the behind-the-scenes work that brands do. Let's start with something easy: who are you and what is your role at NSP?
Thanks so much for having a chat with me Chris. I like your name a lot so I’m sure this is going to go well. Ha!
I’m Chris Chamberlain, Global Brand Manager for NSP and I live about halfway between the Gold Coast and Byron Bay in Australia. I travel to Thailand quite regularly as our head office is in Bangkok and also our manufacturer Cobra International is about 1 hour from there.
Playing the Chris card early, good move 😀. Before we get into the purpose of this chat I would like to know how you like to spend time on the water, SUP? Surf? Something else? What is your background on the water?
Like a lot of Aussie kids my Dad pushed me into my first waves when I was about 6 years old. He was a surfer and I was completely in awe of his long-haired hippy surf mates (it was the 70’s) so there was really no other option in life for me.
I rode shortboards exclusively until my daughter was born and I ran out of time to search for waves so I diversified my quiver to have fishes, longboards etc. Right about that time surfing early on New Years Day somewhere around 2005 at my local break Currumbin Alley I saw Jamie Mitchell on the strangest board. A really big one and he was using a paddle… I had to learn more! That was the first time I had ever seen someone ride a SUP and it looked like a lot of fun.
That was very early in the modern evolution of SUP!
Yes, right at the start. At that point, SUPs were not readily available to buy, his was a custom-made board. I had to try one so I sold a beautiful all-black Fender Stratocaster and Ampilifier and ordered a custom PU and Polyester 10’er from a friend. I made my own deckgrip, sourced a paddle and that was it, I was hooked.
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| Chris at work. Image Andrew Shield |
SUP does that. Was it all about SUP surfing for you back then?
Things quickly progressed from wave only. I loved the way paddling made me feel from a fitness perspective, so I also decided to take up my Mum's offer to paddle with her outrigger club which I loved immensely as well. Shortly after this people started paddling longer SUPs in the ocean and paddling downwind, behind this came the very first races. It all helped of course that I lived in the epicentre of paddling. Be it surf ski, prone paddle, SUP Racing, Sup Surfing etc etc. Currumbin truly was a global hub.
That was some time ago now, how does SUP fit in with your water time now?
Now I prone surf mostly, SUP surf when the waves suit, paddle race boards or our new Omni design to chase small bumps around and I have a 1 man outrigger canoe. I am also determined to find the time between all of that, work and family life to start foiling. I don’t race anymore but pages like yours, SUP My Race, may just be the motivation to put in some kms again however I’m addicted to the ocean and I find it really hard to concentrate on flat water.
Thank you, I think that SUP My Race is a group that motivates many paddlers to spend a bit more time on the water. Let us get back to NSP, what was your start with the brand?
I started with NSP in 2012 in my first tenure. At that point The Cobra Factory owned NSP and I was already working with them and in Thailand a lot as a customer with another product. I got along really well with the owners, senior managers and key product guys and they offered me the opportunity to work with them directly to run NSP which I did for around 5 years.
In 2022 the CEO Trent Pedersen called me and asked if I’d like to rejoin NSP which given the growth and diversification over the 5 years I was away looked like a great challenge so I rejoined. I really got the challenge with a complex trading environment and ultra-competitive market but I’d probably be bored if things were perfect.
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| NSP riders are ready to race at the Hood River. Image Georgia Schofield |
NSP - Nature. Surfing. Products. The brand started off as New Surfing Project back in 2001 with the first surfboards sold in 2002 and their first SUPs in 2007. They followed those with their first SUP Race board in 2011 and, looking at the NSP website those were launched for the ISA World Championships. That means your guys have a very long association with top-class SUP racing.
That’s right, Trent designed the first boards and if my memory serves me correctly they were the boards on hand at the race for people to use. NSP was the first brand to build production SUPs, both recreational and racing.
In 2012 when I joined NSP I presented an idea to bring together some mates I trained with on Currumbin Creek which fortunately enough were the legendary Travis Grant, Board builder Dale Chapman and one of the world's best race board designers in Alain Teurquetil to join the brand. Travis was our first professional team rider, Alain the designer and Dale the builder. Within about 4 months we had Travis Grant and Terrene Black both win Molokai under NSP which was the premier race of the time. The rest as they say is history!
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Travis Grant - Image Dana Edmunds @danafoto |
The feature image for this blog is from the time when you first worked at NSP, Travis Grant in action at Molokai. It is so good I will use it again here, image from Dana Edmunds @danafoto
The NSP SUP range is now comprehensive with board for everything but I want to focus on longer boards. Do you have a favourite race or touring SUP from the range and, if you can share this, which is the most popular board with team racers and customers? Is it the same board?
I love paddling in the ocean and in and out and riding waves so, for me right now I’m either on a Puma or the new Omni which isn’t strictly a race board of course but it glides and surfs so well. I love the feel of the dugouts and to be able to go so narrow and fast and still be stable but for the paddling I do I’m stoked! We have a lot of amazing boards in our range that work well in all conditions.
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| Christian Andersen on his NSP Puma |
It is harder to say which is the most popular board for team riders because they pick the best board for the course they are racing on and NSP make sure that they have the best tools for the job!
For longer distances, racers can choose between two fantastic boards, the Ninja and Carolina. Both have a fantastic pedigree with multiple world titles and more podiums than I can remember and we recently introduced the new Cheetah model which is proving to be super popular for tech and sprints. And then the Puma that I like is popular with our team riders for tech races in big surf, the flat deck is a bit easier to manage in those conditions.
These are also the boards we sell the most of. They all come in elite narrow widths and more user friendly wider versions which due to the dugout decks and outline are more stable than most boards at the same widths.
NSP are one of the most visible teams at major events, for example, the ISA and ICF World Championships and the NSP website has a huge team roster that NSP fans can check out here
SUP Racing is part of the NSP DNA and I want to take this opportunity to acknowledge that as a brand we are incredibly blessed with the people that are involved with our race team. We have a fantastic team of talented and enthusiastic people starting with Alain and the design team to the riders and of course our distributors in the main racing countries that support events. Everyone works together to make the best equipment and deliver the best results possible and everyone involved is incredibly passionate about being here.
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| Part of the NSP family. Image NSP |
The brand is also purposely driven towards working with the right kind of athletes, it’s not at all unusual that the most help our team receives often comes from our other team riders, there is a huge pool of talent and experience in the team and that can be the greatest asset for everyone. Those same team riders are the ones feeding back to Alain focusing on the smallest incremental refinements in their training and equipment.
We seek and work with riders like this and try to create that brand family which is great!
A brand family is a great way to put it, with athletes spread all over the globe that must be beneficial to all. How does NSP, the company help athletes prepare for a season of events, coaching, tech advice, board design and choice for events
Totally. The ‘family’ is super important to all of us.
Many of our pro athletes work with Vincent Guillaume at Training Week on their programs, you can see him in action on the NSP website and our YouTube channel.
Alain is amazing as the designer and super passionate racing enthusiast on equipment choice. Of course, this is at the pointy end but that becomes a circle.
A lot of brands introduce new models to keep the marketing and sales team happy whereas that tight feedback loop on race results, feelings and feedback is what drives the evolution for NSP. Nothing changes unless it goes faster.
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| Fast is fun. Image NSP |
And, of course, fast is fun! This conversation started after you commented on one of my earlier blogs about logistics. I sometimes find it hard enough to move one board from place to place, looking after a team or athletes for international events must be a huge challenge.
Yeah, it can be a significant challenge which is obviously a lot easier in some places than others.
The European continent races work well as there are a lot of boards and people travelling to events, this almost becomes a SUP network to get boards to different places. That makes it easier for all.
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| ISA World Championships, Copenhagen. Image NSP |
The ICF in Thailand in 2023 was a home-court advantage for us and some other brands and that showed in the level of support we could give riders. Then at the 2024 ICF World Champs, NSP were very lucky to have a team in the US supported by Dan Miller, the SUP Doctor (thanks Dan!) who helped so many team riders with equipment and endless support, we could not do this without the support locally from those like Dan and his team.
I do know that a lot of people struggled for equipment in Sarasota. This challenge was for everyone including the rental guys however and the community made it work as best they could.
And then there are the places or locations that present more of a challenge for us and I probably for some others too. Whilst I understand the decision of some organisations to have races in very far away places where, currently there is no real market, I do have to say that from a brand perspective, those locations can be a logistical nightmare and the next ICF World Champs ….. Wow and How?
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| NSP Team session at the 2023 ICF World Champs, Thailand. Image NSP |
As a spectator, I sometimes wonder if there is much collaboration or discussion between governing bodies and brands to try to help paddlers.
The bodies really do try but ultimately they need to focus on their goals for the sport not each paddler's happiness per se. I pray the ICF has a solution in mind for Abu Dhabi.
Permit me a naive question, have NSP considered partnering with other brands to reduce transport costs / ease the logistics burden for athletes?
Great question, we’re a friendly mob at NSP. We’re more than happy to work with other brands but amazingly we’ve heard that some others are not quite so enthusiastic.
So when they read this they should reach out to Chris at NSP and get that ball rolling. Given the challenges for athletes with logistics and the cost of entering the largest International events do you think that board rental has a bigger future?
It could be for the general public but elite athletes do like to train and race on the same equipment. We work with the rental guys and mostly they like the little bit wider widths which don’t really suit the full-time racers. Let’s see how that evolves. It’s a very different business to kayaks.
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| Christian A in Denmark. Image NSP |
This blog is part of a series which started with my thoughts on the Olympic Future of SUP. I have covered what I think are some of the hurdles in the way, for example, inconsistent event formats and no standardisation of race distances. We will come to the recent ICF rule changes soon but first, what are your thoughts on SUP racing, where do you think it is going?
The thing I personally find the most interesting about SUP racing right now is the push towards flat water. Being around SUP from the start it was very surf-based, kind of like the feeling and image of surfing but really accessible. Racing started in the ocean and in the surf with more river and lake races for less confident paddlers as an introduction.
While the growth of SUP racing in Europe, and the conversion of the Kayak and Canoe paddling guys onto SUP in lakes and enclosed waters, is fantastic and great for the sport what we do see simultaneously is a collapse of events and racing numbers in countries like Australia, USA, Hawaii, New Zealand etc etc. You don’t need to look too hard to see that a lot of the racing crowd have gone foiling as the new thing and also that Downwind foil racing is growing massively. Sports like Outrigger paddling are still very big in these countries which has also spawned many elite SUP paddlers.
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| NSP in action! |
With all of that in mind I wonder if some balance of flat water and surf and ocean events would be productive for the sport. Grow it in both regions! I’d really like to see the BOP style of racing return also, I’ve spoken to so many people who loved that format. So good for spectators and so much fun to participate in.
I also think the BOP format would still be very popular in Australia and thinking of Olympic inclusion that could be convenient as realistically Brisbane is the next chance of its inclusion…. Bring back BOP and put it in the Olympics!
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| Image NSP |
The ICF rule changes, December 2024.
I was surprised when I looked through them with the most surprising thing, the one that lept off the page, being those for junior racers using a one-design board. There were few details on this, you may well know more than was published, but my initial thought was that this would discourage brands from sponsoring junior racers because they would not be racing a world championship race on their sponsor's board.
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| SUP stars of the future? With NSP |
And, if I may be blunt with this, brands get involved with junior racers to progress future SUPer stars for marketing reasons, you want to tell the world how good your products are and the best way to do this is with athletes on your kit. Identifying talent at the junior level is a great way to develop future world champions and brand ambassadors but if one of the two World Championships closes that door what happens… I shall grab a coffee now and leave you to it!
This answer has a few viewpoints.
The first thing to remember is that there are many more events on the calendar than the ICF World Champs and it would be cost-prohibitive to try to introduce a one-design class or fleet across multiple events.
Next, as I mentioned above, elite athletes of any age (not just juniors!) like to race on the boards they train on. A more productive version for athletes than one design would be to simply give the manufacturers some rules to work within. Let’s say for example 12’6 max, minimum 20” wide and 9kg minimum weight or something like that gives enough leeway to keep pushing design forward and allow kids access to boards that work for them. The sizes and dimensions could be discussed and decided of course but rather than a one-size-fits-all all approach which is likely to heavily disadvantage kids at either end of the height, weight and strength scale. At that point, at the start of a career in SUP, we really want to foster the talents and make sure we’re creating the world champions of the future. This decision needs to be thought about really carefully.
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| NSP Carolina with Duna. Image NSP |
There were some other changes in the same announcement that I questioned, such as one rule I read in the same updated handbook about athletes needing to be entered by and insured by the national ICF federation to be able to enter races. When I asked the answer I was given is that this rule has never been applied. This information may be incorrect but I have also been told that the one design rule may not yet be applied either. We’ll watch closely on this topic though.
And yes, of course, it is amazing to watch juniors train with clubs we support who go on to win world titles. They are our stars of the future!
SUP Race Distances
It will be no surprise to know that I favour a longer distance race, 15 - 18km or two hours for elite athletes would be perfect, and on a course that has a bit of everything. I was as surprised as anyone with the quality and entertainment of the ICF long-distance course, despite being on a lake, and naturally, I enjoyed the ISA World Championship course because paddling in Copenhagen is brilliant. But a future where a World Championship long-distance race could be over in well under 30 minutes on a 5km course disappoints me, that is a sprint distance.
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| Crossing the finish line at the ISA World Championships, Copenhagen. Image NSP |
Your thoughts, how would you or NSP like to see SUP racing mature?
2024 did give us two good WC races but they were, not the same but similar. I would really like to see our world champions be good at a lot of things, not just flatter water.
I was looking at the iconic Dana Edmunds pic today of Travis Grant riding a huge wave at China Walls coming into win Molokai. That’s a channel-crossing race but I think it’s quite a shame that given the sport started in Hawaii that this race is no longer well-supported. I know I’m unashamedly excited by ocean racing but I do love flat water for other disciplines! 😀
That was actually a little before my interest in SUP really started. Another event in the same mould might be the Red Bull Heavy Water, sadly that also has faded from the schedule.
Yeah, those events are missed from the calendar!
Long Distance, I agree with you. The race needs to be long….. It’s in the name and the more variables faced the better. If you’re winning a world title you should be able to handle whatever comes in terms of conditions. Flat, downwind, surf, narrow channels, in cities etc. Mix it up and let the cream float to the top.
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| Tech Race, ISA World Champs, Copenhagen. Image NSP |
I like the format for the tech race, it’s exciting to watch. As I said before though, the BOP format and some waves where it’s possible to have them would make this sport so much more fun. Surely the tech bit shouldn’t always just be going around buoys? Beach starts, running around flags and fighting waves. It’s an Aussie opinion for sure but when I look at the popularity of surf life-saving racing in the waves and mainstream TV and athletes buying big houses maybe we need to look at what they do and learn something from it?
Now that is a great comparison, I am pretty sure I have never seen surf-lifesaving competitions on mainstream TV and to find out that athletes can make a career is very interesting.
Yeah, maybe that is an Aussie thing, leading the way! Back to SUP, the Sprint event…. I loved the shorter distance at this year's ICF. That was a good move!
The NSP Family
We have already talked briefly about the NSP Family and the NSP International squad is without a doubt packed with talent including multiple world champions and paddlers who regularly finish on the podium at the highest level, what is the highlight of your involvement with your team riders?
I have 2 main highlights.
The first was being part of the team that won the first Molokai on a non-Hawaiian custom board and the second was in Thailand in 2023 for the ICF World Championships.
After that Molokaiu win, Travis Grant and I took that board to a Tradeshow in Utah and seeing the industry line up for up to an hour to paddle the board and to meet Travis, it felt like we were rock stars that year in the booth and my dream of how far we could push the brand exploded for me.
You have no idea how small our program was at the beginning of the race team. It was literally myself running the brand, sales, marketing and product almost alone and then Travis, Dale and Alain joined and with zero budget and with a little team from Currumbin we took on the world.
And then the present day, coming back to NSP after 5 years away and going to ICF World Championships in Pattaya was mind-blowing.
To see how far the brand had come and the almost cultish following for stickers, shirts and NSP merch as well as trying the new boards absolutely shocked me when contrasted to that extremely primitive beginning. Hanging out with the whole team and extended riders and cheering them on, eating and partying with them and celebrating the success was a life highlight for me! A small idea gone crazy…….
Two very different highlights put a spotlight on the evolution of SUP racing, if NSP kit is becoming collectable then you can send some to SUP My Race, Sweden!
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| 2023 ICF World Champs, Thailand. Image NSP |
Let’s imagine that you could go to one SUP race, anywhere in the world, every year, which one and why?
At this stage, it would be the ICF Worlds, if it keeps its current format of open entry. I’d hope it maintains some variety and isn’t on lakes everywhere of course, it’s a big race and is right now the showcase of the best paddlers on the planet. I hope one day it comes to Australia, incorporates some ocean racing and re-starts the scene over here as well.
And, finally. This is for the winter paddlers on SUP My Race, have you ever paddled in a drysuit 😏
Hahaha, I’ve surfed in the North Sea quite a few times in Winter and 5mm with hoods, booties and gloves was as nuclear as it got. I’d say anyone who gets into a dry suit to train or paddle is without doubt the keenest paddler on the planet…. How cold does it need to be to do that anyway??
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| Chris J in Sweden. Drysuit, thermals, waterproof wool socks, 7mm boots, gloves and SUP My Race Beanie |
Ah, an easy question for me! When temps get to below 6 degrees C then I get the drysuit out and that works for me to around -10. It gets quite hard to paddle when the temp goes that low, the water becomes quite … solid.
Chris C, thank you for your time on this and for such an informative, interesting insight into one of the key behind-the-scenes figures at one of the world’s leading SUP brands.
NSP are one of the leading SUP brands and are active all around the world. You can find out more about their SUP Range on the NSP website https://www.nspsurfboards.com and on their Facebook and Instagram pages. They have recently launched a dedicated SUP Race Instagram account - NSP Racing.