SUP Shop
Stand Up Paddleboarding
Your Denver, CO source for SUP retail sales, rentals, lessons, events, & travel.
Morrison, CO 80465
720-635 7873
john@surfsupcolorado.com
The Short Story
Surf'SUP Colorado was launched in February, 2011 with a small trailer, a dozen BIC SUP boards, paddles, pfds and a passion for Stand Up Paddleboarding. The best thing about a passion is sharing it, which we did with 165 people that first summer. In 2012, we were privileged to share our SUP passion with 750 clients. In 2013, the growth continued with over 1,700 lessons and rental sessions. That year we leased a store front in Quincy Plaza at C-470 and W. Quincy Ave. The opening of the SUP Shop in July, 2013, allowed us to meet the needs of our clients to find quality Stand Up Paddleboard equipment, clothing and accessories in the Denver metro area. Surf'SUP Colorado was beginning to resemble a real business. 2014 was another year of tremendous growth for Surf'SUP Colorado with over 3,000 lessons and rental sessions. This was followed by further growth in 2015 when we doubled the sized of our leased space to allow better service for our growing customer base.
But with all of the growth and success that Surf'SUP Colorado has experienced, we are still the same small, family owned business at heart. We are still a specialized Stand Up Paddleboard organization passionate about sharing the SUP stoke with others. The size of our trailer may be bigger than it used to be, but you can still find us set up at Aurora Reservoir and Chatfield State Park offering SUP lessons and rentals. Our staff of ACA certified instructors are still at the lake to ensure that our customers receive professional level, fun, interactive SUP instruction and the best rental SUP quiver in the area. The Surf'SUP Colorado SUP Shop is still the best source for industry leading, specialized SUP boards, paddles, clothing and accessories at family friendly prices. We are still far more interested in seeing our customers receive the very best advice on their SUP purchases than walking out the Shop door with an expensive SUP board that may not suit their Stand Up Paddleboarding needs. Whether you paddleboard for family fun, leisure, fitness, competition, river running, wave riding, travel for SUP surfing, or other adventures, Surf'SUP Colorado wants to earn your trust as your source for all things Stand Up Paddleboarding.
And, we still operate as if our company motto really meant something: Love God! Live Aloha! Surf'SUP!
The Longer Version
I was completely unaware that there was far more to be enjoyed of the infinite imagination of our Creator than rock, snow, and ice. But that trip to the island of Kauai in 2003 changed everything. I was caught up in the aloha spirit the moment I got off the plane. I was amazed by the tropical environment, so different, so green, from the alpine world of my climbing and skiing adventures. I discovered that God had created a whole new different world under the sea while snorkeling over a coral reef. And then, I caught my first wave. It was a short ride, but oh so sweet was the feeling of gliding on the water. I fell in love with surfing, and all things Hawaiian. And so a climbing dude wanted to become a surfer dude.
Not that I was ever very good at surfing, something about teaching old dogs new, very difficult, tricks. But I had a blast trying during yearly trips to the coast
or to Kauai. On our 2009 trip to Kauai I began to notice Stand Up Paddleboards in the lineups and became intrigued by the concept. Web searches and YouTube videos opened my eyes to a newly developing flat water SUP phenomenon. Perhaps there was a way to surf in Colorado after all.
In August, 2010 I paddled a Stand Up Paddleboard for the first time during a session at Big Soda Lake. I immediately fell in love with the motion, the feel, and the glide of what has been described as "walking on water." Several weeks later I was in South Carolina for a family wedding and had the opportunity to spend 4 days on a SUP in the ocean. I learned how to stay balanced while negotiating the shore break and the almost ever present wind chop. But I caught waves, small waves, but lots of real waves. I caught almost as many waves during those 4 days than all my previous efforts at surfing combined. I came back home from South Carolina more stoked then ever about the possibilities of Stand Up Paddleboarding back home in Colorado.That stoke simmered most of the winter and by February, 2011 I knew what I wanted to do. I pulled some money out of savings and launched Surf'SUP Colorado that month with the simple idea of spending as much time on a SUP board as possible and sharing my love of Stand Up Paddleboarding with others. I became a BIC SUP dealer and bought a small quiver of SUP boards. I loaded the boards on a trailer and began to frequent Big Soda Lake, the Gravel Pond at Chatfield State Park and other area lakes. Over the course of that summer I introduced dozens of people to the joys of Stand Up Paddleboarding. I quit my "real" job, started driving a school bus so I could have the summers off, and started working on how I could keep this gig going for as long as possible.
In July, 2011, we took a small break from our fledgling SUP business for a 2 week vacation back to Kauai. We happily discovered that the SUP skills we had been developing on the lakes in Colorado would allow us to paddle the moving water of Kauai’s rivers and ocean bays. But best of all we discovered that those flatwater SUP skills gave us the balance and fitness ability to catch ocean waves. Not really big waves yet, but bigger and more powerful than South Carolina. And a whole lot more fun. The “surf” part of Surf’SUP Colorado was beginning to be a reality.
That September I took part in an intensive 3 day Stand Up Paddleboard course from Charlie MacArthur, a premier Colorado river guide and a river SUP pioneer. I earned the ACA Level 2: Essentials of SUP Instructor Certificate. It was a great course where I honed my flatwater paddling skills and, more importantly, where the focus of the course was in how to teach others to SUP. What an opportunity and a blessing that weekend was. It confirmed within me that I could be an effective SUP instructor and that our future would be linked with Surf'SUP Colorado from here on.