A Fond Farewell
from Harrison Withers - USA SUP Founding President
Dear friends,
When Kristin and I helped start this organization, it was because standup paddleboarding needed it.
The sport was disorganized. The national organizations that should have been leading weren’t really doing much. And for something with as much potential and universal appeal as paddleboarding, it felt like there was a vacuum — a lack of leadership and representation. We were being represented as part of something we had significant differences from, and that didn’t sit right with me then, and it still doesn’t.
Paddleboarding is one of the rare sports where almost anyone will give it a try if there’s a board sitting on the beach. That universal appeal is special. But what happens next matters just as much. If the next step is intimidating, inaccessible, or reserved only for people who already see themselves as athletes, then we lose what makes this sport powerful in the first place.
That’s why USA SUP was created.
We can’t just be about racing — even if racing is part of the end goal. Every established sport on the planet includes disciplines, distances, conditions, and development pathways. Paddleboarding needs those too if it’s going to grow, be inclusive, and have a real presence on a world stage. Epic events absolutely have a place in our sport — but they cannot define it. Without pathways that help people progress through participation and competition, the net effect is a sport that only serves those who are already elite. That’s not how sports grow, and it’s not what USA SUP was meant to be, at least not from my perspective.
There’s also a bigger reality we need to acknowledge. The world is mostly water, and all of us live near it, in it, or around it in some form. As much water as there is along the coastlines of the United States, there are far more opportunities to paddle between those two coastlines than on the coasts combined. Rivers, lakes, reservoirs, harbors, and waterways run through and alongside most of our communities.
In fact, most major cities in the U.S. are built near, in, or around water. These places offer incredible opportunities to get people on boards and enjoying time on the water. And yet, the sport of paddleboarding does not reflect the diversity of the people who live in the places where paddleboarding is actually present. That gap matters. We owe it to the sport — and to paddlers everywhere — to reflect a version of paddleboarding that can happen in most places in this country, and to reflect the diversity of the communities in which we exist.
I’m sharing all of this because it’s also the reason I’ve decided not to run for a board seat again.
Being deeply involved in the organization of paddling has, over time, taken away from my own personal enjoyment of paddling. What started as time on the water slowly became more time in meetings, more decisions, and more responsibility. For my own good, and for my own relationship with this sport, it’s time for me to get back to paddling for myself.
This isn’t stepping away because the work doesn’t matter. It’s stepping back because the work does matter — and it deserves more people carrying it forward.
If you care about the future of standup paddleboarding, now is the time to be more involved. This sport doesn’t need fewer leaders; it needs more. It needs more voices, more perspectives, and more people willing to help shape pathways that welcome someone who’s just playing around on a board and support them as they move toward fitness, connection with nature, or competition — if that’s where they want to go.
USA SUP still matters for the same reason it always has. The work isn’t finished. And it won’t be finished by one board, one vision, or one group of personalities.
I’ll still be out there — just as a paddler again. And I’m grateful to everyone who has shown up, spoken up, and cared enough about this sport to help build something better.
See you on the water.
— Harrison
