Having to pop up before .......

............ you can really get going on the wave? When one is used to  the immediacy of riding a mat this is more than slightly annoying hindrance to be frank! Now I know I have spoken about this before but it has reared it's head again as there has been very little swell around lately and so not conducive to mat riding. In these circumstance I revert to the stand up form of wave craft such as my "Already standing up and a bloody useful thing too" SUP or one of my 2 "Slightly annoying need to pop up first before I ride a wave" longboards.
I have had both of these types of craft out in the last couple of sessions which have been necessarily been around the bay. Getting to where the waves are on a SUP is just a pleasure and a great workout getting one nicely loosened up and ready to enjoy riding the waves when you get there. The beauty of a SUP of course is that one is already standing up and there is only a need to move the feet in to a lateral position just as the waves picks up the board and off you go. Brilliant and you get about the best complete body workout possible for every muscle particularly those important core ones!
Yesterday, I decided to take a 10' longboard around the bay. I could and have paddled around the bay but it takes a very, very longtime and although I am well loosened up when I get there, it reduces the time I can actually surf as my arms get knackered too quickly. So I choose to walk and this is not much fun as I generally end up dragging the bloody thing along the sand as my arms can no longer suffer carrying it. Then when I finally get there and out to the line up, I find, especially if the waves are not that flash, that I end up missing or being badly placed on the first few as I get used to going through the rigamarole of negotiating the pop up before I can enjoy a ride. Now I know, if this is your normal wave riding scenario it does not seem so, but if you ride a SUP and even more so a mat or any other form of prone craft it feels like a rigmarole when one is suddenly confronted with having to do so again.
So summarising, the SUP is a joy to get a round the bay on, then it is terribly easy to get on to the waves as one just paddles hard in to them and off one goes with a total body workout as a bonus. Jolly good show!
The 10' longboard is a hassle to get around the bay, hard to paddle in to the waves in comparison to a SUP and requires having to deal with the complexities of getting oneself standing and hopefully well placed on the wave before one is able to enjoy it. Then you have to drag the buggar back around the bay rather than enjoy a gentile paddle back like the SUP provides. Pain in the ass!
Obviously being a mat rider has similar advantages to a SUP as hiking around the bay with mat and fins in hand is a pleasure it matters little what the waves are like and one can enjoy a gentile walk back around the bay with mat and fins in hand.
I have been riding the SUP, a 10' 10" Walden, on and off for about 3 years and have been toying with the idea of getting a smaller one now that I have well and truly got the hang of it. I think this would result in my taking it out more often as I am thinking a Naish 9' 6" Mana which is shorter than my longboard. This may result in my forsaking the now rather antiquated need to pop up first mode of wave riding vehicle and restricting my wave riding practise to either the only prone or either already standing versions!