Meet Japanese SUP rider Tomoyashi Murabayashi aka SUP Tomo, one the most active Stand-Up Paddle ambassadors in his country. The rider from Starboard tells us about his recent SUP achievements and how big SUP is growing in Japan!
TotalSUP: Hi Tomoyasu, could you please introduce yourself ?
Tomoyasu Murabayashi: Hi, I come from Japan, I am 36 years old and I am part of Starboard Dream Team. I live in Miyazaki, in the South coast of Japan where the waves are nice which makes it a perfect spot to practice SUP.
TotalSUP: How did you start SUPing ?
Tomoyasu Murabayashi: I saw a picture of Laird Hamilton doing SUP in a famous Japanese surf Magazine in 2005. And that's how it all began. I started SUP on Ishigaki-Island, in Japan, and learnt to SUP in Maui. I have been to Maui since I am 19 for Windsurf and Kitesurf trainings.
TotalSUP: What's the state of SUP in Japan ?
Tomoyasu Murabayashi: SUP is growing fast and gets bigger and bigger in Japan. Everybody is having fun with SUP regardless of one's age or gender as in other country.
TotalSUP: How is the race scene in Japan ?
Tomoyasu Murabayashi: We have 3 or 4 races per month, that take place from March to December each year. Over 200 paddlers participate to one of the biggest races in Japan. Many good paddlers are coming up now. We also have a SUP surf contest.
Total SUP: You tend to do a lot of training and racing trips â where do you like to go?
Tomoyasu Murabayashi: I want to learn about the history of Stand-Up Paddle around the world and my will is to do training with the world Top paddlers.
And the fact is that there is great paddlers and weather amazing conditions in Tahiti and New Caledonia, both for surfing and SUP racing.
Every year, I also fly to Maui, HawaĂŻ to participate on the M20 and a couple of Downwind races. I always learn so many things from world top paddlers.
Total SUP: You recently won the New caledonia Downwind race called the LMA Magic Race. How do you feel about that?
I was really amazed by the beauty of this New Caledonian Downwind course. Depending on the level of the paddlers, one can choose to do a run of 10 km up to 30 km. The daily wind makes it an even greater race. I want to thank Franck and Titouan Puyo for inviting me to this great event and I thank the New Caledonian paddlers who are all very nice people.Â
In fact, I will be back in New Caledonia in February 2015 to do some training and compete couple of local Races. SUP is my life and I love it!
âStacked field of pro SUP athletesâ, âgnarly ocean conditionsâ, âincredible experienceâ and âan excellent event organisationâ are some of the recurring themes summing up the Madeira Island Sup Challenge (MISC) 2023, the EuroTour Grand Slam event, held on the Madeira Island this past weekend, a stunning archipelago situated in the North Atlantic Ocean and located about [âŠ]
Daniel Hasulyo, Starboard Dream Team Rider, race board developer and SUP World Champ, returns to South Korea for the 2023 SUP Asian Championship hosted in Seoul by the APPâs Korean partners, KAPP (Korean Association of Paddlesurf Professionals). On the eve of the event, TotalSUP caught up with Daniel to find out what drives him to [âŠ]
Following the Starboard announcement about a new partnership with Union Paddlers and Sports Camps to support amateur and professional athletes with an easy access to high-quality gear, TotalSUP caught up with Andrey Kraytor, Olympian, World Canoe Sprint and SUP Champion, to find out more about it. Lined up clinics and training camps with Starboardâs Dream [âŠ]
I recently had the pleasure of chatting to Sam Rutt, Starboard Team Rider ahead of her English Channel crossing attempt on the 29th of May 2023, starting from Dover UK. She is not only attempting this solo but going for a record time. Sam who has been paddling since 2014 and hails from Norfolk where [âŠ]
Mark Salter has just set a new bar and taken the UK by storm with a Guinness World Record for the fastest Stand Up Paddleboard descent of Loch Ness, Scotland UK, in a time of 4:01:49 over 36.24km. He took an undercover approach to this, springing the amazing news on us only days ago. In [âŠ]
The 2023 Cosmic Experience event has been announced! Focused uniquely on the Longboard SUP surf aspect of paddleboarding, the event will be held in Sanur, Bali on the 7th to 10th April 2023. The event will host an assembly of diehard longboard SUP surfers, Australian and past world champions, but it is also open to [âŠ]