Join Team Starboard – From Home

It’s November and getting colder, windier and rainier out here in Central Oregon. Just the same I am scanning my weather app to plan for the days that will be best for this 74-year-old to go out for a river paddle. I have become part of the Starboard team from my own hometown through a social digital currency called Blue Tiki that brings the same sense of connection, community and sustainability culture that IS Starboard. YOU can be part of that too. Just go to Blue Tiki – and explore Starboard Blue to learn more.

Starboard is community, passion and lifestyle. Like me, I bet you have a passion for the ocean/watersports/nature/active lifestyle and want to protect that. We are all in the water as much as possible. That provides a connection. The team at Starboard knows us and that is part of what fuels Starboard to make the best products but also trying to protect the environment.

Read these excerpts from the November 7, 2023 SUPConnect Interview with Starboard’s Ollie O’Reilly to really see the “team connection” we can all feel. (Ollie O’Reilly in the field. | Photo © Supconnect)

For several years, Ollie has been on the product development team at Starboard and has helped to create some of the best standup paddleboards in the world. Recently, Ollie has changed roles and is now the Brand Manager for Starboard SUP.

Ollie explains his affinity to Starboard and his love for what the brand represents. He believes that Starboard has the best team, the products, and in his words, “we’re always pushing. It’s just making sure our story and the foundation of the brand really underpin where we’re going to go.”

With Blue Tiki, YOU can be part of that team too.

As someone with a quiver of Starboard boards and a passionate commitment to “blue Life,” I love the way Ollie answered this question posed by SUP Connect: Where do you see Starboard in five, ten years? Where do you see the brand going with how the industry is right now?

Ollie began by explaining, “Innovation and quality are always going to be our pillars on how we make decisions and the directions we’re going to go. That’s core to the brand. Sustainability and our impact is our third pillar. Quality, innovation, and sustainability, they’re the foundations that help us make our decisions on a daily basis and also longer-term planning. I think, again, just tightening the story and where we’re going. I feel like Starboard is a very encompassing brand. We have paddle boarding, we have wingboarding. There’s probably going to be something else in a few years and just making sure that when people come to Starboard, that question of ‘why Starboard’ is always clear, like always being the leaders but always being not just performance but also lifestyle, what the brand means, our impact and just having a very clear resonance to when people see the brand they know we’re a leader and pushing the boundaries of innovation, quality and sustainability.

Let’s hear that again: Starboard is a leader – pushing the boundaries of innovation, quality and sustainability. Want to participate in your own way? Go to Blue Tiki now and the fun and connection is all yours.

Life Is Balance: Don’t Mind Falling In

On the back cover of the recent Spring Issue of Standup Journal there is a beautiful Starboard ad with the headline, “Life is Balance.” SUP Yoga is beautifully portrayed. I love that – but I am hungry to kick up my downwind game and hone my balance in a different way. Like Starboard and their Starboard Blue program, which balances their carbon footprint with offsets to improve the environment, standup paddling is more than what we do on the water. 

Retirement was on my mind – retirement from racing and maybe even from “work.” But I connected with Starboard “Dream Team” waterman, Zane Schweitzer a few years ago and things changed. Zane and I are neck deep in amazing projects and I love every minute. Working with Zane hit me with a huge dose of what he does best – Innovate and Inspire. zaniac arms up

During Zane’s BENEATH THE SURFACE book launch events here in Bend, OR I watched him eat his whole plant based diet, train hard with what was available and hit the snow and the water with equal enthusiasm and joy. I caught the “Zaniac” bug. Spring may be showing itself as winter here in Bend, but paddling on the rivers and lakes (when they thaw) is on my mind.

Also on my mind is a bold move – branching away from my awesome Astro Deluxe 12’6″ Touring board (at 31″ wide and stable) to the Inflatable Allstar 12’6″ X 27 with Airline Deluxe Technology – yup, just 27″ wide. I turn 69 in June – growing into the “elder” part of Elder SUP pretty quickly. Why would I move to a less stable board at this point?

starboard blueAs Zane says, “If you’re not growing, you’re dying.” I love to grow – and learn and practice. I know that “Life is balance,” in every meaning of the word. Balance is a characteristic skill of young athletes – and the young at heart. I am willing to learn, practice and grow.

Talk about “Life is balance,” here is a bit more about Starboard Blue and how they offset their carbon footprint. Did you know that for every Starboard Stand Up Paddle Surfing board sold, they plant a mangrove in the Thor Heyerdahl Climate Park?  Mangroves are “Miracle Trees” and are really efficient at removing massive amounts of CO2 from the atmosphere – 1 ton over 20 years to be exact making Starboard  “Carbon Net Positive.”

Want to learn more – visit star-board.blue

Watch this video for a comparison between inflatable and composite construction in the Allstar line. Inflatable is my construction of choice – easy to store and great to travel with.