Steve and Mandy 2

Steve & Mandy

Living legends: West

Interview: SUPM

Pics: Mistral, Steve and Mandy West

In the world of paddlesports, few have achieved what both Mandy and Steve have in the wider world of watersports. We thought it high time to get the full lowdown from two of the most highly regarded water people around. So without further ado, here's an incredibly insightful Q&A with Steve and Mandy West.

Tell us a little about your respective water sports backgrounds

Mandy moved to Hayling Island with her folks in the early ‘70s, and her father, Albert, was a keen diver who worked with the original rescue service, HISRO (Hayling Island Surf and Rescue Organisation) and went on to be a part of the dive team on the Tudor ship, the Mary Rose in Southsea. This meant a lot of time on the beach and around boats. Kayaking was her first foray into water sports when she was around ten years old. She always loved playing in the dumping shore break on stormy days, and the ocean was something she grew to love. When just 16, she signed up for a windsurfing lesson at the Northney Boardsports Centre on Hayling Island with her sister, Liesl.

This was April 1980, and I happened to be her instructor. She saw me windsurfing from the seafront on Hayling Island and was surprised to be taught by me. She was a quick learner, a natural athlete and within no time and with daily practice, became when of the best female windsurfers in the country. She went on to be sponsored by a variety of companies, including Gul Wetsuits and Elvstrom and won several UK titles and continued windsurfing right through the ‘80s.

In the early ‘80s, she studied sport and recreation at Farnborough, took up mountain bike riding, rode competitively, and became a keen SCUBA diver. She also found time to become a highly accomplished saxophonist with a love for the Blues, in which she played professionally in the UK, America and the Far East. When we met up again in 2006, I took her back to her roots of watersports, which led to outrigger canoeing in OC6, OC1, Hawaiian canoe sailing, SUP and windsurfing and travelling the world over. Her natural ability never fails to impress me.

My background in watersports began from an early age. Born in Nigeria, West Africa, watersports were a natural extension of living in a tropical environment. When I was six, we moved to Sierra Leone, and at the same time, my father purchased a property on Hayling Island, and I was shoved off to boarding school. It was a shock to the system, but each holiday I would fly back to the various locations around the world; my father was posted as an engineer. His leisure time was

game fishing and powerboats, which became a part of my life for a time. When we moved to Dar Es Salaam in Tanzania, I took up sailing and racing and was hooked; this was followed by some time in Java, Indonesia, then four years in Mauritius, where I took up windsurfing as my main interest.

After finishing my schooling, I was accepted into Southampton University to study Yacht and Boat Yard Management, and I had an apprenticeship arranged in Devon with Tremlett Powerboats. After a few days of ‘talk and chalk’, I could not deal with being institutionalised any longer and left to focus my attention on freelance writing for windsurfing publications and my windsurfing career.

In 1980, I founded the Round Hayling Windsurfing Race with the late Peter Williams. I was a member of the British Windsurfing Display Team together with Pete and Dee Caldwell and Lisa Vincent and acted as Captain of the Peter Stuyvesant Display Team, running shows at major events such as boat shows and water ski racing events. Although I was competitive at course racing, I was led by wind and waves and could not commit to the circuit. The Bacardi World Cup, held on the Isle of Man in 1982, was the world's first multi-disciplinary professional windsurfing event in which I was invited. I did well as someone more interested in soul-sailing than competing and won £3000, which funded a trip to Australia.

What happened after you left the UK in the 80s?

My father had sailed a 36' Trimaran from Fiji to Australia in 1982 and invited me to meet him in Mooloolaba, Queensland, where he had made landfall. Arriving in Australia with two boards given to me by my close sailing buddy, Angus Chater, along with a quiver of Hyde Sails provided by Eddy Hyde, I soon lived the Aussie lifestyle. I assimilated quickly into the windsurfing community, where everything was wave sailing and surf orientated. I was soon associating with sail and board shapers and designers in Australia, organising events, and contributing to various publications.

When in 1986, my close friend Angus took his own life when living in Hawaii, it shook me up, and I found myself reflecting on my own life. So many of us had sacrificed so much to pursue windsurfing, and I was feeling burnt out and needed change. The pioneering days were like nothing else you could imagine, an all-consuming obsession that is well documented. From this, I took to surfing and bodyboarding. Then in 1989, I see a six-person 40' Hawaiian Outrigger Canoe gliding over the water. It was evocative and powerful to see such grace and beauty. The crew consisted of two Maori lads and three Aussies. There was a free seat, and next thing I'm sitting and paddling with the guys and loving it. That very night, the Mooloolaba Outrigger Canoe Club was founded. I was hooked from the start, and this was to become my next focus of attention. Windsurfing had given me so much water knowledge, and being around my Aussie mates, had hardened me up and gave me a greater appreciation of what it was to become a waterman and now here I was involved in a Polynesian paddling sport that would take me on an epic life journey that continues to this day.

I wanted to know more about outrigger canoeing and had the idea to write a book about the sport from a contemporary standpoint. Since the early ‘50s, outrigger canoeing had been formalised through the establishment of associations in the Hawaiian Islands and California and in Tahiti, where in fact, it had been uninterrupted by the arrival of missionaries, unlike Hawaii, where it had been banned for 50 years. The outrigger canoe remains a central maritime artefact for all cultures of Oceania, and it was this cultural connection that drew me in most of all. My upbringing in Africa and the Far East had given me a genuine interest in coastalbased indigenous cultures, which relied upon canoes in all forms, so I wanted to understand more.

It took a year to write my first book entitled ‘Kanu Culture’, which included overviews of some of the great races located around the Pacific, focus on canoe designs and Hawaiian and Tahitian terminology. I made one trip to Hawaii for my research. After the book’s release in 1994, the result was extraordinary and especially from the Pacific-wide outrigger community, from Hawaii to California and beyond. They loved it and wanted more, and I went on to produce one book a year for 12 years, which meant extensive and continual travel around the Pacific region. When I finally produced definitive books after 15 years, they were taken up by the University of the South Pacific and the University of Hawaii as references for various studies, which was very gratifying. I would have continued, but I had made a right mess of my personal life in never being at home. I was a single Dad to my daughter Alana from when she was six years old; she travelled with me to many places around the Pacific, which was an excellent education for her.

I was racing OC1s and OC6 canoes at high levels and travelling Pacific-wide competing from 1989 to 2007. I represented Aussie, and New Zealand teams on different occasions even paddled with Hawaiian crews and mixed country crews. It was not glamorous, indeed seriously hardcore, in remote areas of the Pacific in conditions most would never attempt. It made for an abnormal life but incredible experiences. I was fortunate to form strong relations with Tahiti Tourism who funded many trips to their islands, my favourite place on earth.

I spent a lot of time in Fiji with over 20 trips and was a consultant to their South Pacific Games squad for seven years and during this time, I created an apparel line for

paddlers, which we manufactured in Suva, Fiji. I was also the National Coaching Director for OC in Australia for six years with Chris Maynard, where I wrote the first Instructor Training Course for AOCRA in line with Australian Canoeing and the Australian Institute of Sport guidelines.

My last race in Australia was in 2007 at the Hamilton Cup. Our crew won all events in our division. Still, the best experience was racing with five other guys in the 16km race around Hamilton Island in which the canoe was composed of paddlers and iron men competitors of which between us, there must have been over 20 Molokai wins and other multiple titles; needless to say, we smashed it by a long way in tough race conditions, and I loved every stroke of it. It was 26 years of glorious madness living on the Pacific Rim and venturing into the unknown.

Where and when did SUP come into the equation?

In late 2005, Todd Bradley, who founded C4 Waterman in Hawaii along with fellow business associates, contacted me and let me know what he was up to. A company in Sydney published my Kanu Culture magazines, which I founded in 1994, and I included his story about this new sport of stand-up paddleboarding. Then I see that a few of my OC paddling buddies are having a go at it, mostly just by using Malibu boards with extended homemade paddles. Woogie Marsh, who I had raced OCs with and a Molokai winner, told me I should give it a go, and in early 2006 I did together with Mandy.

We ended up buying two NSP Malibu boards from Chris De Aboitz in Noosa and began venturing out between our OC training sessions. It was for me a secondary sport to supplement the OC paddling, which certainly helped to use different muscle groups and provide a variation on a theme. We paddled rivers and lakes and surfed at various locations, as is the Aussie way, and soon we were both doing more and more of it, evolving as the sport evolved.

When we both came over to the UK in 2010 or thereabouts, we paddled old windsurfing boards for a while, and at some point, I found myself captain of the Starboard 12'6 Race Team through John Hibbard and Dave Hackford. We both competed, did well at various events, and began hosting events at the Hayling Island Sailing Club. Having established the Round Hayling Island Windsurfing Race in 1980 with Peter Williams, the event had been reinstated by

the sailing club, who asked if I could formulate a plan to include SUP. I prepared a risk assessment, rules, and SUP has been a part of this event ever since. Later I was able also to include an outrigger canoeing division.

And what sees you back now in England?

It was not until 2010 when I was visiting the UK and managing the establishment of the Academy of Surfing Instructors (ASI), that I became entrenched in the UK. My buddy Jamie Mitchell of prone paddleboarding, big wave and SUP fame knew I was in the UK and called me to see if I would be interested. One thing led to another, and I was soon full time involved in this process until 2013. When I felt I had made my mark and had set them up, Mandy and I departed for Fiji to Leleuvia Island.

A call from Mistral based in the Netherlands brought me back to the UK, and in 2014, I began working with the brand, establishing our own company to do so. Then in 2016, we moved to Mauritius, where I had lived in the past, and we became residents. I was by now very much involved with different aspects of overseeing the Mistral brand, from designs, production, and marketing. Mandy worked with some garment factories and managed our book sales, being distributed out of the UK. It was a busy time.

Then in 2018, I suffered a 95% blockage of my left descending artery, which had Mandy rushing me to the hospital at 2.30 am. My memory of that moment will stay with me forever. I had felt this fear before being held under in big water, but I could not reach the surface to breathe in this situation. I was sedated and woke up with a stent fitted and told, “I was very lucky to be alive.” It was only on account of the fact my heart is oversized and strong from years of paddling that I made it; my condition has been attributed to high blood pressure, which can tear the artery walls and encourage plaque build-up. Aptly the condition is known as ‘The Widow Maker’. Ultimately we returned to the UK to be nearer to the Mistral head office in the Netherlands and to take on the family property on Hayling, get a Spaniel (Monty) and settle down a little, not that our wanderlust has been thwarted. However, Covid has taken care of this recently.

Tell us about your book SUP book?

Since I had been writing and documenting the sport from around 2005 and with the influx of outrigger canoe paddlers getting involved, it became a natural extension of the 12 other books I had written and the four definitive works I had produced for V1, OC1, OC6 and OC Steering. The white noise of forums and self-proclaimed paddling experts was painful to wade through. I recount famous waterman who claimed to be paddlers but never were, and that was truly tragic and an insult to those that were. It was easy for physically fit waterman to ‘win’ SUP events, where they simply muscled their way through, where strength, fitness and water skills were a good substitute for actual paddling ability of any technical merit. From an evolutionary standpoint, such individuals were replaced by paddlers of genuine talent and finesse, often from OC, surfski, canoe or kayak backgrounds, though some from windsurfing backgrounds also.

In part two in the August issue:

We ask, how does SUP fit their watery lives? And Steve gives us three predictions about SUP moving forwards and where he thinks it might be heading amongst many others. stay tuned…

There were many issues to address, not least of which was provenance, which was important as someone interested in maritime history. Standing and paddling is nothing new to islanders of the Pacific, let alone African cultures. Yet, marketing dictates that if Hawaii can be considered the birthplace, then the romantic notion of this alone ‘works’, add in a couple of waterman legends who claim to have invented the sport, tag it with a surfing label. You have your marketing hype in the bag.

From a contemporary standpoint, we can agree on some of these merits, but we should not forget the relevance of outrigger

canoeing, which is evident to anyone who paddles outrigger canoes in the Hawaiian Islands; nor that of prone paddleboarding; they are intrinsically linked. Why does it matter? Well, because synergy tells you about cross-platforming. It tells you why

Travis Grant, Danny Ching or Jamie Mitchell have been on the podium many times over; this then helps lead to a study of biomechanics and even more of the board and paddle design.

The book took five years to finish and was released in 2012; and covers a vast range of topics, which I wanted to share with the world, from paddling techniques, paddle and board designs, how stuff works and why. There’s a long chapter on downwind paddling, issues around safety, balance issues and so on. Off the back of this book, at 500 pages and all my other works, in 2014, I won the World Paddle Award for media, which was hugely gratifying after a lifetime of writing.

The book ‘Stand UP Paddling - A Paddler’s Guide’ was very well received, and though the amount of information may be overwhelming for some, even challenging, it’s stood the test of time. It gives an excellent historical and technical account of the sport. It has been dubbed many times over as ‘The SUP Bible’ by many notable sources. In the USA, some objected to my challenging the idea this was not a surf sport but a paddle sport or, at best, a unique sport, but overall, they embraced the content.