Anywhere he goes, Larry Bordine is an instant conversation starter.
A friendly, laid-back guy, he knows the object of everyone's interest is his stand-up paddle board. Twelve feet long, about two and a half feet wide and 15 pounds, the fiberglass board captivates people as he heads from van to water for a session of fun and fitness.
Whether on a calm morning on West Grand Traverse Bay or a windy afternoon at Empire or Frankfort (key surfing destinations as the sport builds a following in the region,) boaters, walkers, sunbathers and even police officers stop to ask: "What is it?” "How does it work?” "Where can I get one?”
"Sometimes it's hard to even get it in the water,” noted Bordine, a mechanical engineer by day who is still tinkering with the board's design. "This is the next step in surfing, beyond paddling, beyond kayaking. I've done that, but after this it's hard to go back to.”
As for the last question, his answer is, "Um, you can't.” (Some are made in California, but shipping would be very costly.)
Bordine's two boards are homemade concoctions inspired by a surfing magazine article on how some of the world's best surfers have fallen under the spell of stand-up boards. These athletes are drawn to the board's responsiveness and flexibility to conditions.
"The minute I saw the board, I went, 'Ding!'” recalled Bordine, who has been building boats since he was eight years old and built his first stand-up paddle board last fall and takes it on the water year round.
Bordine is currently building another one in his workshop while mulling over the business possibilities, although a previous venture in boat building — lots of enthusiasm among viewers but few orders and less cash for a labor-intensive project — have him planted firmly in the hobby realm.
"The problem I ran into with that, the people who could really appreciate the design and engineering that went into the boat were poor like me and couldn't afford the boat,” said Bordine, who takes about a week to construct each surfboard on a part-time schedule. "The people who could afford it, they just wanted the boat.”
A native of California who grew up surfing, Bordine's research found that the concept originated in Hawaii where a chief traveling solo among islands would use a stand-up paddle board. When white people came to Hawaii and brought lighter woods such as redwood and balsa, the board became lighter, more maneuverable and proliferated.
Both he and his wife, Nancy, regularly skim over the water and have mastered the subtle, full-body motion required for balance and locomotion. The board's width gives it greater stability and it is a little bit hard to turn but "not much,” noted Bordine. In fact, this greater stability allows the paddle boarder to handle much bigger waves than a kayaker could.
Paddlers switch sides to steer and can reach speeds up to four miles per hour. Bordine noted that the slow, steady and comprehensive workout is not tiring and he can go for hours at a time. The main adjustment was in his feet, which needed to acclimate as the balancing requires muscles rarely used so intensely.
"It's like cross-country skiing on water,” said Bordine, who relishes the human scale of paddling and reveres the natural beauty encountered while paddling. "I think maybe the best analogy is if anybody's ever ice skated on ice that looks like glass, that's what this is like: you're just gliding over the bottom.”
Built for surfing, the stand-up paddle boards do just that, even on the relative modest waves that can be found along the Lake Michigan shoreline.
"You can surf even the small waves,” said Bordine, adding of the sport's addictive properties to even experienced surfers: "The guys in the big wave, these world class riders are having fun figuring out how to make these great big boards maneuver on itty-bitty waves.”