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ABOUT US

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OR -- Take a summertime trip to Bend, Oregon and pickup your gear along with a Deschutes River Guide map. (Be sure to order your SUP gear from us before you arrive.) Choose from miles of calm-water river trails or visit some of the many pristine high mountain Cascade lakes. Call Randall before you come and he'll have your SUP gear ready.

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Standup Paddle Flatwater (aka Standup Paddle Bend) is a family owned business selling the Stand up Paddle Surf and Flatwater SUP gear we believe in. We SUP paddle boarding flatwater specialists. Owner, Randall Barna and his family test new SUP boards and paddles on the Deschutes River, the Cascade Mountain Lakes or the Oregon Coast.

Randall's been selling sports equipment forever. He had the first windsurfing school in Oregon in the 1980's, and he was one of the pioneer group of Oregon surfers braving the Oregon coast in the 1960's and 1970's -- before the invention of warm wetsuits!

Randall knows what conditions are like on lakes and rivers at low and high elevations, and what is best for surf. You can trust his advice for Flat water SUP standup paddle and windsurfing equipment. If you don't live in Bend, Oregon, he can arrange shipping anywhere in the continental U.S. (no foreign orders please).

We take great pride in our company, our commitment to customer service and in the products we sell. Our online store is designed to provide you with a safe and secure environment to browse our product catalog.

Randy Barna Sports, Inc./ Footform Performance, 345 SW Century Drive, Suite 1, Bend, Oregon 97702 541-389-4547

How Our Family Got Started with SUP
A note from Cristina (Randall's wife)

Stand up paddling has changed our lives! Paddling on waterways close to home and when we travel brings a little bit of adventure into our everyday lives. We've met new friends and are closer as a family. Here's how we got into the sport and into selling stand up paddle surf gear.

Randall learned to surf in the 1960's on the Oregon Coast. (Being a native Oregonian he didn't really get how cold the coastal water is.) He moved to Bend, Oregon in the 1970's to ski, promising himself he'd still get to the coast. But that wasn't what happened. Living inland in Central Oregon (and getting into all of the great sports in this area), it became almost impossible to fit surfing trips into a busy and busier life. Bend is edged on the east by the100 mile road, Century Drive, dotted with a variety of pristine High Cascade Lakes that host water sports and fisher-people. Operating a ski shop in the winter, during the summers Randall found a new passion. Windsurfing had been invented. He started the first windsurfing school in Oregon in the 1980's. After windsurfing developed into a high-wind sport and moved to the Columbia Gorge, Randall dedicated himself to course-board racing. He started a windsurf course-board racing club at Elk Lake (about 40 minutes from Bend) that lasted for decades. He kept a sideline business selling windsurfing equipment. The surfboards migrated into the attic where, except for a couple annual weekend trips to the Oregon Coast, surfing slipped out of his life.

But not completely. Randall read Surfer's Journal along with windsurfing magazines and noticed a few articles about a new sport that big wave surfer Laird Hamilton was reviving. Though stand up paddling originated with the ancient Hawaiians, stand up paddling (or SUP) was re-invented and popularized during the past decade by Laird Hamilton and his compadres. Riding 50' waves and paddling across the English Channel, Laird got SUP into the minds of other watermen and women. Despite his amazing accomplishments, unless a person followed surfing, most people didn't know SUP was anything other than another form of macho surfing until August 2008, when actress Jennifer Aniston caught the camera lens while stand up paddling in Hawaii.

Noticing how much Randall seemed enthralled with the idea of Stand Up Paddling (he hadn't yet tried it as SUP boards weren't easily available outside of Hawaii), I called up Dave Chun, our local Hawaiian shaper and bought Randall a handmade carbon fiber paddle for Christmas 2006. Dave and Meg Chun own Kialoa Paddles, a Hawaiian paddle company that moved their production facility to Central Oregon. I had no idea what I was buying, but Meg assured me he'd love the new paddles her husband was shaping. I remember the happy surprise on Randall's face when he saw his paddle on Christmas morning.

Visiting Kona the following spring, Randall hoped to try the new sport of Stand Up Paddle Surfing, but couldn't find any rentals. He noticed a guy in the bay and when the guy came into the beach Randall introduced himself. That guy was Jack Gillen, owner of Wave Chi. Jack generously lent Randall his SUP board to try and even took his picture, promising to email the photos.

Randall was hooked! He returned home and converted his windsurfing sideline into a Stand Up Paddle business. Our daughter, Isabella, and I loved SUP from the first. (A good thing as Randall bought us boards before we ever tried it!) Randall started spreading the SUP gospel along with selling boards and paddles. Another Hawaiian, legendary surfer Gerry Lopez also lives in Bend. Gerry and the Chuns invited us to join their casual Friday afternoon paddle sessions on the Deshutes River. I started a blog to share our experiences with the community and get the word out about this great sport.

Our very casual paddle group will be celebrating it's 3rd summer this year. Most Friday's at 4:30 you can join us at the Bend Outrigger Canoe Launch in the Old Mill District along the Deshutes River to paddle the Colorado Bridge to Healy Bridge section. Gerry and the Chuns sometimes paddle with us, helping the SUP Aloha spirt to thrive.

That chance meeting on the beach in Kona led to a wonderful friendship with Jack and his family. Jack visited Bend in 2007 to talk to our then fledgling group and encourage us with his stories of inter-island paddling. He returned this past winter to update us with his new enthusiasm for SUP training, Indian Clubs. He and his family have taken up snow boarding, so we hope to see much more of them.

The serendipitous meeting with Jack Gillen years ago created a ripple effect that is ongoing. SUP continues to enrich our lives. We've meet wonderful people and gone on all sorts of paddling adventures. Along with learning to paddle wind-driven lake waves, Isabella and I have been learning to surf on the Oregon Coast. Stand Up Paddling has brought our family closer together. We are dedicated to sharing SUP with others as we feel that not only is it a great sport, SUP is good for the planet. With very little extra effort and (after production) no extra fossil fuel, a few SUP boards in the garage give families and friends the opportunity to play together on flat water waterways around the country.

For standup paddling to really grow, the word needs to get out that Flat water SUP is fun, easy and a great sport for women, kids, and ordinary guys whose first thought when hearing the term "six-pack" is a cold beer. Stand up paddling isn't just a sport for the macho elite athlete. Put the board on flat water and SUP is so easy that most people can learn in less than 20 minutes. And with the move to flat water, anyone near a lake or navigable river can stand up paddle. New equipment is out this season that is especially user-friendly for women.

Not only is Stand up paddling gear simple and elegant, the sport is pretty detail-free. Strap the board on top of the car, tuck the paddle between the seats and head to the water's edge.

See You on the Water,
Randall, Cristina and Isabella