Armed with a long black paddle in his hand, Laird Hamilton, revered as a god among surfers, stands on a massive 12-foot board and glides effortlessly across the ocean. His 6-foot-3, 215-pound body casts a silhouette that, for a moment, makes him look like a Polynesian warrior traversing the ocean in Hawaii. Today, Hamilton is stand-up paddling, a sport he’s embraced and for which he is unofficial spokesman.

Stand-up paddling, a variation of surfing in which you stand on a board and propel with a paddle almost like a kayak, is taking beaches by storm, largely due to its endorsement by Hamilton.

The sport stands to change ocean recreation, much as snowboards changed the ski slopes. It is also the best chance yet for the 44-year-old waterman, famous for riding skyscraper-size waves big enough to make other surfers wet their wetsuits, to morph into an entrepreneur and find a way to profit from his talents in the water.

“This will be enormous,” says Hamilton, acknowledging he’s a bit of a reluctant entrepreneur. “I’m on for the ride. It’ll be bigger than surfing.”

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(Source: Matt Krantz, USA TODAY)