Be a stand-up guy: Surf, with a paddle

If you've happened to catch the new documentary on Laird Hamilton, "Path of Purpose," that debuted this month on the Sundance Channel, you know what an extreme athletic ability it takes to participate in the sport of stand-up paddle surfing.

Hamilton, the great big-wave surfers of this or any century, teammed with Dave Kalama to peddle (on a bike) and paddle (on a surfboard) across the entire Hawaiian Island chain -- more than 450 miles -- in a week, back in October, 2006. They did it to help raise awareness of autism, which is something famed underwater filmmaker Don King's son suffers from. King also included Hamilton's feat, along with his peddle-paddle-peddle trek from London to Paris before that in his other doc, "A Beautiful Son."

The sport will make its debut at the U.S. Open of Surfing on Sunday in Huntington Beach (click here) when a handful of the world's top surfers will give it a shot during an exhibition (scheduled to start at 1:20 p.m. in the surf stadium near the pier).

Among those expected to compete are longboard champion Joel Tudor, four-time women's world champion Lisa Anderson and current WCT competitor Timmy Reyes.

The modern version of paddle surfing comes from Hawaii back in the 1960s. Over the last decade, Hamilton and other top surfers have used paddle surfing as a training tool when the surf was down.

Our advice: Check it out. Maybe even try it. But only if you have exceptional balance, strong core muscles and an ability to stay focused -- there are sharks probably nearby. And scan the Sundance Channel for repeats of "Path of Purpose." It's only about a half-hour of your day.