What a whirlwind of a year in terms of SUP racing in Scotland. We have organised and run, with the help and support of many, many volunteers and athletes entering, a full GBSUP Series of races, supported other races running in the South West and also hosted the Scottish SUP Qualifications at Portobello back in June. Aqua paddle although not racing has been going on in different locations around the country too allowing people to have and complete 5km timed sessions. SUP exploded during the Covid pandemic and now more and more people are asking about SUP racing and how to get involved.
I write this blog post sitting in the airport about to board a plane representing the Scottish Surfing Federation (SSF) as Team Manager for the incredible people that have qualified for their prospective races to represent their national country in a first time ever for Scotland. This is SUPER exciting and an ambition I had and have wanted to achieve since starting Glasgow Paddleboarders Co and first hearing about the idea of racing on a paddleboard. For some, racing knocks the leisure and fun out of SUP. A chill, float and a beer might be the vibe for so many, but SUP racing involves all those competitive beasts that see SUP as a training and speed mission.
When I first contacted The SSF around 3 years ago to look at the process for getting this up and running I had more work to do in upskilling myself and leaning about the race scene around the world. President William Watson and I enjoyed a lengthy call about the role of SUP within the SSF and what that might look like and how we would compete on the world stage. Plenty of time, CPD, learnings and failings have been achieved since then and here we are. We have a team at the Worlds in Denmark for the first time ever. I’m stoked to be involved and to have helped make this happen. Apart from the fact I’m not racing, which I’m surprisingly OK about, I’m just delighted for the guys and girls getting to go.
Hosted in Copenhagen, Denmark, three disciplines of SUP racing will occur.
Technical - 5-8km race taking on buoys in the bay and running round flags with your board on the beach
Distance - 13km race around Copenhagen Harbour
Sprints - 200m - 100m out to a buoy and spin and return.
Images from the Scottish Surfing Federation Qualifiers 📸 Sky monster Watersports
At the qualifications in June Jonathan Sherwin clean sweeped distance, tech and sprint so he will be taking on all of the worlds best at all three disciplines. Glen Sloss from The Isle of Arran took the other two spots for distance and technical so he is also gunning to go. Alison Rennie and Angela Kerr took the technical and distance events for the ladies and Jennifer Ng-Armstrong will be taking on the fasted sprinters in the world. Dean Dunbar will represent the men in the prone paddleboard technical race. Prone paddling is different to SUP because the paddler is lying down and swimming paddling with arms.
After a mad week of BBC TV and Radio appearances and for the team a final preparation before the event starting on Monday the 16th of September we are ready to go!
Thank you to all of those that have sponsored the team so far. We have secured over £5000 to help fund all of the accommodation, travel and race entry fees for the athletes. As I’m sure you can imagine these events are not cheap to get to so if there is any spare cash kicking around please give to our go fund me page. https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-get-team-scotland-to-isa-worlds
Keep in touch with the results of the week.
Tuesday Tech heats, Wed Tech finals, Thursday team relay, Saturday distance and Sunday sprints.
The live stream will be found on https://isasurf.org/event/2024-isa-world-sup-paddleboard-championship/
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