Sup will be at the Olympics
That is if the organisers of racers, supporters and organisers of the Silverblades Regatta have anything to do with it. This type of Sup racing format is believed to meet many of the criteria for selection as an Olympic event.
Stand Up Paddlers were invited to be part of the Silverblades Regatta which was held during the USA Canoe Kayak Junior and Senior National Team Olympic Trials. The event which was held at the Olympic training center in Chula Vista, San Diego.
The format included a 200 metre sprint, a 2000 metre distance race and a mixed relay. The races were fiercely contested and hugely entertaining.
Suplove's Kristin Thomas on the Suplove Stingray had an amazing day winning the 200 metre sprint in a time of 01:18.284 about three seconds ahead of the rest of the field while also taking fourth in the distance race.
Dan and Michele Shoemaker from San Diego switched to Suplove Stingray's after their heats. Both racers shaving 4 seconds from their time over 200 metres. Seriously, these boards are crazy fast and everyone at the Olympic training centre could see it ...
For all the results and times go to http://www.sdckt.net/usa-sprint-team-trialssilver-blade.html.
Hey Suplove, it would be great to have SUP as an Olympic sport and I'm definately all for it. The ISA (Interneational Surfing Association) is the driving commity to get surfing into the Olympics. You will probably find that they would push for SUP in the Olympics as well considering they have also added SUP under their banner (At least in their rulebook) which includes both the surfing and racing sides. The only thing that will stop SUP from entering the Olympics I see is the amount of people who participate in our sport, the rule from the IOC that you have to have so many countries or people (not sure which one it is) that participate in the sport and lastly a country who is holding the Olympics to recoginise the sport and add it to the Olympic program. But in the future it is definatly a possibility
Adapt you are right on that point.
I am curious to know what the inclusion rules are regarding numbers of participants and number of country's.
Does anyone know?
I think SUP will eventually get there too.... But in the race & sprint formats. Maybe even Down Wind eventually.... Am I dreaming....
Kayak gets there on it's long history of human's using a kayak.... saw a pod of sea-kayakers go past Winki-Pop (Vic) this morning, and one guy had a traditional Eskimo blade. Long blades, but narrow blades. His stroke rate was higher than the others, but you could see less effort per stroke. Interesting to see.
200 m sprint seems kind of boring. Just a bit of splashing about and it's over. No race craft, no strategy, just a slow mimicking of a rowing regatta. Not SUP as far as I'm concerned. I would regard 2000 m as a sprint, then they should look at distance races beyond 5km.
Interesting, times change culture changes (or disappears), things gain international popularity and others lose relavence.
I wonder how long it will be before pole-dancing is in the olympics or skateboarding, free style motocross..?
imagine if this grey tide of gormless corporate goo continues at its steady generational infestation what are we gonna see at the olympics in 200 years...?
poker, beer drinking..?
will they even be called the olympics...?
maclympics maybe...?
Agree, not for 20 years anyways. Should have seen the hoops Slalom canoeing had to go through - a sport that has a 70 year history and was huge in Europe and North America at the time. Some of the Olympic sports are a joke as it is.
Truth changes, in 2011 we have a new set of social and cultural rules and challenges. Perhaps Sup is set to break new ground.
Stand up paddle racing is a quickly growing sport and seems to have struck a chord with many different walks of life around the world.
This includes the incredible folks at US Canoe and Kayak, who hosted the USA sprint team trials for canoe and kayaking at the Olympic Training Center in Chula Vista, CA. Putting SUP racing on display in front of the canoe and kayak committee greatly increases SUP being considered for the 2016 Summer Olympics.
Races were held in several formats, including a 2000 meter distance race, and some really exciting 200m sprints. There was also a team relay event to close out the day.
Taking home the win for the women was Laguna Beach local and SUP Love team rider Kristin Thomas. The men's title goes to our very own Olympic hero Jim Terrell. Both fields were extremely competitive as notable standouts Slater Trout and Dan Gavere nipped at the heels of the champ Jimmy.
Wouldnt any sport in the olympics need to have sone kind of global appeal? Wouldn't it also need to have formalized organizations in each respective country? It sounds like a grey event at the canoe course and maybe a more logical step would be for a peak body to be formed and recognized at a government level in the USA due to it. Following that the same could be done in other countries including Australia.
This is dealing with sporting beuracrasy and in competition with every other far more developed and organised sport in the world competing for the same thing.
In short if it ever happened there is a whole lot more to be done over many years. Even shorter there is no chance.
To be accepted as an Olympic event, a sport must have its own international federation, with official qualification events in 75 different countries on four separate continents.
A long way off yet - I reckon.
Anyone who starts trying to get this thing up and running now will be too old to compete at the sport's first Olympics.
i wonder if tucking under the arm of canoe and kayak would speed things up.
not saying its right or wrong
these sprint races are only a part of sup anyway
All good points of view ... and more ...
The games are now limited to 28 sports, 301 events and 10,500 athletes, provisions that leave sports such as baseball, softball and rollersports on the outside looking in. New sports need a recognized international federation to carry their banner and complete a 33-item evaluation package; they need approval from half the 110 members of the International Olympic Committee.
We would not want a challenge to get in the way. I remind you this is why many of us took up Sup, because the sport has this element.
it will never happen in my life time.
think of all the sports that have been trying to get into the games for the past 25 -35 years and have not gotten there.
I know one thing id ratther watch a 200m sup sprint than synchronized swimming or badminton or pistol shooting or many of the other lame sports in the olympics.I think the olympic sports will change along with popular culture.May not take as long as you guys think.Also olympic members are not adverse to a good bribe.
