2015 Australian Flatwater SUPFest - March 13-15

Advance notice - save the date and start planning. More details to come over the next few weeks.

After the very successful inaugural Australian Flatwater SUPFest was held at West Lakes in SA in March 2014 - we are pleased to advise the dates and location for the 2015 event.

2015 Australian Flatwater SUPFest
Fri March 13 to Sun March 15
Penrith Regatta Centre
Penrith NSW

Events for 2015 will comprise 200m, 1000m and 5000m races. All events are open to all paddlers with no pre-qualifying requirements and all paddlers will have at least 2 races in each sprint (200m and 1000m) with the 5000m being a staged race start.

Board Class is 14"

The response to this years event in Adelaide was excellent, building on the formats of the successful Black Blade Regatta in WA and similar international flat water and sprint events. The Penrith Olympic Regatta Centre is an outstanding venue and many NSW SUP paddlers have participated in the PaddleNSW 2014 Sprint Series at this venue. The race formats are simple and encourage participation at all levels and the facility set up allows great spectator access and a team environment.

Prizes and categories - will be confirmed closer to the date but are expected to be similar to this year - Open, O40, O50 and O60

Sponsorships - A broad range of sponsorships are available and will be confirmed in the coming months. Sponsorship enquiries should be directed to spsc@mail.tidyclub.com.

Coordinating Club - Sydney Paddle Surfing Club (SPSC) will act as the event coordinator and liaise with State based SUP clubs & groups and NSW SUP clubs to support participation and event planning, promotion and logistics.

Boards and transport - We are expecting to have most major SUP brands represented on site in a mini SUP Expo during the event with opportunities to demo a variety of race boards. Most state groups will organise some form of board transport for participants and we will work with NSW retailers and clubs to provide demo or spare boards as required.

Accommodation - Penrith is located at the foot of the Blue Mountains and there are a variety of local accommodation options including holidays parks, rental houses and hotels. The Regatta Centre is easily accessible from major arterial motorways which opens up a huge variety of accommodation choices within a 20- 30 minute radius. Sydney CBD is around 75 minutes and 90 minutes to Northern and Southern Beaches.

Once again, Tim Paterson from Digital Media Creations (and SUPVIC Member) has created a fantastic event poster carrying on the theme from last year.

So lock it in your diaries and start getting a crew together. This really is a great fun and participation format with the opportunity to race alongside your mates and some of the best paddlers in the world. We will see who are the fastest male and female paddlers in Australia and perhaps we will see some flat water records fall ??

Stay tuned for more details over the next few months.




A few photos of a recent Paddle NSW event at the site.

Sounds good.

In!!

A quick pre-Xmas reminder to lock in your SUPFest 2015 plans and start getting your crew [State, pod, club, paddle group] together for this exciting event.

The exact timetable for the event will be issued in the New Year by Australian Canoeing but we are anticipating a similar schedule to this year with the event running from Friday afternoon to Sunday lunchtime. To compete in all events you should aim to be in Sydney on the morning of Friday March 13 at the latest.

This is a great individual and team participation event with the chance to paddle against your mates and also some of the greats !

Refresh your memory of last years heats and times at www.regattas.canoe.org.au.

Further details regarding event logistics, timetables, SUP Expo, Equipment demos, sponsorship and prizes will issue in January.

Wishing everyone a safe and relaxing Festive Season.

The original idea was just a sprint event, but it developed into a Flatwater event - encompassing a range of Flatwater distances. Last year 200m, 500m and 5km worked well, but there was little difference between 200m and 500m - which was a sprint. A lot of Olympic class kayak races are dropping 500m in favor of 200m. Admittedly we added 500m last year to fit in, Australian canoeing have a good feel for the event now and we had the opportunity to re-think the best future outcome. Bringing the 1000m made the 5000m work well. It's a matter of fitting in with the program as well and the mass start 5000m allows us to run straight finals instead of heats etc.

The overall outcome for the 'ultimate paddler' the best paddler for 200m, 1000m and 5000m for each age group - means a very well rounded overall Flatwater paddler - good challenging distances to earn this title.

The 200m sprint could potentially be a world record on this course. Should be an awesome event.

I can, without doubt say that the difference between the 200m and the 500m is immense. I reckon sprinting is the most fun out of the flat water events (that could be because I find it hard to concentrate on most things for any more than a few minutes :))

The NSW Sprint titles are on in a couple of weeks with a 200, 500 and a 1k so looking forward to that one as well. It looks to be a very sprinty start to the new year I would say.

Venue looks effing brilliant!

I believe the event organisers and venue staff have committed to mowing the lanes to remove any weed for this National event.

yea there are plenty of places to buy weed nearby...... Oh wait you don't mean that sort of weed do you