www.supracer.com/rankings/

What a rise to the top. 2 years ago he was at this event paddling a gulliver shaped board basically learning how to "stand up" for the first time coming from surf life saving and surf ski racing.

Now on the starboard dream team
To now taking out the most competitive elite male field in a distance race ever to taking out 2nd overall for the PPG event and jumping to #2 ranked male paddler in the world.
Not much this guy hasn't done in 2 short years in the sport.

I remember him joking in 2015 QLD state titles saying if he can just learn to stay up right on these skinny boards he should be right.
He's more than "right" he is now Australia's number 1 elite paddler and killing it at every major event around the world.

Wow!! I'm pretty impressed as you can tell.
Pretty impressed by all the Aussies at the PPG in 2016.
Linc Dews the other stand out effort!

Yeah agree a super top effort, i now don't feel so bad about him lapping me in the tech race at the state titles this year

has represented Aus in a large chunk of paddle / surf sports... what an athlete

Area10 said..
He's a credit to your nation. That performance in the distance race was a blinding display of sheer power and determination.

I think that what we learnt at the PPG was that Mo Freitas has the best board handling skills in the world. Boothy has the most sheer horsepower. And Connor, as we know, has the knack of winning, honed no doubt from his superior race experience. CB must have competed in more international races by far than anyone else in the top 20. If Boothy can get more race experience then he might be unstoppable.

Together, IMO, Boothy and Mo showed that Connor is far from unassailable. If Boothy had Mo's board skills, or Mo had Boothy's power and work ethic, then Connor's days would be numbered.

For such a small country, Australia does produce a disproportionately large number of superb athletes. Good for you.

good point Area10 and it must be the beer here in OZ that make us down-under.

Size in terms of population, of course.

US (ranked 3rd largest population in world) = 324 million.

UK (ranked 21) = 65 million.

Australia (ranked 53) = 24.3 million.

24.3 million isn't tiny. But it sure isn't big. The US state of Texas has a bigger population than your whole country.

And that's what makes the success of Australia vs the US in SUP remarkable.

Of course, it's not quite a remarkable perhaps as Hawaii, but that's another story...

I think the lesson we can all learn from Boothy and Travis is to broaden your paddling beyond just SUP paddling.

OC1, surf ski / ocean ski and any paddle sport from the lifesaving movement will do 2 things.

1. Broaden your enjoyment and keep a person commitment levels up - variety is the spice of life

2. The cross training will help your SUP paddling improve. You will actually paddle the SUP faster if your not putting all your eggs in the one basket but have some variety.

With regards to Aussie performance I think we are on the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the depth that would come if some of our other paddle sport athletes dipped their toes into some SUP paddling and racing. Most of Australia's best paddlers have yet to pay any attention to the opportunities in SUP but as more prize money continues to emerge it will only be a matter of time.

Cheers Herb

magillamelb said...

Area10 said..
The US state of Texas has a bigger population than your whole country.

But not quite as many rednecks...

What are you saying, Australia is full of Rednecks?