i was watching wondering how they steer , they only paddle on one side. Massive blades , big boys. The german bloke was over 2m tall.

They do what's called a J stroke, blade is turned out at the end of the stroke to push the tail back into line. Some are also starting to change sides one or twice during the race, although this is fairly new.

3:57 for 1 km is about 15.2kmph

however, i believe max board length is 520cm = just north of 17'

If a top supper (Danny Ching?) could hypothetically stand on the board above, then I reckon their time would be in the ball park ..??

hilly said..
What can a sup do over 1k?

If you take Connor's fastest paddler on earth time from earlier this year and multiply it out i get just under 4:30, cant really say a sup can hit that over a km given he busted a nut getting to 200m, but its still a fair bit slower than the C1.

Jim Terrell had a go at starting sup down the C1 path a few years ago at the silver blade regatta: www.supracer.com/jim-terrells-sprint-sup-racing-secrets/
skip to 1:46 to see him standing in a C1
but nothing much came of it.

Hopefully racing i lanes over 1 Km in dead flatwater isn't the future of sup . Keep it connected to the roots of surfing nad maybe outrigger- go to the ocean !

Love my sprinting, its fast, fun and just about power. The longer the race the less interest I have in it. If it gets too long I just want to surf. I believe the KeNalu Sprint championships will be back on next year and it was heaps of fun last time. SUP, if it wants to get into the Olympics (and maybe it does maybe it doesnt) will need to have a sprint section.