Whats the general consensus on who/what events generate the SUP world champion?

ISA games
Stand up World Series
Supracer rankings
SUP Champions Tour
Molokai alone
BOP alone

Personally i like the way Supracer has structured the rankings where a ranking is generated based on the quality of paddlers in the events. However without these rankings i would just combine Molakai and BOP results as they (in my mind) are the two most prestigious races that really define the sport.

I am backing in the new SUPracer rankings. The problem with the world tour is that it doesn't attract the likes of Danny and Travis and Candace and many other top 10 competitors. And the problem with BoP or Molokai is that a single event is too exposed to false readings due to factors outside the control of competitors, such as freak conditions, incidents and accidents, equipment failure or injury. Over the course of multiple races where the majority of competitors are involved, this bias is removed from the results so that a worthy champion or Number 1 can be identified. I also think that in the case of Molokai, it is really so far removed from any other event on the planet that it is not representative of SUP racing generally. It's a super-marathon. The winner is not automatically the best SUP racer. He (and she) is the best marathon racer.

SUPracer is magic for coming up with his ranking system. I rate it.

I like the world series but yeah it misses a few big names it's funny how all the big names are the older guys. Why? I see Travis still holds down a job in Hawaii. Danny runs his own company etc. Are the younger guys being paid well enough to do the world series and all the other events to make it a full time gig or do they just skimp by being young and enjoying the ride while it lasts? or is it that kai and connor etc come from Middle class wealthy families ?? And simply are backed by parents as well as sponsorship? Maybe I'm off topic here.

Sorry RJK. SUPracer was the simple answer

I think it will end up been 2 may be 3 for a while. The supracer rankings are good and now they are in place i think in the year ahead they will be a good gide to who is the best. I like it and think it runs along the same lines as the championship tour and could even work well to rake that over. Will be interesting to see where this heads in the future.

The World tour IMO has still the best overall set up and long term objectives and if you look at whos winning on the word tour most of the time is the same guys as who are winning the other big races. Also you cant take anything away from the guys and girls who win this title just because a Danny or trav are not there for what ever reason they have. IMO if they want to be the best then they should be doing these events other wise they are just good paddlers Not world champions.

ISA will still be there but i dont think will carry the same weight as the other 2.

I think there is more to putting on a world tour than just some numbers on a board its also has to have sports development, a way to help promote the riders of past present and future a good media package and a goal for the future and at the moment the world series is the only one that comes close to this

Mastbender said...
Shouldn't the title of this thread be "SUP Racing World Champion"?

Just "SUP World Champion" would have to include excelling is wave riding as well, IMO.
Kai Lenny comes to mind, can do both really well, better than most.

Sorry, your right. I was referring to racing. It might be just me but I never actualy see any publicity over the surfing so there's no excitement there. Who is the body that oversees the surfing side of things?

As for Kai your not a champ unless you play by the rules...

Well I think it comes down to what you classify as a World Champion... whether it's the best paddler who performs consistently throughout each year across all the big events, the ones with the time and resources to get to a specific series of events and perform consistently in every one of those events to finish on top, or the athlete who can stay level headed and perform the best in one big event that counts (whether everyone sees them as the best athlete or not)?

One thing is for sure though, and that's that to win any of the titles Ryan's mentioned above takes some level of natural ability plus dedication, focus, hard work, training, technical skill etc etc so it's no easy feat and winners of all are champions in different ways.

...and then for the big 3 - World Series, ISA & championship tour (which Supracer ranking will reflect as it gets the biggest numbers right now) - were still referring to the all round athletes, where one will be the best sprinter, one marathon paddler and someone else in waves...

So do we need to have only one sup-racing world champion?

It's like comparing Usain Bolt to Stephen Kiprotich (who? Marathon winner at 2013 World Championships) because they're both runners and trying to say only one can be world champion - they're both runners but they would never be racing against each other to see, and are both legitimate world champions in their own right.

Then there's numerous sports (swimming, athletics, triathlon) where official World Championships hold a lot of Prestige but come around every two or four years and the best athlete in the world could have one bad race and have to wait another 4 years to try again - or it ends up being that one big title that eludes them. This sort of set up would be perfect for a future Flatwater sprint "world championships"

But for surf races or open ocean marathons where conditions can play such a big part, in my opinion a multi stop tour format like the World Series is probably a better way to go - because it offers a consistent racing format over a range of conditions. It might have had a few teething problems, and not attract all the best paddlers yet and have people questioning its legitimacy because of this (and other things like talk of supporting certain paddlers to travel) but everything takes time to grow and they've put a good structure in place to build on in the future.

PTWoody said..
I also think that in the case of Molokai, it is really so far removed from any other event on the planet that it is not representative of SUP racing generally. It's a super-marathon. The winner is not automatically the best SUP racer. He (and she) is the best marathon racer.

Still funny to see that in this year and last year molokai top spots you find the guys that are winning the big sprint races as well....so I am not sure that molokai is that far removed from any other event on the planet and that it is not representative of SUP racing generally.
Find me a race where Danny, Connor , Kai , Travis were all on he starting line , whatever the format is (flat, DW, short, long, beach race....), and another paddler to come and beat these 4 all together to pull out a win.
I don't have the memory of chris parker for race results but good luck
In fact one just came to my mind, jamie....but he is not really good in long races
But yeah SUP racer classification is pretty great

Rick Disnick.... and some minor bruising to my body

from memory I think Candice might have done a team prone