Who said racing can't be fun you just need to have a format that makes the racing competitive, fair and fun. BrisSUP run a handicapped points based system for our BOP/Technical races over the Summer series. This format promotes consistency, continual improvement and the handicapping means that all participates are capable of winning the series.
This format makes it competitive without it being full of agro and it also allows the series to be won by either sex, because of this fairness and the fun involved a large number of our female social paddlers have taken up racing because it is fun and they know that they have a better than average chance of winning the series.

Nosaj27- How can they have "better than average" chance of winning the series unless you've biased the handicapping system towards them? That isn't mathematically possible, is it?

GMilne said..

magillamelb said..
Look out for our family friendly SUP Vic event at the end of Feb PT in the wild west. The main event focuses on participation as opposed to speed & ability....

Wish there was some thing like this in Sydney. Me and my wife love to get out and the only real groups we have found are all racing or competative surfing.

i know there is some on the south of the city, nothing i have found on the north around pittwater

we just want to cruise around and enjoy the water

I can only give full credit to our WA colleagues for the inspiration.

Our event in February will have something for everybody. From a teams event where at least one of three in a team has to be under 16 or a female, each team paddling at their own pace in a relay. The task is for the team to nominate an overall time to do a course, with the team closest to their nominated time will take home the chocolates. All without watches or timekeeping devices. So you can take 20 minutes or two hours to do the course, it won't matter.

Our other event on the day will be a cycling pursuit (track) type race where two paddlers go head to head over two laps of a 250m course paddling the same way around the course, but starting on opposite sides of the course. The event will be a knockout.

I would expect our social event to eclipse the sprint event in numbers by some margin.

laceys lane said..
expanding on the need to race.

as a few might know I had a heart attack when training 2 years ago.

ended up having a quadruple bypass. I was very lucky and im fitter now then I have been for decades and somehow suffered no damage to my heart

I train and dw and I can go pretty hard with some of the best around on my day in the ck which Im proud of personally but i have a heart rate limit and know when to back off.

before this happened I tended picked my races because they are so hard and you really do put yourself on the limit. I remember my best result was a ninth over all in the first 12 towers with a quality field, yet once over the finishing line I was in a terrible way. didn't feel that well to be honest

somehow inside I knew it wasnt a safe thing for me to do . I finally got myself checked out after a ck to ck race where I suffered pain thought my body- mainly intense back pain. but we missed doing a stress test.
I didn't even know about them

just putting it out there racing really hard in your late 40's onwards with out a full check up might not be smart.

I believe it should be mandatory after a certain age

Strange they didn't send you for a stress test straight up? I recently had a drama when out on a 100km morning bike ride, lost all feeling in left side, huge squeeze in my chest, dizzy and fell off my bike, Taken to hospital and put through a plethora of tests etc. when released I was given a letter to come back for a stress test. Thankfully stress test came back ok. I'm only 33

Piros said..
This sport is far from hitting it's peak , regardless whether race numbers are up or down sales are still booming in race and touring boards. Just look on this forum how many social downwind groups have formed . It's also really noticeable how many more women are getting into this aspect as well. Compare it to road cyclist look how many people are riding around on 5K+ bikes and only a small percentage actually race.

If it's your passion , you don't need to be a racer to have the best gear.

And BINGO! There you have it ladies and gentlemen.
Set up floating coffee shops about 2 ks apart and the cyclists will become SUPpers. Swap their logo lycra for logo plastered rashies and the sport will be HUGE!

but its really hard to beat your self.

way easier to beat people who aren't as good.

if its too hard its not worth doing

ExpoI keep having the same off-the-record conversations about the 2016 Surf Expo in Orlando. For many of you, this glimpse into the industry won’t make a lot of sense or really matter. Keep paddling. Keep racing. Keep having fun. (And bring friends paddling.) For the industry people, here’s my take after walking around for 3 days.THE RISE AND DECLINE OF THE SUP ZONEThis was my ninth Surf Expo, which in the history of the Expo isn’t much, but for SUP, it’s pretty much its entire lifespan. In that time, I’ve seen a sharp increase, then a steady decrease in the number of vendors and level of excitement at the shows.

Maybe you can attribute that to the fact that at the start of the sport, 100% of the potential shops and accounts were there to sign. Now, maybe there are 2%. That’s a totally unscientific assessment, but you get it. Paddle companies like Kialoa, Werner, and Quickblade stopped coming to this event a long time ago. In fact, I didn’t see a single paddle company there this year that wasn’t part of a board manufacture exhibitor.

Maybe we’ve hit the bubble. Plateaued. From what I’ve gathered, the demand has fallen, but the production of boards has remained steady. Some manufacturers bet BIG and seem to be sitting on or dumping a lot of inventory. That means there are a lot of boards out there—a lot of inexpensive boards. This seems to be compounding the stress of the slowest time of the year for most retailers and manufacturers...Read more, including a conversation about the snowboard

Just picked this up of distressed mullet interesting take

Chopsup said..

NO NO NO, Idont want these lycra idiots on the water! We have the tour down under on as I type this and the f-wits are everywhere! Thankfully these plebs that come out of the woodwork put their bikes away next week until next year,

Haha. Kind of agree having dealt with the move of the lycra wannabe road racers onto the mountain bike trails. There goes the mellow ride within a friendly community....

Not a legitimate comparison, cycling and SUPing. To those into the sport there may seem to be a lot of participants out there. But let's put it into perspective, the numbers of cyclists and bikes sold dwarfs the numbers of SUPers. Cycling is mainstream,SUPing isn't, surfing tried and got a toe hold. And SUPing never will be. Is that a bad thing? The bigger it gets, the more it will lose the mellow culture/lifestyle.

Chopsup said..

bobajob said..

Piros said..
This sport is far from hitting it's peak , regardless whether race numbers are up or down sales are still booming in race and touring boards. Just look on this forum how many social downwind groups have formed . It's also really noticeable how many more women are getting into this aspect as well. Compare it to road cyclist look how many people are riding around on 5K+ bikes and only a small percentage actually race.

If it's your passion , you don't need to be a racer to have the best gear.

And BINGO! There you have it ladies and gentlemen.
Set up floating coffee shops about 2 ks apart and the cyclists will become SUPpers. Swap their logo lycra for logo plastered rashies and the sport will be HUGE!

NO NO NO, Idont want these lycra idiots on the water! We have the tour down under on as I type this and the f-wits are everywhere! Thankfully these plebs that come out of the woodwork put their bikes away next week until next year,

Went looking for a surf this morning and thought it was quiet with no gangs trying to overtake (on both sides) as I go to park . Was able to drive and check the surf like it was a rainy/even slightly wet day.
Yay for the tour down under - just don't bring it up here

Whassup said..
And down under there are over a million bikes sold each year. SUPs? Wouldn't be 10,000.

more chance of being hit by a car and killed than having a shark encounter.

laceys lane said..

burleighlocal said..

Whassup said..
And down under there are over a million bikes sold each year. SUPs? Wouldn't be 10,000.

more chance of being hit by a car and killed than having a shark encounter.

yeah but your chances of by hit by a car supping is zero.


chances of being attacked by a shark cycling is zero too.

The way I drive, chances of being sideswiped by a VW while cycling pretty high, with the way the Beach Road morons lurch in front of cars

burleighlocal said..

Whassup said..
And down under there are over a million bikes sold each year. SUPs? Wouldn't be 10,000.

more chance of being hit by a car and killed than having a shark encounter.

Had a shark encounter on Lake Macquarie on New Years Day. (A great white nearly as long as my Fanatic 14')

Still yet to be hit by a car...

It did require a change of shorts I can assure you. Yes, that Lake Macquarie.

Not the best time to be on an inflatable...

DavidJohn said..
Personally I think the sup market is far from peaking.. The top end racing might have slowed but the big sup market IMO will be the middle of the range boards.. Like these.. www.seabreeze.com.au/forums/Stand-Up-Paddle/SUP/New-his-and-hers-touring-boards/ .. Boards that are good modern shapes.. Not silly light and fragile but a nice medium weight and pretty strong.. Most organized sup events should focus on partisapation and fun rather than to focusing on the fastest and strongest and should be held in easy non-challenging conditions.. IMO we should scrap board classes in these events and let people paddle what ever they like and feel comfortable on.. I'd like to see the top end race boards a little wider and available in cheaper.. heavier.. and stronger constructions with your super light and skinny boards being a special order for those who really want them rather than have these type of boards forced onto anyone wanting a flat water race type board.. One more thing.. Something that really gripes me is when I see a sup salesman talking to a customer and recommending boards that are way too small or too narrow for them.. and saying you might find it difficult at first but you will eventually get there and I'd rather sell you this board rather than see you come back in a few weeks saying the board is now too easy for you.. I see this all the time and saw it a few days ago.. If people are choosing between board A (a little too easy) and board B (a little too hard) they should always recomend the board A (easy option)... Why do shops keep doing this.. What's wrong with easy.. IMO easy=fun.. I can't see anyone coming back and complaining that they're having too much fun.. I'd like to see more boards out there like the Naish Odysseus (9'8"x34").. Now that's a fun board.. and maybe a wider Maliko Javelin in a cheaper and stronger construction.. That would also be a fun board..

I'd have to agree with DJ. The SUP market is far from saturated. In these forums there seems to be a huge focus on racing and surf but this is not the growth area. Most boards that are sold are in the 10 - 10'6' area and this is the recreational side of the market that needs to be addressed to continue growth in the sport. Way before I ever picked up a paddle I regularly asked friends involved in the SUP industry what was the biggest side of the sport and what needed to be done to stop SUP becoming another windsurfing. They all said that it was the recreational size board. Having spent a month working at a shop on Sydney's Northern Beaches I'd have to agree. We would sell 10 recreational boards or more to every race board sold , and we sell a lot of race boards.

The focus and growth needs to be driven from 2 areas. The first is from the retailer providing expert advice and equipment that suits the customer and the second area needs to come from club promotion and participation.

It was intersting to read DJs experience with some retailers. In my experience the main shop that I have dealt with over the years asks plenty of questions before they recommend a board and when they do recommend a number of board options they are always appropriate to the buyer. It's not to the benefit of the retailer to push the customer on to an inappropriate board as that customer will either loose interest in the sport or go to another shop. Repeat, happy customers benefit the shop long term. If possible we'll try to get customers to demo a number of boards to help with their decision.

The second area of focus needs to be at club and event level. Being heavily involved in SPSC and having organised quite a few races over the years there needs to be a change of focus to further develop paddler participation. The Sydney Paddle Surfing Club (SPSC) is a competitive club running successful wave and race events, however, we are looking at our participation levels and are changing our focus. This year we increased the number of 10 foot plus contests to attract more recreational SUP surfers and we are now looking at increasing family and recreational paddling in the club by having more social paddles and weekends away.

The Brisbane SUP Club is not as competitive as SPSC yet they have way more members. This is because they have done an excellent job focusing on family and recreational paddles. This certainly the way to increase our sport.

With reference to women in the sport this is a totally untapped group. SPSC were caught completely by surprise with the participation levels at the Roxy Run SUP Yoga event recently held in Sydney. If we'd known so many women wanted to try paddling we would have tried to become more involved. Have a look at the numbers of women in this race at Manly.

As for the comment that over 40s and 50s shouldn't race or have personality flaws I won't even make a comment on this forum. Participation levels of over 40s and 50s speak for themselves.


And to finish - a free plug. We've made the Forster Island Paddle Festival coming up in February an event to cater to all paddlers. From the elite to the first time paddler. We have a race or fun activity for you. Jump onto Face Book or the our web site and look for the Forster Island Paddle Festival.

Does anyone have stats on death by shark if riding a SUP or even attacks on SUP riders? Be interesting to find out.