Stand Up World Cup Hamburg verschoben – Neue Location

—Vortsetzung 2.20.14—

Man kann sagen es ist ein regelrechter Strum ausgebrochen nach den News von Gestern. Wer sich die Komentare auf Facebook anschaut, kann den Frust verschiedener Leute erkennen. So kommentiert z.B. Braly Joy der Brandmanager von SIC (Flowsports) “This is a Joke!!” und erwägt sogar sämtliche SUP-Athleten in der Stand Up World Series abzuziehen.

Dabei muss man aber eines richtigstellen: Das Datum wurde gar nie geändert. Das Datum welches die Waterman League komunizierte stand gar nie fest. Es war einfach so, dass die Waterman League ganz offensichtlich davon ausging, dass der Veranstalter das Datum mit der Stadt Hamburg schon gesichert hatte. Was ganz offensichtlich nicht der Fall war. Man kann sich vorstellen, das die Veranstalter in Hamburg alles andere als glücklich sind über den Beitrag auf SUPRacer.

Auch Marko Notar beteiligt sich rege an der Diskussion und schreibt gleich einen ganzen Roman in 8 Punkten dazu:

Marko Notar – via Facebook

“Stand Up Paddling is fast growing and still developing sport. From that point of view it is more than important how the competitive-racing part of this sport is structured. Many years ago I was involved in Alpine Skiing where some mistakes were made and I had a chance to see how the things in Professional Windsurfing Association went wrong too. Therefore please don’t repeat all those mistakes at World SUP scene!!!

1) Do we have an official World SUP Association organizing SUP World CUP? If the answer is Waterman League (with the Stand Up World Series & Stand Up World Tour), then the last-minute changing of the 2014 schedule is (and it must be) their full responsibility.
2) The racing schedule must be agreed and known to all competitors and their teams at least 6 months before the very first race of the season. In our case this is end of October. There are many reasons why should be so.
3) Logistics problems are not on the first place. Let me compare SUP with the Alpine skiing. Athletes must know where, when and how to train. It is of vital importance to choose the training slopes and conditions which are comparable to competition site. Consequently, SUP athletes must know a lot before where and when the competition will take place – in hot calm water Abu Dhabi or in 20oC colder Hamburg or even on choppy ocean!!!
4) Even more important is the fact, how and when to train between the races. From that point of view the optimization of logistic is more than necessary in order to allow athlete to train sufficiently and to rest as well.
5) …we came to costs. Normally, the costs are planned months before the season starts. You don’t have to be smart to know that the flight and accommodation costs are cheaper when they are booked earlier. Another very important fact, which should not be neglected are sponsors. There are not many sponsors-companies willing to help SUP athletes. “There is no free lunch in this world”. Athletes obligations are generally set to racing schedule. Sponsors’ marketing activities are logically “tailored” to racing schedule too !!!
6) Last but not least we came to athletes. There is no “game” without athletes. Athletes and their rights are on the first place. Every serious sport association respects that fact. Therefore I would like to encourage the Waterman League to act the same. We need the rules,… and inside the association we need serious trustworthy authority body, which will take all necessary measures to avoid cases like Hamburg.
7) Regarding the Waterman League, I am not a pessimist, I am an optimist with experience! I hope that Hamburg case is not only the tip of the iceberg. For the future of this sport we have to face with the fact that we have to deal with at least 2 world SUP associations. One of them is relatively “passive” ISA and the other one is relatively “active” Waterman League. The first one is close to International Olympic Committee and could somehow bring the SUP to Olympics someday, the second one-Waterman League is running so called SUP World Cup. Let’s be smarter and don’t let us push into 80’s when for example in Alpine Skiing two associations Professional Ski Racing Association and FIS were stupidly fighting – athletes were losers unfortunately. You know, …when the two association in the same sport agree all the time, one is useless,…If they disagree all the time, both are useless.
8) Finally, I strongly hope that Waterman League will soon find out that they make history of SUP,…and for the beginning let’s agree to finally fix the racing schedule.”

— 2.19.2014 —

Von offizielles Seite wurde uns noch nichts bekannt gegeben, aber Insider der SUP-Szene, wissen es schon:

KEIN HAMBURG EVENT DIESES JAHR

Laut supracer wurde der Event von Hamburg nach Fehmarn verlegt und findet nun nicht mehr im Juni sondern im Juli statt, genauer am Wochenende vom 19. – 20. Juli 2014.

Falls diese Daten stimmen und davon gehen wir aus, wird dieser Umstand bei vielen SUP-Pros ein Terminproblem hervorrufen, denn der Event ist somit ein Wochenende vor dem Molokai2Oahu. Und wie uns bekannt ist werden einige grosse Namen in Europa dieses Jahr wieder am M2O mit dabei sein. Es darf auch spekuliert werden, dass Leute wie Kai Lenny oder Connor Baxter kaum eines der ganz grossen Rennen aufgeben werden um in Hamburg, tschuldigung Fehmarn mit dabei zu sein.

Wir warten hier noch auf offizielle News der Veranstalter und Informieren weiter. Wenn wir mehr wissen.