The last weekend was not necessarily a quiet SUP Race weekend, but all races were of minor significance. The EURO TOUR is taking a break until the SUP Race Nordhausen in Germany on June 22nd. The APP remains absent this year in complete silence, besides reposting old content on social media. Therefore we keep ourselves busy with mostly local races. One race that stood out this weekend, was the SUP Race Cup in St. Maxime. This race has quite a history, it once was the biggest race in Europe and also part of the EURO Tour. Our records of this race date back to 2012 even the race started in 2010, frankly we could not find the 2010 results, but you be delighted to see some results from 2012.
Sadly the SUP Race Cup started to fade off at some point years ago, but its great to see it is still around in its 14th year. Melanie Lafenetre won both Longdistance and the Tech. Race which earned her the entry in the top 10 in SWR. She is now in 8th place in Longdistance, since the SUP Race Cup was her first Tech. Race this year she is still far behind in this category.
We also spotted Iona Rivet winning the Tour de l\’Île Vertime which boosted her into the top ten ahead of Melanie into rank 7.
In case you are wondering where the top 10 list is? We have decided to give this a break for this week since there are barely any changes due to lack of high profile races and athletes participation.
In other big news of the weekend, Donato Freens won his 10th Dutch National Title. That his huge as Donato is not even 20 yet. His result, however will have little impact on his already good standing in the SWR. The mens rankings stay pretty much the same this week. Shrimpy and Rai Taguchi have left Europe and their races in Japan wont give them the points to compete with the races in Europe. As far as the EURO TOUR goes their absence wont matter much as the EURO TOUR is besides 2 races done for the season. The big one was doubtless the one in Barcelona. We only look at the Nordhausen Race and the Namur Race in Belgium and then that is it for the EURO TOUR. We might declare Shrimpy the winner of the season and Marie Carmen Rivera the champ for the women.
Next weeks outlook
We will have a busy summer with many local races and in Europe the EURO Fussball Championships will start in Germany on June 14th in Munich and end in Berlin on July 14th. This will have Europe’s attention and might cause some conflict of interest as SUP will take a back seat for many people. Fussball is king!
There is a highlight coming up for Germany this weekend with the SUPALOT Race that marks the 2nd stop of the SUP Alps Trophy. This race is very popular as it features many great side events and a festival like atmosphere. The SWR is recommending the Paddler Trail Lignano in a beach town between Venice and Trieste. We are sure the entire Italian SUP Elite will show up there as the German SUP Elite will show up at the SUPALOT.
There are more local races on the first weekend of June:
(Source: SWR)
- Schweriner Jedermann SUP-RACE – Germany
- PADL Festival Arbon – Switzerland
- Gun Lake Paddle Battle – USA
- Loire Paddle Trophy – France
- SUP Cup Moms – Slovenia
- Paddle Fest Mácháč – Czech Rep.
- Malmö Ocean Race – Sweden
- Gran Canaria PRO ANFI – Spain
- TRUMP Paddle Session in Futamigaura-Beach – Japan
- East Japan SUP Race Championship – Japan
- XI SUP RACE Playas de El Campello – Spain
- Scottish National SUP & Paddleboard Championships – Great Britain
- Race across the Lake – Switzerland
Including the two bigger ones mentioned, that makes for 15 SUP events world wide with 13 in Europe. Depending on various factors the SWR will rank then all and update the list. This is an insane amount of work.
This is pretty much how the rest of the season looks like. A boat load of local events and no clear pictures on which races the pros should go or what schedule to follow. We will just have to wait and see on what race comes up in on socialmedia and keep an eye on the changes in the Top Ten of the SWR to filter out the more relevant races.
In a sense the big SUP Summer Race season where everybody comes together is somewhat over. The next time we see the global SUP elite meet will most likely be in Denmark for the ISA in September and then one more time for the ICF in Florida.
We are looking forward to see how the SUP Summer develops as it all comes together in the SUP World Rankings and keep the list going. How ever we might not update the top ten every week but maybe every other week, or when ever there are big changes.
July will be very busy in Hawaii with Downwind Month.