This past weekend was probably one of the biggest SUP Weekends we got all year. First there was The Lake Rocks Festival marking the kick off of the SUP Alps Trophy. The massive price money and the ICF qualification drew many elite athletes to Villach in Austria. Over 400 SUP enthusiasts found their way to the Faaker See.
Then there was also the Sancti Petri SUP Race as part of the EURO TOUR where pretty much the other half of the world SUP elite was competing. The price money was not as big but with an over all title on line some athletes stayed loyal to the EURO TOUR despite the pay cut.
We on our end sure would love if such scheduling conflicts would not occur in the future. We could have seen Shrimpy, Boothy, Donato, Rai and many more in the same race. We would have loved to see Espe going head to head with Juliette, Duna and Mariecarmen. Instead they were in separate races.
To put it all under one umbrella, we are glad we have the SWR and Tibor Hasulyo who keeps track of it all. Nevertheless, it sure would be nice to have one world wide tour like every other normal sport has. Oh wait that was supposed to be the APP. What happened to the APP? Besides the event India, they have gone silent. (Material for another story.)
Men Longdistance
The biggest news of the weekend were Donato Freens winning over Michael Booth and Shrimpy winning his third EURO TOUR race in a row. Donato is still in a comfortable position on the top but with 7 races and 3115 points his average score is 445 points and Shrimpy has an average of 503. If Shrimpy keeps going at this rate he might be able to catch up with him eventually. For all of you who are wondering where Michael Booth is, he is in place 15, his 2nd place in Austria was not enough yet to enter top 10. He has 3 races and a points average of 354.
| Rank | Name | Nation | Points | Races | Last Result | Change |
| 1 | Donato Freens | NED | 3115.23 | 7 | 1. Lake Rocks | → |
| 2 | Filippo Mercuriali | ITA | 1841.62 | 6 | 5. Lake Rocks | ↑ 1 |
| 3 | Rai Taguchi | JPN | 1833.27 | 5 | 3. Sancti Petri | ↓ 1 |
| 4 | Shuri Araki | JPN | 1511.6 | 3 | 1. Sancti Petri | ↑ 5 |
| 5 | Bode von Allmen | USA | 1463.92 | 7 | 12. Lake Rocks | ↓ 1 |
| 6 | Antonio Morillo | ESP | 1368.03 | 4 | 7. Sancti Petri | ↑ 1 |
| 7 | Ricardo Rossi | ITA | 1269.82 | 6 | 8. Sancti Petri | ↑ 1 |
| 8 | Joep Van Bakel | NED | 1182.45 | 5 | 7. Lake Rocks | NEW |
| 9 | Thomas Dusart | FRA | 1159.56 | 6 | 3. Padlle of the Kempen* | ↓ 4 |
| 10 | Ludovic Teulade | FRA | 1155.56 | 2 | 5. EURO TOUR Mondello* | ↓ 4 |
Women Longdistance
Two big names in the sport have entered the top 10: Duna Gordillo and Esperanza Barreras. They spent the weekend at two different races, but here they are. Juliette DuHaime defended her top spot with her 2nd place in Austria. However Mariecarmen runs a points average of 314 in compare to 233 for Juliette and we might see Mariecarmen dethrone Juliette soon. Espe runs an average of 313 points and is catching up fast. The season is still young and it is almost certain we will see changes on the top in the coming months.
| Rank | Name | Nation | Points | Races | Last Result | Change |
| 1 | Juliette DuHaime | ARG | 1168.39 | 5 | 2. Lake Rocks | → |
| 2 | Mariecarmen Rivera | PUR | 944.75 | 3 | 1. Sancti Petri | → |
| 3 | Cecilia Pampinella | ITA | 914.96 | 5 | 5. Lake Rocks | → |
| 4 | Susak Molinero | ESP | 760.62 | 4 | 6. Lake Rocks | ↑ 4 |
| 5 | Laura Quetglas | ESP | 655.03 | 3 | 5. Sancti Petri | ↑ 1 |
| 6 | Esperanza Barreras | ESP | 626.5 | 2 | 1. Lake Rocks | NEW |
| 7 | Duna Gordillo | ESP | 618.4 | 3 | 2. Sancti Petri | NEW |
| 8 | Petronella van Malsen | NED | 582.5 | 3 | 1. Paddle of Kempen* | ↓ 3 |
| 9 | Melanie Lafenetre | FRA | 510.7 | 2 | 2. EURO TOUR Mondello* | ↓ 2 |
| 10 | Lisa Venturelli | ITA | 500.72 | 4 | 2. Pescara Beach Race* | ↓ 2 |
Men Tech. Race
Tech. Races are rare but with the SUP Alps Trophy providing a full weekend of all disciplines we have quite a bit of movement in the top ten. As of right now Donato and Filippo are untouchable. Not only do they have the most points they both run solid average of 400 points and 433. They be hard to catch. There was a missed chance for Rai Taguchi with his victory at the SUP Spring Race to move up very far and get price money, but he stuck with the EURO TOUR. Argentina’s Santino Basadella scored 619.5 points with his 2nd place. He might have to wait a while for his next opportunity to score more points.
| Rank | Name | Nation | Points | Races | Last Result | Change |
| 1 | Filippo Mercuriali | ITA | 1732.5 | 4 | 1. The Lake Rocks | → |
| 2 | Donato Freens | NED | 1201.82 | 3 | 10. The Lake Rocks | → |
| 3 | Filippo Alberti | ITA | 735.2 | 3 | 8. The Lake Rocks | ↑ 7 |
| 4 | Cameron Tripney | RSA | 699.54 | 2 | 9. The Lake Rocks | NEW |
| 5 | Zeno Szabo | HUN | 661.28 | 3 | 10. The Lake Rocks | NEW |
| 6 | Ricardo Rossi | ITA | 622.88 | 2 | 1. Trasimeno SUP Race* | ↓ 3 |
| 7 | Santino Basadella | ARG | 619.5 | 1 | 2. The Lake Rocks | NEW |
| 8 | Rai Taguchi | JPN | 616.8 | 1 | 1. Spring SUP Race* | ↓ 4 |
| 9 | Christian Andersen | DEN | 610.99 | 2 | 4. Spanish Champs* | NEW |
| 10 | Paolo Marconi | ITA | 605.28 | 2 | 6. The Lake Rocks | NEW |
Women Tech. Race
Runner ups are clearly Juliette DuHaime and Claudia Postiglione, both are scoring pretty high with only 2 races. Cecilia Pampinella will almost certainly need to win the next Tech. Race to keep her top spot. Behind these two is Espe is also catching up fast.
| Rank | Name | Nation | Points | Races | Last Result | Change |
| 1 | Cecilia Pampinella | ITA | 720.5 | 3 | 5. The Lake Rocks | → |
| 2 | Juliette DuHaime | ARG | 679.75 | 2 | 1. Lake Rocks | ↑ 5 |
| 3 | Claudia Postiglione | ITA | 518.75 | 2 | 2. The Lake Rocks | NEW |
| 4 | Esperanza Barreras | ESP | 444.35 | 2 | 4. The Lake Rocks | ↑ 4 |
| 5 | Paris Katniss | USA | 431.77 | 2 | 2. Spring SUP Race* | ↓ 3 |
| 6 | Jessica Matos | BRA | 341.2 | 2 | 2. Ultimate Paddle Brazil* | ↓ 3 |
| 7 | Lemekha Vira | UKR | 320.16 | 2 | 4. Trasimano SUP Race* | ↓ 3 |
| 8 | Laura Quetglas | ESP | 298.14 | 2 | 7. Spanish Champs.* | ↓ 3 |
| 9 | Cieplinska Malgorzata | POL | 297.5 | 1 | 1. GlaGla* | ↓ 3 |
| 10 | Tarryn King | RSA | 283.2 | 1 | 3. The Lake Rocks | NEW |
Men Sprint
Sprint Races are as rare as Tech. Races but Filippo Mercuriali managed to find all three of them this year but still got kicked out of number one, because he was not in Austria.Cameron Tripney was able to book the top spot with his silver medal in Austria. Andrey Kraitor just made podium with his first big result of the season.
Since we have so few sprint races we seem to be a bit all over the place with names in the top ten as we do not see in the other divisions.
| Rank | Name | Nation | Points | Races | Last Result | Change |
| 1 | Cameron Tripney | RSA | 1236.3 | 2 | 2. The Lake Rocks | ↑ 1 |
| 2 | Filippo Mercuriali | ITA | 981.62 | 3 | 1. Pescara Beach Race* | ↓1 |
| 3 | Andrey Kraitor | BUL | 708 | 1 | 1. The Lake Rocks | NEW |
| 4 | Damodara Mokhniuk | AUT | 656.64 | 2 | 3. The Lake Rocks | NEW |
| 5 | Normen Weber | GER | 539.7 | 1 | 2. Spring SUP Race* | ↓2 |
| 6 | Christian Taucher | AUT | 477.9 | 1 | 4. The Lake Rocks | NEW |
| 7 | Kai Carstens | GER | 424.8 | 1 | 5. The Lake Rocks | NEW |
| 8 | Danielle Gennari | ITA | 416.65 | 2 | 2. Pescara Beach Race | ↓4 |
| 9 | Sergio Cantoral | ESP | 416.34 | 1 | 4. Spring SUP Race* | ↓4 |
| 10 | Petrak Ondej | CZE | 389.4 | 1 | 6. The Lake Rocks | NEW |
Women Sprint
The women podium at the SUP Alps Trophy is what made all the difference. Esperanza arriving in 2nd place with her victory. Claudia Postiglione secured the top spot with her 2nd sprint podium this year. Cecilia Pampinella looses her top spot as she was not scoring in Austria this weekend.
| Rank | Name | Nation | Points | Races | Last Result | Change |
| 1 | Claudia Postiglione | ITA | 518.75 | 2 | 2. The Lake Rocks | ↑ 6 |
| 2 | Esperanza Barreras | ESP | 442.5 | 1 | 1. The Lake Rocks | NEW |
| 3 | Cecilia Pampinella | ITA | 385.5 | 1 | 1.Spring SUP Race* | ↓ 2 |
| 4 | Susak Molinero | ESP | 308.4 | 1 | 2. Spring SUP Race* | ↓ 2 |
| 5 | Sabine Fischer | SUI | 306.66 | 2 | 7. The Lake Rocks | ↓ 1 |
| 6 | Tarryn King | RSA | 283.2 | 1 | 3. The Lake Rocks | NEW |
| 7 | Kyriaki Logotheti | GRE | 246.72 | 1 | 3. Spring SUP Race* | ↓ 4 |
| 8 | Holly Pye | GBR | 230.1 | 1 | 4. The Lake Rocks | NEW |
| 9 | Jessica Matos | BRA | 200.25 | 1 | 1. Ultimate Paddle Brasil* | ↓ 4 |
| 10 | Maria Metta | ITA | 123.36 | 2 | 5. Pescara Beach Race* | ↓ 4 |