We have been tracking the performance of SUP athletes since the beginning of the year. As the SUP season has progressed, the number of high-profile races has started to dwindle. This year, the SWR has ranked 118 races so far (as of August 29th, 2024), with most of them being either 2-Star or 1-Star events. While it’s enjoyable to follow local races across Europe and keep score on athletes, we’ve noticed that the global rankings are becoming increasingly diluted over time. To address this, we’ve introduced an average score for the athletes. This calculation takes into account an athlete’s performance in high-scoring races, emphasizing quality over quantity.
Instead of continuing with a regular top ten list that remains mostly unchanged, we decided to publish a top 30 list for men’s long-distance events, comparing the SWR Gross Score to an average score and ranking the athletes accordingly. The outcome is quite interesting. Notably, Michael Booth sees a dramatic rise, jumping from 15th to 2nd place. Both he and Shrimpy have performed exceptionally well at the most significant races this year.
An intriguing scenario arises with Donato Freens, a highly active paddler who certainly belongs on the podium. However, running the numbers reveals that winning a less significant race can dilute your average score and potentially drag you down in the rankings. We believe this might be what happened to Donato. Another example of a large discrepancy in ranking is Ole Schwarz. Ole is a strong local paddler, frequently making podiums in Germany. However, the average score and number of races he’s participated in highlight that his success is primarily at lower-ranked events.
It would be really interesting picking this data even further apart, like for example how Blue Ewer landed exactly on the 7th place twice. However, we are going to spare our readers our conclusions which might also be speculative without looking at this in detail and race by race.
| Rank | Rank on avg pts | Name | Surname | Points | Races | Avg Pts |
| 4 | 1 | ARAKI | SHURI | 2279.64 | 4 | 569.91 |
| 15 | 2 | BOOTH | MICHAEL | 1659.86 | 4 | 414.97 |
| 8 | 3 | SANCHEZ | AARON | 2055.97 | 5 | 411.19 |
| 2 | 4 | TAGUCHI | RAI | 2679.67 | 7 | 382.81 |
| 1 | 5 | FREENS | DONATO | 4446.03 | 12 | 370.50 |
| 11 | 6 | HASULYO | DANIEL | 1748.45 | 5 | 349.69 |
| 7 | 7 | EWER | BLUE | 2163.47 | 7 | 309.07 |
| 12 | 8 | PEREZ | FERNAND | 1700.95 | 6 | 283.49 |
| 5 | 9 | MERCURIALI | FILIPPO | 2250.57 | 8 | 281.32 |
| 20 | 10 | MORILLO | ANTONIO | 1444.83 | 6 | 240.81 |
| 3 | 11 | VAN BAKEL | JOEP | 2587.71 | 11 | 235.25 |
| 21 | 12 | DELGADO | ITZEL | 1394.96 | 6 | 232.49 |
| 16 | 13 | LAUBLE | MANUEL | 1613.25 | 7 | 230.46 |
| 9 | 14 | DE BRUYN | KJELL | 2053.65 | 9 | 228.18 |
| 17 | 15 | MARCONI | PAOLO | 1589.83 | 7 | 227.12 |
| 10 | 16 | TENORIO | ERIBRA | 2031.67 | 9 | 225.74 |
| 22 | 17 | ROJAS | MANUEL HOYUELA | 1333.07 | 6 | 222.18 |
| 18 | 18 | ANDERSEN | CHRISTIAN | 1548.69 | 7 | 221.24 |
| 23 | 19 | SIJRIER | MAXIMUS | 1322.15 | 6 | 220.36 |
| 24 | 20 | DUSART | THOMAS | 1319.04 | 6 | 219.84 |
| 6 | 21 | SCHWARZ | OLE | 2178.07 | 10 | 217.81 |
| 25 | 22 | TEULADE | LUDOVIC | 1289.96 | 6 | 214.99 |
| 26 | 23 | LEAO | DAVID | 1279.59 | 6 | 213.27 |
| 13 | 24 | GRIMM | BASTIAN | 1698.28 | 8 | 212.29 |
| 14 | 25 | ROSSI | RICCARDO | 1673.82 | 8 | 209.23 |
| 19 | 26 | VON ALLMEN | BODIE | 1463.92 | 7 | 209.13 |
| 27 | 27 | MAJDAN | MIKOLAJ | 1241.91 | 6 | 206.99 |
| 28 | 28 | HOUGHTON | OLLIE | 1241.26 | 6 | 206.88 |
| 29 | 29 | BRY | ETHAN | 1235.06 | 6 | 205.84 |
| 30 | 30 | JESSEL | HECTOR | 1176.99 | 6 | 196.165 |
Conclusion
This brings us to an unpopular and often misunderstood perspective: Are we losing ourselves in the sheer volume of SUP races out there? While having many races is undoubtedly positive, offering local enthusiasts a chance to compete, it also dilutes the rankings when we aim to track the global elite.
High-profile races have become increasingly rare this year. The EURO Tour had to scale back, and the APP is either taking the year off or possibly ending altogether—we’re not sure yet. We hope this changes in 2025. The community and ambitious athletes need at least 5-6 races in the 4-5 Star range. Without this, the sport will remain fragmented, lacking clear direction and true world champions.
For now, calculating the SWR rankings using an average point score provides a much clearer picture and aligns better with how we perceive athletes and their performances.
The season isn’t over yet, with the two most anticipated races still to come. We’re confident that the results from the ISA and ICF will shake things up significantly.
We’ll take a final look in December.