SUPSA and SUP Squad 2020

Best Stand-Up and Paddleboard Community,

We, alongside all sports in South Africa, are doing our very best to make sure our athletes and paddlers are getting back on the water and doing what we all love.

In the last three months, we have partnered with Canoeing SA so that our flat-water paddlers can get back on the water. All stand-up and paddleboarders can register with Canoeing SA as a Social SUP member or a Full Member. With a full membership, you will be able to partake in upcoming canoe races and will be ranked across the country on their ranking platform.

We have also tightened our partnership with Surfing SA, so that SUP Surfers can also get back in the waves and partake in surfing competitions that will include a SUP Surfing division.

There are a lot of questions about the SUP Squad, Team Selection, points and ranking. Due to the COVID-19 Pandemic and 2020, the 2020 squad will be carried over to 2021.This is due to no ISA World Championships event in 2020 and minimal SUPSA qualifier races and competitions in 2020.

All 2020 squad members need to stay fit and compete in the upcoming races as the 2021 team will still be selected from the squad members. If there are new athletes who show great performance and talent at the upcoming races, they will be included to train with the squad.

Because of our partnership with Canoeing SA, many of their events will be qualifiers for out flat-water athletes, being sprints, distance and technical. SUPSA organised races (the likes of Pili Pili 2021, Zinkwazi 2021, Century City 2020 & 2021 and XOTB 2021, to name a few) will stay as qualifiers as well. The races will be communicate as either SUPSA SANCTIONED or NOT SUPSA SANCTIONED

We will select the 2022 squad from a percentage of the SUPSA SANCTIONED events as not everyone can take part in all of the events and not all the events will necessarily include qualifying distances. The Century City Race (March 2020), St Francis Canoe Marathon (October 2020) and Liebenbergsvleiriver Race (November 2020) are the three SUPSA Sanctioned races from 2020 that will count towards the 2022 squad selection, alongside the 2021 races. The 2021 races will be communicated to you by December 2020.

Take note: We will be hosting the 2020 Annual General Meeting (AGM) on the 2nd of November 2020, 18:30, on Zoom. More details will follow.

If you have any questions, please contact Anja Burger at supsasecretary@gmail.com or Guy Bubb at guy@supcapetown.co.za .