Our athletes have been granted the most incredible gear from such generous sponsors. We’d love to share a bit of what they have packed to take along on their journey.

Upon arrival, they will be getting to grips with their paddling environment, testing out the Baltic waters in Poland on boards they are not used to, but which have been rented from the Austrian and Italian teams which have become great friends through the years of competing together. 

For the opening ceremony the team have a classy green golfer shirt and their national or federation blazers, ensuring that they look the part of ambassadors for our sport.  The incredible Veldskoen have covered their feet for the second year running – and remain a firm favourite – both for comfort and durability when you have a lot of walking around to do. A sweet little detail to finish off the local look are the South African flag socks made by Versus!

The paddling shirts custom made by Race Pace in all the colours of our national flag will keep the paddlers visible on the water and off.  In fact, last year the same shirts were swapped with other athletes, who loved the look of them.

On the way to the water, the paddlers can protect their feet wearing their sponsored bright red Plakkies – our local word for slip slops and pair it with the striking SA SUP TEAM visor, again, generously sponsored by OlympicSA.

On colder days, they are covered by the stylish Crossing Gear rash vests, the team shirt proudly bears our flag and the tangerine rashie is visible from far across the water – a great option for the long distance race to keep tabs on your favourite paddler.

Olympic South Africa have also ensured that our athletes are covered off the water – with cozy hoodies and sweatshirts, a cap for the sunny days, as well as a pair of socks and trainers for travelling and general everyday wear.

A hearty thanks must go out to Combustion Technology, for providing the national tracksuit. This is such a useful garment – we all know how important comfort is, and it gives our team great uniformity and identity as they travel. Thank you so much!!! 

We wish our team well – they certainly will be catching the eyes of many people as they carry our South African spirit all the way to Poland! Go and paddle up a storm for them TEAM SA!

A massive credit is also due to Billy Ackerman for his photography of our team in their gear! 

The SA SUP TEAM pack their paddling gear today as their countdown for the ICF World SUP Championships begins!

They are heading off to the city of Gdynia in Poland for this event, which will take place between the 7th and the 11th of September, 2022.

Here they will all participate in SUP sprint, technical and long distance races in varying categories – juniors, open, and masters 40+ and 50+.

Here is what you need to know before the competition starts.

1. Meet the team – This page has a brief bio of each athlete and a link to the donations page, if you are able to help cover the last minute contingencies.

Our athletes in the image above are (from left to right) Evette, Elmari, Cameron and Migael and are all from Cape Town.

The image below is our athlete Murray from Durban, who will be joining them in Poland.

Below is the competition site map, where all the heats will be going down!

The competition schedule is shown below, so you can free up some time to cheer for Team SA!

The course layouts for each event are here – sprint, technical and long distance.