An old favourite was revived this year, with the return of SUP racing to the Century City Sports Festival – a weekend full of active and competitive fun in all sporting disciplines.
The SUP DASH was a 750m technical course on 14-foot racing boards, involving a mixture of straight sprints, left or right turns around buoys and bridge piers. It’s a real lung-buster, and tests the fitness of the paddlers, along with their technical expertise right from the starting gun.
The sprint course was split into two 100-metre sections with a turn in the middle; requiring an explosive start and good balance at the turn so as not to lose the speed and cadence the paddlers gained in the first section. These 200m sprints count towards ranking points for our athletes who will be travelling to Europe to paddle the SUP racing circuit for the next few months.
Cameron Tripney, our Open Men’s Sprint winner, is also the 2022 ICF Junior World Sprint champion. He will be joining the elite Starboard Dream Team this year to paddle in some of the European circuit races in Spain, Italy and Austria, testing his vigour as he moves into the very competitive Open Men’s section internationally.
Tarryn King, our Open Ladies’ Sprint winner, is no stranger to international competition, with a few world championship medals to her credit in both SUP and surfing. She keeps a healthy balance between being a young mom with her SUP and surf training and also runs a SUP coaching squad in the Muizenberg area.
The balance of our athletes are dedicated local paddlers, who train in the southern and northern areas of Cape Town.
During the SUP DASH event, we also held a “learn to SUP” programme.
This offer was thoroughly enjoyed by an entire family who came along to “get their feet wet”. There were also a few keen family members of regular racing paddlers, who could not wait to try out the paddleboards alongside the very capable instructors from SUP CAPE TOWN. They all agreed it was an enjoyable session, and the smiling photos certainly confirm that! We were so grateful for SUP CAPE TOWN coming alongside us in this event, and look forward to many more with them. Keep your eyes open for further paddling opportunities by following us on social media and via our event calendar
The race results are detailed in the table below:
The races were arranged by Stand-Up Paddleboarding South Africa (SUPSA)
Supported by SUP CAPE TOWN
We are extremely grateful for all the assistance!
Should you wish to enquire about getting involved in this sport or joining our events, please contact us at supsasecretary@gmail.com.