An effort to get the winter blues out of our paddlers and get SUPS onto the water, grew into a much bigger event than we ever thought possible!
The Winter Warrior challenge went countrywide, involving experienced and beginner paddlers alike, all of them churning out 5km laps around a number of buoys each week.
The points system was based on position, time AND attendance, just to level the challenge up a bit. This meant that even the usual speedsters had to actually be there each week to earn points – not just arrive once in a while to beat the pack. A valuable example of the rewarding factor of consistency was set by this process.
The Winter Warrior challenge took place across the country – the images above show the venues: Durban Canals, Dabulamanzi Canoe Club in Gauteng, Waterfront Canals in Cape Town, and East London’s Nahoon Valley venue. In the process, paddlers earned some valuable technical skills by doing multiple buoy turns and improved their SUP fitness, all while racing to beat their own times each week.
Racing and social categories were set up, which allowed paddlers with both race boards and regular SUPS to take part in a group that suited their capabilities and equipment. Some people did so well that they need to upgrade categories in the next event!
The final prizes were customised event paddling shirts for the top 5 in each category, and medals for those who had completed 3 or more out of the 7 allocated sessions. There’s no prize more valuable than one that has been earned!
A single “Spirit of Winter Warrior” rash vest prize was awarded to our paddler in East London. Jonathan managed to motivate himself to paddle each session solo – in winter – and maintained his place in the top 3! Inspiring stuff Jonathan!
We added a single “catch-up session” at the very end of the series for those who had missed out due to life’s inevitable curveballs, and a few took advantage of this to shave a few seconds off their PB’s.
Our two junior girls in Cape Town, were rewarded with medals and mini-merch t-shirts for their stellar efforts as absolute beginners! In the future, we hope to add a junior division so that paddlers can bring their kids along to help us grow the sport!
The results of the national challenge were tabulated and released each week, with a growing anticipation as to who would be the overall winner. Durban really rose to the challenge, with a large group of paddlers taking part each Saturday morning. Gauteng, as small as their group was, even had some late entrants who enjoyed it so much that they carried along to the very end.
Here are the results for the Racing and Social categories:
Should you wish to enquire about getting involved in this sport or joining our events, please contact us at supsasecretary@gmail.com.
At the end of the season, the participants were all in agreement that it was a worthwhile series, and we are happy to carry it over as an annual challenge.