EL SALVADOR 2019 – Opening ceremony and Sprints

by | Nov 25, 2019 | El Salvador World Championships, ISA, Prone, South African Surfing Championships, Stand Up Paddle, SUP Events, SUP Racing, SUP Surfing, Surfing South Africa, Uncategorized

We have officially started with the 2019 Surf City El Salvador ISA World SUP and Paddleboard Championships (note the name change). With a hot, celebratory and joyous opening ceremony, which including the Sands of the World Ceremony and a traditional El Salvadorian dance, the Minister of Tourism welcomed us to their beautiful country and the South African bellowed our vuvuzela’s loud and proud on the coast of Central America. South Africa is here.

Board measurements and last energy bites had Khara and Dylan ready for the 200 m Sprints. Khara shared her heat with Jade Howson (USA) and Jessika Matos de Souza (Brazil), who eventually won 1st and 2nd place. Dylan paired up with Connor Baxter (USA) and Arthur Carvahlo (Brazil) landing third in his heat. The sprints definitely broke down the nerves for the rest of the Championships and are we excited about the Technical races that will take place on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Tyra and Ethan will be competing in the Long Distance Paddleboard races today. Tyra will compete at 8:30 am (16:00 in SA) and Ethan at 14:00 (22:00 in SA).

Have a great one, see you on the live.

EL SALVADOR 2019 – Our last two days before World Champs

by | Nov 23, 2019 | El Salvador World Championships, ISA, Prone, South African Surfing Championships, Stand Up Paddle, SUP Events, SUP Racing, SUP Surfing, Surfing South Africa, Uncategorized

We are getting more and more on El Salvador’s pace. Morning surf, fruit bowls for breakfast (beans and rice for Matt and chocolate brownies for Dylan), late morning surf, burrito lunches with smoothie’s, midday siestas [an afternoon rest or nap, especially one taken during the hottest hours of the day in a hot climate], sunset surfs and burgers and pesto pasta dinners.

The surf here is incredible with Migael smashing the waves one after the other with great guidance from Dylan and Matt landing on the ISA photo’s page on a daily. We, the SA SUP Team, registered for the ISA World Championships after a boiling midday walk through high tide. A huge thanks to ISA Surfing for all of the arrangements and gift bags as well as to El Salvador for the great service, kindness and help so far.

We also got the 14’ All Star out of its bulletproof (times two) board bag and into the shore break, which Khara, Migael and Dylan will take on in the sprints and technical races. We’ve had some problems with getting the prone board to El Salvador and still trying different ways in getting it here. This might mean that we’ll only get the board tomorrow or Monday or we’ll have to find a board between the other teams. We are, however, not giving up on the new Bark board being delivered bright and early tomorrow morning.

From a sunny El Salvador to all our South African family and friends – we are happy, healthy and excited for World Champs starting on Sunday.

EL SALVADOR 2019 – We found paradise

by | Nov 22, 2019 | El Salvador World Championships, ISA, South African Surfing Championships, Stand Up Paddle, SUP Events, SUP Racing, SUP Surfing, Uncategorized

We found paradise. Beachfront room views, fun breaks, fresh coconut water and burritos. We found paradise.

Our last flight was a quick one. Hoping, praying and trusting that our boards had a safe flight, we met them 6/7 alive. Evette’s Surf SUP experienced a nose and tail trimming on the last flight. We strapped 7 boards on top of an 11-seater Toyato, and there we went.

Closer to El Tunco, San Salvador, meant closer to the ocean, and you can be sure that we are really close to the ocean.

See here the schedule for the next few days and enjoy some more photos.

EL SALVADOR 2019 – En route

by | Nov 21, 2019 | El Salvador World Championships, ISA, Prone, South African Surfing Championships, Stand Up Paddle, SUP Events, SUP Racing, SUP Surfing, Surfing South Africa, Uncategorized

Tired eyes, bottoms and necks. 12 hours from Cape Town to London and 10 hours from London to Miami. After running around between terminals and passport controls, we made it to the Miami International Airport Hotel and after a shower and new set of clothes, we made our way to South Beach… well we tried making two not-so-English, Spanish uber drivers understand where we’d like to go, which ended up making 4 of us parade up-and-down and up-and-down along Lincoln Road and the other 5 visit the brightly lit up Ocean Drive with crowds of tourists. 

We eventually made it all to the top of Lincoln Road and like a hungry pride of lions stalking a little springbokkie in the Kruger, we hunted down Mexican Restaurant, a (you guessed it) Mexican restaurant in Lincoln Road, Miami. Veggie tacos, steak tacos and chicken burrito’s made a bunch of hungry South Africans very happy. 

We are departing for El Salvador at 10:45 am (17:45 pm, South African time) and looking forward to meeting up with Dylan and Camila. See you on that side.

Have a great day!

SA SUP Team 

 

EL SALVADOR 2019 – And we’re off

by | Nov 19, 2019 | El Salvador World Championships, ISA, Prone, South African Surfing Championships, Stand Up Paddle, SUP Events, SUP Racing, SUP Surfing, Uncategorized

The day has come that the SA SUP Team will be traveling 12495 km to El Salvador. Boards, paddles, boardies and bikinis are packed for a two-week Central American trip to compete against countries all around the world. Dylan Frick has been checking out the waves for the last two days and the rest of the team will meet them in El Salvador on Thursday.

You can stay in touch with the team by following them on Instagram (@supsouthafrica and @sasupteam), Facebook (@Stand Up Paddling South Africa) and the news page on the SUPSA website for daily updates. There will also be a live video share on all the action on the official ISA event page.

Hout Bay Series 2019 Race 3

by | Sep 27, 2019 | RUN SUP YOGA, Stand Up Paddle, SUP Events, SUP Racing, Uncategorized

POSTPONEMENT OF SUNDAY’S RACE

We are unfortunately needing to postpone The Combustion Technology Hout Bay Series race 3, this Sunday, due to the weather conditions. We have been monitoring the weather closely and have taken guidance from our safety crew. The 3rd Race of the series has been moved to Sunday 6th October. Our apologies but safety comes first. Click here for the new date’s race registration.