What's the current SUP flatwater 1000m speed record?
I've read people going about 9.0 mph but that's only about 4:08 for 1000m.
Meanwhile the canoe and kayak records are:
Kayak: 3:22
Canoe: 3:46
I would have expected an 18' race SUP to beat a canoe at least. Perhaps it's just who's paddling.
Wind, current and waterdepth will all affect result.
Jim Terrel won the 200m in 53.76 seconds, which is 13.39 km/hour or 8.32 miles/hour at the Silverblade Regatta. Looking at the video it looked like they had some tailwind - not sure though. That is the fastest non-downwind sprint time I've seen recorded.
We'll be having our first 200m Sprint event in two weeks time, the venue is relatively wind protected, has no current but is a little shallow (1.8m) so I doubt anyone will get under 60secs (ca 12km/h) - but lets see, the guys are amped!
Bring on the sprint races , I like the sound of that 200M I rekon would attract even more punters. Couple of good spots on the Goldie to hold a sprint regatta , a good course at Varsity and a longer one up at Coomera/OXENFORD. possibly attract more kids too.
Jim Terrell's a good paddler to follow for flat water sprints. He was in 4x Olympics for C1 and now he's testing out a lot of stuff with SUP race boards. Check out his thoughts on SUP sprints (including video):
www.supracer.com/jim-terrells-sprint-sup-racing-secrets/
Here's a quick comparison of times.
SUP: 13.39km/h
200m (Jim Terrell, 2012 Silver Blade Regatta)
53.76 seconds
C1: 17.03km/h
200m (2012 Olympic Gold Medalist)
42.29 seconds
K1: 19.86km/h
200m (2012 Olympic Gold Medalist)
36.25 seconds
Specs
K1 length: 520cm
min weight: 12kg
C1 length: 520cm
min weight: 16kg
SUP length: 381cm/427cm (12'6/14'... sprints are usually 14')
weight: usually between 9-15kg
Speed differences
C1: 27% faster than SUP
K1: 48% faster than SUP
Keep in mind C1/K1 boats are longer, plus their times come from the Olympics, where the very best are competing. We've never had a flat water sprint with all the top guys (...though Jim Terrell would be pretty hard to beat no matter who was there).
I agree with lots of this but the width/drag is more significant than the craft weight IMO , most elite paddlers are high 80s to low 90kg range and their weight is vastly more than their craft.
We have a South African SUP 200m sprint champ - Colin Heckroodt (Coreban) took the win in our first 200m sprint event - results below.
SUP WA will be running a 200m flat water sprint championships on a rowing course in November so will be good to compare times. This will be on what ever board you show up with.
Following on from that the top 8 will qualify for the Battle of the Paddler. 4 x production 12'6s and 4 x production 14s, all exactly the same. Two heats in each and one final. Idea is to find the best paddler and eliminate the board factor and will be over 500m.
Colin was on the Coreban 14' Turbo - but he also used a 14 Fanatic Fly and Starboard 25" Ace Pro - he did 5 runs which were 3 secs apart and I can't remember which one he was fastest on - I think it was the Fanatic. He used his Turbo in the final and set a 1.08.
Familiarity with board is quite important, and we don't really know enough about how all this sprinting works but I think that engine is 95% combined with technique as having a quick start and drawing a straight line improves times dramatically.
The guys had quite a gusty headwind hitting 15knots in some places.
The canal is also not quite deep enough to avoid drag - but now we have a marker time and can see how we go about improving it....
Summer winds come from the other direction so that could be a good start....
and check out the guy in 14th position - he is 8yo and already doing 7.5km/h on a 12'6 - imagine what he'll do when he turns 9yo!!!
Makai Paddlers (Mollymook) ran a fantastic paddle race event last month at Burrill Lake. The event was called Lake Lunacy & had 100m sprints held at night under lights. The sprint finals were based on times but they didn't post the sprint times on the website just the short (5km) and long course (10km) times. The sprint format was heats of 5 paddlers all paddling the same model vessel (ie a 'one design' event). First up were the skis (all on 'Epic v8's) then went the SUPs (all on Hobie 12'6") then the Outriggers with men's and women's divisions in all categories. The lane makers were milk bottles with glow sticks in them! It was great fun for both competitors and spectators! (Although very very cold! it was August with a howling westerly blowing)
IMO it would be great for the sport if there was more of this kind of stuff.