Select to expand quoteteatrea said..laceys lane said..
bop will have a short life with that kind of thinking.
numbers are already dismal.
funny how there was well over 50 training at the alley two Saturdays ago- a real sight.
now why aren't those numbers racing - just doing the training and that includes me.
hmmmm
You should be racing. What did they put in your chest when you took your turn? Your paddling like a machine old fella.
Haha, first I like my boards the way they are and I,ve had to pay for them all so far
. Bop is out of the question since my little turn on the 30 the of November last year. Its a young fella,s game. Belt through a few waves etc and my hr would be over the top amnd I'm not suppose to do that. It OK to control train, but a bop ,race, is a whole different ball game
Back to the sup fighters. First kai , then Connor. Depends on who,s vid edit you watch.
Who knows what went on before hand.
All kinds of big names on Jackos( the biggest being Ptwoody)
,s fb post. Most are ssying sh1t goes on all over the place. Standardised rules are needed urgently
Select to expand quote
Macaha said..
Typical starboard behaviour 
typical mct behavour
Just watched the vids...
and getting away from the two knobs trying to take each other out..
Thats a pretty epic location for a race.. How huge are those hotels above and what a view that would be... really showed how decent the swell was and how challenging it was.
Biggest thing I noticed in that vid was Danny was home for 2nd and forgot his paddle which having to run back for it gave his spot up for Jake..
Which for Jake awesome take the luck when you get it... But I am wrapping my head about how Danny forgot his paddle.. How many races would of this guy done at the top level now and had to run for a finish line with his paddle... Massive mistake, He must be filthy for such a slip up. To me he seems like the calm cool well calculated racer that even when a board snaps and he has to go back to the beach for a new one can still get back out and chase down the whole field in his heat to be right at the front again, but when it really counted 25m from the finish line in the final somehow this time he rushed forgot what he needed to do. Crazy really.
Then again maybe this is a more common thing with all the W.A boys loosing paddles maybe it happens more than I think
The wave n question starts at the 5 min mark.
Disc. This is a Starboard produced video but that doesn't change what happened on the water.
Battle of the Paddle 2014, Salt Creek Beach (epic?:
Number 42 copping a board to the ribs and shoulder at 54 seconds - yeah I don't think she was having much fun at that point. 
That was so close to hitting her in the head. I must be different from others but I don, t think that was fun to watch all those near misses.
Only a matter of time
Select to expand quotelaceys lane said..
That was so close to hitting her in the head. I must be different from others but I don, t think that was fun to watch all those near misses.
Only a matter of time
Fortunately for Rainbow Sandals, Battle of the Paddle is held in a non-litigious jurisdiction - no-one ever sues in California.
some of the paddlers in the video above really shouldn't of entered the race with those conditions, the ones that couldn't get through the waves were just paddling straight into them, no shifting feet and weight to back of board before lip of white water hits you and trying to get the nose up and over..
I certainly ant any good at getting out from the beach in waves as I rarely paddle in those conditions and looks like plenty of the people in the vid don't either. why put your self at risk in a race that is beyond your personal limitations and certainly putting others at risk not being able to control your board in that situation.
just stupid...
Surf racing really should be left to the committed bunch that train in it regularly and can handle the conditions.. its not a weekend warrior novice type of format to mess with in my eyes. thats what flat water races are for.
From what we're seeing and reading, the committed bunch who train in these surf/close out conditions regularly and can handle the conditions are not actually turning up to race largely because they know their boards (and themselves) are going to get smashed if they attempted to race in those conditions. If you cut out the weekend warrior novices from BOP racing (and your argument in favour of this is reasonable), then BOP racing would die a very sudden death.
yeah thats a very good point PT.
BOP short course racing can be done in not so crazy conditions though..
We in brisvegas run a bop race series off a beach that has a fairly tame ocean, just enough to make it fun.
Wild video Ang' posted and some great skills shown by the ladies.I've seen many a lady out skill and out ball the males.
IMO BOP is the future of SUP,its exciting and takes serious skill.Lets face it flat water paddling is just as boring as bat sh-t
Downwinding good but from a spectators point of view BOP is the winner.
There were some very close calls in that clip,helmets should be used in all BOP events,its a matter of time before somebody
gets a whack on the head and dies.
agreeing with some of the above points, add to that if the start was held untill the next lull, which apparently was regular like the sets, would allow most to get out cleanly. As they paddle through the first lap the field gets spread out so you dont have all competiters in heavy surf at the same time, thus reducing some of the risk. With this style of racing I think it is important that the course/lap set so paddling out is not in the same line as surfing in....
Select to expand quoteMacaha said..
Your doing nothing for sup/longboard relationships PT
Look, I don't disagree with your premise, I think it would be great if BOP racing became the next big thing with live broadcasts and all the rest but just have my doubts given the limited spread and availability of suitable locations compared with other types of SUP racing.
That start was hell and bad timing to call go. Live on your feet or die on your knees if you can't stand up lay down and barrel roll , use the straps and keep the boards close. Those extra long leggies just sweep around cleaning everyone up. Some great skills in there by some girls but some bad efforts by others pushing the board up in the air and falling back before they got smashed. Maybe they could have dropped a lap and ran 2 heats (when conditions get that tuff). Here's a can of worms do the boards really need to be 12-6 for a Bop surely a 10-6 would do the job.
Great video and agree this is the future of Sup racing.
Select to expand quotePiros said..
That start was hell and bad timing to call go. Live on your feet or die on your knees if you can't stand up lay down and barrel roll , use the straps and keep the boards close. Those extra long leggies just sweep around cleaning everyone up. Some great skills in there by some girls but some bad efforts by others pushing the board up in the air and falling back before they got smashed. Maybe they could have dropped a lap and ran 2 heats (when conditions get that tuff). Here's a can of worms do the boards really need to be 12-6 for a Bop surely a 10-6 would do the job. Great video and agree this is the future of Sup racing.
but Candice did a roll through a wave. grabbed the two handles , rolled the board, flipped it back, was back on and paddling while annabe was tying to drag her board back and got hit by another.
that action won her the race. was pretty impressed. clubbie type move. something most surfers wouldn't even think of.
going to give that a crack myself
still at the end of the day its pretty much the wrong board, wrong sport to be trying to standup and push through surf like that.
clubbies get away with it because its not so obvious. standing up and falling off sticks out like dogs ba11s and that's the good or bad part about it all.
it depends on what side of the fence your on
ps. I just don't know what the answer is .
the top pro's like it the way it is, clubbies rule bop in Australia, maybe the clubbies should take it over
Select to expand quoteMacaha said..
Wild video Ang' posted and some great skills shown by the ladies.I've seen many a lady out skill and out ball the males.
IMO BOP is the future of SUP,its exciting and takes serious skill.Lets face it flat water paddling is just as boring as bat sh-t
Downwinding good but from a spectators point of view BOP is the winner.
There were some very close calls in that clip,helmets should be used in all BOP events,its a matter of time before somebody
gets a whack on the head and dies.
Totally agree, many of the girls showed great skills in challenging conditions, but it's also conditions like that that make the sport exciting and make racing the most fun.
Maybe there were a couple girls in there that didn't have the surf skills/practice to handle those conditions, but this was the elite race and the majority of them did. Sometimes there's going to be a set that cleans up everyone and that's just the way it goes... but with a big field on the start line, I agree with those who've said it may have been a good idea to wait for a gap between sets for the start, for the safety of all competitors.
... and maybe a beach without so many sharp rocks right in the impact zone would be a bit safer too
Where there's talk about splitting the field into two heats, we need to remember that the elite Womens race in the vid had the smallest field across the whole event (excluding kids race and prone) and the starts of the open race (non elite paddlers) and the distance (everyone together) were crazy.
Just look at this vid of stacks from all the races - some of the guys in here make the elite girls skill level look insane!
Select to expand quotelaceys lane said..
the top pro's like it the way it is, clubbies rule bop in Australia, maybe the clubbies should take it over
Or maybe not? skill level of some of the prone paddlers in the above vid looks a long way behind many clubbies I've seen here.
watched enough ali to see good paddlers look like gumbys. is that the look the sport needs , the look everyone is trying to sell.
its pretty obvious the boards don't work in waves.
i've watched enough races and seen even gentle shore break trip everybody up.
i cringe when i see it. looks like a bunch of clowns and if i was a surfer walking past and didn't know anything about it i would be laughing at them.
the answer- i don't know, but for the sport to grow something has to change.
the bop is hugh i couldn't drag myself away from it so i don't hate it and rightly its suppose to be for the elite.
grassroots and local stuff, it just needs to be better somehow for those with reasonable skills so more paddlers do it
Select to expand quotePiros said..
Here's a can of worms do the boards really need to be 12-6 for a Bop surely a 10-6 would do the job. Great video and agree this is the future of Sup racing.
Agree on the first point - if these are ideal conditions for a BOP race, then I reckon Kelly on a custom Lahui Kai 10'6" would have made them all look silly.
As for the second point, if this is the future of SUP racing, someone better tell the land locked SUP world to give up now and find another sport. And sadly, that will mean SUP racing will never amount to a hill of beans because even in regions where BOP conditions are available, we are seeing most capable paddlers declining to enter these races. So how does that fact reconcile with the assertion that BOP is the future of racing?
Nothing is stopping any of them using a board shorter than 12'6 - so if it was that great you'd probably have seen quite a few on them already.
The only time a 12'6 (or 14'/UNL for that matter) doesn't work that well is when you get to the pitchy part of the wave coming in. Going out I'd argue the greater speed of a longer board increases your chance of clearing the next wave......if you are running into a pitching 6-8ft wave it doesn't really matter what you are on.
The race can be won or lost in those waves but majority of the BOP race takes place outside the surfzone and I'll bet that most the pro's would choose a 14' if it was allowed - noone would want to be dropped on the long flat stretches out the back and it might catch the wave marginally earlier.
IMO they should allow 14' in the Elite race and see what happens - at least then the Naish guys might get to race the long distance as well.
im not saying BOP is the future. I would like to see it as one of the big parts of it, but IMO they need to get the rocks not only out of the coarse but out of there heads.
Boards are restricted to a MAX of 12.6, nothing stopping a competitor turning up with a SHORTER board. But that won't happen when there is distance and more open water than waves. They would loose too much to the people on 12.6s out of the surf area
Having a BOP style race with waves involved is not a good combination with 10km or so. Clubbies don't do surf races on mals that long, and fatiguing at the end isn't helping in the surf….
Watching the above vid shows that while I'm sure they have the fitness, people need to, A know their limits and B practice in the surf more, but then again SUP is renowned for newbies going and buying a board and paddling straight out into the line up at a crowed spot with no consciousness of their surroundings or actions...
