BOP race this weekend

Anyone else notice that there is far more negativity about negativity? So much whinging because a couple of people had a contrary opinion. How soft are we if we can't exchange points of view without reducing it all to insults and accusations and who has the right to voice their opinion? Like I've said over and over, the only real cock-up with BOP is the lack of a video feed. Get that right and we will all be happy to watch the "rodeo clowns" as Lacey so mischievously dubbed them.

Back to my pet topic of board classes.....I had a look at BOP results raceresults.eternaltiming.com/20141004_Rainbow_Sandals_Battle_of_the_Paddle.htm?Fuseaction=Results&Class=Age+Group+SUP+Individual~14ft+M40-49

They are pretty confusing, but from what I can see the Open class was won by a 14ft board - plus 2nd and 3rd were on 14ft boards on what seemed a shorter course than the Elite race. We know the paddler is the main factor in these kind of races but surely that tells us something?

To me it says, given the choice, the better (in this case BOP Open-class) paddlers chose a longer board even for these conditions, or they didn't have a 12'6 and used their 14's...and still won....

I still maintain that having a 12'6 class is a waste of time, if people want to ride a shorter board because it surfs better, no-one is stopping them, use the 12'6 by all means, but don't restrict the field when you could have one class (up to 14') that includes everyone (incl 10'6 surfboards etc).

At the BOP half the Elite top guys sat out the Distance race because they had to swap boards, it doesn't make sense.......

Even in a race with over 600 competitors there were examples of a winner of a class and age-group being alone on the podium.....thats just sad....

I know a lot of you guys love your 12'6's and my suggestion of an up to 14' class does not disallow you from using it, if it's easier to store and get in and out through the surf then stick with it by all means. But to have situations like the ones mentioned above because of a foot and a half is ridiculous.

I used my 12'6 Naish ONE in our local 3km Time Trial last night and had a great time battling with some of the guys on 14's, if my goal had been to be more competitive then I would have chosen a 14' - but I still got a work-out and the point is the 12'6 still has a place and the fact that Naish and others are bringing out 11' and 12' tourer/cruiser/racers is testament to the fact that part of the market just don't want long boards - but must we now go and add those board-lengths to our list of categories?

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angie pangi said..
Half the elite fleid didn't do the Sunday distance cos 90% of us only had 126 boards.
That tells me the elite class should be 126 not 14.
Have fun trying to do a bop race like that on a 14ft hahaha, no chance.
X

No chance??? - when the guy who won the Open race did it on a 14' - or am I wrong? I'm really not sure if I read the results correctly?

You would have had 100% participation if the class had been just 14'.....no-one would have been omitted - now all the 12'6s were omitted, and that is exactly my point........

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angie pangi said..
No u are wrong. If the class had been 14ft then hardly anyone wouldve competed as 90 percent race 126 not 14ft.
The open race goes in and out of the surf once. The bop elite is completely different to the open race.

The open race has surfboard class, 126 class, 14 class and unlimited class. I can tell u the biggest class in open race was 126 for numbers.

If bop elite was 14ft then no one would race.

X angie

Thanks for clearing up the difference in course - that would help explain why the 14's came out tops in the Open. And you are correct that 12'6 class was single biggest class in Open (thats to be expected when the BOP race was the birthplace of the 12'6 class and the Elite race is still 12'6) but it's interesting that the other 3 classes (14, surf and Unl) were bigger in total numbers when combined.....that possibly underlines the success of "bring what you got" and go for it!

I'm intrigued by the statement that no-one would race Elite BOP if it was 14'....is that what happened in the Distance race? Did the Elite racers boycot the race to send a message to organisers?

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SandS said..

my view is that after seeing the footage loaded on here , there is a high risk off someone getting clocked on the noggin bigtime !

if you must race each other couldn't you have heats of 4 or six over a few days short coarse or something ? not hundreds in a heat , it just looks fing messy!!

hundreds of out of control missiles loose in the surf ...... come on, fun ? . if there was one loose board careering through your local line up ,you would all be on here grizzling about the kook with the big board and no legrope .......


would you be happy for your son/daughter loving SUP racing to be surrounded buy hundreds of unknown talents in surf with 15 plus kg missiles ?


crap event !!

Funny post. BTW, the missiles are only 10kg these days.

Oh no. think about the children ,please I throw up in my mouth every time I hear this dribble.Harden up people I hate this cotton wool society we live in. I have a kid and I would like him to experience life not watch it from behind a protective barrier, danger is part of life in many different forms if your numbers up its up .If you don't like the risk DONT DO IT ,the fears of a few should not dictate to the many

#t=117

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PTWoody said..

SandS said..

The old harden up suggestion ....... Spare me .

There is no way I would DO IT. But thanks for the suggestion .

Choosing to spend time paddling with hundreds of other people in surf is something I won't do .

Not my idea of enjoyment .

Good luck with your carnage sport , have fun at all costs .

My suggestion , buy your kid a helmet !

But that comes right back to the motorcycle helmet argument - why should there be a law to protect a brain which is not smart enough to realise it needs protecting?

Different for kids of course, they're not supposed to understand danger.

Pffftttttttt keep your helmets!!!!

Kai did speak about the incident. Copied and pasted the article below

Kai vs. Connor: In Their Words
Last week I penned an opinion piece regarding Kai Lenny and Connor Baxter going head-to-head on ?The Wave? during the 2014 Battle of the Paddle and controversy that followed. The response from readers has varied. In the process of writing the article I spoke with Baxter, Danny Ching, Barrett Tester and contacted Lenny about the incident to get as clear a picture as possible?I was also on the water?s edge and watched it all go down. After the article was released, Lenny responded as well. We?re now publishing both Lenny and Baxter?s responses (including a video Baxter released after the piece was published) in full.

Kai Lenny
Basically, how much bumping is too much?
In every major sport there is some form of ?rubbing is racing? and truthfully it can go over the line like at BOP this year. Hopefully we never have to have that happen again and in a perfect world we wouldn?t need rules. I think it will be great to have rules preventing any foul play to occur in the future!

Do you think there need to be rules in place for that sort of thing?
Honestly, I don?t think there need to be rules and everyone should play fair, but that?s not going to happen. I would prefer to keep it gentleman?like in every race?but when you get pushed up against a wall you have to push back, otherwise that person will continue doing it. You can?t expect to punch someone in the face and not get hit back, that?s obvious.

Looking back at that specific wave would you have done anything differently?
Here is my perspective on what happened and why I reacted the way I did. I chose my line on the wave without the intention of pushing Connor or the other racers, off of the wave. I saw where the chicane was and began to head straight for the center, that?s called going for the racing line. I wasn?t even near touching Connor?s rail as you can see in every video and photo taken. He decided because I wasn?t bowing down to him that he would rather take me out of the race than paddle against me. That is just fact. You can look back to a couple of weeks previous at the Huntington Beach Pro when I was caught completely off guard and he pushed myself and Casper (Steinfath) off a wave so he could secure a win. So after that incident I told myself that if that ever happens again I am going to push back. After he attempted to make me fall, where I nearly ran into Danny Ching, I reacted by turning back towards the chicane so I wouldn?t have to run from down the beach and then Connor popped a wheelie and turned, landing directly onto my board and I fell forward. If he is taking me down, I felt he should be coming with me. This did not affect anyone else besides the two of us and by the time we both made it to the beach Danny was already hitting the water after he ran the chicane.

And overall, was there anything that you learned from the race that you?ll take with you to future races?
What I have learned is that I am so grateful to have my family, all of my friends and amazing sponsors who witnessed and saw all the video, photos and did not judge me. Hopefully, this does not have to happen again. I am very grateful to surrounded my the best people!

Connor Baxter's reply
Basically, how much bumping is too much?
What I (did) was too much for sure but I had a good reason to because Kai was pushing me north of the beach run.

Do you think there need to be rules in place for that sort of thing?
For sure there needs to be rules and what we did made everyone realize we need rules.

Looking back at that specific wave would you have done anything differently?
If I could go back I wish I could notice Kai jumping off his board and grabbing my handle so I could of avoid that.

And overall, was there anything that you learned from the race that you?ll take with you to future races?
Every race I learn something new and this race I learn that playing Kai?s game is never the right thing to do. So next time I will try something different.

Thanks for the script of the interviews AndyR.

That reminds me, I was going to ask you guys if you use the phrase "bell end" in Australia, or is it just a British thing?

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SandS said...

I rest my case.

What case? That you like to whinge about how a sport you have no interest competing in is unsafe too funny!! People that compete have a choice to use protective equipment,but it should be up to them not enforced by the great nanny state.

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Area10 said..
Interesting. A "nob" in the UK means that someone is from an aristocratic background. But "knob" is synonymous with "bell end" since the latter refers of course to a subpart of the former.

Thank you DJ. This has been very enlightening. I get the sense that I may need to use your adjective to describe a couple of people in the not-to-distant future.

Let me practice: "You are a nob (or if in the UK, knob). And you are also a nob (or knob). You are both jumped-up, arrogant, aggressive, overpaid nobs (or knobs) who need to grow up". Yep, that'd work.

Planning a trip to Maui, Area10?