it's been absolutely amazing over here witnessing the talent and skills of our SUP and prone paddlers. This year really was special, the calibre of paddler's from all teams was outstanding so to take a convincing win is unreal! It was well done by the ISA to host it at Cloudbreak - the middle of the ocean, but the logistics were managed really well so kudo's to them. Some whopping waves rolling on through that pushed many onto dry reef to pay some tax - Shak tore it up out there surfing with confidence! For anyone who wants to know what kind of injuries occur on a national SUP team: a ****load of reef cuts (probably one of the worst injuries due to infection risk), bruised costal cartillage from being t-boned in the ribs by a prone board, a gnarly haemotoma from a coral head to the butt in 8-10ft cloudbreak and some of the classic SUP niggles; bursal impingement, rotator cuff tendinopathy, lumbar disc irritation and sunburn! Thanks to all the crew at Momi Bay Eco Resort - their warmth and bulla spirit was unreal and they went out of their way to make our stay as easy as possible - considering they only opened 3 months ago and are still building their business. If you're taking a surfing trip to Fiji / Cloudy check them out.
Fantastic event Josh wish I was there. Incredible effort by the Aussie crew. The live broadcast was world class hats off to the Fijian crew for that plus the after parties looked insane.
Apologies if this has already been posted but for those of you that missed the live broadcast of the ISA SUP surfing final, here's a little teaser:
standupjournal.com/articles/cloudbreak-awakens-for-isas-sup-surfing-finals-day-6/