Weekly SUP News - Wood is the new yellow

This week's number: 55 seconds
Plenty of talent coming through the younger ranks, as evidenced by Chloe Walkerdene and Tim Cyprien taking out the top spots at the Maroochydore River Race on Sunday. This was a long drag - 18km, and both posted sub 2 hour times (Walkerdene on the right side of the mark by 55 seconds). Oliver Murphy-Kurth and Dylan Constable rounded out the men's podium while Sue Dorries and Kate Baker completed the women's. Walkerdene and Cyprien will get their first taste of international racing at the Japan World cup race in four weeks' time.

Winners are grinners!



Before they fly out though, they'll be racing at the Queensland marathon and technical championships that are being held in Brisvegas on August 29 and 30. A few days left for last-minute training. Enjoy.

And if you happen to be in SEQ that weekend but not striving for state championship glory, I noticed that the Paddle in Pink event will be held in Noosa. A worthy cause - all funds raised go to the National Breast Cancer Foundation.

www.gofundraise.com.au/

The Gorge Paddle Challenge is on this weekend in Hood River, Oregon. Big name event with plenty of big name paddlers competing: US$18,000 total prize purse. The paddleguru website displays a list of all the starters, and is a good way to check final times and placings.

paddleguru.com/races/NaishColumbiaGorgePaddleChallenge

A little further east, the SUP 11-City Tour starts in the Netherlands next weekend. Athletes paddle a 220 km circuit via canals through 11 cities in Friesland, the northern province of Holland. A bit like the Tour de France on a 14 ft'r.

The first part of the event is for endurance junkies with insomnia - paddle the whole 220km non-stop with a two-day time limit. For those who prefer to soak up the scenery, the five-day tour starts on the September 2. Here are the stages.

Stage 1 Leeuwarden to Sloten 43 km
Stage 2 Sloten to Workum 45 km
Stage 3 Workum to Franeker 42 km
Stage 4 Franeker to Dokkum 43 km
Stage 5 Dokkum to Leeuwarden 47 km

More details emerge of BOP 2.0, aka the Pacific Paddle Games, in California in October. Early sign-ons include Kai Lenny, Slater Trout, Noa Hopper and Shae Foudy. Remember, this has total prizemoney of US$55k, now the biggest wallet on the circuit. The largest take will be for the overall winners (men and women) of the combined technical and distance races, with US$8,000 each (full prize kitty at the end of the thread).


Latest vids
Last week I posted a short interview with Travis Grant. I found another this week in which Travis talks with Robert Stehlik from Blue Planet Surf for close to 30 minutes going through every detail, filmed the day before M20. Such an unassuming guy and a great ambassador for the sport.

Plenty of other vids flowing out of the Hawaiian downwind season. Here's one of Josh Riccio showing how it's done on the stretch from Maui to Molokai.

Quiver talk
Where do I start?

After a false dawn, Naish finally revealed its wares for the year ahead. Plenty of leaks beforehand, which revealed most of the major changes, including:
Wood is the new yellow - Nalu, Mana, Glide and Hokua are all offered with it.

Race - The Javelin race boards have undergone some subtle changes, including a recessed deck and a thinner 24" for those who have their balance sorted. Carbon only.

The GX build has been dropped, so you'll have to consider the new downwind-oriented Maliko, in LE build, available in 24 and 26". Those widths indicate the company's confidence in stability. Note, Tim Cyprien won the Maroochydore River race on one of these against a field littered with flatwater boards - perhaps then Naish's one-board-quiver solution.

Performance wave - Hokua Keiki LE and Raptor (technically a 2016 release).

All round cruising - The Odysseus 11'2 adds to the 9'8.

Paddle changes are more than skin deep with a whole new lay-up across the range; most radical variations are to the Hele (all-round, cruising), Wave LE and Race LE sticks.

Here's Kai Lenny prepping his boards for Gorge River.



After giving us an early peep of their new range, Fanatic went the full monty this week. Here's what we saw.

Race - Amongst the biggest changes in this year's range. Strike replaces the Falcon Flatwater with an all new design. The Falcon name is now devoted to open-water boards, again with a completely new design (the nose took some final tweeks before release). We've seen the boards competing on the race scene, but good to see and hear some of the detail.

Performance wave - Includes the Prowave and the new Stubby. Plenty of blog time has already been spent on the Vanguard style Stubby with thumbs up in the end.

Allround - Now includes the Stylemaster; a longboard style for those that like to get their toes on the nose, and the female-focused Diamond Pure at 9'6. The Allwave has been demoted to this category and it also includes the Fly. Touring - This category relies on the Ray again.

Inflatables - Air versions of just about every series is available, but also includes a river specific model for those who get off on whitewash.

Paddles have also been reworked, together with their graphics.

Here's the new Falcon, posing with its sleek new nose job.



Now, it will be interesting to see how these new ranges are priced here in Oz.

For those of you who inhabit the Apple ecosystem, this is the first waterproof cover for the Apple Watch that I've seen (how Apple could release a sports version of its watch that wasn't waterproof has me beat). Anyway, it looks like this will get you out on the water without frying it.

With your phone waterproof, here's a new app specifically for paddlers that looks interesting. It allows delayed start time, which gives you time to store the phone and get out on the water before it activates. Dead simple interface, including a big start/stop button, in case you're fumbling around on the water. Developed by a paddler as well.

paddlelogger.com/

Happy paddling,
SJKJ


BOP 2.0 (Pacific Paddle Games) Prize Pool

LOL, you're right Luke. Unfortunately the words to describe it escaped me.