SUPDurbs Pro 2016 – SUPSA SA Wave Champs

by Chris Couve | Jul 4, 2016 | Stand Up Paddle, SUP Events, SUP Racing

Who doesn’t like surfing warm water in the middle of winter! New Pier Durban, the perfect location for the SUPSA SA Champs hosted by SUP Durban and powered by HW Brokers and Infiniti and supported by Naish.

The Cape cold weather certainly followed the Cape Town crew to Durban. Even at its coldest, Durban is a walk in the park for any Capetonian! All in all it was a fantastic weekend to get away, share a wave or two or ten with your fellow SUP crew and hang out.

The endless ping’s of the SUP Durbs Pro whatsapp group added to the heightened excitement as the images, heat sheets, comments and information came pouring through. Special thanks to Angela for the 5:50am “Rise and Shine” posts that started the day!

Surf conditions on day one were not particularly good with the easterly winds bringing an onshore chop, but as we all know, this is part of contest surfing! Day two dawned to glassy new pier 2ft perfection and stayed this way until around mid morning offering surfers the opportunity to surf un-crowded New Pier with three other mates in the line up.

The Social Men’s division certainly had an impressive number of entrants. With the finalists surfing three heats on the last day to take their deserving place on the podium with Kade Burnett taking the win.

There was an impressive show from Paolo Loupini in the legends division who probably surfed the most number of heats in the event surfing five heats over two divisions on the final day! Well done to Grantley Read on winning the legends division. These legends certainly do rip!

Well done to the social ladies Tammy, Holly and Alison for successfully negotiating their way through their first competition and first time surfing New Pier!

Mention must be made of the determined Surf Diva’s Angela and Sue who had close encounters with the infamous pier. Needless to say Pier 1: Divas 0 on their first attempt.
“In our paddle out alongside the pier which was going smoothly until we reached the end of the pier and we thought we had made it out alive…the next set came through big, fast and furiously, leaving Les and I fighting to keep ourselves and our boards clear of the pier. Lots of pushing through the white foam and many deep breathes saw as struggling our way to freedom”.

“I was paddling back to the beach and was almost going to throw in the towel, as I walked down the stairs something said you can’t give up now! I then headed back down the side of the pier and into the big mess of waves and white wash.”

Well done ladies for persevering! Day two and our divas showed how tough they are…lets just say they got back onto the proverbial horse and showed new pier who is boss!

Another stand out of the event was young Gabriella Loupini not only taking the win in the Junior Girls division but impressing the judges and making it to the ladies open final!

Henco Scholtz winner of the Junior Boys division turned heads throughout the event making it to the semi final in the men’s open division where he gracefully bowed out after coming up against seasoned international competitors in Tom King and Brandon Ribbink.

A special mention also needs to be made of Junior Division surfer Matt Maxwell who put on a great show placing 2nd in the boys division and 4th in the men’s open division.

And watch this pace for young Levi Mayes, the youngest competitor at the event receiving a third place podium finish for his first surf competition.

When it came down to the business end of the SUP South African Championships it was a hotly contended event with South Africa’s top men and woman competing for the title of South African Champion.

The Ladies division was clearly dominated by the Western Province Crew with an all WP Final. It was a close finish for first place with Tarryn King just pipping Tammy Foster for the title of SA Champion.

In the open mens division there was no doubt that Tom King stole the show with consistent surfing and an impressive semi final Heat win and a near perfect score of 18.5 out of a possible 20!

Despite the contestants hard work they still took some time out to create awareness and encourage SUP development with the kids from ‘Surfers Not Street Children’. These keen surfers took to the water with ease using their surfing knowledge and a bit of SUP coaching from South Africa’s best. By the end of their session they were showing off their new SUP skills!

Words by Roxy Davis

2016 SA Champs Wave Riding Results:

SOCIAL MENS:

1: Kade Burnett

2:Andile Zulu

3:Luke Rassmussen

4: James Siedle

LEGENDS:

1: Grantley Read

2: Gary Van Rooyen

3: Brian Roberts

4: Dave Maxwell

DIVAS:

1: Angela Whittle

2: Sue Maxwell

JUNIOR GIRLS

1: Gabriella Loupini

JUNIOR BOYS:

1: Henco Scholtz

2: Matt Maxwell

3: Levi Mayes

SOCIAL LADIES:

1: Tammy Meyes

2: Holly Herschell

3: Alison Taczalo

OPEN LADIES

1: Tarryn King

2: Tammy Foster

3: Roxy Davis

4: Gabriella Loupini

OPEN MENS

1: Tom King

2: Dylan Frick

3: Brandon Ribbink

4: Matt Maxwell

Full SUPDurbs! Pro 2016 Results:

Frick and Williamson Take Zinkwazi SUP Race Titles

by Chris Couve | Jun 21, 2016 | Stand Up Paddle, SUP Events, SUP Racing

The 2016 Starboard Zinkwazi 10km SUP Race is now in it’s 6th Year. This year we were blown away by an exceptional attendance with more than 50 contestants finishing the race and therefore making it South Africa’s largest SUPSA sanctioned Stand Up Paddling Race ever held.

A beautiful sunny morning it was and contestants from all provinces around South Africa including Gauteng, Western Cape, Mpumalang and Kwazulu-Natal had travelled from far to be there on the day.

Registration started at 8am, the Race Briefing around 8:40 and Race start at 9:00. With the blowing of the horn, the race was underway and Dylan Frick and Chris Couve were quick out of the starting blocks to set a frighteningly fast early pace. The women started a minute behind the men as per SUPSA rules and here Jackie, Lande and Charlotte exploded off the starting line.

Chris Couve (Starboard) blasts off the start line to take the lead early on | Photo Creds: Bruce Chrystal

Dylan Frick (Starboard) leads the mens train through the first lap | Pic Creds: Scott Elliott

The first 2.4 kms to the first buoy are always super tough as contestants attempt to catch on to a suiteable draft train that will allow them to settle their racing heart-rates and find a rythm within the race.

Amongst the men, Chris and Dylan were setting the pace with Gunter on their draft and Rory from Cape Town leading the second draft train working hard to close the gap. Further along the field we had Grantley Read, the Zinkwazi local legend, Kimon and Charles from Cape Town, Darryl Bartho, Brandon Read, Shayne and Nick from Durban all putting in a massive effort to keep up the pace.

The top three ladies, Charlotte, Jackie and Lande had to race strategically as injuries and illness had affected all of their fitness level and therefore raw endurance strength wasn’t something to bet on.

in the ladies race it was a heated battle throughout the race – Jax leads Charlotte and Lande into the top buoy turn

Dylan was the first to make a 180 degree clock-wise turn around the first buoy, after which he applied is usual strategy to put in a hard interval coming straight out of the turn. Unfortunately he wasn’t able to shake Chris nor Gunter off and Rory also had now joined the leading pack.

The first buoy turn always helps to shake up the racing packs and here the more skillful racers have an opportunity to whip their boards around the buoy and shoot out of the turn in order to open up gaps.

A slight offshore breeze had now come up, which the contestants felt supporting them on their route back towards the beach. A new addition to the race was a chicane on the beach where contestants had to beach their boards, grab them and together with their paddles run along the chicane for a short 30m over the beach sand and then leap back in to the water. This really is exciting and mixing the racing up a lot and has been put in place to be more in line with international racing format standards.

Bruce Renken (Starboard) takes time out to enjoy the scenery | Pic Creds: Scott Elliott

The second half of the race followed the same path as the first half with positions amongst the contestants remaining quite consistent. Amongst the Men, Anton Nel from Johannesburg had found a comfort zone paddling up against the wind and managed to real in a few places and close the gap to Grantley Read. Corne Rossouw from Johannesburg was continuously being challenged throughout the race by Capetonian 12 year old Juniour Cameron Tripney, who was putting in a star performance and showing the grown ups what they can expect in the years to come. Heading up towards the final buoy turn the contestants new that this would be there last opportunity to rattle the field. Dylan once again was first to turn, followed by Chris, then Rory, then Gunter. The second pack was being led by Kimon, then Charles and Darryl. The 3 top ladies were taking turns at the pole. The last 2km towards the beach and the finish line had Dylan put in a massive interval that managed to shake off Rory and Gunter. Chris however hung on all the way to the shore and now it was only the final sprint that would determine the winner. Some wake from a nearby boat unsettled Chris, Dylan took full advantage of this and was the first to get his foot on to sand for the final sprint through to the finish line ~ taking the Men’s title. Chris unlucky but proud on his second place came through the finish line only split seconds after Dylan. Rory from Cape Town took third place and Gunter from Johannesburg fourth. Followed By Charles and Kimon from Cape Town.

Chris Couve and Dylan Frick’s Starboard Sprints loose a little paint for the final beach sprint finish to the line

Check out a replay of the 2016 Starboard Zinkwazi 10km SUP Race finish line, brought to you by Your SUP Life:

The Ladies finish was as exciting with Jackie (F One), Lande (F One) and Charlotte (Starboard) fighting it out for first place. Lande managed to beach first and sprint through the finish coming in split-seconds before Jackie and Charlotte. So a very stoked Lande becomes this years ladies winner followed by Jackie and then newcomer Charlotte.

12 Year old Cameron Tripney (Coreban), a future potential racing champion, took the boys Junior title and Karisa Grace the Girls junior title. Legends Rory (Mistral), Brandon and Grantley Read (Starboard) showed all the youngsters that experience and years of training can be as effective as raw youth brawn.

Junior Boys Winner Cam Tripney (Coreban) showing the us how buoy turns should be done | Pic Creds: Scott Elliott

Thanks to our sponsor Starboard SUP South Africa for sponsoring cash, prizes, awesome Starboard Tiki rash vests and refreshing water at the finish line. A massive thank you to Chris Couve for his all help in marketing and organising the event and thanks to Robbie Couve, our Race and Safety Director as well as a massive thank you to Ingrid Dippenaar for running the admin side of things as well as managing the time-keeping. We also had Erica from the local newspaper The North Coast Courier taking photos as well as Scott Elliot, Jon & Morgan Irvins, Anna-Marie Frick and Shelly Nel also were taking photos and videos. And most of all thanks to all participants for making this event, South Africa’s largest and most successful SUP race in South African history. We’re looking forward to next year event already!

2016 Starboard 10Km Zinkwazi Race Report ~ by Gunter Burger | Pic Credits: Scott Elliott

Download the High Res Images from the Dropbox folder here…

Preliminary Overall Race Results (results by age category to be released shortly):

Flatwater course ~9.4km with 3 turns, no wind.