Sunday, February 26, 2012

Stand Up PaddleBoard Race

Quite a thriving community of stand up paddleboarders is developing in Jersey and every two weeks, to coincide with high water on a spring tide, a race is held at St Brelade's.  It is essentially three lap[s of a course, out and around a pole, followed by a short run on the beach.  For many today the highlight was the small dolphin which was playing in between some of the boards.
It is a highly social activity with friends and family able to watch and support and those who are interested play on the boards afterwards.  There are usually a range of boards available from both Naish and Starboard who are the major suppliers of SUP in Jersey.  The next race is in two weeks time and fingers crossed that I do rather better than my pretty dismal performance today.
14 racers disappearing over the horizon!  There is a pole just to the left of the pier which it is necessary to go around.  Each race consists of 3 laps.  On the first lap some of the paddlers were accompanied by a rather inquistive, young dolphin, which appears to have been in the bay for a couple of days.
At the end of each lap it is necessary to leave the board and complete a short run, so the edge of the water is always busy with both paddlers arriving and departing.
It was just a short run around the flags but after 3 laps the legs were beginning to feel it.

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