SUP Champs On

With some top names in the sport among the 60 entrants in the men’s, women’s, legends and juniors divisions, this is the largest showing of SUP surfers at a South African event.

We are part of fastest growing watersport in the world, which crowned its first world champion last year, and it is great to see this first national SUP event on the surfing calendar - Chris Bertish

“I am stoked to be involved in the South African SUP surfing championship. This is a great beginning to where the sport in South Africa is headed. We are part of fastest growing watersport in the world, which crowned its first world champion last year, and it is great to see this first national SUP event on the surfing calendar,” said Chris Bertish, South Africa’s big wave surf ambassador and contestant in the 2010 Stand Up Paddle World Tour.

A building swell is predicted for the contest period and Spike from Wavescape.co.za is calling the beach venue for the Atlantic side of the Cape Peninsula. “Saturday is a lekker clean day with soft SE offshores and a light puff mid to late afternoon, when it blows moderate, and some SSW direction in the around 6’ open ocean swell pushing to solid 8' sets in afternoon. Sunday sees a SE freshening on Sunday afternoon and the ocean swell is a solid 10' with a deep energy 14 second period.”

Contestants will be registering for the event this afternoon from 17h00 to 19h00 at the Blouberg Surf Lifesaving Club in Big Bay. This is to be followed by an opening function at a nearby venue. Then the SUP surfers aspiring for national titles hit the waves on Saturday and Sunday.

 In selecting the best contestable surf conditions, the beach venue for the day will be called each morning. Venues and contest updates will be posted online and all contestants will be notified of the beach venue and contest activities via SMS, thanks to the sponsorship support for the national championships from BulkSMS.com.

 The South African SUP Surfing Championships are being hosted by Stand-Up Paddling South Africa (SUPSA), the national association for stand-up paddling boarding, in Cape Town over the weekend of 30 and 31 July 2011, with an opening function on the evening of Friday, 29.