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2021 Triple Crown!

SUPport PROductions will once again be hosting the legendary Triple Crown SUP event over the Queen’s Birthday bank holiday weekend in June. Three days, three venues, three races, all as different as they can possibly be – but competitors can only enter one board, and have to use that for all three races, which may include short course, long course, flat water, bumps, surf racing, downwind racing – who knows! It’s a great challenge, and is back very much by popular demand.

Lots more information on the event at the website www.supnorth.nz

2021 Northland Schools SUP Champs

SUPport PROductions ran the 2021 Northland regional Schools SUP championships on 10 April at Lake Manuwai near Waipap. The event is an official sanctioned event for Northland Secondary Schools Sports Association (NSSSA), and followed on from the very successful inaugural event in 2019. The event is a unique concept – we provide all the boards and paddles, so as to create a level playing field for all schools and entrants as they are all on identical equipment. Each competitor enjoyed three short races against competitors from their own age group, with coaching sessions in between to help raise the overall standard.

The event was a huge success, with Kaitaia College taking out the overall schools trophy.

BRECA 2021

SUPport PROductions handled the water safety for the Bay of Islands BRECA 2021 challenge on 17 April 2021, which was a challenging yet thoroughly enjoyable job, and a great event. Coordinating the large fleet of safety craft to ensure that each of the 4 swimming legs had adequate safety and guard coverage, and officials and medical support teams were all in the right place was a big logistical challenge, and we’re proud to report that it went off without a hitch. More info on the event here.

Ultimate Coaching Challenge!

We are proud and delighted to have been asked to help coach Canadian stand-up paddler Dallas Allison in his attempt to break the existing world record for distance paddled in 24 hours.

It currently stands at a very intimidating 194km, set by world cup paddler Bart De Zwart in May 2017. Dallas is not a top world cup paddler. But he is a very determined and focussed individual, and despite the fact that we’re 5000 miles apart, we are making fantastic progress in the coaching programme thus far.

This is a fantastic coaching challenge, and is absolutely what we are about; it’s all about efficiency in paddling, a goal that is appropriate to just about anyone who paddles. We need to build a set of incredibly efficient strokes for Dallas that he can maintain for 24 hours. Not just one stroke, because the chances of an injury or strain are high in any sort of endurance challenge, and how brutal would it be to get 22 hours into the challenge and then have to retire because something has just got too painful to continue.

So it’s all about having a repertoire of different (but all super efficient) stroke techniques that can be cycled through, to spread the load. Plus of course, being on the right gear, breathing properly and maintaining control of all the other biomechanical challenges.

It’s an incredible feat to attempt, and we’re proud to be part of Dallas’s challenge. The attempt will be made in August 2021 – watch this space!

More info at https://www.facebook.com/Story-of-an-underdog-117197810149506

Waterbourne 2021

SUPport PROductions is delighted to announce that it will be providing safety planning for the 2021 Waterbourne event, New Zealand’s biggest beach festival, which will be running at Takapuna Beach in Auckland during the 3 weeks of the America’s Cup challenge (27 Feb – 21 March) , to give a backdrop of water sports and activities and live music to the main event.

Waterbourne will include windsurfing foil racing, SUP distance and sprint racing and a number of other activities, and should be a great spectacle!

Breca 2020 safety management

SUPport PROductions is delighted to announce that it will be providing safety management for the 2020 Breca Bay of Islands Swim Run event, scheduled for 15 April. This amazing endurance event, organised by Fusion Events, involves a day long series of swims and runs to traverse the Bay of Islands, poses some serious safety issues, and we’re looking forward to the challenge of ensuring it all comes off without a hitch.

What a weekend!

What an amazing weekend! The first NZ SUP National Championships to be held in Northland was an incredible success. Three fabulous distance races on the Saturday, along with the first ever inter-schools SUP challenge, and an amazing sprint event on the Sunday.

It’s definitely a very big step up running a Nationals. We made some mistakes, we learned some lessons. But overall it was a great show, and delivered some very high quality competition.

Huge thanks to everyone who helped make it such a success, and also a massive thanks to Te Tii Marae for hosting us in such spectacular fashion.

Lots of pix and full reports and results at the event website www.supchamps.nz

One month to go!

Last few weeks until the 2019 Stand Up Paddleboard Distance and Sprint Racing National Championships, which we are running at Waitangi in Northland. Putting together a national championships, for many hundreds of competitors is a big step up from running regional events, and there have definitely been many challenges. However, it’s all looking good, and we’re anticipating a brilliant event. Fingers crossed that the weather gods play along!

Check out the website for the event at www.supchamps.nz

Northland Schools SUP Championships

SUPport PROductions will be running the first ever regional Schools SUP championships on 13 April 2019. The event is an official sanctioned event for Northland Secondary Schools Sports Association (NSSSA), and is a whole new concept in NZ SUP competition – we will be providing the boards and paddles, so as to create a level playing field for all schools and entrants as they will all be on identical equipment. Each competitor will take part in a number of short races against competitors from their own age group. Prizes will be given for top school and there will also be an inter-school relay competition. If the concept works well, we will look at rolling it out to other regions around New Zealand. Exciting times!

Fiji Beach Classic!

SUPport PROductions are proud to announce the Fiji Beach Classic paddleboarding event, scheduled for mid May 2019.  Organising an overseas event obviously requires a whole lot more logistical planning and management, and will definitely be setting us some interesting challenges.  Our hope is that this will develop into a real high point on the annual event calendar; it certainly has the potential to!   More details on the website and facebook