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This Morning saw the second running of The Zu Boardsports 'Spirit of the Zu' - a 12km flatwater race at St Kilda Beach in Vic. The race also kicked off the Victorian Flat Water SUP Championship Series run by SUP VIC in association with Surfing Victoria.

Well, the conditions may not have been exactly 'flat-water', and a persistent 10-14kn on-shore breeze challenged even the toughest of competitors, but we still saw 41 competitors line up for the paddle from the front of The Zu up to the Spirit Of Tasmania (or just short of - The Port Melbourne Lifesaving Club) and back (6km)... TWICE for many.

15 Paddlers completed the whole 12kms, with a further 17 competitors opting to do the half-distance, single 6km lap.

All paddlers who completed the entire 12kms earned points towards the Victorian Flat Water SUP Championship Series 2012-13.

Brief Results:

Mens Open (14' max)
1st - Luke French
2nd - Cam Hosking
3rd - Chris Clarke

Women's Open (12'6)
1st - Jean Ringrose
2nd - Emma Morris
3rd - Lucy Bell

Men's Master's (14' max)
1st - Michael Jenkins
2nd - Dean Elcoat
3rd - Andrew Hocking

Women's Masters (12'6)
1st - Kathy Naoumidis

Men's 12'6
1st - David Sprague

Junior Male
1st - Jono Kale

Junior Female
1st - Kristi Page

6km Half Race
1st - Jon Sheard
2nd - Nick Moloney
3rd - Derek O'Neil

Due to the conditions & the toughness of the main race, the inaugural Sprint Race was not run, and will be carried over to the next race in the series, The Great Melbourne Paddle, on December 2nd at Sandridge Beach, Port Melbourne.

Thanks to Paul Nederhoed at The Zu and his staff for putting on a great day and providing prizes, to the South Melbourne Surf Lifesaving Club for providing three IRB safety boats and crew, and to the SUP VIC crew who helped set up and run the day.

Full Results & pictures will be up shortly at www.supvic.com

Great effort Luke, well done. Ditto MJ and Jean.

Reiterating Teeps' comments - thanks to Paul and the ZU crew, South Melbourne LSC, and also Teeps himself for tirelessly going above and beyond.

Sure was a tough start to the Summer race series, with two legs of the course being 3km into the wind and a side swell to battle against,very satisfying at the end though and well done to Luke getting away before the finnish,think he's racing OC6 tomorrow,I'll be resting.Great setup by ZU Boardsports right on the beach at StKilda,a cafe next door and a free coffee and cake for each entrant, Jean did well today with two trophies and a voucher although all the girls deserve a prize having to paddle the 12'6 boards,
MJ took it up to the over 40's today and walked away the victor,reckon he's sitting back now sipping a glass of red with todays efforts and planning for GMP round 2 at Sandridge in two weeks.

Congrats Luke! Was he on the new 23" Ace - heard that he might have one to use?

Also congrats to Derek O'Neill from Roar/quantum training group for making the podium in the 6km (even if he did say yesterday that he was going to do the 12km) while he was visiting Melbourne for the weekend.

Sounds like it was tough conditions for everyone, so all the finishers probably deserve congratulations for making the finish line! Looking forward to seeing some pics.

Looked like a great turn out. Nice work!
Lukey stoked for ya buddy :) and how's Derecks form making podium, nice one des!
Great work by all.
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Ali Cat said...
Congrats Luke! Was he on the new 23" Ace - heard that he might have one to use?

Also congrats to Derek O'Neill from Roar/quantum training group for making the podium in the 6km (even if he did say yesterday that he was going to do the 12km) while he was visiting Melbourne for the weekend.

Sounds like it was tough conditions for everyone, so all the finishers probably deserve congratulations for making the finish line! Looking forward to seeing some pics.

Luke was on the 2012 Ace - the nominal 25" (aka 24 or thereabouts). We haven't seen any new 2013 Aces in Melbourne yet.

Quite a few people intended to do the 12 km but at the halfway point, the smart ones called it a day.

great event today well done to the Paul at the Zu and Tim at Sup Vic for a well organized event... bloody hard conditions, 12k's of paddling up hills, well it sorta felt like it.
good stuff Luke, Camo,Chris and Jean, not sure about plans Camo, apart from being sidetracked in Merimbula for a few days and wind the clock back to being a grommet again..

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PTWoody said...
haven't seen any new 2013 Aces in Melbourne yet.

Haven't seen any here yet either, I think Luke was hoping for one to use but it looks like the 2012 board did the job.

Thanks to everyone who turned up on the day and congratulations to Luke, Jean, Michael, Kathy, David, Jon, Jono and Kristi!

A big thanks to Sup Vic for their continuos support and great help on the day (especially Tim and Paul). We also like to thank the South Melbourne Surf Lifesaving Club and Dave Mitach for the support boats and of course our sponsors Naish, Starboard, F-one Sup and West Beach Pavilion.

All in all a great day with some outstanding performances in tough conditions.
We will post some photo's later today !

Well do to everyone that competed, it was a hard slog on the upwind leg. Once again Luke and Cam proved to be the one's to case.

I can't believe how hard those guys paddle. Everyone that went out in those conditions did well just to complete 6km.

Thanks to Zu and Sup Vic for running the event and RPS for the Board and Ke Nalu paddle I used.

See you all at Merimbula!

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ChrisClarke1 said...
Well do to everyone that competed, it was a hard slog on the upwind leg.

Upwind leg? You mean the entire race? I didn't notice any downwind leg the whole time.

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PTWoody said...

ChrisClarke1 said...
Well do to everyone that competed, it was a hard slog on the upwind leg.

Upwind leg? You mean the entire race? I didn't notice any downwind leg the whole time.

Yeah... Come on PT, there was that 10m as you rounded the buoy at the end of the lap... cruise those winds for all they're worth.

The quote of the day belongs to "Lightening Bolt Larry", who was riding his new board for the 1st time in very demanding conditions.

Lighteneing Bolt hits the beach and he was pretty animated tossed the board and then the paddle.

You need to understand this is after falling of his new board i think he said 40+ times over 6km and he is in total disgust.

He then says when I first started falling off I was using the "F" word and then progressed to other stronger language as I fell off more and more
and then it got to the point where I thought "I was swearing so much when I fell off that God was going to strike me down with a lightening bolt because of the strength of the language"

You had to be there I had tears rolling down my face!

This guy rips on a short board SUP and is a very competent paddler.

Hence "Lightening Bolt Larry"

Just shows how tough the condition were and how well people did to stay shiny side up!

Phill

Teeps,

I said to Kristi how was the downwind leg and she said you mean the last 20m from the bouy to the beach, yeah it was great!

You are right PT, no down wind leg, but the trip back was a lot harder than the first leg.

I give it to Larry, that board looked like a tooth pick out there, just wait till he has the right conditions!!!

Do we have any photo's from the race posted anywhere?

IMAGES & FULL RESULTS NOW UP

www.supvic.com/results/2012-spirit-of-the-zu-report-pics/

Saturday 17th Nov 2012 saw the second running of The Zu Boardsports 'Spirit of the Zu' – a 12km flatwater race at St Kilda Beach in Vic. The race also kicked off the Victorian Flat Water SUP Championship Series run by SUP VIC in association with Surfing Victoria.

Well, the conditions may not have been exactly 'flat-water', and a persistent 10-14kn on-shore breeze challenged even the toughest of competitors, but we still saw 41 competitors line up for the paddle from the front of The Zu up to the Spirit Of Tasmania (or just short of – The Port Melbourne Lifesaving Club) and back (6km)… TWICE for many.

15 Paddlers completed the whole 12kms, with a further 17 competitors opting to do the half-distance, single 6km lap.

All paddlers who completed the entire 12kms earned points towards the Victorian Flat Water SUP Championship Series 2012-13.

Full story and pictures from "Sea me Surf" on SUPVic website www.supvic.com/results/2012-spirit-of-the-zu-report-pics/

A few more shots from the race including some water shots:

The Zu Boardsports set-up on the beach



Early start, crew unloading boards on Beaconsfield Pde


Registration behind the store


Tagged !


First few 100 meters after the start gives a good impression of the conditions


Dark clouds didn't stop 41 paddlers enter the race


Great St Kilda backdrop


Jean making it hard for Spotty


Cam and Luke on the first leg back from The Spirit, with cam still leading


Cam rounding the mark


Concentration to stay on board


Luke and Cam battling it out in the second lap


Luke is the first to finish


Sprint to the beach




Luke, Cam and Chris


Prize giving behind the store



Jean did well to finish first in the Women's open


Another shot of the winners


All smiles after a great performance


We hope to c you next year!

Please feel free to come and look us up during the season, we have more then 15 demo boards available at any time.