I’ve been paddling for close on two years so I thought it might be time to make a contribution to the local SUP community. I lack any skills in the vid department – for one, I don’t even own a Go Pro. Instead, I can string a few words together, so I decided I’d try my hand at a weekly news-grab covering a range of SUP topics, with admittedly an Australian bent.
Topics will range from competition, new equipment (hopefully without revealing any preferences), upcoming events and anything else that a sup-tragic cares to know. All stuff that I can glean from the net and elsewhere.
Anyway, here’s this week’s copy. Please let me know what you think. 
Regards, SJKJ
Competition – Starting off with a bang, this week’s major event was the ISA World Championships for stand up and prone paddle boarding, held on Mexico’s west coast. Conditions were hot and steamy under the Sayulita sun 
, while calm waters did little to trouble paddlers’ technical abilities. Team 49 States of America (Hawaii sought individual glory) broke Australia’s four-year winning streak, dominating the SUP categories (gold to Appleby x 2, Bark (prone), Ching, Gomez & Poynter). Not to detract from Australia’s hard-fought spot in silver against world-class fields (Team relay gold, Mercer (prone) gold x 2, Lansdowne (prone) gold & silver, Black silver & bronze). Hawaii’s strategy for their own spot on the podium paid off – just. Baxter’s gold and Freitas’ silver in the men’s technical race (the last of the event) secured third spot. If you haven’t seen them yet, Rogue produced awesome daily highlights packages from the championships – compulsory viewing!
Elsewhere, Travis Grant followed up his Carolina Cup victory with a win in the Ré SUP Race in France (yeah, I hadn’t heard of it either but I figure this is what helps pay the bills).
Next big-name event is the new Euro tour. Spread across six consecutive weekends, it starts this Saturday in Mallorca. The tour will provide much-needed structure around a fragmented continental season, while racing different board lengths is simplified – anything up to 14’ allowed and first across the line is the winner (no board sub-categories). One neat grassroots initiative is the inclusion of a junior grom race series covering each location. Supracer.com wrote at length about the new tour here: www.supracer.com/2015-euro-tour-announcement/
If you get the chance vids are floating around of some recent local events, including 12 Towers and the Rottnest Classic.
Forthcoming local events include the Maroochydoore round of the N1sco tour on May 31; Paddleloop WA June 6; Surf Series 2 Denmark, WA June 6-7; and Scotts Head 3 Day SUP contest June 19-21.
Quiver inclusions – Anticipation in the blogosphere is building as we inch closer to the release of next year’s boards. We’ve seen some speculation (including chatter about some yellow boards), still nothing firm yet – September is typically the busiest release time. A major difference this year is the currency – A$ was buying US$0.93 last May, now it’s US$0.80 – that represents a ~15% price jump on imported boards. On simple analysis, boards either become more expensive, their construction changes or margins are squeezed. In the meantime, a few shops are selling off last year’s boards – your chance to grab a bargain. Which leads to…
Demo days – Cooler weather has thinned out the opportunities to try out your next board, but those in the west still have the chance with Action Sports WA running a demo on May 30 at Bardon Park, Maylands.
This week’s number: 20.3. From time to time I’ll include a number that has some relevance to SUPs, however cryptic it might be. Air temperatures have started to drop in the southern states, but water temperatures are slower to catch on. This week’s number, 20.3, is the current water temperature in Sydney, where I paddle. The number will soon fall, so make the most of the relatively balmy conditions before things become more uncomfortable. 
Nice work. If you are going to make this regular, Laurie Admin should include it in the News section.
Excellent - we have a busy News section here with a couple of new stories every week - any help on sharing the goodness is always welcome!
www.seabreeze.com.au/News/Stand%20Up%20Paddle/Summary.aspx
Nearly reported you for a violation by accident when trying to green thumb.
Nice write up, short and sweet.
JB
For more on N1SCO - n1sco.com/
