Sprints of Doom

Doom Bar SUP Races - Sprints of Doom!

Not having much planned I figured id make the most of the chance to do a fairly local event. Although I don’t overly enjoy sprint races its always nice to get out on the board and have some healthy competition and push yourself. I made my way down to Plymouth and luckily got there early enough before parking became an issue, It was the festival of Sail weekend and there were plenty of events going on around the water at the barbican. The course was only short, 2 Laps involving just the 3 turns but was still far enough at a fast pace to be a lung buster.

 The water was clear, calm and inviting, after a few races just to cool off most of us went for a swim. The turnout wasn’t that great but that didn’t matter too much, it was good to test out a different inflatable board for a change and see how it reacted. We were using the Naish 12’6” inflatables and they were stable although maybe a little under inflated to what I’m used to still stable and well suited. The pointed nose allowed to get a tight turn around the buoy’s and if needed force another board wide. Adjustable paddles were also issued, this was to make sure everyone had the same equipment and that there would be no advantage from having better gear than your opponent.

We ended up doing around 11 races in total, with a few minutes rest in between each heat, Points were awarded for each place, the finals were a further 4 races with the points reset and thus starting afresh so it was anyone’s game. I managed to win every race with the exception of the 3^rd race were Conrad Humphries joined the fray, he got a good line and a tight turn on the first mark and I couldn’t catch it up after that. For the next few races I had to change my tactics slightly and decided id force him wide on the first mark and hope I could stay in front after that. Changing were I started on the line helped on some of the other races too, choosing to start further out and take a longer route but shortening the angle of the turn and getting away faster seemed to pay off. So after a good morning of racing I managed to walk away 10 litres of Doom Bar richer. Thank you to everyone involved and Congratulations to Phil Ellery for second place, good work buddy.