teatrea said..
I think most of you guys are looking at the issue from your own narrow point of view. Where do you see most people paddling? The races overseas , where are the biggest numbers? Flat water that's where. Why , because its safe. People will say flat water is boring , well if that was the case you wouldn't see hundreds paddling around in the creeks. Leave the open ocean and bop races for the elites (I hate that word ). And put your money where the masses are , flat water. The races need to be fun just not slugfests . The most fun race I ever done was the one in Talley creek.

I agree with you on the flatwater racing, it's funny that we get more people turn up to our fun dog racing days as the amount of people who did the 8km long distance race.

SurfingQLD said..


The Immerse Festival is ultimately a State Qualification that provides a pathway to the World Games. As an example, if we gave preference to flat water for the BOP in Australia and the World Titles were held in testing ocean conditions, our athletes are not going to be equipped for it.

Luckily the Australian team is well prepared for the testing ocean conditions of an inland lake in South America.

But at any rate, this is the point that many non-participants are trying to make - your event is "ultimately... a pathway to the World Games" and the vast majority of SUP competitors are not interested or up to the task of that pathway. You have an elite event and you are appealing to a small minority. Good luck with that. I don't think there needs to be a whole lot of hand wringing over numbers at an event targeting the elite. By definition, elite events can only attract small numbers at the leading edge, otherwise they wouldn't be elite. Leave those concerns to the bean counters at Surfing Australia/Queensland who have to make these things somehow profitable.

Meanwhile the rest of us should look to build our own events that are ultimately designed for the majority of competitors and what appeals to all of us. These events will not be restricted by decisions made on another continent. We can please ourselves.

SurfingQLD said..
Hi all,

Surfing Queensland does welcome all feedback because ultimately we want to service the SUP & Paddle community with the best event/s possible. As mentioned above, we'd welcome you all to give us a ring or flick an email through so we can asses your feedback, however you only need to read the previous three pages of posts to see that there is a lot of conflicting preferences for an event or race. As you can imagine it becomes quite difficult to cater for each and every skill level, request or preference.

The Immerse Festival is ultimately a State Qualification that provides a pathway to the World Games. As an example, if we gave preference to flat water for the BOP in Australia and the World Titles were held in testing ocean conditions, our athletes are not going to be equipped for it.

As far as communications go, each day race/event information was updated on both our hotline and our Facebook page. Facebook's new "Pages" model however, doesn't necessarily push that information into your news feeds. As always, we will debrief this Festival, take into account all positives and negatives and do everything we can to improve it in 2015. From our perspective, although numbers we low, we believe this festival was a success and were impressed by competitor performances across the board.

Thanks again to all who participated, spectated and got involved.

SQ

PTWoody said..
I might get howled down for this but I think the reason for poor turnout at state titles (same happens in Victoria) is very simple. The elite level of the sport has lost contact with the wider SUP community - the weekend warriors and amateur enthusiasts. Events like these run by Surfing Queensland and Surfing Victoria carry little attraction for the majority of competitors. The distances are unappealing and the conditions are often intimidating. Some of you may think that's soft but it's a fact and if you don't like it, good luck racing among yourselves. I don't think we all necessarily have to be in with a chance to win a trophy to encourage us to enter but we absolutely do need to enjoy the experience and not be humiliated by conditions beyond our ability simply to validate someone else's ego when they win against a large field. There is also the matter of cost. Our state titles are quite expensive to enter so for those who are simply making up the numbers with virtually no chance of achieving a podium or qualifying for the state team, the so-called glory of competing against the best in the state does not justify the expense. Especially when we can enter club events and compete against the same people over a more user friendly course and distance on a regular basis over the Summer. Oh, and by the way, holding state titles in the middle of Winter when everyone has let their fitness fall away - whoever thought that was a good idea?

Great thread and some good ideas!
This point by PT really resonates with me-
The elite level of the sport has lost contact with the wider SUP community - the weekend warriors and amateur enthusiasts.
This has overtones of lessons-of-the-past-not-learnt, which brought Windsurfing down.

Luckily we do have a number of events that are focussed on fun and participation.
The vast majority of active people on the forum and this thread are early adopters - motivated to give anything a try. To grow the sport we have to attract the wider market that are nowhere near as gung-Ho and more than happy to just paddle around on the smoothest water around with the least amount of exertion.
You only have to look overseas to the growth of flat-water paddling and local events like 'doggy SUP' to get a hint of what is required to run events that attract numbers (and media attention).

It is essential that we have 'elite' events and it is possible with the right mix to draw a wider audience.
The NSW Southern Cross SUP festival is one example that has a good mix to attract even Surf-Comp-punters, like me.
Great location with lots of options to maximise the best conditions and lots of good Accommodation for families with a great-vibe all round.
What was one of the hi-lights? The free-surfing afterwards!

You only have to look at the format of one of the longest running events of it's type in Australia - the Merimbula Classic, to see what works.
Everyone is rewarded for participation, with literally hundreds of prizes with the major emphasis on fun weekend, away with friends.

Can anyone tell me they have been to a Merimbula Classic and the hilite was a wave or a race? Ignoring of course, the very first Beach2Bar SUP Off, that was won on a Naish Resort- window board!


Blast from the past - mambo 2009 from memory! (Look who's on the Naish team!)

No, its is the people, the parties, the vibe on and off the water and the fun times that you remember (if you can).
You can only have successful 'elite' events if you feed them with super-fun events that reward everyone who participates.

I think the sa qld short course race numbers might have been affected by of other races in recent years pushing for novice and average level paddlers to race. unfortunately these race were held in very testing conditions that experienced paddlers found very hard.


they get burnt a few times and well- see you later.


wouldn't be better to look after them so they come back next time instead of turning them completely off the caper

As a few other have mentioned, the idea of a Moreton Bay run for the marathon race might be just the formula we need to get something challenging and exciting for the more experienced and elite paddlers and still be approachable to the wider paddling community. I haven't done a downwinder up there (yet!) but have seen some vids that looked pretty epic and from my experience some of the best downwinders I've done have been in open but enclosed water where you still get plenty of bumps from the wind but don't have to take any chances with ocean swells or waves crossing the bar get in (which can be intimidating to many paddlers on a race board, especially those who don't train in waves) - you just need to watch some of DJ's vids to see how good downwinding without ocean swell can be!

If we get no wind, the bay won't be too different to the ocean course on the weekend, if theres light headwinds or chop leftover from the previous day it offers more of a challenge than flat water in the creek, and if the wind gets up it could be just as epic as an open ocean paddle - and without needing to worry about swell forecasts and whether your board will make it out or back in in one piece - it may also encourage people to get entries in earlier rather than hesitating incase it will be out of their league.

I'm 100% for expanding the flat water side of the sport as its where the big numbers will get involved, and something life the flat water sup fest in Qld would be awesome... but I also think there's enough paddlers who enjoy the challenge of open water/downwind paddling to keep both types of events if other logistical issues stopping people from participating can be addressed.

Macaha said..
Question do all states use the same comp model for their state titles? for me it would make sense if all states ran the same?

No.

All states have titles which are used as selection for Nationals for the marathon, tech race and surfing but how and when the events are run is up to each state.

I don't know exact details for each states selection but from what I've seen/heard (happy to be corrected)....

NSW run the 4 day southern cross festival with surfing & bop at one location across the first 2 days, and the marathon inside the bay at Port Stephens (protected from swell but an epic downwinder). Surfing includes full repercharge format so everyone who enters gets at least 2 surfs (with very few comps to base seeding on so the second chance format evens it out a bit). Marathon is about 12km (?) - so much shorter than the 18-20km distance for ISA.

Qld do a similar format but over 3 days (social/fun races are after Marathon rather than the next day), surfing is in one day so no repecharge just straight knockout format and marathon is 18km in line with ISA format.

South Oz (and I think Victoria) run surfing and racing on different weekends - I don't know the formats for either comp.

West oz runs their surfing with the longboard titles and they have 3 separate rounds at different locations and overall points decide the team. Marathon selection is separate from this (not sure what event(s) they use). And I don't know whether the bop is run with surf rounds or separately.

Not sure how Tas selects their team.

So a decent amount of variation in the format and team selection process between states. I have a feeling there's a pretty broad range of entry fees too.

WA marathon chooses best two results from King of The Cut, Dr and we also hold a flat water 20km race. These races are all at or over ISA length and provide varying conditions for paddlers with varying strengths to show their talent.

Up up until this year we had also selected our tech team from 3 rounds which were tied in with the surfing rounds, again a variety of conditions. As of next year we will be having a stand alone tech series Over 3 rounds.