The Starboard presents – 5th Annual Easy Rider SUP Cup – August 11 7 12, 2012 – is in the history books.
The event weekend started off with a Kalama Klinic by Dave Kalama on Friday morning at Telford Lake in Leduc, AB.
A dozen SUP paddlers were fortunate enough to have almost 5 hours of dry land and on water coaching from Dave.
Everyone commented on how much they improved.
Saturday morning was the River Race & Tour – on the North Saskatchewan River in Edmonton, AB.
The racers met at Laurier Park for their shuttle ride up the river to Terwilliger Park – where they started shortly before 10:00 AM.
The race distance of 15.5 km featured 29 paddlers.
Right off the start the lead pack of 6 paddlers jumped out to an early lead. The pack featured Warren Currie (event organizer), Howie Ewashko, Kristian Pearson, Des Ross, Mike Darbyshire, and Dave Kalama).
As the lead racers approached Laurier Park on the river the Touring Class entrants joined in for their 9 km paddle to the finish at Rafters Landing.
The Touring class featured 35 paddlers from age 13 to 62.
As the race pack strung out – it was Dave Kalama and Mike Darbyshire taking the lead all the way to the finish, with Howie Ewashko in 3rd, Kristian Pearson in 4th, Des Ross 5th over all and 1st in 12’6″ and Warren Currie coming in 6th overall.
The Women’s division was won by Diane Wenzel who made the trek up from SoCal for the event.
The Juniors race class was won by 14 year old Griffin Currie.
Once all the paddlers were safe and sound at Rafters Landing – the shuttle vehicles were loaded up for the trip back to Laurier Park.
The BBQ and Awards went on for several hours with everyone having a great time and talking about the event. The Burgers were a big hit (Thanks for pulling Chef duties Ron). Then came the draw prizes. Well over $12,000. worth of product was given away by draw. A HUGE Thank You to all of the Sponsors of the event.
Next on the itinerary was the Canadian Premiere of the SUP Surf movie H2indO on Saturday evening.
Approximately 50 people came out for the showing of this awesome movie – that had Dave Kalama in attendance – and signing copies of the movie at the end.
Sunday, the final day, was the World’s only Indoor SUP Surf Contest.
Thirty entrants were up early to tackle the wave pool at West Edmonton Mall.
The Mens Final was taken by Mike Darbyshire – crowing him the Overall Champion for the weekend.
Diane Wenzel took the Women’s Surf title – also giving here the Women’s Overall Championship.
And Griffin Currie took the Juniors Surf final – and the Juniors Overall Champion.
In order to maximize time in the Wave Pool (and allow everyone a 20 minute session at the end) – the awards and yet more draw prizes were handed out in the parking lot of the mall.
Thank you to all that helped out with the event – It would not have happened with out the support of the Industry and the volunteers.
Thanks
Warren Currie
