I recently made a SUP road trip out to BC.
First stop was the Kalamalka Klassic SUP race in Vernon hosted by Kalavida Surf Shop.
The race was a 2 day event with 3 different events through out the weekend.
Saturday had a Course race (4 laps around buoys near the beach for a total of just over 4 km) and also a Sprint race which saw 4 racers at a time sprint 200 m out and around a buoy and back. Saturday night saw a great dinner and movie presentation.
Sunday was the distance race that was 17+ km long the length of Kalamalka Lake.
The event had close to 80 entries and was a great time.
Huge “props” to Kevin and his gang from Kalavida for a first class event.
Then it was on to Tofino on Vancouver Island for some SUP surfing with the Quiksilver crew.
I arrived late Sunday night (actually early Monday morning) – crashed for a couple of hours and got up to be greeted with chest to head high surf in Cox Bay.
About 7 of us – including Tom Holbrook (VP of Quiksilver) and Mark Richards (4 time ASP World Surfing Champion) headed out across the bay and had a great 4 hour session.
Then it was back to the house for lunch – and then an after noon session. This repeated it self the next day as well.
I have never caught so many great waves – my Starboard Widepoint 10’5″ was the perfect board for me in the conditions.
Surfing with Mark was a “life time highlight” - after all of the waves he has surfed around the world – he is now discovering SUP, and mentioned that he was just as stoked to be surfing in Tofino with us as when he was on Tour (except he did like warm water better).
Then it was the long trek home – roughly 1500 km. I managed to make it to within 150 km from home when . . . . . (scroll to the end for the result)
Other than the last incident it was a fantastic trip.
Thanks to John, Tom, Dario and Mark from Quiksilver for a great trip.
