i was watching wondering how they steer , they only paddle on one side. Massive blades , big boys. The german bloke was over 2m tall.
They do what's called a J stroke, blade is turned out at the end of the stroke to push the tail back into line. Some are also starting to change sides one or twice during the race, although this is fairly new.
Select to expand quotehilly said..
Steer by angle of the handle just like sup. What can a sup do over 1k?
probably 5min 30secs = 11km/h.....maybe a little faster?
3:57 for 1 km is about 15.2kmph
however, i believe max board length is 520cm = just north of 17'
If a top supper (Danny Ching?) could hypothetically stand on the board above, then I reckon their time would be in the ball park ..?? 
those guys can move, they are pretty narrow for a craft don't really see sup getting that fast
if someone could stand on a board that skinny they would probably go fast, but it gets to a point where you would probably lose speed because you would be focusing on balance rather than speed, and you would probably need glassy conditions
Jarryd
Select to expand quotehilly said..
What can a sup do over 1k?
If you take Connor's fastest paddler on earth time from earlier this year and multiply it out i get just under 4:30, cant really say a sup can hit that over a km given he busted a nut getting to 200m, but its still a fair bit slower than the C1.
Jim Terrell had a go at starting sup down the C1 path a few years ago at the silver blade regatta: www.supracer.com/jim-terrells-sprint-sup-racing-secrets/
skip to 1:46 to see him standing in a C1
but nothing much came of it.
Note how close his lower hand is to the blade... This allow a huge leverage to be able to apply power with big blades efficiently.
It can be done also while SUPing, kind of changing to a lower gear for added torque (here on a paddle 4cm less than my size)
Hopefully racing i lanes over 1 Km in dead flatwater isn't the future of sup 
. Keep it connected to the roots of surfing nad maybe outrigger- go to the ocean !
Select to expand quoteSurfNiels said...
Hopefully racing i lanes over 1 Km in dead flatwater isn't the future of sup . Keep it connected to the roots of surfing nad maybe outrigger- go to the ocean !
Totally agree but I think those planning olympics like sports easy to manage and market
Love my sprinting, its fast, fun and just about power. The longer the race the less interest I have in it. If it gets too long I just want to surf. I believe the KeNalu Sprint championships will be back on next year and it was heaps of fun last time. SUP, if it wants to get into the Olympics (and maybe it does maybe it doesnt) will need to have a sprint section.
