Weekend Argus (Saturday Edition)
Argument over paddleboarders could turn into a stand-up fight
This was flat water racing with facades of beautiful, old buildings as the backdrop. This morphed into a raggedy ocean and windswept countryside for the surfing on Thursday, when Cape Town’s Tamsyn Foster reached the semifinals.
True to this confusion, a squabble has been brewing between the International Canoe Federation (ICF) and the International Surfing Association (ISA) over who deserves to be the world (and Olympic) governing body of arguably the world’s fastest growing sport. The ICF has challenged the ISA’s assertion it is the de jure ruler of all things SUP.
The ICF says that the use of a paddle makes SUP a canoe. The ISA rejects this, claiming it has been managing paddleboarding events as surfing for years. This is backed by the narrative – endorsed by that arbiter of universal truth Wikipedia – that SUP originated in Hawaii and is therefore more closely aligned to the ocean and surfing.
Things got a bit tense when a prickly ISA President Fernando Aguerre said the ICF had belatedly jumped on the SUP bandwagon because it realised how popular it is. At the heart of the matter is Olympic-level control.
The ICF manages several canoe and kayak disciplines at the Olympics, but surfing is new at the Olympics game, making things even more tetchy. The case is now before the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).
I can understand why there is a slight schizophrenia about SUPs and paddleboards. Some paddle- boards are designed like surfboards to ride waves. But others are built longer and thinner and more boatlike for greater speed over flat water on lakes, rivers or the ocean.
You stand on some, and kneel in the prone position on others. For the latter, you don’t use paddles. You use your arms: just like paddling a surfboard, so it cuts both ways.
This got me thinking about criteria, and what types of surf craft fit where. And I realised, some don’t fit anywhere. Surfing purists demand that you be standing. Some stand on longboards and short boards and other boards, but lie down on bodyboards and kneel on kneeboards. People sit on waveskis but lie down with no craft at all when they bodysurf.
I have seen waves ridden with kayaks designed for white-water rapids.
I understand why the World Waveski Surfing Association would be a member of the ICF. You are seated in a waveski AND you’re using a paddle. But you’re still surfing. It’s a tough one.
One ICF discipline is Ocean Canoe Racing, which falls under the category “White Water”.
Huh? Over to you CAS. Speaking of which, Hungarian paddlers dominated the first day of the ICF Canoe Marathon World Championships in Pietermaritzburg on Thursday with a clean sweep of five wins from five races and seven medals from the four medal races.
In the K1 Junior Men’s, South African Sifiso Masina took bronze as did Christie Mackenzie in the K1 Juniors Women. More information at wmc2017.co.za. Speaking of SUP, catch the live stream of the World Champs to see South Africans in the finals of the technical and racing disciplines in Denmark this weekend. Go to www. isaworlds.com Heaving 8-10ft surf at Llandudno greeted the brave souls competing in the Wawa Bodysurf Wavejam last Sunday. This is where the “torpedo people” come out to strut their stuff. The skillset they showed in the brutal conditions was inspirational. See wawawave.com A thumping west swell has eased to 8ft today in fresh SSE going strong, straight SE. Muizenberg would be nice 3’ were it not for blown out onshores. Tomorrow, a fresh SE eases to light NE followed by slowly freshening NW. The surf looks 4-6’ in the morning, easing to 3-4’.
This wind switch works wonders for the wild and woolly conditions at Muizenberg: 2-3’ lines become nicely groomed by evening.