Race Recap: Big Little Boat Festival 2021
One year and seven months after our last SUP race we ripped off the band aid, hopped on our boards, and raced this past Saturday at the inaugural Big Little Boat Festival in Edgewater, MD.
We can’t believe it’s been this long. In that time, we both got new boards and made the switch to 14s, and this was our first opportunity to race them.
Conditions on Saturday were pretty much as expected. The course took every paddler out to the Bay and back. While Mother Nature was fairly kind to us, all things considered, the late morning race start for the 3 and 8 milers meant more boat chop and wind to contend with. While it wasn’t the most challenging conditions the two of us have ever paddled in, it still made us work.
We went into this race with no expectations about our performance. It’s been one year and seven months, after all. While we normally would have raced the 8 mile course, our lack of racing and proper training had us sticking with the 3 miler this time around.
We’re really proud of our performance. Despite falling off our boards more than we would’ve liked (like, 5-7 times more), we finished 2nd in the men’s division (and 2nd overall) and 4th in the women’s division (and 6th overall). This tells us a few things:
First, we need to get ourselves out into choppier conditions on these new, more narrow race boards. Obviously falling off makes you lose time and momentum, but it’s also downright exhausting.
We have our mechanics dialed in. Although we hadn’t raced or put ourselves into a real race pace in more than a year, we were able to fall into the rhythm because we have the fundamentals down pat. This is why we focus so much on paddle technique. It matters!
Our biggest takeaway, however, was how flippin’ great it was to see the SUP race community again, in person, doing what we all love -- paddling.
It may have been the first Big Little Boat Festival, but we hope it won’t be the last. Chesapeake Light Craft, and Nicky Stimpson in particular, did an amazing job organizing this event and spreading some much needed SUP stoke.
And, if you’re a paddler looking to race, you’ve got two opportunities coming up next month. B’More SUP’s first race in their series on June 12 and Ocean City Surf Club’s 1st Annual Ocean SUP Race, also on June 12.
Questions about racing? Hit us up!
