Team Filthy Flamingos

If you’ve been following along then you know two things: We’ve been racing together for over 5 years and our unofficial race team is the Filthy Flamingos. Huh?

Let’s back up: We love SUP racing - the exercise it gives you, the time spent out on the water, the community of people you’re surrounded by. But what we don’t love is how competitive it’s become over the years (Meredith wrote about this very topic two years ago and Scott once wrote about the need to foster an inclusive community so people continue to show up at the start line). There’s nothing inherently wrong with competition and the desire to stand on the podium - it’s exciting, we know! But sometimes the competitiveness drives the training and blurs the line between pushing each other to perform better and rivalry on the water. When your desire to train to win outweighs your yearning for self improvement and good old fashioned fun, that’s when we feel these races have lost meaning. At the end of the day, we come from a surfing and paddling community - let’s all act with more aloha!

Enter Team Filthy Flamingos. We’re a team filled with diversity - from a 70-year-old paddler who never enters a race, to podium finishers and everyone in between. They’re people who strive for the race podium. They’re people who want to improve their paddling strokes. They’re people who want to just get out and exercise a couple of times a week and like the company of others to do it. Their goals might be different but, at the end of the day, their desire to paddle is the same. One goal isn’t more important than the other. And while we may tweak our approach with each person, we coach them all with equal priority.

So, why a filthy flamingo? Well, when you think of SUP do you think of sun, sand, and turquoise waters? Yeah, here in the Mid-Atlantic, we don’t have soft sandy beaches, palm trees swaying in the warm breeze, or the soft, melodious sounds of steel drums. Instead, we have rivers with rocks hiding just under the water’s surface and muddy put-ins. Sometimes it’s a little filthy, but it’s always beautiful. Okay, okay, we don’t have flamingos here either, but we like the thought of channeling that bright tropical bird from faraway warm waters… just with some dirty feet!

If you’re looking for a welcoming, encouraging home on the water then send us a note. We’re always adding to our flock. Email aloha@dcsupcouple.com or comment below.