Scottish National SUP Championships 2024

2nd June 2024 Portobello, Edinburgh.

The first ever Scottish Surf National Championships was a resounding success with the weather holding up. Glorious sunshine and light winds and swell allowed a 5km technical race to run with paddleboard and SUP male and female entries. There was also one entry for the junior category.

Race briefings started at 9:30am with a 10am start for the technical race. A beach start with everyone going at the same time.

A W shape course with buoys was setup in the bay to allow competitors to weave and wind through the course showing some really high level ability to step back turn on narrow race kit with some slight swell in the sea. No easy job. The course was lapped twice to create 5km.

The male qualifiers were Jonathan Sherwin and Glenn Sloss who have qualified for both technical and distance races in September. Female qualifiers were Alison Rennie and Angela Kerr. Our one junior entry was won by Lorna Russell who did a tremendous job in some windy conditions out in the bay. Congratulations to all our qualifiers in the tech race. The buoy turns 400m offshore were tricky with winds gusting 20mph and there was plenty of wet action amongst the competitors.

The paddleboard division had two entries with James Fletcher and Dean Dunbar. Ill health led to James pulling out the race with Dean Dunbar taking the leading time.

Afternoon took us to the 200m sprint races. This was setup as a 100m run with a buoy turn to return back to the beach. 2 strong male heats started the day with 1st and 2nd qualifying for a final. The female entries lined up for a straight out final.

The male sprint final saw Jonathan Sherwin, Glenn Sloss, Alasdair Findlay and Cameron Hopkin fighting for the sole place at the worlds. A tight final with both Sloss and Findlay falling off at the start allowed Sherwin to creep ahead after the buoy turn and take the win. Findlay fought back to catch Hopkin on the buoy turn and looked to take 2nd place, with Hopkin just nicking 2nd place on the line. An exciting end to the male races for the day.

The female sprint race saw Jennifer Armstrong take the qualifying spot after an extremely strong start. Jaya Chandola pushed her all the way to the end, as one of the non Scot entries on the day. Jennifer is delighted to have qualified. Congratulations to her.

A special thanks goes to the Musselburgh Sea Cadets for providing boat cover on the water, Glasgow Paddleboarders members for volunteering on the day, Martin Kerr and Alistair Swincow of Loch SUP for supporting with course setup, David Stransky for drone footage and Jake from Skymonster Watersports for his photography skills. Pamela Young piped the National Anthem at the start of the day which was a super start to our event. Many thanks for this and to all the competitors for a fantastic event. Already looking forward to next year!

Check out the video below for an overview of the day. More photos will be posted on the Facebook page.

Published results below too.