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Our race doctor Bryce Dyer has an informal chat asking the question which many are asking ”Are narrow race boards nuts?!!” Bryce has been borrowing a 21.5” wide Starboard Sprit race board from top SUP athlete Ryan James to help him answer the question. Race boards have been getting narrower for the past few years as Bryce has told us in his previous videos. But are narrow race boards something for only the high performance racer or are they something that an average racer can and should be looking at too? As a taller paddler at 6’3” and 88kg Bryce is the perfect person to answer this.
Apologies about the wind and background noise. This is a very informal chat with Bryce and as always very interesting stuff.
Feature image Josh Sampiero
It is an interesting discussion; do we want the best for the sport or do we want to see how fast the best paddlers can really go? In the same way that the lengths of boards are controlled by race categories, the governing bodies could choose to limit the minimum width of a board to prevent an elite few who can balance the narrowest boards from having an advantage and to keep racing competitive and accessible to more participants… Other sports do this all the time, limiting technological advances within the competitive classes to make racing more about the participant… Read more »
It’s an interesting point you make (and one that has plagued sport frequently over the last 100 years). From an academic theory point of view, its really about having a governing body that has a clearly defined philosophy of what a sport is and then to have a set of rules that then broadly support that. As you might have read, SUP’s governance is currently a bit unresolved and (in my view) poorly managed generally and it does not have control of how the sport is unfolding in my view. Your observations are spot on. However, it was an interesting… Read more »