Euro Tour 2014: The European SUP Racing Season Is About To Begin… And It’s Gonna Be A Whole Lotta Fun In The Sun
It’s here again. The Euro Tour.
Over the next two months there’s going to be non-stop racing in every corner of the continent. France, Spain, Germany, Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands, Portugal, Sweden, Finland, the UK… The Lost Mills, Bilbao, the SUP Race Cup, Noja, Namur, Port Adriano….
The list goes on. It’s going to be a big couple of months.
While there are awesome races in Europe all year round (even when the snow is falling), the traditional European SUP racing season runs from the middle of May through to the end of June, when the sun is shining and the days are long.
So we’ve nicknamed it the “Euro Tour” and thanks to the support of NSP, it’s gonna be center stage here on SUPracer.com over the next 7 weeks (just like we did for the 2013 Euro Tour).
The Euro Tour isn’t some official championship tour. There’s no sanctioning, no rules, nobody’s in charge and nobody is trying to take over the sport. It’s just our fun way of celebrating the sport of Stand Up Paddleboarding in one of the greatest places on earth.
The Euro Tour is just a nickname, but I believe it sums up what makes this sport so much fun…
Competing, camaraderie, traveling, exploring, discovering. Making new friends and catching up with old ones. Enjoying the warm sunshine and endless summer days. All with a bit of stand up paddle racing thrown in for good measure.
That’s the Euro Tour.
So what exactly does the Euro Tour involve? Which races made the list?! While every race in Europe this summer is part of the Euro Tour (and you can see them all the our main calendar), below are the events that we’ll be focusing on.
The Lost Mills is one of the highlights of the Euro Tour (photo credit: Ernstfried Prade / Lost Mills)
The highlight will be the first three weeks of June, where a whole bunch of international stars will duke it out with Europe’s finest. That’ll start with the Bilbao World SUP Challenge, carry on to the split weekend of Noja/Oleron, before Europe’s premiere event, the Lost Mills, takes center stage on July 21st. The Aussies are coming back, Connor Baxter wants to defend all those trophies he won last summer and Danny Ching will make his Euro debut at the Lost Mills. Oh and there are about three dozen European guns that will be looking to take some scalps…
But before and after June there are plenty of great races in Europe. While we were originally thinking of the Euro Tour as the 7 weeks from mid May til the end of June, the list below now stretches out to nine weeks. And it only ends there because, well, we had to draw the line somewhere.
There are awesome “warm-up” events for the first few weeks, while weeks 4, 5, 6 and 7 are the main events. Though it doesn’t end there, with big races right into July.
There’s over €70,000 prize money ($100,000) on offer across all these races. Combine that with the lure of Europe (who needs an excuse to spend the summer in this part of the world?!) and you can see why plenty of the world’s best paddlers will be part of the Euro Tour this year.
It all starts this weekend with the Port Adriano SUP Race on the beautiful island of Mallorca, Spain, where Team SUPracer.com is currently camped out enjoying the sun.
So be sure you check back in every day or two for the latest updates. Same Euro place, same Euro channel. It’s gonna be a big summer in Europe, now let’s take a closer look at the 2014 Euro Tour…
The 2014 NSP Euro Tour
WEEK #1
Port Adriano SUP Race
Mallorca, Spain
May 17 & 18
€5,000 prize money
>> Facebook
Week #1 alternative:
Battle of the Thames
London, UK
May 17
€1,000 prize money
>> Facebook
WEEK #2
The SUP Race Cup
St. Maxime, France
May 24 & 25
€6,500 prize money
>> Facebook
WEEK #3
This is the intermission that precedes the three biggest weeks of the Euro Tour. There are solid races in week #3 across the Netherlands, UK and France. Check the calendar to see exactly what’s happening.
During week #3 we’ll be covering some of the smaller Euro races while also highlighting how much the sport has grown in recent years, taking a walk down memory lane and then peering into our crystal ball to see what’s in store for 2015 and beyond.
WEEK #4
Bilbao World SUP Challenge
Bilbao, Spain
June 7 & 8
€14,000 prize money
>> Facebook
WEEK #5
DEEP Race Noja
Noja, Spain
June 14 & 15
>> Facebook
Week #5 alternative:
Oleron Paddle Challenge
Oleron, France
June 14 & 15
WEEK #6
Lost Mills
Brombachsee, Bavaria, Germany
June 19-21
€11,000 prize money
>> Official site
WEEK #7
Happy Summer SUP Race
Namur, Belgium
June 28
€5,000 prize money
>> Official site
Week #7 alternative:
SUPer Surfers Challenge
Lanterna, Poreč, Croatia
June 28
€5,000 prize money
>> Facebook
WEEK #8
Sieravuori SUP Masters
Sieravuori, Finland
July 4 & 5
€7,000 prize money
>> Facebook
Week #8 alternative:
São Jorge 2 Pico
Azores, Portugal
July 12
€2,500 prize money
>> Facebook
WEEK #9
The Adriatic Crown
Marotta, Italy
July 11 & 12
€7,000 prize money
>> Facebook
Week #9 alternative:
BaySUP’s Survivor Series
Bournemouth, UK
>> Facebook
