What are the “biggest” SUP races in the world?

The ‘New Race Index’ attempts to answer this question by recognising, ranking and rewarding stand up paddle races based on elite, amateur and junior participation along with the quality of an event in general.

The New Race Index powers the new-look SUP World Rankings, the original world rankings since 2013.

Scroll down for the methodology.

 
View the SUP Racer World Rankings to see how this list translates into a leaderboard of the world’s top 6000 paddlers.
 

The basic formula for the New Race Index works like this:

The top 20 ranked men and women in the world form an algorithm called the ‘Elite Race Index’ (which is what the old world rankings were primarily based on). The higher an athlete’s ranking, the more weighting they contribute to the Elite Index. If every single one of the top 20 men and top 20 women were competing at hte same event, that race would score 100% on the Elite Race Index. To put that in context: No race scored higher than 65% this year (Bilbao).

The second part of the New Race Index is participation. For every 100 paddlers competing in an event, that race will score an additional 10% on the New Race Index. For example, if 375 paddlers are on the water, that race scores a bonus 30%. This was a new criteria introduced in 2019 to reward events that support and help promote the grassroots of the sport such as GlaGla, Chattajack, Corinth, etc.

There is an additional 10% on offer if an event runs a dedicated junior race, while the last 10% is awarded to an event if it has good media exposure. This is a subjective measure, but it’s usually related to having a good live stream or just doing a good job of bringing more exposure to our sport in general.

In total there are 160 “points” on offer for a race, which means the maximum score on the New Race Index is 160.00% (Bilbao and Paris were the only races that surpassed 100% in 2019).

The winning athlete earning the same amount of points as the Index score. For example, Bruno Hasulyo received 105.00 world ranking points for winning the 105% race in Bilbao. Every finisher in both the elite and open categories receives points based on ‘Paddle Points’ table.

The “New” Race Index was designed to recognise all events that help support and grow our sport. In the old days there was too much focus on the elite side of our sport, which is an important part of paddling but only if it’s connected to a healthy base. So the New Race Index is designed to recognise the “grassroots” events alongside the elite showcase races.

I might tweak the Index formula in 2020 but either way it will follow the same basic outline as this year.

Note: Some events were given “protected status” in the New Race Index to ensure they ranked. This is mostly the 10%-20% regional events that I wanted to include in the system to help better connect our sport. The major exception is Molokai, which scores “50%” based on its history and prestige.

The other exception was the national titles in Spain, France, Italy and Australia @ 30% and the “Junior World Chamiponship” races from the ISA and ICF (also at 30%). This is no different to what I’ve done over the past few seasons, but it’s worth mentioning for the sake of transparency.

‘PADDLE POINTS’

Paddle Points is the base points system that helps power the world rankings. Paddle Points are a way of awarding points to every finisher in a SUP race.

Each paddler receives the ‘Paddle Points’ multiplied by the event’s Race Index percentage. So if an athlete finishes in 4th place (worth 50.00 points) in a race that has an Index Score of 40%, they’ll earn 20.00 world rankings points (50 x 0.40).

In the old days, only the top 50 finishers would receive points. This year I extended ‘Paddle Points’ (formerly known as the ‘Base Points Table’) to a virtual infinity so that all participants can be recognised in the world rankings system. There are unique points on offer right down to 140th position, after which every other finisher receives the same token score.

I came up with these numbers in 2013 (when the original world rankings were created) after studying the ranking systems of seven other major, individual-based sports around the world. I’ve tried to find a balance between rewarding winning performances and recognising participation.

Feel free to use ‘Paddle Points’ to power your own regional paddle league or local club race (for most race series, the Paddle Points system by itself is enough — you probably don’t need to introduce a ‘Race Index’ unless you’re dealing with a major series of different-sized events).