This weekend, an unassuming reservoir in England will play host to a brand new SUP racing format. From the diabolical mind of race director Greg Wingo who brought you 49+ hours of pain in Last Paddler Standing, and the passionate ultra paddling visionary Cassie Salter who founded the popular Race to the Castle (R2TC), The Eliminator is a brand new way to test your limits as a paddler. And as a partner.

Double the loops, double the fun

In a major twist on the “backyard ultra” style of Last Paddler Standing where racers paddle one lap on a set course every hour on the hour, competing individually, The Eliminator is double the fun. Instead of racing solo, SUPers paddle in a team of two, either in the men’s, women’s, or mixed division. Lest you think that would make the racing easier… Greg and Cassie have also doubled the lap frequency.

Every half hour, on the 30 minute mark, racers must complete a 2.5 km loop. Although they’ll race the event as a team, each lap is completed individually: Paddler A does the first lap at 8:30 am Saturday morning, Paddler B races the second lap at 9 am, Paddler A is on deck again at 9:30 am, and so on. The event itself is time-capped to 12 hours: 8:30 am to 8:30 pm. So at least those paddlers nutty enough to take on The Eliminator know they’ll reach an end to the madness before sunset on the same day (unlike the penetrating uncertainty at Last Paddler Standing that stretches each sunset into a sunrise and another sunset and another sunrise until the increasingly brutal distance of each lap lengthens and becomes so close to impossible that in 2024, no paddler was left standing, and the race itself “won”).

The axe

At The Eliminator, more and more twists will heighten the action as the day goes on. At the beginning of the race, each paddler must simply complete their lap within 28 minutes. Pretty reasonable for a 2.5km loop, and it gives them 2 minutes to hype up their partner for the next lap. For the first 12 laps, the only teams eliminated are those who don’t finish their lap within 28 minutes. But from Lap 13 (starting at 2:30pm), the real axe comes out.

At the end of Lap 13, racers who’ve made it safely back within 28 minutes every lap previously will face a new requirement: don’t be last. Like that one friend left behind in the haunted house while the scary music builds to a crescendo in a horror film, the last paddler left on the water gets Axed. Chopped. Eliminated.

Even worse: the cuts happen at a category level. So you might not be the last person left on the water, but if you’re the last in your category, you’re done.

That is… unless…

A golden ticket

In an apparent show of sympathy for the poor racers paddling their hearts out to avoid getting axed, Greg and Cassie (surely this one was Cassie’s idea) are offering a single golden ticket back into the action for teams who’ve been eliminated.

After Lap 18 (before 5:30 pm, with only 3 hours of racing remaining), eliminated teams get a shot at redemption – one team per category will return to fight for the win of their category. Pure chance will determine these lucky (or perhaps unlucky) teams via a lottery draw. And in what could be a hugely dramatic turn of events, teams that were eliminated early and spent most of the day resting could be back on the water at 100% battery fighting against teams who’ve suffered all day trying not to get eliminated.

But, to be fair to those teams who’ve suffered the longest and avoided elimination, the teams that return on the Lap 18 Lotto will only be eligible for category wins, not the overall race win. And of course, they’ll still have to avoid elimination for the next three hours.

Wildcards

The Lap 18 Lottery isn’t the only sneaky twist that Greg and Cassie have devised. At the beginning of the event, each team will receive two “Wildcards”. This is essentially an Uno Reverse: it’s not my turn, it’s yours.

At any point during the event, a team can use their Wildcard to swap their order of paddling. So if they started the day with Paddler A on the first lap followed by Paddler B racing the second lap, they could decide to give Paddler A some extra rest and let Paddler B do a double before resuming an alternating order. 

At first glance, the Wildcards look like a perfect “in case of emergency” option: if one paddler is struggling with nutrition, needs an extra lap of rest, or needs to ice an injury, it’s like a “Get out of Jail Free” card. But Greg and Cassie have advised racers not to underestimate their Wildcards. They see the Wildcards as precise, strategic cards to play to get an advantage. In Cassie’s words: “These Aren’t Lifelines — They’re Weapons”.

With eliminations starting on Lap 13, no doubt there will be a flurry of Wildcards handed in for teams who need their stronger paddler in the mix to avoid elimination. Or perhaps more well considered teams will have already decided their starting order based on positioning the stronger paddler to race Lap 13, and it’ll be Lap 14 where they’ll use the Wildcard to send the same racer out for a double while the other paddler rests up to make sure they won’t get eliminated on Lap 15.

As Lap 24 inches closer, Wildcards will flurry again as the speed needed to stay in the race gets faster and faster, and teams looking to take the win will start to position themselves to put their stronger paddler (or fresher paddler) in the final lap.

Or perhaps the teams will use these Wildcards in ways the organisers haven’t even contemplated – one of the beautiful things about a brand new game is that the players can always surprise you.

And yes, it’s a physical card. The inventor of the “No Longer Standing” coins, knows how to do unique merch.

Sunday Funday

Once all the cards have been played and the last paddlers to escape the axe at 8:30 pm Saturday night are crowned winners, racers will have the opportunity to take home a trophy of a different sort.

The race directors have arranged for flash tattoos of the iconic axe to be made available on Sunday for those wishing to commemorate their Eliminator Experience. Rumour has it that some paddlers have already made appointments…

Top Contenders

The accessibility of the race format means that competitors will include experienced and inexperienced ultra paddlers alike. With short laps, simple logistics, and a safe course, it could be the chance for less experienced ultra racers to shine. For this first edition of The Eliminator, only 18 teams will be racing to earn the first titles, but amongst them are some pretty serious ultra paddlers.

Men’s team

Amongst the top contenders to avoid the axe the longest will be Mark Salter / Bruce Ironsmith, who are not only experienced in ultra racing (Race 2 the Castle, The Paddle Skedaddle, The Norfolk Broads Ultra) but also in their friendship. Although this will be their first time racing together as a team, they’re confident that they have the strongest possible foundation after years of racing together. Mark even holds the Guinness World Record for the fastest SUP crossing of the 23 mile, beautiful, but often fickle Loch Ness, so you know this team will be well prepared to withstand the pressure.

Mixed team

Mark isn’t the only one with a world record on his resume. “The Great Loch Ness Legends” team includes Joanne Hamilton-Vale who holds not one, but two 24 hour world records, not to mention the number of ultra paddling races she’s completed, won, and set records in. In 2017, she became the first U.K. paddler to complete the Molokai crossing on SUP at M2O World Championships. It was the same year she set the women’s SUP record on the Yukon River Quest: 59 hours, 28 minutes and six seconds. During the race, she also set the 24-hour female SUP moving water record of 283.32 kilometers. Her records still stand.

Joanne’s partner in the race and good friend Andrew Guthrie brings his own ultra experience to the table (Great Glen, Paddle Skedaddle, 11 Cities, Race to the Castle) but his motivation is all about his partner. In Andrew’s words, his goal is: “Don’t let Jo down!”

Women’s team

In the women’s category, watch out for “The Lap Assassins” featuring Suzy Rigby who’s another highly experienced ultra paddler. She’s completed ultra distances as both races (Race to the Castle, Last Paddler Standing) and challenges including the 255 km Coast to Coast Challenge over 5 days. Of her approach to the race with partner Emma Adams, Suzy says: “We have a team plan, but as Mike Tyson said, everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face so we’ll see how that turns out.”

How to follow along

SUP Racer is the exclusive media partner of this first ever edition of The Eliminator, and you can follow the action via Instagram and Facebook Stories updates throughout the day this Saturday the 14th of June. Be sure to subscribe to the Paddler Media YouTube Channel as well, where you’ll find more race content, and as always, save supracer.com as a bookmark so you don’t miss the best stories about SUP from around the world.