Emily King
So what is the future for 12 ’ 6 in the UK ? Funnily enough , when researching this topic , I stumbled across an insightful article by Dr Bryce Dyer from 2015 . Bryce is someone who ’ s been a part of the sport since 2014 and is an Associate Profession at Bournemouth University in product development , more specifically technology in sport ( it ’ s his day job !). He puts forward some valid arguments about where the sport may go in the future with board class .
So really the final word on this topic needs to go to the people influencing the development of the sport here in the UK , the directors of the GB SUP National Series , and for us as racers , to understand how difficult it can be from their point of view to negotiate the categories and keep as many racers happy and doing what we all love most – racing no matter what board !
“ When the directors discuss the paddler categories , we have to consider all options , including market trends , paddler feedback , our own experiences and other options coming from outside the sport . It ’ s certainly not an easy task to find compromises , and our job would be much easier if we had one class , that ’ s for sure .
Bruce Dyer
The most viable one was the phasing out of one category , which appears to be what has happened ; after speaking to racers in Italy , France , Spain , Canada and Australia . Their National Series are 14 ’ and under one class , one group all racing together with individuals choosing what board they want to race on … he was way ahead of the game ! s t a n d u p p a d d l e m a g u k 84