In recent years, the Belgian SUP Tour (BST) has become a key player in the European stand-up paddleboarding scene, offering a dynamic mix of events that cater to elite athletes, amateurs, and young paddlers alike. For its founder, Vincent Claeskens, 2024 marked a year of transition and growth, with a streamlined calendar, expanded inclusivity, and the establishment of the Belgian Championships to select athletes for international competition. Despite challenges such as environmental factors and scheduling conflicts, the BST showcased resilience and creativity. With the 2025 season on the horizon, featuring exciting innovations like the DOUBLE 10 partnership and a diverse event calendar, we sat down with Vincent to reflect on 2024, discuss the future of the BST, and celebrate standout moments and athletes.
Hello Mathieu and Happy New Year to TotalSUP! The 2024 season of the Belgian SUP Tour (BST) was a transitional year, as we aimed to streamline the Tour to 8 events, featuring a variety of formats, from ultra-long-distance races to sprints, across both flat-water and sea venues. Additionally, we formalized the Belgian Championships to select athletes for the ISA World Championships in Denmark.
We did face some challenges, such as blue algae issues and scheduling conflicts, which required us to adjust the calendar. In response, we set up a dedicated working group to pinpoint areas for improvement while preserving our core strengths.
In summary, 2024 was a year of growth for the BST. We welcomed athletes and champions from diverse backgrounds, and we laid the foundation for a competition that is open to elite athletes of all ages, as well as kids and amateurs. The participation of top-tier athletes from neighboring countries truly elevated the quality of the competition!
Building on the 2024 season, we’re excited to present a solid calendar and consistent rules and procedures for the future.
It is essential to respect athletes within their respective categories. Comparing a Gran Kahuna’s performance with that of a 28-year-old competitor wouldn’t be fair. Similarly, kids and younger participants often have different needs compared to more experienced athletes.
The BST is designed to be inclusive and open to everyone! Amateurs should feel that they have a meaningful place in our events. That’s why we’ve adopted the official age-group classifications from the International Surfing Association (ISA) and provide annual rankings by category, age, and gender.
Our goal is for everyone to enjoy participating in our races, whether in the sea or on flat water, in long-distance events, technical races, or sprints!
It’s hard to name just a few standout athletes, as I’d be tempted to mention all 200+ participants from the 2024 season—it might sound cliché, but it’s the truth. Whether they were aiming for the podium or simply striving to cross the finish line, each one showed incredible courage and perseverance.
That said, I must mention Kjell Debruyn and Loranne Vleminckx, our Belgian champions, as well as Thomas Dusart, Joep Van Bakel and his two sons, Reinder Ijmker, Froukje Wichgers-Marien, Diane Koornstra, and Renée. But truly, it’s impossible to do justice to all of these athletes—young and old, elite and amateur alike.
We’ve put together a diverse calendar for 2025, featuring a mix of water types and disciplines. Here’s the breakdown (for reference: ULD = Ultra Long Distance; LD = Long Distance; TR = Technical Race; Sprint = Sprint):
Sunday, April 27: Paddle of the Kempen
We’re diving straight into action with this classic season opener, which also doubles as the Belgian Championships for LD, with a scenic 16 km course through the tranquil canals of Limburg.
Sunday, June 8: O’Neill Classic
Set during the O’Neill Watersports Weekend in Blankenberge, this thrilling Technical Race (TR) will take place along the Belgian coast, offering the perfect mix of adventure and competition.
Sunday, June 29: Belgian Championships TR
This Technical Race (TR) will be held in the open sea, hosted by the Koksijde Yacht Club (KYC) near the French border—a must for technical race enthusiasts.
Saturday, August 30: The Longest Day
A brand-new challenge! The BST partners with the PVC (10h de Vassivière) for this unique event featuring hourly starts for a 5.6 km loop, with the fastest combined time over 10 laps crowning the winner.
Saturday, September 6 (Morning): TR at Hazewinkel
In the morning, a flat-water TR will take place at the stunning Hazewinkel rowing lake, setting the stage for the Belgian Sprint Championships in the afternoon.
Saturday, September 6 (Afternoon): Sprint at Hazewinkel
For the third consecutive year, the Belgian Sprint Championships will be held at the Hazewinkel rowing stadium, featuring 200-meter races from gates in 9 lanes.
Sunday, September 21: LD on the Ijser Canals
This 15 km flat-water Long Distance race takes you through the picturesque canals of the Ijser, providing a challenging and scenic experience.
Sunday, December 14: SUP4Life
A BST classic and the perfect way to end the season: a 15 km race through the heart of Ghent, bringing the year to a memorable close.
I’ve known Christophe Bancelin, the organizer of Les 10 Heures de Vassivière, for years, and it’s an event I never miss! As I was also organizing a 10-hour Ultra Long Distance race, we came up with the idea to combine the two into one ultimate Franco-Belgian 10-hour challenge: The Double 10.
> 10 heures de Vassivière, July 5 – Lac de Vassivière, France
> The Longest Day, August 30 – Lacs de l’Eau d’Heure, Belgium
While both races are based on a 10-hour format, they are very different. One involves paddling continuously for 10 hours, with the total distance determining the winner. The other is divided into 10 rounds of 1 hour each, with cumulative time deciding the victors.
We’re currently working on securing sponsors to support this unique challenge, which we believe deserves a lot of attention and excitement!
Yes, of course! Our collaboration with our Dutch friends at SUPNL is going exceptionally well. We exchange best practices, and for the second year in a row, we’re working together to publish a joint Belgium-Netherlands ranking. We welcome many Dutch friends to our events, and quite a few Belgian competitors take part in competitions in the Netherlands.
This is how Richard Proost came up with the idea of organizing a WinterCup together. The Germans joined in as well, making it a real international affair. Of course, it’s important to remember that the WinterCup is primarily an enhanced form of winter training and a great opportunity for athletes to connect. Participants join for the training, the camaraderie, and, of course, the glory. The winners will be announced after the winter season.
We’ve limited the WinterCup to six competitions, and here’s the schedule:
Thank you for the compliment! We strive to improve with each season and learn from the inevitable challenges we face. I believe we’ve reached an excellent level, both in terms of the opportunities we offer and the quality of our organization.
Our location in the heart of Europe allows us to attract international athletes, which adds an extra dimension to our competitions. We don’t try to copy successful models from abroad; instead, we embrace Belgium’s unique characteristics to create an exciting mix of events each year where everyone can find their place.
On top of that, we’re fortunate to be part of a vibrant and welcoming SUP community. Personally, I dream of one day seeing our small country rise to the top of the global SUP rankings!
Thank you for asking, as this topic is very close to my heart. When we started four years ago with competitions, it was the most obvious and essential way to get SUP off the ground in Belgium. However, SUP in Belgium is much more than just the 200 competitors we have. There are countless amateur paddlers, and we still have a huge untapped potential of people who don’t know about the sport or don’t have the opportunity to try it.
Our next step is to engage with amateur paddlers and establish an organization aimed at providing access to SUP for those who currently can’t experience it. We’ve already started laying the groundwork for this initiative and are really excited about the possibilities ahead.
9 Mar 2026
The Belgian SUP Tour (BST) has released its new race calendar as the circuit enters a new chapter in its evolution, alongside the development of new international partnerships. Over the past four years, the series has grown rapidly — not only in the number of events but also in the strength of its community and […]
27 Nov 2025
As the competitive year winds down and many federations ease into their winter break, the Belgian SUP Tour (BST) is preparing for one final highlight. On Sunday, 14 December, the community will gather in Ghent for SUP4Life – a now iconic end-of-season event that blends high-level competition with festive, family-friendly spirit. Far more than a […]
6 Oct 2025
Gunther De Bin, 55, from Flanders, a racer and Coach at SUP Club Supfever, is one of the Belgian SUP scene’s most respected figures. Known to many simply as GUN, he was once a regular at the front of the Belgian SUP Tour (BST) pack. While injuries led him to step back from regular racing, […]
20 Aug 2025
One of the events that have been sparking some serious FOMO* for a while now, both for elite athletes and SUP enthusiasts is Planet Baltic SUP Race. I may be biased – it’s in my homeland, Poland – but with rave reviews and striking photography, Planet Baltic stands out as an experience any SUP fan […]
5 Aug 2025
As the registrations are up for the second and final leg of the Double 10 Challenge, a pioneering concept in ultra-long-distance racing, pairing Les 10 Heures de Vassivière, organised by Christophe Bancelin and the Paddle Vassivière Club in France, with Belgium’s The Longest Day, spearheaded by Vincent Claeskens and the Belgian SUP Tour (BST). Together, they create the Double […]
2 Jul 2025
With the season opener Paddle of the Kempen raising the bar early on, expectations were high heading into the Belgian SUP Tour (BST) 2025 Technical Race Championships, despite the typically unpredictable coastal weather. Spearheaded by the tour’s Founder Vincent Claeskens, a dedicated community builder and elite paddler in his own right with deep knowledge of […]
28 Jun 2025
A bold new challenge is hitting the European SUP scene this Summer: The Double 10 Challenge. This pioneering concept in ultra-long-distance racing will be trialled this Summer, combining two of Europe’s most demanding SUP events into one challenge. The concept pairs Les 10 Heures de Vassivière, organised by Christophe Bancelin and the Paddle Vassivière Club […]
15 Jun 2025
The hype is already building – this will be TotalSUP’s first year reporting on-site from the action. The 8th edition of the Planet Baltic SUP Race, Poland’s longest-running ocean SUP race and one of the few remaining major sea races in Northern Europe held on 7-9 August in Kołobrzeg, has grown into a fully-fledged international […]
9 Jun 2025
When they’re on the scene for as long as we watch grom rise, you easily forget how young the junior SUP riders – and how much they’ve already achieved. One standout athlete in this category is Maximus Sijrier, based in the northern Dutch city of Workum. are and how much they have achieved. Paddling since […]
