Taking action for SUP growth: Czech Federation unlocks European funding through ERASMUS+

To grow a sport discipline on a global scale, it takes the collaboration of nations, shared initiatives, sustainable funding, and a commitment to learning from one another. The Czech Federation SURF and SUP (Česká Federace SURF a SUP) has been tirelessly working alongside its fellow European partners to accelerate this growth and drive progress.

Having recently recognized the need for advanced training for coaches in open water paddling, the Czech Federation teamed up with Parres Watersports Club who ran a training programme in Spain.

TotalSUP caught up with Lucie Raab, General Secretary  of the Czech Federation SURF and SUP,  with Sonia Esteve of the Parres WaterSports Club to find out more about that collaboration funded by Erasmus+, the EU’s programme to support education, training, youth and sport in Europe.

This season we have seen some incredible partnerships between your federation and Planet Baltic in Poland, the Danish Surf & SUP federation at the ISA Worlds and the Parres water sports club in Spain. It is clear that the Czech Surfing and SUP Federation (Czech SURF and SUP Federation) is committed to driving growth both internationally and politically through a structured approach. Could you tell us more about this approach?

It’s a step-by-step approach, and it’s also driven by the aloha spirit of our sports – we have a worldwide following, don’t we? Our federation is becoming more professional and we are managing to organise at a national level by working with our people and clubs. But we also feel the need to establish cross-border cooperation. This is partly due to the fact that as a landlocked country we are at a slight disadvantage compared to the coastal states, but also because we go abroad to compete and opportunities present themselves. You just have to have a long-term plan and not be afraid to communicate.

What inspired you to get involved in ERASMUS+ and what specific goals do you want to achieve through this initiative? From both perspectives: young paddlers and mobility of sports workers?

In the first place, we want to have quality sports performance and to be an attractive sport for the grassroots. The way to achieve this is through the education of club coaches and the professional and healthy management of junior teams. And also through consistent and good leadership throughout the federation.

The ERASMUS+ sport programme funds partnerships across Europe aimed at educating both coaches and, for example, sports managers. We have identified the need for further training of coaches for open water paddling, which we have carried out in Spain at Parres Watersports Club. And the second part of the project we focused on transferring good practice for the association management in Surf & SUP Danmark.

In my opinion, the European Union is doing a great service to small organisations like sports clubs, or in our case the whole federation, through this programme. This type of development is usually very demanding financially and a lot of organisations are using what little financial resources they have towards keeping them going. So we were very happy to take the opportunity of the ERASMUS+ programme to fully fund both internships with our European partners.

From left: Lenka Márová, Marek Fiala, David Raab, Lucie Raab, Kateřina Kuchyňková, Jaroslav Soukup, Kateřina Trdlová (and Rozita)

Cooperation is the key to growth! Could you tell us more about your relationship with the Parres Water Sports Club and the activities that took place this summer?

We came into contact with Daniel Parres through a colleague of ours at a race in Thailand. A very tempting offer of an attractive location by the sea, with a professionally equipped club, coaching facilities and the opportunity to train with young athletes belonging to the world’s top. And when the ERASMUS+ program opportunity came up a year later, we put the 1+1 together and made it very easy and accommodating with Daniel and the club manager Anna Esteve.

The most challenging part was to choose with seven Czech coaches the date of the whole training event, as they all have their own jobs, commitments and also the organisation of our Czech competitions. In the end, we did a short three-day workplace shadowing project. And we extended it by one day at our own expense.

Can you explain the organizational process involved in coordinating this collaboration between clubs and federations? Who from the Czech Republic was involved?

For anyone interested in going to one of our European neighbours for such an enriching experience within ERASMUS+, I would recommend contacting the national organisation responsible for the coordination and consultation of this project at this time (link to the list by country at the end of the article). The project is announced annually at the end of the year with a submission deadline in January/February.

How do you think collaboration can help define the needs of SUP sport at the European level and contribute to the goal of reaching the Olympic Games?

Everyone’s impressions from this intensive meeting were very positive and we hope to see more openness and enthusiasm from coaches to include open water training for their athletes. As well as continuing our European collaborations across other SUP organisations.

I think this is also a path that, if taken by every European club and association, can lead to reaching the Olympics sooner. Recognise that we are part of an existing sporting organisation like the European Surfing Federation and the International Surfing Association and act accordingly. We need to work on getting to know each other and pursue our global goal together.

What support does your federation need to help push your vision forward?

Probably like any association – we need enthusiastic collaborators, paid staff, continuous funding, a plan and action steps. And of course many athletes and thriving clubs.

It would be great to network even more at a European level and put together, for example, a European SUP Cup in the hands of the federations, which would certainly benefit our sport greatly both sportingly and diplomatically.

In interview with Sonia Esteve: 

Hi Sonia, welcome to TotalSUP! How has your club benefited from participating in the ERASMUS+ programme?

We find it a very interesting program that provides us with visibility and an objective to improve thanks to the feedback we receive from the Clubs, federations and athletes who share our training and we share the joint vision of the sport and its evolution. It has been a great experience to know the Czech Federation.

What were the key takeaways from this experience for your club? How did this exchange influence your club’s coaching methods?

The main conclusions are focused on working on the transformation of the sport of SUP as a year-round sport, combining outdoor and indoor activities and making it attractive, and finding in this sport additional value to share with friends and be part of their personal growth.

Mainly we focus more on the methods that we usually have already implemented and that during your stay coincided with the training camp that we developed in the summer. We had sprint training in flat water and we also focused on providing Tips in the open sea, since they are not their usual conditions and we could give a little more value to their stay. In our club we have the advantage of having different scenarios with different sea conditions according to needs.

Without a doubt, it is an added value to be able to share with teams, federations and athletes from other countries with our athletes and also share similar techniques or different approaches. We are in a sport that is constantly growing due to its large number of variables

Would you consider participating in a similar programme in the future?

We are certainly very interested in participating in similar programs in the future. The experience with the Czech team has been very positive, so we would like to continue exploring opportunities for international collaboration. We believe these exchanges not only benefit our athletes, but also strengthen the SUP community as a whole.

We are certainly very interested in participating in similar programs in the future. The experience with the Czech team has been very positive, so we would like to continue exploring opportunities for international collaboration. We believe these exchanges not only benefit our athletes, but also strengthen the SUP community as a whole.

From left: Kateřina Kuchyňková, David Raab, Daniel Parres, Kateřina Trdlová, Sonia Esteve, Lucie Raab + Rozita, Lenka Márová, Jaroslav Soukup, Marek Fiala

About the ERASMUS+ Sport

Erasmus+ is the EU’s programme to support education, training, youth and sport in Europe. Erasmus+ offers mobility and cooperation opportunities in further education for adults working in a sports organisation and to encourage cooperation between organisations. Small mobility projects can take the form of:

• “job shadowing at the workplace” (2-14 days, max. 10 people) or
• “training at the host organisation” (15-60 days, max. 10 people)
• Larger projects like “cooperation partnerships” cover more complex topics in sport on which both organisations work together.

This project is open to organisations based in the European Union and also from Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, Serbia, North Macedonia and Turkey. If you are interested in ERASMUS+, contact your designated national organisation.

Follow Czech Surf and SUP Federation (Česká Federace SURF a SUP) on Facebook, Instagram and YouTube

Follow Parres Watersports Club on Facebook and Instagram

*Images courtesy Czech Surf and SUP Federation and Parres WaterSports Club