Red Paddle Co Dragon World Championships 2019: Race the Lake with Your Family!

Entries are now open for the Red Paddle Co Dragon World Championships 2019.! SUP teams from around the world can now register to have their spot at the world’s only dedicated team SUP competition. The two-day event will take place on the 15th-16th June on Lake Annecy, France. This year is set to be bigger and better than ever before. The event is a great opportunity for family and friends together to race! To celebrate this event TotalSUP talks to SUP enthusiast Georgie Sowman, who has paddled in 2 Red Paddle Co Dragon World Championships along with her family.

Hi Georgie, Can you introduce yourself? and your SUP profile?

I’m a GP and mum of 3 from the North East of England. I started paddling 10 years ago and haven’t stopped! I get in the North Sea about 4 times a week, all year round with friends and family. My husband is a surgeon who Kitesurfs and SUP foils, and the kids join us in the sea too now.

I’m undertaking a Lifestyle Medicine diploma at present which looks at using exercise, nutrition and social prescribing to treat lifestyle related critical disease such as type 2 diabetes. This ties in with being passionate about the outdoors, physically active, and protecting the environment!

Can you tell me about the Red Paddle Dragon Championships?

The atmosphere is super friendly! Although there is a competitive element and there are some elite athletes present, the ethos is that everyone was welcome, that we would race with and against each other! So this meant that there was a full range of ages and standards. When we were there we met so many paddlers from all around the world!

The racing was so exciting. We had so much to learn from mastering corners, turning together, finding strength to sprint the last sections. We were so proud to be ranked 10th in the first year in Barbados, and 12th in Austria for distance races,even though we had the youngest competitors.

Even better though was to be awarded the ‘Spirit of the Red’ award given first year for positive attitude , and racing in the obstacle sprint race in which we are ranked 2nd worldwide.Standing on the podium with the Hungarian male team, some of whom were Olympians, was surreal!

What motivated you to sign up?

I was motivated to sign up because we could do the Dragon World Championships together as a family. As a GP I’m pretty passionate about the benefits of families who are active together and in the outdoors especially how that impacts so positively on health.

Working as a team, learning from each other, coping with difficult situations or even learning how to lose are just some of the aspects I was keen to explore together as a family.

My eldest daughter and I have entered surf competitions before, we had absolutely no racing experience. Working in the NHS with targets, timings and goals means any sort of formal training in our spare time didn’t really appeal. We were very kindly lent a Dragon board before the event, so instead of training we had some awesome trips together on the North Sea, taking a GPS and setting off on coastal adventures.

Part of the skill of Dragon Racing is balance. Luckily ‘messing around’ with the kids in waves or even family trips to inflatable sessions at the local pool were probably the best training we did to prepare. Over the years we’ve tried to avoid driving the kids to out of school activities, and this has meant more time for all of us to be outdoors, something I think has kept everyone’s level of fitness up.

Can you give us three reasons to sign up?

The three reasons to sign up:

• Red Paddle Co have managed to take the best aspects of Stand up paddle, and create an event that whilst is competitive, is incredibly fun and brought out the best in everybody.
  Competing in a team in Stand up paddling is an incredible sport, it encompasses aerobic fitness, muscle strengthening, and balance.
•  From a health point of view, there is nothing better!
•  You will meet and make friends from all over the world. I’ve stayed I touch with a fair few and our online connectivity is one of the best things about sharing a passion for paddling together!

Also we met the Red Paddle Co team at our first event in Barbados, they are a brilliant bunch of people who have been passionate about SUP from the beginning. Impact on the environment is of utmost importance to me, and as a SUP brand they couldn’t be doing more to put environmental causes at the forefront of their company.

There is still time to register for the Red Paddle Co Dragon World Championship.  Get your family or tribe together and register at Dragon Worlds!