Duncan Slater Charging Ahead on the Red Paddle Elite!

I’ve been paddling since the summer of 2009, so it is coming up for 10 years. I worked for a long time for a big windsurfing magazine this meant that I had the chance to get hold of one of the first SUP boards that came to the UK. At the beginning I thought it was just a light-wind alternative, but soon it took over my life, so much so that I don’t windsurf at all any more! My ‘day job’ is still in sports magazine editing and production.  I also run a SUP school and club called SUPsect, along with my wife El (who is also my coach).  We are based on the Thames Estuary, east of London. We teach hundreds of beginners each year, dozens of improver paddlers, plus we run a free Wednesday SUP club and Friday race nights. I’m also doing a lot of private race coaching.

I have been racing for 5 years now and I have started stepping up to  endurance  races, things have gone pretty well. In 2017 I won the 70 KM Norfolk Broads Ultra race outright, on an inflatable! Then at the beginning of this season I won the GB SUP Battle of the Thames 15 KM 12’6” category outright on an inflatable, then I took third overall (1st iSUP) in both the UK SUP Thames (55 KM) and Norfolk (70 KM) Ultras. Plus a surprise second in the pro-am fleet when the APP came to town in London’s Docklands, then after the 11 City SUP  in late September I was stoked to win my class at the British SUP Club Champs too. It’s been a good year!

Amazing! It was my first time, and yes I did the 5-day tour in the ‘grown-ups’ 40+ masters category. I absolutely loved it, every single minute of it. To be honest, I knew I had  prepared myself pretty well but I still couldn’t be totally sure I’d even be able to finish the full 220 KM. Yet having not only survived the first day but I actually enjoyed it (Plus I finished in a position and time that I was really pleased with). Each morning I felt better and better, every day it felt like my paddling was getting stronger and my confidence really grew throughout the week.

The 11 city is certainly the best thing I’ve ever done in sport and it feels like a bit of a life-changer for me: I can understand why people could hate it if they haven’t prepared properly, but for me it went brilliantly, it was so much fun the whole way and I can’t wait to get back to the 11 City bubble. The support and camaraderie we shared during that event is really hard to describe, but the atmosphere is really special. If you’re interested to know more, I blogged at the end of every day.

I finished 9th in the vets, in 25 hours and 46 seconds altogether, which was beyond my wildest dreams for this event. Honestly, at my first 11 City my goal was just to finish – privately, having looked at times from previous years, my very best hope was that I might manage top half in my fleet – so finishing 9th of 29 was totally incredible. That time would have got me 5th in the open fleet, I was comfortably the fastest iSUP, and arguably the fastest Brit too (depending on whether James Van Druren’s nationality is Spanish, British or Dutch?). But the real result was about discovering what I was capable of and exceeding my own expectations. The feeling of crossing that finish line was like nothing else: relief, elation, pride … must admit I did shed a tear!