Partying with the Danes! A Red Bull Midsummer Vikings story

French event speaker Christophe Colussi has just returned from a crazy weekend in Denmark, with a fun report from Casper Steinfath’s Red Bull Midsummer Vikings challenge, a 24 hour team relay race that goes round (and round) a small island off Copenhagen.

2019 : 6x SUP World Champion Casper Steinfath launched with Ole ( Event Manager ) and Jorgen ( Host in Kajakhotel) the first edition of ” Red Bull Mid Summer Vikings”. Located in Copenhagen, Danemark at 1km from Airport and 5km from City Center, the location is perfect.

2019 : 150 happy first SUP Racers.

2020 : no comment

2021 : 350 racers – 19 countries – 70 Teams – all tested negative.

Casper is just back from his new record with Supfoil crossing Danemark – Sweden, still recovering from this incredible challenge but the young Champion set up the goals : RBMSV21 will happen and there will be happiness.

Incredible challenge for 24H. This is a relay and the 70 Teams are made up of 3 and 5 athletes, pro and amateurs. They must do a maximum of laps around the Island where the Kajakhotel is located. Every lap is about 5 kilometer long. 2.5kms inside the laguna where the water is super flat and 2.5kms outside with a bit of chop… However it’s super safe so it’s super fun. The atmosphere is unique.It’s like a SUP and Danish version of our “24 heures du Mans” (or “24 hours of Le Mans” in Formula 1) with all the caravans and the campsite where teams get organised. Then a “Pit Stop” where all the Teams switch depending on the strategy by day and by night. The Danish people are so cool and into the Stand Up Paddle. The Music is nearly 24H non Stop with a slow down from 2 am to 4 am until the Gospel Team wakes up everybody.

Live Music, DJ, Vegan Food, Organic T-Shirt, Waste Collection & Recycling, Champions, Ladies, Kids, games, Dancing, …. everything is in place for a fun weekend.

We super loved the “Grand Parade” at the start, the “Queen Lap” at mid race with the queen costume and of course the “Champagne Lap” to get the medals !

Last but not least, the RedBull Mid Summer Vikings has a purpose to collect money for charity organisation. In 2019, they collected 7,000 euros for a plastic recycling NGO, this year all the Teams managed to get 14,000 euros for Surfgaarden, a special place in the West of Danemark where war veterans are in recovery phase after war trauma. These veterans were all weekend with us, Julie, Thorsten, Steven, etc.. you can never give up when you paddle for these generous people.

I would expect to have 1000 people for 2021. It is clearly the right place for this.Well done the Vikings ! See you in 2022 ! Bravo !!