Epic battle on the Portuguese Race Tour

Last weekend the Portuguese cities of Porto and Matosinhos in the North of Portugal organised another spectacular SUP event. The Portuguese Technical Race Tour and National SUP Wave Tour which also runs in collaboration with surf school Onda Pura saw some epic sea conditions, reminiscent of the epic Battle of the Paddle days in Dana Point, California. The event officially sponsored by Mazda/Grupo AutoSueco was the 2nd stop of the Portuguese Technical Race Tour and National SUP Wave Tour, and the sea conditions were pumping!

The weekend started with the first round of the SUP wave contest, with clean 1 to 1,5 m waves and the best Portuguese SUP surfers put on a great show for the crowds. The standout riders were the usual suspects: Diogo Queimada (current National champion), Rui Fialho, Simão Manuel, Pedro Casqueira and the locals Ângelo Bernardo and Salvador Nunes.

After the first two rounds of the SUP wave contest and with conditions improving attention shifted to the technical race. Around 40 of Portugals best paddlers faced a demanding 5 km Technical Course. conditions called for strong paddling to power through the surf and waves. Filipe Meira the current Portuguese National 12’6 champion took a significant lead early, he defended his title easily and came in at 35m 56s, despite Ruben Afonso’s (36m22s) significant effort to close the gap. Renato Queirós (40m28s) from nearby Póvoa de Varzim, took third place.

In the 14ft division Diogo Sousa (39m06s) beat Jano Rodrigues (42m39s) and Rui Ramos (42m47s). In the Women’s race only three competitors faced the tough conditions, Ângela Fernandes current national champion was the first to finish with a time of 47m 17s, Marta Salaberri came in 2nd (54m39s) and Diana Gil (1h02m54s) finished in third spot.

There was also an amateur race, which consisted of the competitors doing one lap, instead of the two laps as on the pro course. Ricardo Maciel (30m45s) took first place, José António Gaio (31m02s) second and Detlef Muller (32m45s) came in at third.

After the race, the final rounds of the SUP wave contest commenced. Simão Manuel caught the best waves during the final, with some powerful turns and beat second placed Pedro Casqueira, Diogo Queimada came in third and Ângelo Bernardo came fourth.

The SUP Wave and Technical Race events are a part of the Log Surf Fest 2018 Powered by Mazda, and organized by Onda Pura, the Porto and Matosinhos city councils. The contests also ran with the support of the Portuguese Surfing Federations (FPS), Onda do Norte Association (AON), the Porto and Northern Portugal Tourism Board.