Baddle Of The Paddle
By Jenny Yarborough
Thursday October 14, 2010
Wrightsville represented in worldwide SUP competition
Wrightsville Beach native and former U.S. Surf Team competitor Chris Curry was born to be on the water. He was surrounded by it. His father, Bill Curry, a former longboard pro, and his mother, Georgia Curry, were founders of the Wrightsville Beach Longboard Association (WBLA), and everyone in his family devoted much of their time to catching waves.
So, when a new board sport surfaced in 1960 and trended to float from its Hawaiian origins to other places, like Wrightsville Beach, Curry gave no second thoughts to giving stand-up paddleboarding (SUP) a run two years ago.
Earlier this month he competed in the Rainbow Sandals Battle of the Paddle, under California-based sponsor Boardworks Surf—one of the largest producers of SUPs. On Oct. 2-3, Curry, along with his father and four other men—Wilmington/Wrightsville Beach residents John Beausang and William Pope, and North Carolinians Chris Hill of Holly Ridge and Stan Clinard of Kure Beach—met in Dana Point, Calif. for the two-day premiere event.
Held at Doheny State Beach Park, Curry explained, "It’s probably one of the biggest races, if not the biggest race, of the year. It’s considered, kind of like, the world championships of stand-up paddleboarding."
That’s one that consists, mostly, of top-performing paddlers from Hawaii and California, but also from all other parts of the world including Tahiti, Europe and Brazil.
"It’s amazing, the number of people that are participating," Curry furthered. "I think that there were 850-some paddlers, so that gives you a sense, just within the short time, that the sport has really gained traction—it’s already deeply rooted. You can tell from the youth…"
Curry said that though most of the paddlers were adult competitors, there were around 50 children entered in their own division, the youngest of them, age 6.
And then there were the legends that have crossed over into the sport, like Gerry "Mr. Pipeline" Lopez and Mickey Munoz—a classic longboarder.
"He’s 72 years old," Curry said, "and he was pushing through waves about waist- to chest-high and not even blinking."
Out of the four main races, Curry competed in three—elite pro, in which he placed 25th out of 125 paddlers; distance (10 mile), in which he placed 2nd in his age class; 14-foot, in which he placed 10th; and overall, in which he placed 24th out of the 170 competitors. In the team relay race, Curry helped his sponsor team, consisting of three males and one female, finish in
7th place out of 50 total teams.
"I was really happy," Curry said of the results. "I’m racing against guys from California and Hawaii that train four or five hours a day. They do outrigger canoe paddling. They’re in the gym. This is their job. So it gave me a really good idea of what I need to do for next year."
Hill placed 36th in the 14-foot mens 40-49; Hill also placed
59th in the open mens elite; Clinard placed 85th in the srf mens 40-49; Beausang placed 99th in the 14-foot mens 40-49; Pope placed 120th in the srf mens 50-59; and Bill Curry placed 126th in the stock mens
50-59l; To view other results, visit www.eternaltiming.com.
Everything you need to SUP Wilmington NC and
SUP Wrightsville Beach NC !
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