Team Hobie® stand up paddleboard racers built on a strong Carolina Cup with a quartet of first place finishes spread widely across the globe last weekend. April Zilg ground out a punishing win at the Key West Classic. In Hawaii Bullet Obra finished 18th overall but first in the 14-foot division at the OluKai Ho’olaule’a downwind race off Maui, Hawaii. Hobie riders Martin Letourneur and Barbara ‘Babi’ Brazil both topped the podium at the first stage of the Brazilian Championships.
April’s characteristic enthusiasm was on full display after her win. “I’m really thrilled to have the chance to go race down in the Key West Classic! I love the race, its grass-roots vibe, and that it benefits Special Olympics paddlers. Conditions this year were brutal, with something new and insanely challenging around every corner. The level of competition was amazing in both the men’s and women’s fields. Everyone that raced this year should be stoked!” she said.
Bullet was briefer but no less happy. “I had a great race. It was an 8-mile downwind course from Maliko gulch to Kanaha beach. The conditions were perfect with 15 MPH winds and endless open ocean swells,” he said. You know downwind conditions are choice when sailboarders are on the course.
Doubling at the first leg of the Brazilian Championships was quite a feat. Martin sent this report of the weekend event:
I firstly came to Brazil to visit my older brother Thomas with my family. I fell directly in love with the island of Florianopolis. Here you have sun, waves, good food, nice people, beautiful landscapes… It’s definitely a paradise and a great destination to visit. So when I heard about the first leg of the Brazilian Championships here in Floripa, just the weekend after the Carolina Cup, I postponed my flight back to France to compete at this event. I was really excited to race against all the best Brazilian paddlers and to understand how SUP works in this country.
This event was the first of 4-5 stops this year to crown the 2016 Brazilian champions. It happened at the site of Praia Mole Hotel, the perfect location between the lake of Lagoa and the beach of Praia Mole. This first stop gathered almost 200 paddlers who came to compete against each other on the long distance (7 miles) on Saturday and on the technical races (1 mile) on Sunday.
I felt very good on the long distance on Saturday leading the race for almost the whole time but I finished second at the end of a very hard sprint with the four-time Brazilian champion Luiz Guida, who blocked me a little bit on the last few meters before the finish line.
The technical race happened in the consistent waves of Praia Mole on Sunday. Some sets were around 4-5ft with some side wind. It was all about crossing the waves without falling and having good timing between the sets to reach the lineup quickly. I took some safer options in the final that prevented me from winning but I finished with a very sufficient 4th place to win the overall rankings (the combined score between the distance and the technical race).
Barbara “Babi” Brazil, my Brazilian Hobie teammate lent me one of her boards for the weekend, a 12’6 × 25’ custom Raw very similar to the one I’m using at home. It felt very good to have this team spirit with Babi and I think it helped us both to win the event in our respective division.
I’m really looking forward to coming back. Brazil and especially Florianopolis is a place with a huge development potential and it has been unbelievable for me to live this experience with all these passionate paddlers.
