Just back from the Golden Island Race in South East France, the main race was a 4 stars EuroSUPA Long Distance Race and there was aslo 4km amateur races, slalom races (6 men heats BOP style race on very short course) and there was a Nautical mille record to attempt.

I’ve started saturday morning with the Nautical Mille, I wanted to enjoy the glassy weather and I knew that afterwards I wouldn’t have any time left to do it because of the long distance and slalom races…
I’ve paddled hard but I could probably have done a little better, I just didn’t want to burn myself for the weekend, I did 10mn36sec ; no one could do better on a SUP board.

Saturday afternoon we had slalom races, I’ve won all my heats and won the final, Greg Closier and Rico Leroy took 2nd and 3rd

Sunday morning we had the long distance race, I was on my 18′ Nidecker custom, it was very glassy, I took a slow start but soon took off, the board works very good, I’ve finish in 2h16 with 4mn advantage on the 2nd

In the Afternoon other Slaloms and once again I’ve managed to win all my heats and the final, Greg Closier couldn’t do the race as he had to go home early, finally Gaetan Sene took 2nd and Rico Leroy 3rd.

Results :
Nautical Mille Record on a SUP : Eric Terrien 10mn36sec
Slalom Races : 1 Eric Terrien 2 Gaetan Sene 3 Rico Leroy
Golden Island 25km Race : 1 Eric Terrien 2 Didier Leneil 3 Greg Closier

quelques photos grâce a Guy Capra : http://nauticaerium.blogspot.com/

Fun event on the Garonne, on the 10k race I took a good start next to Gaetan Séné until I manage to break away and take a little advantage… All of a sudden I realised that he was on the left hand side of the river, flying with the current and I was… stuck in the middle of it… By the time I get back on track where the current was the strongest I was 3rd… bugger…
I’ve lost the race but earned lot of experience… Kind of the same happened on sunday and I took 2nd of the event, I was really happy about that, Gaetan is a great paddler and an expert kayakiste, we are almost always 1st and 2nd, this time his experience in rivers with strong currents has paid off !
What really bothered me is that I was 1st in Paris and 2nd in Bordeaux, Gaetan was 2nd in Paris and 1st in Bordeau…So we were both 1st in the year ranking with 2,7 pts…
But the race director decided that because there was more people in the water in Bordeaux then Gaetan is the winner (he talked about people in the water and not registered ; in Paris out of 100 competitors only 33 selected atheletes been allowed to take the start and only 33 selected could do it)…Is it fair or is it not ? They had to make a decision, what is for sure is that there were lot more top riders in Paris than in Bordeaux so in my opinion Paris race should have had more value in our case…

I went to Italy for the first time (except the one time I had to go to Milan Airport to fly to Marocco) and discovered a beautiful country.
The King of the Island race took part in Bergeggi, near Genova, I already knew a few riders (the Italian Champions Fabrizio Gasbarro and Leonard Nika, the “Adrenalina surf shop crew” and a few more) and it was nice to meet all the other Italian Stand up Paddlers.
One of the race was a EuroSUPA 4 stars beach race so other Elite European riders were there such as Gaetan Sene, Thierry Kostka, Erwin Jensen, Annabel Anderson etc …

Results :
1 Eric Terrien
2 Leonard Nika
3 Gaetan Sene

3 races, 3 National titles !
It’s been a little bit of an adventure, my Unlimited board was finished only Friday at 4am… It’s been delivered Friday night at 10pm…in Switzerland…We left Geneva Saturday morning at 2am…And arrived just on time for the 1st race… 20km, 2 laps of 10km with 15knots in the face on the way back.. pretty intense !
In the hurry we didn’t manage to make the rudder work so I did all the race with a fixed fin, it was alright, I ‘ve been lucky that there wasn’t too much side wind.
In the afternoon I’ve won the 3km open race
On Sunday morning I’ve won my second title, the 14′ class 10km, then I took part in the “parents-kids” relay race with my mum, just for the fun !
On Sunday afternoon the 12′6 class title race was a “battle of the Paddle” kind of race, I really like that kind of courses with many turns at bouys and sprints on the beach.

Results :

Unlimited class race :
1 Eric Terrien (Nidecker, Kialoa, Rip Curl, FCS)
2 Gaetan Sene
3 Didier Leneil

14 class race :
1 Eric Terrien (Nidecker, Kialoa, Rip Curl, FCS)
2 Gaetan Sene
3 Didier Leneil

12′6 class men :
1 Eric Terrien (Nidecker, Kialoa, Rip Curl, FCS)
2 Gaetan Sene
3 Thierry Kostka

Awesome week end in the Golf of St Tropez for the International Mediterranean Trophy, the Ste Maxime SUP race CUP 2011 organized by La Cigale Surf Club.

I won Saturday’ s Elite Race, came 2nd of the long distance Race and I walked away with the International Mediterranean Trophy (overall elite race + long distance race)

Results :

Elite Race :
1 Eric Terrien (Nidecker, Kialoa, Rip Curl, FCS, Club de Surf Oleaje)
2 Bart de Zwart
3 Gaetan Sene

Long Distance Race :
1 Bart de Zwart
2 Eric Terrien (Nidecker, Kialoa, Rip Curl, FCS, Club de Surf Oleaje)
3 Ryan James

Scratch Overall :
1 Eric Terrien (Nidecker, Kialoa, Rip Curl, FCS, Club de Surf Oleaje)
2 Bart de Zwart
3 Ryan James

As usual the North Point SUP Classic has been a wonderful event, this year it’s been organized in Crozon, nice weather and good waves, plenty of space for free sessions and a tough competition.
The beach race has been awesome with a real “battle of the paddle” format, in and out the waves.

Results :

Beach Race :
1 Eric TERRIEN 1h16mn50s (Nidecker)
2 Greg CLOSIER 1h19mn24s
3 Rico LEROY 1h20mn49s
…

SUP Surf :
1 Colin MCPHILLIPS
2 Benoit CARPENTIER
3 Rémi QUIQUE
4 Alexis DENIEL
5 Eric TERRIEN
5 Greg CLOSIER
…

Surf + Race :
1 Eric TERRIEN 1610 points
2 Colin MCPHILIPS 1583 points
3 Grégory CLOSIER 1470 points
…

My 3rd ” Battle of the Paddle ” and my first time in Oahu, the winter training and all the work we’ve done with the Nidecker SUP division on the boards have paid off, I take a 9th place in the Elite Race (I’m proud to be the 1st european to get in the top 10) and I take 1st place in the 12′6 division of the Hawaii Kai Run (15th overall, not bad for a 12′6 !)
I’m now on my way back to Europe with more experience and more motivation, there’s so many things I can improve I won’t get bored !

I had a good time at La Torche for the french stop of the Stand Up World Tour (SUP surfing), I went all the way to 1/4 finals where I couldn´t do anything against Robin Johnson, Carlos Bahia and Peyo Lizarazu ; Robin and Carlos went to semi finals and that was the end of the contest for Peyo and I.

My next trip is Honolulu for the Battle of the Paddle, May 14th-15th

Photos : Christophe Bonte

Get Up SUP Mag n°3