PBSR™ 2024 intro
SUPer good day!
We are thrilled to invite you for the upcoming Planet Baltic SUP RaceTM 2024 and present new products we are introducing this year. As talented athletes in the realm of SUP you give us constant inspiration to make this event better and better. We follow the organization of SUP events around the world and see that there is still a room for modeling the rules to make this sport even more attractive to you and viewers. Your suggestions and our experience in organizing and participating in sailing regattas of world, continental and national championships so far have gone quite well if our rules have been adopted by other organisers.
Breaking news - for the first time Kołobrzeg is going to be the stop of the national cup, a unique stop that the SUP sport has not heard of before, we guess. Planet Baltic SUP RaceTM 2024 is announced the maritime stop of the Czech SUP Cup, coordinated by the Czech Federation ČFSAS. Our southern neighbors did národný výstup to Kołobrzeg last year. The foreign language most frequently heard here was not German but Czech. The same happened with the attendance at our event. Czechs were the largest group of foreigners and their participation added immense value to the competition and contributed to the excitement of the event. It turned out that we were on the same wave length.
Another noticeable change is the extension of the event by one day. There was not enough time to enjoy the atmosphere you created. Let this SUP feast last longer and have opportunity to connect with fellow athletes and enthusiasts fostering valuable relationship within the sporting community.
Mondays, after the end of PBSRTM were somehow empty and sad in Kołobrzeg. We're changing that this year. Well, on Monday, August 5th, we invite you to a pilot project called "Parsęta River Trophy". This is a rafting marathon that we have never had in Poland before in such format and scale. We join forces with kayakers and rowers. Advanced participants paddle a 43km marathon from Karlino to Kołobrzeg, and less experienced participants run a 23km half-marathon from Bardy to Kołobrzeg. We paddle together on what is possible to do kayaking safely and quickly. We do not hide the fact that we envied our Czech friends the Krumlovsky Marathon and we have request for you: let's do something similar. The Parsęta is a beautiful kayaking river. We paddle all year round here. Detailed information about Parsęta River Trophy can be found HERE
Next important novelty is the trial of downwind racing on hydrofoils. Would you like to try SUP levitation? If you have equipment for foil downwind, be sure to take it with you! No one has done it in this part of Europe and Kołobrzeg has ideal conditions for racing on a hydrofoil. We are planning a 500m sprint, and if the conditions allow and there are people willing, we do a 2-4km Foil Long Distance We will pass more info about it in the next update.
Notice of Race and Sailing Instructions were combined into one document a year ago. We publish it 4 months before the first starting whistle so that you can train for specific regulations. We publish online safety briefing videos in the spring. On Thursday, August 1st, after the opening, we do a short briefing for weather forecast.
The rules in the race have not changed much. We believe that regulation 2.3.6 (mark room), introduced last year, has worked well and we will enforce it this year as well. Please note that we had a record attendance and crowds passing the buoys in 2023 and there were no collisions, there were no controversial situations and not a single protest was filed regarding disputes over rounding the buoy. We believe that SUP is not MMA octagon and we have pointed you in a safe direction to avoid unsportsmanlike practices when rounding buoys.
Please also note the clarification of rule 2.3.9. A maximum of five paddle strokes can only be made after getting back on the board after a fall. You cannot kneel on the board from stand-up position to round the buoy with five paddle strokes. Such behavior will result in a time penalty. We do SUP, not KDP (Knee Down Paddlers).
We are introducing new age categories. Our attendance is growing every year. We decided to appreciate the efforts of paddlers over 50 years of age and children under 15 years of age. The condition for the creation of these categories is the actual participation of at least 5 paddlers of a given age category. Important: it is not the number of registered but actually participating competitors that counts. In 2024, we will have 4 age categories: U15, U18, M40 and GM50.
The entry fee has 3 different fee levels. Anyone who has organized a competition knows how difficult it is to prepare it for an exactly unknown number of competitors. The sooner you sign up, the less you will pay the entry fee and the easier it will be for us to prepare the event. The entry fee has increased by 30% this year because the competition is one day longer and the organization costs have practically increased by 20%. We believe you understand this.
With an extra day, we finally have the comfort to do everything without rushing and we can even find time for additional races: national relays, dragons' race, tug of war. We will inform you about the details after registration closes.
This year we are going to revolutionize the sprint format. If we are not prevented by large breaking waves, we conduct an individual time prologue. Each competitor paddle solo. Tour de France fans know what we mean. The paddlers start one by one every 20-30 seconds when the course is “clear”. Left and right-hand course. Start and finish on the beach. The results of the prologue determine the division into groups of 8 or 10 people in the second series, which is conducted in a traditional way. Let's illustrate this with an example. 60 registered men start according to their starting numbers every 30 seconds. After 30 minutes the first sprint series is completed. Then we arrange the time results and divide them into groups of up to 10 people. Competitors with times from 1 to 10 advance to the final. Those with times of 11-20 fight for places 11-20. The slowest ones compete for places 51-60. However, we give a chance to people who did not go well in the prologue because, for example they tripped or lost a paddle. The two best players from a given heat advance to the heat fighting for higher places. Competitors who took places 1-2 in the heat for 51-60 places, move to the heat for places 41-50. This way, theoretically, the slowest competitor in the prologue can win the sprint competition, but he would have to work hard for it. This format seems to be fair in sports terms and saves the paddlers' strength and our time that we can use to hold sprint medal races for top paddlers of each age category. They compete directly within own age group. Additionally, we will be able to hold national relays on the same day. If we find that the water conditions are very different for the competitors, we can hold a traditional sprint with repechage.
In the case of technical races, we introduce an improved format too. We know how painful it is to go to a competition where, after a failed first race, you are eliminated from the competition for the whole day, watching the best racers compete for the next 2 or 3 races. For this reason, each competitor competes in three technical races, regardless of his or her result. We appreciate that you come to us and we assume that you should leave Kołobrzeg well and tired from paddling and not from sitting on the beach.
The above will be possible thanks to electronic time measurement. In the starter package you will receive a leg band with 3 chips and starting bib. Remember to race always with these two items. A lack of chip band or a bib will result in your absence on the finish line.
Additionally, we will have live streaming from the finish line, the results will be immediate and online. Each competitor will see her/his time on the screen at the finish line, will receive it via text message, and if they want to boast about her/his finish on social media, they will do it with one click.
The courses have changed a bit. Following your comments, we have shortened the technical races, which will not run under the pier (too far). We focus on the beachside spectacle near the lighthouse. Thanks to the use of electronic split time measurement, we return to course with two laps and a run over the beach (beaching).
Long Distance at sea has two lengths: full one of 9km and shorten on 4km (called MINI) for those who don’t want to participate in the full-length LD. Start lines from the same place as last year – inner Kołobrzeg port. However, we will have an additional starting line for MINI who will lead the PBSRTM peloton. They will be followed by women chased by men from the third starting line. We arranged the lines so that the fastest MINI competitors, women and men meet while passing the lighthouse, which is the place with the highest concentration of tourists in Poland during summertime.
In case of conditions that do not allow for a safe long distance at sea, we have prepared a surprise for you. We are blessed to have Parsęta river - the last resort in such sea turmoil. What you did on Sunday, August 6, 2023 will remain in our hearts for a long time. And that is why we have an improved emergency plan for you, i.e. a long 12km up the Parsęta River with a "test of truth" - the bridge at Młyńska street. It is a place of verification of skills and ego. We have been brought down to earth more than once. Literally - we had to walk around the bridge while being battered by the current reaching up to 10 km/h in winter. The summer current should vary between 5-7km/h. We do not order anyone to paddle against this current - it will be possible to walk 120 m under two bridges and bypass this bottleneck in order to continue the race. The U-turn buoy will be placed a few kilometers from the center of city in a place that will surprise you with its winter appearance in the middle of summer and at the same time your sense of smell will also notice an unusual situation. The return point will be beyond the Land of Cormorants. On the way back, you will paddle under the bridge on Młyńska on the left side, preferably in a sitting or kneeling position. There is no need to go around the bridge. MINI competitors will not have to face the bridge on Młyńska street. For them, we will locate the “MINI U-turn buoy” 100m before the famous bridge.
Do you remember who has the license for the yellow leader's bib No. 1 and 101? Of course, MVPs of 2023. It will be easier for you to chase the best. Bibs numbers 2-30 (men) and 102-120 (women) will be assigned according to rankings. We emphasize that this will be a discretionary matter, because we do not know all the paddlers and the form of those we know may be much different than we were able to know. Such an approximate ranking will be needed to fair the sprint prologue, which will affect the seeding for the technical races.
Communication between competitors, the regatta committee and the organisers will be done by Telegram communicator. Download it from GooglePlay or AppStore Then join us: Telegram PBSR2024.
The jury will be international: Poles, Czechs and Ukrainian. Our southern neighbors will support us with their experience from their Cup, which has been held for 7 years. Since we are part of the Czech Cup Series, your results will also appear on SUP Czech Ranking 2024
The Official Notice Board (ONB) will be updated electronically. We will also have information boards on the beach where we will post important updates.
We will be grateful for your comments regarding NoR: marek.rowinski.senior@gmail.com
See you in Kołobrzeg.
PBSRTM 2024 Race Committee