Hello Sonni ! It’s your 3rd Alpine Lakes Tour race this year ! Are you addicted to the Alpine Lakes 😉 ?
YES!! 😉 Besides a great organization, the Alpine Lakes races are hold on really nice places. I don’t get to paddle in lakes so often, so it always has something really special to it. Returning to Talloires this weekend means a lot to me, this place brings back a lot of really good memories from beginning of this years GlaGla event.
Besides the racing aspect, it’s always nice to see so many people at the start line sharing the stoke for this sport. Specially at this times I noticed how important it is to reconnect with the paddling community, go out there, have fun, race agains each other with open hearts, just enjoying this moment and the opportunity to actually do this!!
2. The long distance is 18 km long : do you like this kind of distances ? How to manage your race, how do you manage long efforts ?
I love long distance, I’m not really a ”technical” or a “sprint” paddler. When I paddle long distances, I feel the absolute freedom – that’s the feeling it got me addicted to paddling 🙂 . Long distance, it’s the same like with the other disciplines, you practice for it, main thing you focus on, it’s your endurance. On a long race, you also have to work on your nutrition and hydration during the race. I highly recommend to built this in your training from the beginning, so it becomes a routine. They are some really good powders on the market you can add in the water of your hydration pack which provide you everything you need for a long paddle. I made the experience myself, sometimes you get so distracted with your surroundings that your forget to drink/eat. When you feel thirsty or hungry, it can be already too late to avoid fatigue and going down on your performance.
3. This year the practice of paddleboarding has increased enormously everywhere, how do you see the future of our sport?
Yes, it’s crazy!! Stand Up Paddling seems like the perfect “Social Distance” Sport 😉 – specially in Europe it increased a lot. I think that many people who tried SUP for the first time, see the benefits it offers and will continue with this sport. It´s good for the fitness & mind, good for yoga on the board, it’s a family sport, you get to explore many beautiful paces out of a different perspective, you get a tan 😉 and on top of all – It’s fun!! Many people need a good motivation to have a goal when they go out paddling/training. That´s why I think that the Alpine Lakes tour event, it’s a great “first race” for a recreational paddler to take part in. It´s also important to guide those people, show them the right paddling technique to be able to get the maximum out of SUP, avoid injuries and have a good time on the water!