We continue with our daily interviews about GlaGla Race participants. Today Leonard Nika, one of the top paddlers in the world.

Leo, it’s your third GlaGla Race, what do you like about this event ?

I like the GlaGla Race because it’s in a beautiful location, paddling with 400 people in a lake surrounded with beautiful mountains full of snow is something that you can’t do every day and always well organized. I like also the challenge of this race, because there is always good competitors to test my strength in off season.

This year I will try to improve my 2nd place in a photo finish and bring home the victory!

Do you have a special training programme or preparation for winter conditions ?

I don’t have a special training for winter conditions, the only thing I do when is winter is to make sure that my feet and my body are always well protected with thicker neoprene so they stays always warm.

2019 is just starting ! Your resolutions and/or projects for this new year ?

My plans for this year are a bit different from last year, instead of doing every weekend a race I will focus more in my training for a big event to maximize the possibility of a victory!! I also will work on my sup training camps in Portugal that I started last year and it was a great success. This year we have available one week per month for all 2019 sup training camps for everyone that want to train hard having fun with a supervision of my self and my brother Claudio Nika. If someone is interested you have to send an e-mail to niksurfer@hotmail.it to get more info.

Thank you for this interview and I’m very looking forward to compete at the GlaGla Race in few weeks,

Leonard

The Paddle League

The Paddle  League was created in 2018. The GlaGla Race will be the first Paddle League event of 2019.

“Welcome to The Paddle League, where we aim to help build a better, brighter and more sustainable future for stand up paddling that benefits everyone who’s part of this amazing community.

We’re aiming to help unify, elevate and grow the great standalone events around the world while providing the elite athletes, weekend warriors, brands, fans and media a wider platform to stand on.

We also firmly believe in reconnecting SUP with its “grassroots” foundation, which means a stronger emphasis on amateurs, juniors and simply getting more people out there on the water for the first time. Because that’s the heart of our sport.

The Paddle League, which I’ve helped to co-found over the past six months with my good mates Kelly Margetts and Brian Meyer (along with the support of many other selfless paddlers), aims to achieve this by creating a unified, inclusive world tour (an evolution of the SUP Racer World Rankings) that connects everything from the awesome international events to the amazing regional races.”

More about the Paddle League