Guest Blog - Glyn Smith

We spoke to Glyn Smith who has a passion for One Design SUP racing – he has years of experience of this and racing in other events and challenges too – Glyn recently put out a survey and the results are interesting. Congratulations too for the success of this weekend’s event - so much love coming out for the format and vibe!

RACING THOUGHTS from GLYN SMITH 

Hello everyone, my name is Glyn and I’m a SUP racer. Well, less so now, but for a few years I did quite a bit, and there may be some relevance to this shortly! 

My background… 

 I came into the SUP world relatively late in life (late 40s). I used to canoe and kayak a lot but stopped due to family and work commitments. I’d seen SUP popping up on social media and really fancied a go but always seemed to see it at the wrong time of year, and so never followed it up. 

 That all changed when I replied to a post looking for people who wanted to go paddleboarding and get fitter. It turns out that a new SUP race club was being formed in my area. After a bit of dithering (I dither a lot!) about can I commit and would I be fit enough, I replied and got a ‘yes, you’re in, are you free this weekend’ response. That how I found myself bundled into the back of a van with total strangers and driven to Bala in Wales for my baptism by SUP. After a few quick lessons, I found myself on a N1SCO One Design board and entered in a UK SUP race. I’ve a vague memory of sprints, but the biggest takeaway from the weekend was the lung bursting 5km race down the lake, trying to beat the Steam Train and any other paddlers. It was type two fun, but I was hooked! 

From then on, I did most of the UK SUP series as well as the official N1SCO races. The Saltwalk gang were great. Just the right mix of fun and serious, with more than a sprinkling of nuts, and this really cemented my love of the One Design concept. The next few years saw more racing and events. UK SUP became GBSUP, there were challenges such as Trent 100 and Loch Awesome, bigger races such as Paddle Skedaddle and the Viking Challenge, all of which I did on my trusty yellow and black Naish One. There were even a few podiums - I bagged a second place 12’6 iSUP at the Skedaddle and won the GBSUP N1SCO Sprint series. Sadly, COVID came along and stuck quite a large spanner in the works. Afterwards, SUP sales rocketed in the entry level market, but it seemed that racing didn’t pick up again as fast. For the N1SCO fleet, things were worse as the class was dropped by major races, and it later became uncertain if Naish themselves would continue to produce the boards.  

With social media came the memories. Facebook kindly showing you what you did one, two, five years ago. It was always very bittersweet. The N1SCO events were special. There was an atmosphere you didn’t get at other races, and the racing was always serious and usually very close. The boards are not especially fast, but they are beginner friendly and on the startline was a mix of world champions rubbing paddles with total novices. Being inflatable, board contact was allowed, especially during the sprints where you learned that a one-inch gap at the buoy turn is more than enough to fit a N1SCO through! Conditions were not always the best - Swanage had some serious swell and wind at times, but after the sweat and hard work on the water, sitting on the beach with a bunch of likeminded paddlers with fish and chips, a beer and the sun going down really was magical. 

I really like the One Design concept. I know it’s not perfect as some boards will suit different people, but everyone is on the same equipment. You don’t need a quiver of different boards for flat water, open water, downwind - everyone has the same gear and the (mostly) same disadvantages. It’s much more about the paddler than the equipment. The events were also a full day (or occasionally two) on the water. There was a distance races around 5km, a much shorter technical race and sprints. You went home feeling like you’d had a full day on the water. There were always at least 100 paddlers at these events. 

A couple of years back I arranged a nearly one design race at my local lake. This was the NotTheN1SCOs. We had around 30 paddlers racing on our technical, distance and sprint races. It was so much fun that we decided to do it all again for 2025. 

With the misty-eyed nostalgia of the N1SCO events, there was also a touch of reality being mixed in. Whilst the Naish One is still quite a common board amongst seasoned paddlers, there are few new paddlers with them, and even fewer still who knew what the racing was about. So with that in mind, I put a survey out on social media and had over 120 replies. Some of it made for interesting reading. If you take the stats at face value, most replies were from experienced racers (88% had competed in at least one race). There’s a 55/45 Male/Female split, and the median age is somewhere in the mid to late 40s. 

The race comments and replies were very interesting. There’s a proper mix of paddlers wanting serious ultra races (nutters!), challenges such as Trent 100 and then many replies looking for a ‘Fun event’. The most popular distance requested was 5-10km (21%), tied with 10-15km (also 21%). Technical racing saw 43% wanting 1-3km races. Sprints surprised me a little with the most popular category for straight line (standing start) at 39% - Surely being attacked at the buoy turn is half the fun! 

31% would like to see a race series, with 16% just wanting a single race.  35% have no preference. 79% would also like to see a challenge category alongside the main racing. 

The final comments section had several similar replies. “More grassroots”.  “More inclusive racing”, “Make it for everyone”. 

Reading the results with an admittedly biased eye, it did read like there was a need for N1SCO style events. You can compete at any level, and don’t need a small fortune to buy boards each year (well, given that 43% own 5 or more boards, that may be a moot point!). 

Another fun aspect of the sport is the rise of AquaPaddle. This is such a good concept. It’s a wet Parkrun. You rock up on a Sunday Morning, paddle 5km and then go home. You’re timed, but whilst you can race, it you against yourself. Can you improve on last week’s time? Paddlers turn up on anything from the ubiquitous Lidl special (I’ve got one as well, just don’t mention the kayak seat…) to carbon race boards. It’s so good to see. 

This loops my ramblings back to the One Design racing. As much as it pains me to say, N1SCO is dead as a race class, but I certainly think there is much to take forward as its legacy. With all that in mind, and after talking with a few fellow paddlers/racers, we’re looking to start an iSUP race series in the Midlands for 2026. Keeping it relatively simple with three board classes - over 13’, under 13’ and under 11’. Three disciplines at each event; a twisty tech race, some sprints and a 5km distance. We’re hoping to have three events next year in May, June and July. It’s inflatables only and absolutely everyone is welcome. 

We’re looking to bridge that gap between club and social paddlers who may take part in the occasional AquaPaddle or club race, and the more serious GBSUP type races. We want fun, serious racing. We want a full day on the water. We want to encourage new racers to join the startline and get stuck in because it does wonders for your non-racing paddling as well. We want you to go home and be counting down the days to the next event. We want to hear the tales from the buoy turns where you got knocked off but still managed to make the sprint final. We want to see you get the bug and sign up for the Paddle Skedaddle, or the Great Glen Ultra, or SUP12, or The Eliminator, or GBSUP. 

We’re just starting with our Pump n Paddle race series. We have a Facebook page (with not a lot on there), but there is a fair amount going on behind the scenes. Details will hopefully be emerging very soon. Please come and follow us on  

 https://www.facebook.com/PumpnPaddleUK 

For SUP racing to grow, we need to encourage grassroots paddlers onto the start line. N1SCO did just that. Let’s see if we can get more paddlers on the race scene for 2026.