Scotland heading to ISA SUP World Championships

For the first time ever Scotland is sending a team to the ISA SUP World Championships. Following the Scottish Surfing Federation (SSF) National Championships at Portobello Beach, Edinburgh, Alison Rennie, Angela Kerr, Glenn Sloss, Jennifer Ng, and Jonathan Sherwin will be representing Scotland in the Tech, Distance, and Sprint races in Copenhagen in September 2024.

To get a flavour of what this means for the team we hear from one of the athletes, Jonathan Sherwin, on his journey to the Scottish National Championships and his preparation for the World Championships.

Team Scotland are raising funds to cover some of their costs in reaching Denmark. At the end of the article there's more information on how you can you help.

---

Jonathan Sherwin at the Scottish National Championships

I saw the event pop up on Facebook. The SSF were going to run the first Scottish National SUP Championships, with the event winners given the chance to go on to represent Scotland at the upcoming ISA World Championships in Denmark.

My race calendar was updated; my training schedule was adjusted. The National Championships became my immediate and total priority.

As a proud Scotsman who has spent more time living south of the border that north of it, I was very excited, and a little bit apprehensive, to head home for the championships. My first paddle strokes were taken on the Clyde and I have memories (mostly wet, windy, and cold) of west-coast outings and adventures as a child. When my father’s military career took him to England, we all moved house and headed for Bath. I remember a house-hunting trip where, as a treat, we had McDonalds. When I asked for Irn Bru the server just stared at me blankly. I declared to my parents we shouldn't move on this basis alone!

How I Got Into SUP Racing

I’ve been paddling on and off for most of my life. From whitewater kayaking, to surf kayaking, to discovering SUP surfing during its early days in Hawaii, to most recently getting into SUP racing; I have a deep love for being on the water with a paddle in hand.

A strong paddler, I’d never have considered myself an endurance athlete. I hated cross country running at school – well, I hated not doing very well - but loved rugby. I dabbled with rowing at university briefly, which showed me that I can enjoy training, and reinforced the strong-but-not-endurance-oriented view of myself.

SUP racing was kind of accidental for me. I bought a raceboard after the first lockdown in 2020, as a way of keeping fit on a nearby river when I couldn’t go surfing. Someone then said, ‘Well, as you have the board, why don’t you try racing?’ So, I registered for the GBSUP Cardiff race with absolutely no clue. I hadn’t watched videos of racing. I hadn’t seen, let alone trained with, other racers. It was only when I turned up to Cardiff that I observed, ‘Oh, there are other people that look like me here!’.

I didn’t do well in that first race. I hurt for days afterwards. I remember some spectator shouting  ‘cadence!’ from a bridge at me. I had no idea what that was or why it was important …

Falling in Love with Training

But I was bitten by the bug. I wanted to improve on my performance, so I started training. I found an old training plan online from Mick De Betta and started following it. I went back to Cardiff the following year and did a bit better.

And so, I got into it. I started racing more, including ocean racing, and covering longer-distance races like the Paddle Skedaddle, and even the Great Glen Challenge. The training was working. My average speed over the 12+ hours and 92km of the Great Glen race was faster than that first 10km race at Cardiff.

But I still didn’t feel like an athlete. Being based in England meant racing often against some very fast paddlers. These young, lithe paddlers were smoking me, and their balance control made them look like there was some sort of magnetic-like connection to the board.

But my love for the sport, my passion for hard work, and a new training buddy, Paul, kept me training hard. In my younger days if you spent time around me you may have heard me say that I don’t like doing things that I couldn’t see myself being the best at. That wrote off a number of things I enjoyed doing, but didn’t see myself going very far in.

That may be for the psychologist to dive into, but what I have found in paddling is a purer passion that has pushed me beyond this self-selecting, restrictive viewpoint. I am working on adjusting my mindset and changing my viewpoint that ‘I am not an athlete’.

Tom Clancy once remarked that half of what makes an elite soldier is telling them they’re elite, and then letting them live up to it. Perhaps the same is true of an athlete. Quit saying you can’t do something/won’t be someone, and start acting like you are it, and see where you end up.

I’ve been working with April Zilg for the past year, recently stepping up to a fully personalised coaching plan with her. I’ve learnt a tonne from her input on how to think, train, live as an athlete. I’m 40 years old and I’m discovering and developing a part of me that I just didn’t foresee.

Scottish National Championships

Having made the Edinburgh races I priority I was nervous for the Scottish National Championships. I was nervous to compete, and perhaps even more nervous to qualify. I didn’t sleep well the night before but after breakfast and getting to the event location in good time I felt a peace before the racing. A calm.

The tech race started tentatively for me, feeling out the route and the competition of the first lap. I moved into the lead sometime on the second lap I think and held on to take the win.

Then the sprints. I had been training for this. My endurance has come on massively after training to plans, but I am still in principle a strong, explosive paddler. The sprints were what I was targeting.

I had a plan for this race. Get to the buoy first, with something to spare, then put the hammer down on the way home. I chose my starting position on the inside line, and after a brief wobble at the start, pretty much had as close to perfect an execution of a plan for a sprint race that I’ve ever had. Emily Evans in a coaching clinic introduced me to the concept of visualisation, and it worked for me well in a race last year. It worked here too. By focussing beforehand and mentally picturing what I wanted to achieve and how to achieve it, my body had committed to a plan that it could execute in the heat of competition when energy for thinking is lower.

I won the sprints [video available on Facebook] to become Scottish National Champion in both disciplines. As I crossed the line, Ally from the SSF shouted, ‘So, do you want to go to Denmark?!’

Off to Denmark

And so, I am training hard for the World Championships. I’m on the water 4-6 times a week, and in the gym 2 x week. I’m monitoring my nutrition, and my rest. I’m working with a physio to improve range of motion, avoid injury, and develop flexibility.

I want to be in the best shape possible, come September, to do my best for my country, for my teammates, and for myself. SUP is a wonderful sport. It’s accessible and fun. Scotland is a stunning place to SUP – having raced the width of the country I can testify to that - and if we can help build the profile of paddling in Scotland, let’s do it!

Because there are young people who might be intrigued by what we get up to, and give it a go, and find a lifelong passion. Because there are older people who might be inspired to find something more in themselves, something fresh, and in the process find out more about who they are.

I am beyond proud to represent the nation I have cheered for so passionately for my life. I have screamed myself hoarse in a little corner of the Principality Stadium for over 20 years for SCOTLAAAND. And now I get to compete in Blue and White myself. Never would I ever have dreamed it.

Supporting Team Scotland

Your support for Team Scotland is so appreciated. As self-funded athletes we have to cover entry fees, kit costs, travel fees, accommodation, not to mention training, coaching, and equipment costs. I do it because I love it and I’m proud to represent the country. If you want to give to help our dreams materialise, and hopefully inspire a whole bunch of people in Scotland to pursue their paddling journey, we’d be very grateful to receive your donation. Thank you!

Team Scotland are also looking for corporate sponsorship. For more details please email info@thessf.scot