The annual Singapore Ocean Cup starts at the famous Sentosa Beach, host of many of the world best beach clubs, where paddlers will race around Singapore’s Southern Islands & navigating through the Singapore Channel, one of the busiest shipping routes of the World! Crews will be met with surprising water conditions and currents that will test fitness and racing strategies and promises to be an exciting couple days of racing for OC1/2, Surf Ski, SUP and OC6 paddlers. This year, in 2019, there were more than 580 registered athletes, between OC1 / OC6 / SurfSki and SUP battling on both short distance (7km) and a gruelling 15.5km Longdistance course for the Champion Title.
Starboard’s Dream team rider, Daniel Hasulyo, didn’t waste any time and headed to Singapore right after a successful ICF SUP World Championships the weekend before, where the Hungarian ultra-athlete racked up some solid podium finishes in Qingdao, China. Daniel catches up with us after winning his second Singapore Ocean Cup SUP race title.
“I was very excited to come back to race in Singapore. After my last experience in 2017, I knew that this is a real world-class event and a celebration of many paddling ocean sports.”
The race organisers promise this to be a super challenging event ~ and the Singapore Channel delivered just that.
“Crossing the channel to round and paddle along some picturesque tropical island formations can be extremely challenging. Imagine Paddlers suddenly dropping 50-200m just by hitting a gnarly current. One way I was going with 14-15km/h, the other way was fighting to keep 6-7km/h at times. Once you went around the little islands, after crossing the shipping channel one more time, on the home stretch you had to work hard for every single meter, fighting the against the current for 3kms, but if lucky and skilled enough, you could get little pushes from all the boat wakes if the direction and timing was right!”
After a successful race, Daniel only had a great appreciation for the event and encourages everyone to come and tackle it themselves next year.
“What to say, I am really happy to have won the title again! It has been really good to see how big the event is growing year by year and I can’t wait to be next year. If the distance and the conditions are not enough, never forget that you also have a solid humid and hot temperature to get comfy with! But honestly, I saw every single person leaving the water with big smiles and feeling of satisfaction and I think that’s what really ocean sports are about! Don’t miss out next year! Save the dates for the 2020 Edition!”
… and lastly, but not least, a big thank you to the Singapore Ocean Cup 2019 event organisers.
“I would like to say a special thank you to Mr Loh for securing me with the best equipment. I was using a 2019 Starboard Sprint 14 x 23 and my new favourite Lima Ltd XL paddle on a 35 Shaft.
Also big congratulations to Lukas And Ketut from Bali (Ripcurlschoolofsurf) for taking 2nd and 3rd on their first International SUP Race on the short distance course and for finishing 6th and 7th on the distance! You guys rock!
See you next year Singapore!”
~ Daniel Hasulyo
PC: Singapore Ocean Cup: https://www.facebook.com/singaporeoceancup/
