Starboard decided to help young 17 old Indian SUPer Girl Tanvi Jagadish to complete the Carolina Cup, a mission started by Hawaiian racer April Zilg. She was provided with an Allstar racing board to train and compete on and the missing 500 usd to complete the crowdfunding goal set by April Zilg. This is her first hand account of the race.
Hi,
This is me, Tanvi Jagadish. I am 17 years old. Before I start to tell about my experience about the West Marine Carolina Cup I would love to thank the awesome team over at Starboard SUP for helping me out so much. It feels like family with being helped by the Starboard people. Like izze Gomez, Fiona Wlyde, Zane, Michael, Bruno, and Connor. They are all so nice.
Michael Booth gave a spot on his clinic to Tanvi before the race as well as other riders giving her master classes such as Zane, Fiona or Bruno.
April Zilg invited me to come to this event last year. I met her when I was young. She had come to India with Corey. That time she stayed with us in the surf retreat (Mantra Surf Club). Then I also got interested in SUP and started participating in the competitions happening back home in India ~ I soon started winning all the Nationals happening in India.
Tanvi finished third in the under 17 category here with Elite 2nd Fiona and 3rd Olivia
This was my first SUP event in USA but before this I had represented India in Fiji at the 2016 ISA World SUP & Paddleboard Championships. The West Marina Carolina Cup was a good race. People are so commited. Here the people love the sport so much. The start of my 6 mile race was crazy. So many of them who did 6 mile all started together, that was little bit crazy but was still fun. The wind was blowing strong too and when I had the chance of downwind the Allstar 12’6 was really awesome ~ I almost raced around 5 people on the short downwind stretch. It was super fun…
A big thank you to Fiona also she gifted me a Starboard paddle!!
It was great experience, I met so many people and I learnt a lot.
Aloha,
Tanvi Jagadish
