Connor Baxter and Noic Garioud are on top of 2022 Carolina Cup Technical Race Podium.
Here are some words from the king of SUP Sprint, Connor Baxter:
“Sunday was the Sprint Races and we hadn’t had much waves, but some solid wind, which put some texture and swell on the ocean.
I had to make it through two heats before lining up for the finals, so the game plan was to use those heats as a warm up and to get all the mistakes out of the way. In my first heat that’s exactly what happened, with a minor fall on the second buoy turn. Having that one fall was definitely a bummer, but at the same time I got that out of the way, so that when the semi final and final came around I was relaxed and focused.
The semis were stacked and only 4 of us made it into the finals. This time around no falls, but always little things to improve on so that the finals were flawless. Making it into the finals is always a relief and I was ready for action. The racers all lined up and I had my eyes set on that first buoy turn. The horn blew and I sprinted off the sand into the water with nice board speed allowing me to lock in first place from the start. The first turn went as planned whipping it around in first and started pounding upwind to the next turn. This turn was definitely tricky and I had already fallen on that exact turn in the first heat. It was more than a 180 degree turn straight into some side downwind swells, which I knew was my best chance. I heard a pile up behind me and took off chasing every swell possible. This gave me a little lead, but the race wasn’t over with one more turn and a big stretch into the beach. Noic was right behind me and I knew I had to paddle like crazy to maintain my lead. I caught some little swells that took me to the shoreline and ran up in first place.”
