For the past 25 years, the Langebaan Dash, has drawn 1000's of competitors from the sports of windsurfing, kiteboarding and Hobie cat sailing. Historically windsurfers have dominated the event and have only lost out to kitersurfers a couple of times. As many as 400 contestants of all ages raging from 7-70 take part in this fast and furious annual race, all with the sole aim — to finish and to finish fast!

Over the past few years the course has seen some changes, but it is still a giant slalom event over a distance of 17 km. The Langebaan dash has always been consistent in its start at Main Beach Langebaan and its finish at the Saldanha beach sailing club.

This year Stand Up Paddlers (SUP) were invited to join in, but on a more direct route of 12kms . This category of the Dash is now known as the Fanatic Langebaan SUP Dash. The course was designed and tested over the past few years and is now set to be part of the Dash for years to come.

Fanatic SUP were asked to get involved, through their Sales & Marketing Manager, Rob Munro. For the past 11 years Rob has never missed the event and has completed it as both a windsurfer and kitesurfer, he was also part of the testing crew from last years event. When asked by event organisers Owen Kitchen and Malcolm McGregor if he would co-ordinate and organise the SUP category, Rob jumped at the chance.

"The Langebaan Dash is an event NEVER to be missed! It is all about the challenge and for many people trying it for the first time, it is also quite a scary thought. You leave the safety of Main Beach and head out into the main part of the lagoon, round several buoys and pass massive iron ore ships, research vessels and the massive Ore Jetty. Once past the jetty, you then need to pick a course which doesn't seem either too far up or down wind of all of the mussel farms, moored boats and occasional ships in the way! It's certainly a challenge, even for the seasoned competitor, and it offers a rather unique perspective on the absolute beauty of the Langebaan Lagoon and Saldanha Bay area! When given this opportunity, I was thrilled, I love the dash and all of the rich history that comes with it, especially the camaraderie amongst the riders!"

The Fanatic Langebaan SUP Dash attracted 32 competitors this year, comprising of 22 Men, 7 women and 3 juniors. 4 of the South African team heading to the World Champs in Peru in February were amongst them, as well as many first timers and hardened paddlers. At 2.25pm, after the race briefing, Rob and Owen started the race. The SUP category was started before the rest of the event, in the hope that all category winners would arrive at the finish around the same time. The wind was southerly at Main Beach and strengthened to a steady 20+kts as the paddlers took off, skirting around Skaapen Eiland in the middle of the lagoon. The ideal course was to then head out west towards Donkergat and the "Christmas tree" on the southern entrance of the bay. Unfortunately there was a solid wind shift along the course to southwest and this provided the paddlers with a hard challenge involving paddling only to the right side and getting very few "runners!" Due to the challenging conditions, the times were somewhat slower than anticipated, but considering the conditions, it was still very impressive to see all but 2 of the participants valiantly arriving at the ION finish flags in front of the cheering crowd! Upon finishing many competitors were exhausted, but soon bounced back and were stoked with their efforts to complete the course, putting it down to a world class workout!

The first person home was the SA Junior Champ, Dylan Frick (15) on his 14' board, just edging out Chris Bertish who was using his 12'6". Following closely on their heels were Andrew Cillie, Peter Petersen, Pietro Muscas and Brad Adams. In the womens' race, Brigette van Aswegen dominated the field coming home in 1st, and was 3rd overall in the 12'6" class. Full details of all results follows this report.

The competitors were competing for the inaugural "Simon Cunningham Memorial Trophy" in honour of a great waterman. The Trophy was made from his classic Hawaiian wood paddle Simon had left in Langebaan and was return to it after a stint in Egypt teaching people to windsurf. He was a great guy and had spent many hours getting people onto the water through windsurfing, SUP and Kiteboarding. He was a great instructor who smiled all day long, but his fight with Pancreatic Cancer finally got the better of him and it is with his spirit, that the Trophy was born. The floating trophy will be awarded annually to a female & a male who complete the course in the fastest respective times. The first recipients of the trophy are Brigette van Aswegen and Dylan Frick. Congratulations to the both of you! Part of the proceeds from the day will be donated to a Pancreatic Cancer charity in his name on behalf of all of the competitors.

Huge thanks to Fanatic SUP & Surf, ION, Olaf & Jeff Marting @ Ocean Spirit, Owen Kitchen, Malcolm McGregor & the rest of the event organisers. Also to lucky draw contributors Peter Petersen & Cameron Rein from Watersports Warehouse (NaishSUP / Mystic), Gary van Rooyen from Expression & Coreban SA, Mykonos Resort and, of course, Jo Munro for all of the running around and background organisation. Thanks also to all of the essential rescue folks at the NSRI, all of the other safety volunteers and to Maneer Neptune and the wind gods. And finally, a MASSIVE thank you to all of the competitors who contributed to an excellent event and memories.

Plans are already underway for next year, so get training!

For full results click here

For more information about Fanatic SUP please visit www.fanatic-sup.com and their fan page www.facebook.com/FanaticRSA

Pictures by: Anna Marie Frick & Megan Grobbelaar, Gerhard Oosthuizen and Sandy Youngkrantz