Fasten your seatbealts. Have you ever thought of entering a speed windsurfing battle with a stand-up paddle board?
While many sailors discuss the possibility of posting speed records with Formula boards, Craig Spottiswood goes further and strapless with a big gun under his feet.
SUP are not only big. They're heavy and hard to turn at full speed. That is not a problem for the Australian rider, as you can confirm below.
"I had the thought of giving my 12'6 SUP with 206 litres volume, a run at Sandy Point, Australia. It gave the other guys something to laugh about at as this huge board went flying down the run with its nose nearly a meter off the water and me hanging off the rear", explains Craig Spottiswood.
"With plenty of experience wave sailing the SUP and getting it flying on the swells, I knew how to trim it OK for speed. On the flat water, at Sandy, I had to re-trim again with the higher speed generating lots of nose lift as I tried to find that sweet spot on the huge amount of tail rocker".
"With no foot straps, you're all clear to spread out and try a few stances to compensate for the very forward mast foot position. With the wind angle a bit tight, it eventually took a huge gust followed by a big bear away into the channel chop to get a 34.43 peak and 2sec of 34.18. My 5×10 on the SUP was 31.9".