The Far North SUP Triple Crown is a three day paddleboard race event set in the glorious Bay of Islands, over the 3 day King’s Birthday Weekend in June. Following very successful events in 2016, 2017 and 2018, the event went one further and became part of the NZ SUP Nationals in 2019. 2020 saw a break for Covid reasons, but the 2021 event was another great success and introduced some fairly exciting new formats to the competition, while the 2022 event saw some awesome new locations added to the schedule, along with a day of technical racing in near perfect weather conditions.
The overall plan is always the same; a late start on Saturday, and an early finish on Monday, to allow those from further afield plenty of time to make it to/from home. Or to enjoy the huge range of other activities available in the Bay of Islands (see the ‘other attractions’ page).
The idea is to try and achieve the widest possible variety of racing. Ideally, a decent downwinder, some fun surf/technical racing, and some good flat water racing too. (Or, for those for whom downwinders/technical racing sound a bit offputting, a variety of interesting flat water races in safe sheltered locations).
This year, we will be keeping our options open until the very last moment and will be making the call for the location of each race on the day before, so as to make the most of whatever wind and weather conditions are on offer. However, all the events will be based in the Kerikeri/Paihia general area.
The event is run very much to ‘Northland Style’ – it’ll be laid back, informal, and we ask you to approach it with that spirit. It’s about hanging out with like minded people and enjoying some good competition on the water in and amongst some great scenery.
The other unique thing about the competition is that to qualify for the overall results, you can only use one board for all the races.
We have absolutely no idea what the weather will bring us this year – but we’ll do our best to ensure that a good time is had by all.
See you soon!