03/10/2013 (NL) Martijn van Deth and Carla Schellert win N1SCO Race at HISWA

For the second year in a row, Naish presents, together with Oxbow, the Battle of the Fastest. The 2013 battle season kicked off with a Race this weekend during the HISWA Amsterdam Boat Show on Sunday, March 10th.

It was a race of the new class called N1SCO, a series of sprint elimination races where everyone battles on the Naish ONE 12’6” Inflatable boards (provided by Naish Benelux).

The N1SCO races are held worldwide with a European final in Switzerland and a world championship in Las Vegas. An important point in this race is that all suppers at the same battle board (One Naish 12’6”), this means that you only need to bring your own paddle. Do not have a paddle, then this is not a problem, one will be provided. This makes the race easily accessible, spectacular and fun!

The format is knock-out format, 2 paddlers against each other and the better one advances to the next round. The course was a 2-lap course with one buoy at each end in a pool that was about 100m long, different from the German Indoor Champs or the London Boat Show race, there was only one buoy at each end around which both riders had to make their turn. Also the start was not from land, not water. This means the paddlers were standing on land behind the board , that was in the water, preventing the board from drifting away with their paddlers and as soon the start signal came they had to run or jump onto the boards, not too easy on the inflatables, the turns were also spectacular to watch, with 2 paddlers paddling around the same buoy in the small pool.

After 3 Rounds, 5 men made it to the semi-final, Martijn van Deth, Dinant Rode, Ricardo Haverschmidt and Patrick Smits. So in the first heat of the men’s semi-final there were actually 3 men in the pool at the same time. Martijn, who won 4 Eurosupa Races last yer and Ricardo, who had finished 5th in the 2012 Eleven City Tour made it to the final, which Martijn van Deth won.

Check out the video from the final:

For the ladies, the final was Rotterdam SUP Regatta winner Carla Schellert vs. Petra Offermanns, just back from the ISA World Championships in Peru. Both had met before and paddled against each other at the Eleven City Tour, albeit on a much longer distance. Carla won all heats and finished first for the ladies. Congratulations to all winners and thanks to the organizers for a fun day on the water!