Mike Tavares Wins 2 Big SUP Races
- Written by Erin Blunt Robbins
- Published in Profiles
- Comments::DISQUS_COMMENTS
Mike Tavares shows the paddle world just how strong and agile those coming from the whitewater stand up paddle community can be as he skillfully won both the H2O Overdrive river race, as well as the Boardworks Surf / Victory KoreDry Show Up and Blow Up Sup Cross.
Final Boardworks / Victory KoreDry SUP Cross Race at the Weber River 2012
Mike Tavares Interview after H2O 5 mile course·
Mike Tavares after Boardworks Surf / Victory KoreDry Sup Cross Race |
PARK CITY, Utah - Mike Tavares is definitely the current Utah Stand up Paddle Champion! It all began last Saturday the 28th of July with the H2O Overdirve 5 mile flatwater event at the Jordanelle Reservoir. Mike joined a premier group of elite athletes and raced on the Boardworks 14 foot M&M production board with an FCS SUP Slater Trout fin. The men raced for the better part of an hour and in the end Mike was the 14th man to cross the line. However, this was only the beginning.
The next day the same group of athletes headed out to the Weber River to have whitewater races and test their skills on the river. At the conclusion of the event an overall H2O Overdrive SUP Champion would also be determined based on the best combined performance in both the flatwater race and river sup cross. With a super keen knowledge of paddling in whitewater from his kayaking days, Mike Tavares made winning this race seem easy and his combined performances over the weekend did make him the overall eilte SUP champion at the H2O Summer Series.
Two days later, Mike Tavares returned to the Weber River to participate in the Boardworks Surf / Victory Koredry Show up and Blow Up Sup Cross. After many elimination rounds, only four men remained. They were Dan Gavere, Slater Trout, Riggs Napoleon and Mike. In the final moments of the race, Dan Gavere was in first place but was strategically over taken by Mike when he made a super tight turn around the last buoy and slipped into first place. That day Mike said he was using the Badfish MCIT inflatable board with FCS gx side bite fins but no tail fin.
A big congratulations to all the competitors and especially to Mike Tavares for some fantastic performances over the past week! More video coverage of all the events can be seen on the Supconnect home page under the "Live Video Updates" section.
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