Did you read about the foursome of Olympic class sailors, past and present, who will take to their stand up paddle boards on Saturday 27th October for the 2012 Starboard Paddle for Hope - an annual charity fundraiser festival of Stand Up Paddle Boarding (SUP)?
Dubbed the Real Sailors - Andrew ‘Hurricane Force’ Brown, Marcus ‘Mad Dog’ Hansen, James ‘the Terminator’ Turner and JP ‘Twin Turbo’ Tobin will hit the water at Auckland Viaduct going up against other teams including an Emirates Team New Zealand entry in a fun relay race.
Check out this great little clip of a recent Real Sailors training session.
Andrew Brown explains how the Real Sailors team was formed...
“Following a recent paddle training session off Takapuna Beach the standard beach banter ensued: Who beat who? Why my board is faster? My technique is clearly more efficient! The usual topics until the discussion turned o an upcoming event - Paddle for Hope.I thought, wow this is a great cause. It’s a relay and if I can arrange three really strong paddlers they may pull me through to a decent result! Subsequently the team of "The REAL Sailors" (TRS) was born - TRS is tasked with the simple yet complex aim of reaching out to both the sailing and broader communities to raise awareness and funds for a very worthy cause - The New Zealand Breast Cancer Foundation.”
Andrew and his team are clearly keen to pit their skills against the other sailing entry; “In addition, we were all very concerned that the only ‘sailors’ entered into the event were from Emirates Team New Zealand - very much a fish out of water scenario and clearly teams not up to the task of representing sailing in the very tough environment of SUP racing,” he jokes. “So here we are stepping up first and foremost for a great cause and also making sure sailing is strongly represented at The Paddle for Hope 2012.”
Come Saturday 27th this awesome foursome will have to prove that their on-water skills match their talk.
All for a good cause the Starboard Paddle for Hope event raises awareness and funds for the New Zealand Breast Cancer Foundation. You can donate and support the Real Sailors.