ICF SUP World Cup and SUPER Festival, Torquay 2026

All it takes is a dream, the support of local Council and businesses, paddlers, the National Governing Body and an International Federation, to bring the biggest SUP racing event to the UK. This event was 3 years in the making and if that makes it sound daunting, exciting and successful, it most definitely was. 

Over 200 paddlers descended on Torquay last weekend to take part in the ICF SUP World Cup and/or the SUPER Festival event, both competitions running side by side to make sure that the paddlers were all covered, whatever their ability. 

Alongside the paddlers, were an army of volunteers for both on and off the water activities, family, friends and supporters together with dignitaries, event and race directors, brands and businesses, photographers and the media crew. Torbay certainly was a thriving place to be last weekend. 

So, let’s get down to the racing – this was an international event, and there were 12 nations competing, from Ireland to Italy and Switzerland to India and some of the best names from those countries came to support the event. 

In this week’s blog we are going to focus on the ICF competition – next week we will showcase the SUPER Festival event. 

On Friday morning, in preparation for the Sprint racing, the beach looked resplendent with tents, barriers, volunteers in matching tees and caps, and boards of all shapes, sizes and colours, being put on the beach as well as all the paddlers.   

There were also fairly testing conditions, and although the sky was blue, there were strong winds and this made for tricky starts which were coming from the pontoon to the short beach finish. The volunteers certainly had their work cut out holding onto the boards before the start gun! 

SUP racing can always throw surprises but there were none in the Open category finals with Spain’s Manual Hoyuela Rojas and Italy’s Cecilia Pampinella taking Gold. Manu had the fastest and only sub-minute time of the day in 59.9. Italy’s Tommaso Pampinella and France’s Greg Limelette romped home for Silver and Bronze and for the ladies it was Swedish Michelle Kimbler in Silver position and Emily Louise Evans who took Bronze for Great Britain. 

The junior men were fierce and as fast as the Open category! Gold went to Portugal’s Lourenco Viveiros, Silver to UK’s Alfred Gregory, with Milosz Sytnik taking Bronze. 

Age category races are always hard-fought, and these were no exception. In the women’s Master 40+, Susanne Lier claimed the title ahead of Holly Grist and Merle Wilson, while in the Master 50+, local girl Marie Buchanan claimed victory ahead of Sara Oddera and Sonya Brotherton. 

In the men’s Master 40+, Padhraic O’Connor took the win ahead of Glen Sloss and Dave Scott, while Kiran Raval won the Master 50+ category with Bruce Smith second and Karl Eugster third. 

It was spectacular to watch the racing from the beach, and it really set the scene for the next two days. 

Onto Saturday’s testing tech course, all with great viewing not only from the beach but the promenade wall – the Event director made sure there were 2 perfectly placed buoy turns so those not familiar with SUP racing, could really appreciate the speed and skill of the athletes, and there was plenty of that! 

A beach start straight out to the first right hand turn meant paddlers had to be quick off the mark to reach it first and get around cleanly. Seven buoy turns in total and a beach finish made for great viewing. 

In the Open women’s, Cecilia Paminella took her 2^nd Gold with GB’s talented young gun Annabel Page coming in for Silver and Poland’s Hanna Kaminska taking Bronze. 

Manuel Hoyuela Rojas also claimed a second victory ahead of Greg Limelette and Tommaso Pampinella in the Open men’s class. 

The Junior men raced with the Open men and really showed their speed and talent against them; Portugal’s Lourenco Viveiros just beat Great Britain’s Alfred Gregory by a whisker, with Poland’s Milosz Sytnik in third. 

In the Master 40+ women, Susanne Lier once again took Gold with South coast paddlers Louise Court and Holly Grist coming in for Silver and Bronze. In the Master 50+, Marie Buchanan, who was born and bred in Torquay, took Gold again, with Italy’s Sara Oddera taking the Silver medal and Sara Maxey in Bronze. 

Dave Scott took a well-deserved Gold in the Master 40+ ahead of Padhraic O’Connor and Glen Sloss with Sebastian Monserrat Orell taking Gold, Paul Drake Silver and Kiran Raval Bronze in the Master 50+. 

Another wonderful day in the bag and the paddlers and all involved left the site to eat and hydrate before the last day on Sunday.  

The distance race headed away from the beach in waves for each category. Paddlers headed up to Paignton Pier and back again in an 8km race, with a fierce headwind going up and a nice tailwind before rounding the last buoy into a sprint finish on the beach. The wind increased over the day, making it more of a challenge for the later categories.  

For the Open men, Manual Hoyuela Rojas took the clean sweep and claimed his third Gold of the weekend, with France’s Greg Limelette taking Silver and Italy’s Tommaso Pampinella taking Bronze.  

Cecilia Pampinella was looking forward to testing conditions, and these played to her strengths in this race. Taking another Gold, she certainly dominated this competition in Torquay! Annabel Page was not far behind and was delighted to claim Silver with Germany’s Skadi Langbein taking Bronze. 

Alfred Gregory finally claimed the Gold medal and took the third fastest time of the day and Great Britain’s Drew Barber took Silver. So good to see these talented juniors pushing the Open classes! 

Onto the Master 40+ women, with Susanne Lier sweeping her third Gold of the competition, Louise Court in Silver and Gemma Palmer-Deighton Bronze. Marie Buchanan once again took Gold in the Master 50+, with Italy’s Sara Oddera in Silver and South coast paddler Sonya Brotherton in Bronze.  

In the Master 40+, Padhraic O’Connor took Gold, with Glen Sloss, who had travelled all the way from the Isle of Arran, taking Silver and Jonathan Sherwin Bronze. A very happy Bruce Smith took a close victory in the Master 50+ over Sebastian Monserrat Orell, with Denzil Williams taking bronze. 

Medals were handed out each evening, and I was honoured to be a part of this. To call out the names of your friends and some of the best paddlers in the world was a joy. 

There are some lovely places to eat in Torquay and an interesting walk from the beach to the ‘banjo’ which is where the medal ceremony was held. Fish and Chips, ice cream and candy floss stalls, all make this town what it is – a proper English seaside town. For this weekend though, it was home to one of the biggest SUP race competitions in the world, only one a year is held through the International Canoe Federation and with one man’s dream, it actually happened – I am still having pinch me moments. We must applaud Brendon Prince for keeping that dream alive – for me and many others who were there, this will remain a special event in our hearts. 

We’d also like to send our huge congratulations to all the paddlers who came, saw, conquered (or nearly did) at the ICF SUP World Cup 2026 in Torquay – you really were awesome! 

You can watch all the racing on the dedicated YouTube channel here: ICF SUP WORLD CUP & SUPER FESTIVAL COVERAGE 

You can also check out all our photos from this event (distance photos being added soon) which are supplementary to the official ones: SUPJUNKIE WEBSITE EVENT GALLERY 

Full results of the ICF SUP World Cup can be found below: 

ICF SUP WORLD CUP SPRINTS A FINAL FULL RESULTS 

ICF SUP WORLD CUP SPRINTS B FINAL FULL RESULTS 

ICF SUP WORLD CUP TECH FULL RESULTS 

ICF SUP WORLD CUP DISTANCE FULL RESULTS 

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