Yukon 1000

Saturday July 9 at 6:00 p.m. Nicolas Fayol and Samuel Vauthier cross the finish line of the Yukon 1000 on their Stand Up Paddle boards. An extreme and highly committed SUP race through one of the most remote territories on the planet.

Team French Paddler

After 7 days, 12 hours and 58 minutes, Nicolas and Sam cross the finish line of the world’s longest canoe and SUP race, an epic 1.000 mile adventure that stretches from the Canadian Yukon Territory to the os border. with Alaska. A “race” or rather an ulti-mate challenge that combines physical commitment, total isolation and mental strength. The competitors paddle 18 hours a day with the only human interaction, which is their teammate.

They are in total autonomy, no help is allowed. Food, camping gear, and safety gear (there are 33 items on the mandatory checklist) must be carried on the board from start to finish. In a canoe, weight is added, in a SUP board, it becomes a real ballast.

Near-endless daylight, sailing is a maze of bends and islands in the final stretches of the river, the stress of having to find an accessible place to sleep without bears on the riverbanks before midnight, and can begin to appreciate what is truly special about this event.

The rules of this race are quite simple: start from Whitehorse (Yukon Canada) for 1,000 miles paddling to the Dalton Highway Bridge (Alaska) as fast as possible with the only limit of six hours of rest each day. All teams must compete with a partner, which is relatively easy in a canoe but also involves paddling side by side, at the same pace, for over a week. To ensure organisms recover at a minimum, competitors must be out of the water 6 hours a day between 10 pm. and 6 a.m. An imposed rest period that, in the context of this race, fully participates in the wild adventure. Despite these mandatory breaks, the Yukon 1000 is still a race. Furthermore, most teams stick to these 6 hour breaks and paddling 18 hours a day, bordering on physical collapse to optimize them as much as possible and extend the distances.

Nicolas and Sam are the first French to participate in this event and also in Stand Up Paddle, but they were not the only “SUPers” in the race. It is not the first time that SUP has officially participated in the Yukon 1000 either: in 2014 Ben and Kim Friberg were the first to start and finish the SUP race, which convinced the organizers to allow this sport to participate in future editions. This year, 4 teams participated: the American-Canadian Pirates of the Yukon (Scott Baste and Brad Friesen), the Yukon ladies with Ella Oesterholt and Janneke Smits - van Leeuwende hollande. Of course, the French rowers Nicolas and Sam, and the English from Shac Craig’s team and skip were present at the briefing but unfortunately could not start due to Covid.

All finished the race and there are only 6 hours that separated the winners, Pirate of the Yukon, from our 2 Frenchmen. The Yukon ladies also finish up front with a little over 4 hours’ notice.

Only one of the 27 teams at the start dropped out of the race, but it should be noted that more than 200 teams were denied entry. The organizers have a rigorous vetting process to ensure only the most experienced are on the start line (Bren’s winning tan-dem kayak team Daniel Staudigel, and Jason Magness crossed in an incredible time of 5 days, 11 hours and 48 minutes.)

To put the distance and isolation of this race into perspective, it should be noted that more people working to the race (staff: runner/guide/partners) than people who expe-rience the race over the last 500 miles. of this river. Sam and Nicolás explained to us that an entire day had paddled without seeing any sign of life, not even an isolated cabin, let alone a human being. Apparently, more people climb Mount Everest each year than paddle the furthest reaches of the Yukon.

What is the Yukon 1000 and how did the idea of participating in this new adventure come about?

The Yukon 1000 is the longest race in the world and after having done the Dordogne Intégrale and then the Dordogne 360, it was obvious to do the Yukon 1000. To participate you have to submit a file with experiences in ultra, adventure and survival. At the end of the file submission, the organization selects 40 teams (200 applications). Then we received an email confirming registration in 2019 and suddenly we had to go on the adventure and start preparing what, due to the 2 Covid-related postponements, will have lasted 3 years.

Tell us about the preparations for this event, the logistics and all the necessary material for this great challenge.

Preparations and logistics were not easy with 2 postponements. The easiest part to manage is the hardware part. We have the support of Starboard for Samuel and Fanatic for Nicolás, which allowed us to take advantage of the advantages of their logistics platform to send the boards to Whitehorse (starting places). For the rest, the organization provided a list of mandatory equipment of more than 35 items ranging from self sufficient food for 10 days, to diving goggles and masks to prevent forest fires or even a satellite phone and a point location beacon. In short, the list is long and requires real involvement.

Once these data were received, we had to think about the installation on our boards and test that everything was in good condition. The 2 reports allowed us to do many autonomous outings to be able to test all this. We left with 30 kg each divided into 2 sealed bags of 40 and 60 litres placed on the front and back of our boards. The departure takes place in Whitehorse (Canada) and the arrival is 300 km from Fairbanks (USA), you just have to organize your flight and accommodation plans as for any trip. Then you always have to take the difficulties of transportation on the plane, the airline lost half of the equipment and we only recovered all our luggage the day before departure.

How many hours have you paddled and what was the distance covered?

It’s quite simple, we have to stop for 6 hours. We paddled “non-stop” between 10 am and midnight, so it represents more or less 18 hours of navigation per day. We covered 1600 km in 7 days and 12 hours, which makes an average of about 200 km per day.

The days were long. We made 5 minute breaks every 2 hours to have a bar or a piece of fruit in order to maintain a sufficient energy supply as the day progressed; the spaces between the breaks decrease and the time lengthens especially in the last days of the race. Around 1:00 p.m. there was a long break where we had our lunch a freeze dried meal prepared in the morning and eaten cold. For the last 2 days, we have also established a 15 minute break on the floor to take a micro nap.

What kind of conditions did the river and weather have during the whole tour?

We had some very special conditions, a very high water flow for the season due to the record snowfalls of the previous winter and exceptional weather with very high temperatures for the season. This explains the performance achieved in this edition. However, high water flows also have their drawbacks, as the small beaches on the river banks were underwater.

High heat and sometimes stormy weather caused many wildfires beyond Dawson City. We spent 3 days with a kind of veil wrapping the reliefs, it was the smoke from the surrounding fires and the atmosphere charged with a strong smell of burned wood. For us europeans, it is a real discovery, but one that is quite common in this part of the earth.

The river at first is european size, then widens to give way to many arms and islands in the last 200 kilometres that can reach up to 3 km wide. In the last 500 kilometres the navigation component really comes into its own, a trajectory error can lose you several hours (longer route and lack of power).

How were they organized to rest, eat and sleep?

The operation was fast. Once the resting point was found, they all took care of different tasks to maximize this rest time: Samuel organized the tent while Nicolás was in charge of preparing the food and lighting the fire. Once their jobs were done, they would eat and talk about the day and then set up camp: removing food bags and trash cans to avoid attracting bears. Installation of water filtration to fill the reserves for the next day and inflation of the mattresses.

Once in the tent, it was still necessary to charge electrical appliances, alarm clock and pepper spray nearby in case of intrusions by a large furry animal. They did 2 or 3 breathing exercises to relax and then sleep for about 4 hours.

Upon awakening, disassembly and packing of the equipment, preparation of meals for the day, breakfast, lunch and a small coffee. Preparing 2 Camelbacks for the day, reloading gear onto the boards and making sure nothing is left in the area where they rested. And if we summarize, finally there are 6 hours of rest divided into 3 stages:

- 1 hour assembly, food and relaxation. - 4 hours of sleep. - 1 hour of disassembly and food.

As we mentioned earlier, for lunch they would take a 20 minute break on the boards to maximize progress, because during this break they would make travel speeds of around 4 or 5 km/h.

Do you have to be very physically and morally prepared for these adventures?

Physically they knew what they would find having participated in the 725 km of the Loire last year. To prepare, they had established a simple principle: during the 6 months before the race, they had to cover 50 km. per week and some long outings. At this point, they were well prepared, but yes, it does require some good preparation.

In reality, the real challenge is above all mental, because beyond the physical fatigue, the distance, the pressure linked to natural limitations and the race regulations (finding the resting place, forest fires, the fauna that although everything has gone well, you are not familiar…) it is a significant mental load. At this point, being in a team is a real plus and allowing yourself to trust your partner when morale is low is a real plus. Hence the primary choice of a teammate!

Have you had any complications? Animals, bad weather, etc…

The fauna and flora bring particular stress during the preparation due to the lack of knowledge. We ran into lots of beavers, white necked eagles, and some moose. We didn’t see any bears even though there were nice tracks near our tent on the morning of the fourth day. Our adventure was full of twists and turns of incongruous moments, adventures more or less complicated to manage.

At the end of the 3rd day, we found a place to camp. Nicholas lands first, sinking thigh deep in some kind of soft sand. When he manages to remove the leg, his right shoe is no longer on his foot despite numerous attempts to retrieve it (20 min), the shoe is buried and unrecoverable. At that moment the nerves were released, a great stressful moment of doubt for the team. How to face the end of the trip without shoes when the banks of the river are weeds? Finally, a pair of very thick waterproof socks was the trick to get you to the end of the adventure.

Day 4, end of the day after a long day (18 hours paddling) Sam hit a rock 10m from the edge (unlikely) and ended up in the water, luckily we were able to camp right next to it. Nico went out of his way to help Sam “dry off and warm up.” Change clothes, light a small fire and set up the tent. A fall in itself is not insurmountable when it occurs during the day, but it is when it turns green. This implies that the clothes will not be able to dry, that the body will have difficulties warming up due to the lack of physical activity and it will add great logistical difficulty to set up the bivouac. That night, the food will be basic with a cereal bar. Despite our best efforts, the setup will have taken an additional 45 minutes, a waste of time, because we made the decision to keep our 4 hours of sleep for minimal restorative recovery time.

On the 6th day, Sam is bitten by horseflies and we pay no attention to it, the next morning Sam’s foot is swollen, and we worry even more as the swelling has spread to the calf by the end of the morning. They met the girls from the Faldon Albertans team Heidi and Alecia. They explained her problem with Sam’s leg and Alecia told them to call medical help. She gave Sam an antietamine. Setting up camp for the night, there was no real change in Sam’s leg, even worsening, swelling above the knee and he has difficulty walking. A. Given the evolution, they called for medical assistance to have more perspective on the subject and above all to be sure that they could finish without harming Sam’s health. After 1 hour of conversation, Sam is told to sleep with his leg up. Sam’s leg deflated the next day after a full night’s sleep with the leg suspended.

We could also tell you about the loss of GPS which will mean navigation on demand with reference points with your GPS / the disaster crossing the border thinking that it was the right bank and then what was the left bank. Every day he has had his share of ups and downs and that is what makes this race an adventure.

What are the best tips for someone riding the Yukon 1000 for the first time?

- Have a teammate with whom you can endure all the hardships of the Yukon. - Have consistent physical preparation and an infallible mind. - Be comfortable in the adventure, part of autonomy and survival.

The Yukon 1000 is an intense adventure both in its preparation and in its execution. Throw yourself into this project, because it does not accept half measures.

Are you going to repeat it?

The Yukon 1000 is the ultimate race. The adventure is beautiful and intense, and the mental and physical investment necessary for this achievement is a journey that we will have to absorb before we can get involved in such a project again. At the moment new participation is not in the program but you should never say never.

The competitors Iván de Frutos and Alexia Soto stand out showing a high level in an edition full of great promises of the national SUP Race IV GRAN CARRERA DEL MEDITERRANEO SUP RACE

Up Suping Fesurfing. Kurro Díaz

Every year more athletes stand out in this Stand Up Paddle modality, especially the youngest. We will undoubtedly remember the IV edition of the Great Mediterranean Race for its high participation of approximately 200 participants, highlighting the great results and performance obtained by the promises of this sport in Spain and Europe.

And after the passage of a storm called Dana, which had left abundant rains and strong winds on the Mediterranean coast, we had optimal conditions in what would be the last long distance competition within the Mediterranean SUP Race Circuit this year. The Elite and SUB 18 categories covered a 13 km route from Urbanova to Varadero beach in Santa Pola. The rest of the categories had different routes near the event area, next to the event area where the finish line for the running competition route departing from Alicante is also located.

The attention was undoubtedly focused on the competitors who started from Urbanova, where the youngest competitors showed us their great paddling skills along with other leaders in this sport. After a few kilometres paddled, we could already see the high pace of the race that everyone had attuned to the sea conditions at all times; especially the youngest.

In the men’s category, the young Iván de Frutos put in one of his best performances of the year and got the first place ahead of World Cup player Rafa Sirvent. Also impeccable was the performance of Daniel Parres, organizer of this test, who once again shows us his big experience in reading the sea and his great physical condition, obtaining third place overall and first Kahuna. Iván would also get the first position in the SUB 18 category.

The girls gave us a great show, with an amazing Alexia Soto and that once again confirms her great evolution in this sport, achieving first place both in the general classification and in the U18. Vicky Rizhova, a great connoisseur of this event, took the second position ahead of the young rider Andrea Veracruz. We highlight once again the spectacular performances of the youngest and the great work that clubs throughout Spain are doing so that this sport continues to grow.

Paulino Roca and Nana García were the winners in the category with the most participation, the Promo/Amateur, which covered 5 km along the coast of Santa Pola, the same as the SUB 16 category with Inés Blin and Pablo Carbonell climbing to the top from the podium. Rubén Cantoral and Nuria Chiquero got the first places in SUB 14, as well as Rodrigo García and Daniela Andreu in SUB 12, and Eric Perez and Mar Caudeli in SUB 10.

The great atmosphere of Stand Up Paddle has been reflected once again, not only in the water but also in the awards ceremony under a great festive atmosphere and with many raffles for all participants. We must congratulate the great work done by the Parres Watersports team, which already has extensive experience in organizing even international events.

Thank the Provincial Council of Alicante, Deportes Alicante, Santa Pola City Council, Elche City Council, Spanish Surf Federation, Fesurfing League and other collaborators for the great support offered to this great Mediterranean SUP Race event.