Three experienced and dedicated paddleboarders will be paddling the breadth of the Algarve from Sagres to Vila Real Santo Antonio. The journey is 160kms long and the team is attempting to complete it in five days.
Tom Longhurst from Algarve Marquees has lived in Lagos for years, Chris Grebby is a commercial pilot from Vilamoura and Nick Robinson is a digital marketer from São Brás de Alportel. They bonded over their fascination with all things SUP (Stand Up Paddleboarding).
“Paddleboarding as a pastime is severely affected by wind conditions,” said Nick Robinson.
“We aim to begin on September 21, but whether we start from Sagres or Vila Real de Santo António is in the hands of nature. We are attempting to paddle the distance completely self supported but we do have a support team standing by if we need any assistance.”
The ‘Trans Algarve Sup’ (#transalgarvesup), as the journey is being called, is the “second crossing we’re aware of and it aims to accomplish two things”.
Firstly, the team has reached out to support Vela Solidária (a project that teaches sailing to underprivileged children and people with disabilities, more specifically, João Silva – who needs to raise money to be able to buy a boat to continue sailing and start competing in 303 Singles. A donation page has been set up to help João reach his goal (http://bit.ly/transalgarvesup).
The second objective is to “launch the SUP Union by using this highly inclusive paddle week as an introduction to the club, which is essentially an email list sharing news of free weekly paddles across the Algarve.
“Come and cheer us on, we would love to see as many faces as possible along the route. We want to meet more paddle boarders and enjoy the community of amazing people that the sport delivers”, said Nick.
The team will share a tracker online so you will be able to know when they are paddling past your beach.
Sign up free for free at supunion.club. You can follow the group online on social media by searching #transalgarvesup. For more information, contact Nick Robinson.
+351 916 634 007 | [email protected]
