Chris Curry Finishes First at the East Coast Paddleboard Championships on the new Morrelli & Melvin 12’6 Race SUP by Boardworks

Chris Curry of Wrightsville NC captured a championship victory in the stock division at the East Coast Paddleboard Championships at Ponce Inlet, Florida on his new Morrelli and Melvin (M&M) 12’6″ Zoom race board by Boardworks. This was his first event on his new M&M and it proved be a great success. Chris says, “The M&M’s performance was seamless, very fast and fluid in the water and to be able to win my first race on it against some of the solid East Coast talent was just awesome.”

Chris has been hard at work managing his new business, Wrightsville SUP, offering stand up paddle boarding lessons, tours, and SUP surf excursions in the morning and working his evening job as a restaurant manager in downtown Wilmington. Stand Up Paddle has gaining quick traction on the eastern seaboard with more and more races up and down the East Coast and Chris has made it a part of his schedule to compete in as many SUP events that he can whether its SUP races or SUP surfing.  The East Coast championships was a highlight to add to Chris’s recent other SUP racing successes: Intracoastal SUP Cup – 1st Place Men’s SUP Elite : 7 Mile Flatwater & Open Ocean and the Gulf Coast Championships – 4th Place Men’s Elite : 9 Mile Flatwater & Open Ocean.

The ECPC race covered a 6 mile distance along the beach in ideal open ocean conditions and began with a water start where all divisions lined up on the sandbar. Chris’s strategy for the ECPC’s 6 mile race was to go light – carry no water, nutrition, or music during the race just feel the M&M, paddle and Garmin GPS watch. Chris mentions, “I was using each beep of my watch as a measure as to how far I had gone and what was left. Each beep is a mile. I was listening so I could pace myself and then increase my stroke power and cadence and certain points. The M&M Zoom moved underneath my feet at exactly the right time without resistance. I couldn’t have been any happier with the board’s performance during the entire race.” Chris finished 1st place with a time of 1:01:09 in the stock division and came in 3rd overall in SUP behind 1 Unlimited (15′ board) paddler and 1 minute behind 14′ paddler.