Favorite trophies

[CalusaBlueway]

Hi All,

We're hosting the Battle on the Blueway on the Calusa Blueway in May and will potentially be giving out many trophies.  I'd like to give out something that racers will be stoked to receive, but not break the budget since we'll be handing out so many of them.  What are some of the trophies you received and haven't thrown in the back of the closet?

Thank you.

[stoneaxe]

My favorites are made by local folks. We're lucky here. We have a few guys that are making nice stuff. Water-kook has been making our CCBC trophies for a few years now and Cyclops makes them as well. Water-kook has a sign business and makes them from PVC with a router, a mini-SUP board with CCBC logo, class and place, hand painted after, very cool looking. Cyclops made some wood mini-paddles and boards for the Paddle for the Bays. The boards on a stand with a brass plaque for class and place. How many is a lot and whats your budget? Best way is to find someone that is into SUP that can help.

[PonoBill]

I like the medals that Bob Reuter found for the Gorge Performance Willamette races. Don't know how reasonable they are. The BOP paddles are really nice, and they do a kind of mini Alaia surfboard for second and third. They'd be inexpensive to reproduce if you found the right guy. Lots of trophies is the way to grow a race. People remember that stuff. Have a nice little ceremony of giving them out. The only spectators will be other racers and family, this ain't Formula One. But it's a nice thing to recognize the efforts.

[Off-Shore]

Lots of trophies is the way to grow a race. People remember that stuff. Have a nice little ceremony of giving them out. The only spectators will be other racers and family, this ain't Formula One. But it's a nice thing to recognize the efforts.

+1 on this. We only give Trophies to the winner of each class for both male and female, and medals to them and everyone else. I'm always surprised at how much people like a medal and a medal ceremony. We are fortunate in Hong Kong we can get these relatively cheaply with good printing / engraving. We also give 2nd and 3rd places small gifts from sponsors. Usually hydration packs and leashes. One more thing to consider is goody bags for all contestants depending on how many you expect. We include a race T-shirt, a race cap and in the past a race sports bottle. We also include sponsors logo stickers that we require contestants to stick to their boats / boards. T-Shirts are a pain because you need to get people's sizes before the race and there are always people who find sizes don't fit. But it always seems to work out in the end.

[PonoBill]

It sounds really stupid when I say it, but one of the things that I think decreases the enjoyment of vintage car races is there are very few races that give out trophies. I raced in the Gold Cup races at Virginia International Raceway and they gave a nice trophy and a bottle of cheap champagne for spraying to first through third. Stood us up on a podium and had Chris Economaki interview us over the PA. Nice moment. I got second in a race where I was seriously overmatched by the entire field, and the accomplishment of a good drive with a great car that always punches over it's weight would have been long ago forgotten if I didn't have that silly gold plated trophy and the empty champagne bottle sitting in my office.

[Off-Shore]

These are our Dragon Run Trophies. The Surfski and OC ones are in the Middle and left, and the SUP ones on the right. 14' and 12-6 classes for both male and female. For the Surfski and OC winners we have big trophies that are kept by the organisers and displayed at the race each year. There is room for probably 50 years of winners names on the plinth of these large trophies. The trophies in the pictures are smaller replicas of the big trophies that the winners get to take home.

[CalusaBlueway]

Thank you for the responses.  By many trophies, meant WPA categories, X age groups, X gender, X 1st through 3rd, X 2 races.  That ads up quick. 4 X 3 X 2 X 3 X 2 = 144.  Seems like a lot, but we want this race to be a fun one for the average racer.  The overall elite winner will get a really cool metal Calusa mask made by a local artist.  Thanks again for the ideas.

[Off-Shore]

This year's Dragon Run Elite SUP Race Trophies for tomorrow's race in Hong Kong... One is missing a ball... Not sure if it is lucky that it is one of the Ladies trophies...

[PonoBill]

Wow, those dragon race trophies are amazing. That would be a lot of fun to have sitting on a desk.

There are my BOP paddles. The end of the race leaves a hole in my collection--thoughtless of them. I got my ass kicked at the PPG and spent the trophy presentation in urgent care, so I didn't get to see what they gave for trophies. The sword is some kind of presentation sword that belonged to my grandfather. I'm sure of that because his name is ornately engraved on the blade. Never met the man, unfortunately.



I think things like this are important to the success of a race series. Actually, I know they are.  I've been taken to task for caring about them, so what, I do. It's one of the reasons I drove the length of the west coast twice a year. That and surfing.



I save the medals and other trophies too. Some are in my office, but most of the paddling medals are here. The yellow Gorge Paddle Challenge medals are prominent. Last year they gave out engraved beer glasses. Always nice to have a beer glass but I'd rather have one of those dragons.

The little surfboard is a present from my brother. Says "Pono" on it. I care about that too.

[Chilly]

My favorites are made by local folks. We're lucky here. We have a few guys that are making nice stuff. Water-kook has been making our CCBC trophies for a few years now and Cyclops makes them as well. Water-kook has a sign business and makes them from PVC with a router, a mini-SUP board with CCBC logo, class and place, hand painted after, very cool looking. Cyclops made some wood mini-paddles and boards for the Paddle for the Bays. The boards on a stand with a brass plaque for class and place. How many is a lot and whats your budget? Best way is to find someone that is into SUP that can help.

I agree with Stoneaxe with using local folks. This one is from the RK Sunshine SUP Series in south Florida 2014. It was handcrafted entirely of solid wood by Andres Pombo. It’s the only trophy I’ve kept and proudly displayed in my office. It brings back good memories.

[FloridaWindSUP]

I got one that's a conch shell that I really like.

[kayadogg]

This is a great thread because this is a really important aspect of races that many don't put much thought into and as Pono mentioned, it really is the way to grow a race. I've organized a race the past two years, small in comparison to a lot of races but for New England, we had a great turnout and it grew the second year, which is all I had hoped for. My main 3 areas of focus were 1.) Courses that appealed to a first-time/recreational paddler and also to serious, competitive racers. 2.) unique trophies, and lots of them 3.) great raffle prizes. My thought was that most of our competitors would be driving form at least an hour+ away so I wanted people to feel that it was worth the drive. I know that I wouldn't drive 2 hours if my only option was a 1 or 2 mile race. We offered an "elite" course that was around 10 miles and a "rec" course that was 3 miles. I also know that people love to win a trophy, especially if it's unique and they get to stand on a podium and hear their name called. And lastly, for people that didn't win a trophy, they have the chance to go home with some great prizes in the raffle.

Back to the trophies... this past year we had them handmade by a couple in Texas. A little tough to really get a feel for them in the picture but they cut our design out of metal and then nailed to distressed reclaimed wood. The trophy cups are a little cheesy but we gave those to the top male and female grom... they loved holding a trophy like that especially since they were the only two to receive them.

The PPG gave out wooden surfboard trophies (second pic), 1st - 3rd were the same, just different sizes. Pretty thick ones too. Nice touch and nice engraving. Similar to BOP, they handed out a bunch so a lot of people went home happy.

[PonoBill]

sorry to have hosed the width of this thread. I replaced the pics with smaller versions, but the site is still doing something funny with them. Maybe stuck in a cache.

[PDLSFR]

I second Stoneaxe and thhe locally made CCBC event trophies

[stoneaxe]

Not a trophy per se but you'll find this being worn with pride by anyone that has one.
CCBC Hei Mataus are carved by Hepi Maxwell in New Zealand, definitely not local but we are lucky to have him as part of the CCBC ohana.