St. Maarten paddler Stuart Knaggs is off to France to represent the Friendly Island in a 30k paddle. Knaggs is in training and building toward competing in a long distance race in South Africa in December.
Knaggs started paddling at age 15. He has gone on to compete in both regional and international races around the globe and even qualified and raced in a world championship. Now in his 50’s he is going back to South Africa to compete in a marathon 56k race. He first paddled in the race in 2008.
Knaggs is also a board member of the St. Maarten Canoe Federation, one of the founding members of the Soualiga Challenge paddle and a coach. Wednesday evenings at 5:00pm and Saturday mornings at 8:00am on Kimsha beach Knaggs teaches youngsters how to paddle.
“I knew it was not realistic to believe that all the youngsters could travel around the world to see top level paddlers,” said Knaggs. “That is why we started the Soualiga Challenge to bring top paddlers here.”
Despite the loss of nearly 20 paddle vessels with the passing of Irma, the federation and the sport are doing well on St. Maarten and were even in consideration for hosting the first Pan American Open Ocean Surfski Championship.
“I have seen World Championships and I did not think we were ready to host that calibre a competition yet,” admitted Knaggs. “But I can see us doing it soon.”
Two other St. Maarten paddlers will be traveling to Brazil in December to compete in the first Pan American Championship.
