For anyone looking to add a little competitive kick to their experiences in the fast-growing sport of stand-up paddleboarding, a new race series has been initiated on the waters of Whistler’s lakes.

Jason Maartense of Stand Up Paddleboard B.C. (SUPBC), the Whistler- and now also Penticton-based rental, sales and instruction business that debuted last year, has been running the Naish 2010 SUP Race Series this summer to add a fun taste of recreational racing to the local slate of paddleboarding experiences.

As a dealer of Naish equipment, SUPBC’s Maartense was asked to initiate a Whistler edition of the race series that the boarding company is sponsoring in 12 locales around North America, Maartense said. The three-lap races can get the competitive juices flowing for local practitioners of the burgeoning sport, and the top three male and female racers earn the chance to participate in a championship race in Lake Tahoe on Sept. 27.

“It gives you that incentive to train and get better,” Maartense said of the races. Now an experienced and ultra-fast stand-up paddleboarder and instructor himself, he said he found his own first race quite inspiring in a way.

He wound up thinking, “I’ll never do that again without some training,” he laughed.

By The Question’s press deadline, three of the series’ six races had already run on lakes around Whistler, and the fourth was set for Wednesday evening (Aug. 25) on Nita Lake, running alongside the popular Nita Lake Lodge $25 barbecue night.

The fifth race of the season is scheduled for Sunday (Aug. 29) at 6 p.m. on Nita Lake, and the final race is set to run next Wednesday (Sept. 1) with the lake to be determined.

“The series is based on a cumulative scoring system, and a strong showing in each of the races could still win you an invitation to the championship race,” Maartense wrote in an email.

Maartense started out trying to stage each race on a different Whistler lake, but the logistics of moving around have proven tricky, so the third and fourth rounds of racing both ran on Nita Lake.

The first outing in the series, also at Nita Lake, drew about eight paddleboarders, and numbers have fluctuated for subsequent races. Katie Wruck made a splash as the overall winner of Race No. 1 on July 25, before the second event in the series was staged on Alta Lake on Aug. 8.

After last summer’s seeming surge of interest in the sport, with standing silhouettes appearing all over on Whistler waters, Maartense said this year has been a bit slower due to the vagaries of weather.

“It’s been a little slow because of the weather, and the water’s still a little cold. But when it’s sunny out people are getting interested, for sure,” he said.

He’s keen on showing rookies the fitness values of the fun sport, which pushes paddlers to strengthen their core muscles while propelling themselves onward in the standing position on the surprisingly stable boards.

Maartense said he wants curious new participants to realize that “‘I really can get fit the easy way.’ That’s the simplest way to explain it,” he said.

“As well as it being fun, people realize if you keep trying it and keep doing it, it’s the fastest and easiest way to get fit ever, and the funnest way. It’s painless.”

He’s planning a push for fall involving new initiatives such as affordable and fun morning fitness classes.

Stay tuned to supbc.com for more information on classes and the Naish race series.

Race entry is free, and participants without boards and paddles can rent equipment from SUPBC for $25.