Latviski
This year, establishing a new tradition, the Freeport of Riga Authority invites citizens of Riga and city guests to the first ever SUP festival during the Port Festival on August 16-17. Within the framework of festival activities, there will be an opportunity to watch the stage of the Latvian SUP Sprint Championship, where Latvia’s best SUP athletes will participate, performing and showing excellent results on SUP boards manufactured at the Port of Riga.
The company Prestolis located at the Port of Riga — within the territory of the yacht club Auda, and its principal activity is the production of canoe kayaks and SUP boards, using modern carbon fibre technologies. Oto Dzenis, owner of the company Prestol, explains: “Prestolis a company founded by several Latvian rowing sport enthusiasts and specialists, which commenced its operation in the territory of the Port of Riga in 2010. Later on, we produced in several other places across Latvia, yet eventually returned here — to the port. Access to water and the infrastructure of the yacht club are crucial for us as a boat manufacturer. To design and develop a competitive model of a boat, constant experimenting and testing of the board is necessary, and we have the necessary conditions in the territory of the port.”
Several models of canoe kayaks manufactured by the company Prestolhave been certified for participation in world championships and the Olympic Games, suggesting the highest quality standards. Apart from Prestol, there are only four more manufacturers in the world, whose boats comply with these standards — Portuguese Nelo, Polish Plasexand Slovakian Vajda, as well as the German state-owned factory FES, which manufactures equipment for its own athletes only. In 2015, a certificate for participation in the Olympic Games in Rio was obtained. Oto Dzenis continues: “The certificate undoubtedly has a great significance in improving the recognisability of our company and promoting sales, but we have understood that achieving the participation of elite athletes in the Olympic Games with our boats is too expensive and complicated. Therefore, we are currently oriented to supporting junior and youth sports to familiarise young talents with our boats. We hope that one of them will participate at the Olympics with our manufactured boat in the future.” In turn, a SUP board manufactured by Prestolstill holds the world record in SUP sprint, which was set in 2017 in Denmark.
90% of boats and SUP boards manufactured by the company are sold outside Latvia. “Initially, we sold SUP boards under our brand Prestol, but since March 2019, we are producing and selling sport boards in the European market under the American brand 425 Pro, which is the third most popular brand of SUP boards in the world. Boards manufactured by Prestolare used also by the best SUP rowers of Latvia Arvis Iļjins and Jūlija Mihailova.
