DPPI photo of the Week #33 12.12.2018: DPPI Images has been providing photographic coverage of major motorsport competitions for 53 years. Every weekend, our photographers travel to the world’s most prestigious circuits and rallies. From the thousands of shots they take, we ask each of them to

DPPI Images has been providing photographic coverage of major motorsport competitions for 53 years. Every weekend, our photographers travel to the world’s most prestigious circuits and rallies. From the thousands of shots they take, we ask each of them to select just one and tell the story behind it.




Photo of the Week #33


 


Circuit APP  - Salon Nautique, Porte de Versailles - Paris


      
The annual Nautic Paddle stand-up paddle race takes place every December on the River Seine, in the heart of the French capital, in parallel to the Paris Boat Show. This year’s edition (the ninth) on Sunday, December 9, attracted some 800 entries.




The competition kicked off shortly after eight in the morning, just as the sun was rising after day four of the country’s ‘Yellow Vest’ protests. The banks of the famous river seemed to have been spared from the drama, however, and, although the ‘amateur’ participants’ yellow bibs provided a topical echo to the previous afternoon’s agitation, there was a distinctly festive atmosphere to proceedings.




“The tabards were printed weeks ago, well ahead of the current social movement,” one of the organisers informed us. To set them apart, professionals competing in the APP World Tour wore pink bibs. There weren’t many journalists out on the river taking pictures early on Sunday morning and, with the thermometer standing at barely 4°C, our noses were soon reddened by the cold air.




The 11km course ran from the Bibliothèque Nationale de France to Quai de Javel, but only the ‘pros’ navigated the detour around Île de la Cité and Île Saint-Louis. This picture shows them catching their yellow co-contestants. The day ended with the 2018 stand-up paddle ‘world title’ going to Frenchman Arthur Arutkin.



       



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Olivier Blanchet-   DPPi Images