Imagine combining F1, the America’s Cup, and the Tour de France — now take it underwater and add exploration. Then shift from a two-dimensional racing experience, bound by gravity, to a limitless, three-dimensional subsea world. Imagine flying underwater.
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FROM FLOATING OVER THE OCEAN TO DIVING IN IT
The original catalyst for the SubRacing series was when Matt Silver Vallance floated from Robben Island to Cape town suspended below 80(??) helium balloons to raise money for charity. After floating at 100 feet over the ocean where he could appreciate it’s beauty and complexity, Matt discovered that many of the people he spoke to had relatively poor knowledge about the oceans, and especially the secrets, wonders and curiosities of inshore waters and their inhabitants. When he tried to get data on inshore currents he discovered it did not exist.
READ MORE OF MATT’S JOURNEY
OUR VISION FOR THE SUBRACING SERIES
WHY ARE WE RACING IN THE OCEANS
We want more people to be ACTIVELY ENGAGED with the oceans, and believe that by creating an unusual sporting event, racing fragile craft under the oceans, we can start this engagement. We see our audiences becoming actively engaged at multiple levels – from using it for recreation and pleasure, to marvelling at the marine life in the Ocean to becoming involved with ocean clean-ups and taking paid jobs in the blue economy as engineers, scientists, researchers and guardians of the oceans.
Racing is part of our DNA. By channelling that competitive spirit into a global subsea racing series, we aim to accelerate innovation beneath the waves. Just as the space race spurred radical advancements, we believe this challenge will inspire breakthrough thinking and foster a deeper connection with our oceans.
To achieve these changes we built a team of Ocean advocates who all contribute to our goals of getting more people engaged in the Oceans.
MISSION / VISION
Our Mission: To create a transformative quest that explores 10 globally significant sites of societal and ecological importance, venturing below the ocean’s surface with crewed racing submarines.
“Create a transformative quest that explores 10 globally significant sites of societal and ecological importance, venturing below the ocean’s surface with crewed racing submarines”.
Our vision is not only to establish a real-world subsea race series but also to expand into virtual experiences — from gaming and simulations to augmented and virtual reality racing adventures.
WHAT THEY ARE SAYING ABOUT SUB-RACING
We believe it’s a great opportunity for our students to actually build the submarine. For people studying naval architecture and marine, one of the challenges is all the things we build are huge, normally 100 metres, 200 metres long. Nowadays, we can’t really build a real one at school, but this project allows our students to actually start from a piece of blank paper and think about where to start in terms of the design philosophy and also to do all the internal calculation that is necessary and overcome all the challenges with fabrication. Limited resources, project management, finance, even accounting and of course publicity, asking for funding and all this.
So it was a great opportunity for our students to learn all the aspects of a complex project. And on top of. That I think our team also had the chance, For many of. Them to to grow and pick up many of the soft skills, like how to work in the team, In an engineering team there’s re always argument, sometimes fighting so now you will need to be professional, And move forward when the decision is made and how do you communicate professionally when there are disagreements? So I think many of the team members has learned a lot from that.
Professor Xin Wang, from the Singapore Institute of Technology.
Quotations from Team Members
Thanks to the meticulous planning and clear objectives you presented to us, the Town Council was able to actively collaborate with your project, facilitating the use of the necessary facilities and infrastructure, as well as promoting the event among the public.
Activities that boost the local economy and contribute to the visibility of our municipality are always welcome. In particular, events as original as submarine competitions not only attract attention, but also strengthen our community’s connection to the oceans, which is extremely important. The submarine races proved to be of great interest to the local population,
who not only came in large numbers to enjoy the competition, but also to learn about the technical aspects of the races. Furthermore, this type of initiative sparks interest in a deeper understanding of our oceans,
promoting an understanding of their biodiversity and the urgent need for their conservation in the face of the threats that threaten them.
At the Agüimes Town Council, we hope to continue collaborating with you in the future on events of this nature or similar, which undoubtedly contribute to the well-being and development of our community.Óscar Hernández Suárez
Alcalde (Mayor) of Agüimes
READ ABOUT OUR JOURNEY FROM THE SKIES TO THE OCEANS
BUCKLE UP - GET READY TO RACE
From floating with balloons full of helium over the ocean to diving with heavy cylinders and lead weights in the ocean.
