In brief: Zane Schweitzer has taken out the Ultimate Waterman event in New Zealand, triumphing over Danny Ching, Connor Baxter and a handful of other elite ocean athletes in this multi-sport, invite-only specialty event.
Now in its second year, the Ultimate Waterman combines everything from SUP racing to outrigger to longboarding, and is held at various locations around New Zealand. → READ MORE
The start list for the 2016 Molokai 2 Oahu Paddleboard World Championships has just been revealed, with the men’s solo stand up paddle division attracting the most competitive field in the event’s 20 year history.
Top ranked athletes including three-time champ and world number one Connor Baxter, two-time champ and world number two Travis Grant, number three Danny Ching, and number four Kai Lenny will be racing across the Ka’iwi Channel (aka the “Channel of Bones”) on Sunday, July 31st. → READ MORE
In brief: Danny Ching has just taken out his local race, the Lanakila Classic in Redondo Beach, California, ahead of a couple of his 404 team mates.
Danny took the 5 mile win (on a 12’6 no less) shortly after he’d saluted in the 9 mile OC-1 race. Danny’s 404 protégé Noa Hopper finished runner-up, half a minute behind his team boss but almost a minute ahead of third-place Anthony Vela. Another fluro green rider, Ryland Hart, came home 4th. → READ MORE
In brief: Chase Kosterlitz and Danny Ching have earned victories at the Hal Rosoff Classic in Newport Beach, California, as over 150 paddlers came out for the 20th annual edition of this SoCal stalwart event. Other standout performers included Danny’s 404 team mate Ryland Hart, Chuck Glynn and Anthony Vela.
In the women’s, Shae Foudy made it a double win, taking out both the ‘Board Race’ and ‘Short Course’ events, with her SoCal sparring partner and definite name to watch, Erika Benitez, picking up a pair of silvers. → READ MORE
Danny Ching and Erika Benitez have taken out the 2016 Hanohano Huki Ocean Challenge in San Diego’s Mission Bay, with 500 paddlers showing up on a crisp morning for this classic, early season race.
The Infinity speed freaks Dave Boehne & Slater Trout took line honours on their tandem SUP, while Rob Rojas snuck across for second over the line on his unlimited. But in the main battle of the 14 footers, Danny narrowly edged out his new team mate Noa Hopper, with Chase Kosterlitz, Chuck Glynn, Chance Fielder and Gabriel Beauchesne Sevigny all just seconds behind. → READ MORE
One of stand up paddling’s most colourful and entertaining characters, Dave Boehne, has joined Danny Ching’s team at HippoStick Paddles.
Boehne will pair Ching’s carbon creations with his own craft – the Infinity SUP boards he’s become famous for shaping – and forge a partnership between two of SoCal’s (and the world’s) best ’boutique’ brands. As a bonus, we also get to hear Boehne in full rap mode, click through to watch… → READ MORE
New Zealand’s ‘Ultimate Waterman’, the event that attempts to crown the best all-round “waterman” in the world while also showing off the country’s beautiful coastline, is going next level next year, with organisers securing funding of $1.2 million.
As first spotted by The Inertia, the Ultimate Waterman organisers announced the new funding at their 2016 public launch yesterday. → READ MORE
If you still haven’t had your fill of crazy, chaotic, carnage-filled imagery from the inaugural Pacific Paddle Games, you’ll enjoy this clip.
Watch Buzzy Kerbox give us a play-by-play recap of the main event at the PPGs… → READ MORE
It’s taken us a few days to come down from the high that was D-Day at Doheny, but now that the dust has settled and dings have been repaired, it’s time to sign off on this amazing event by posting the full and final results from the 2015 Pacific Paddle Games.
Click through for the full results, plus changes to the SUP Racer World Rankings… → READ MORE
Here’s a great little gallery from what looks to be a fantastic event. The 3rd annual Beyond The Shore Paddlefest was held at Redondo Beach, California last weekend, with a few very big names and a lot of stoked out weekend warriors enjoying a fun day on the water.
There was distance racing, sprint racing and kids racing. There was a free clinic with Danny Ching, and even a world record SUP yoga attempt. → READ MORE
Twelve months ago to the day, we were standing on the shore of Salt Creek beach watching some of the most spectacular, carnage-fueled racing in the history of stand up paddling. The 2014 Battle of the Paddle was an epic event. Not only for the all-time conditions but also the all-time field of competitors, which gave it a massive weighting on the SUP Racer World Rankings.
But when the BOP announced earlier this year that it wouldn’t be returning, it set in motion a ticking time bomb known as the BOP-pocalypse, with almost all of the top paddlers set to lose a big bag of points on the day the Battle was removed from the rankings system. That day is today… → READ MORE
Big signing for Team 404 this week, with Noa Hopper, one of America’s top prospects, joining Danny Ching’s green machine to bolster an already impressive lineup.
Noa joins Danny, Tahitian dark horse Niuhiti Buillard and Molokai hero Travis Baptiste to form one of the most impressive lineups in the sport. → READ MORE
The countdown to what is surely going to be the biggest race of the year, the Pacific Paddle Games, is in full swing. In just three weeks’ time, we’ll see virtually all of the world’s best paddlers descend on the “spiritual home” of SUP racing, Doheny State Beach in Dana Point, California, for one very big weekend of racing.
We already know about the record prize purse of $55,000, a unique new race format and the full on live webcast, all of which suggest this could become the best event of the year, but this week the crew dropped a very cool little promo clip to get us even more excited. → READ MORE
There are big changes to the World Rankings following an incredible weekend of racing up in the Gorge. We have a new world number one, a top 10 debutante, several bolters and dozens of other +/- movers on the Men’s Top 100 Leaderboard.
Click through for our full analysis of the latest changes… → READ MORE
Wow… What a weekend of racing we’ve just witnessed. We’ll have a full recap from the 2015 Naish Columbia Gorge Paddle Challenge up shortly, but in the meantime here are the results from the Elite Races and changes to the World Rankings (the Gorge had a massive impact on the Men’s Top 100 Leaderboard). → READ MORE
And just like that, it’s August. This year has flown by. Seems like only yesterday we were getting excited about the first major race of the year, the Carolina Cup. That was four months ago.
We’re now halfway through the international stand up paddling “season,” which loosely runs from April to October (with a couple of outposts in December). Carolina, OluKai, the Worlds, the Euro Tour, Payette and Molokai have already been run and won, while we’ve still got the Gorge Paddle Challenge, Pacific Paddle Games and a few World Series races to look forward to.
So because we’re halfway through the year, I thought it’d be a good time to analyse the best paddlers of 2015 so far. → READ MORE
Despite there being no big races this weekend there have still been a few changes to the SUP Racer World Rankings.
Why? Because it’s been exactly 12 months since the 2014 Ultimate SUP Showdown was held, which means it’s now time for that event to be purged from the system. And considering it was the second highest scoring race of 2014, the Showdown’s removal has had a big impact on the Men’s Top 100 and Women’s Top 50 Leaderboards. → READ MORE
Molokai 2 Oahu is the most prestigious race in the world. The 32 mile crossing of the Ka’iwi Channel (aka the Channel of Bones) is steeped in history, with each new edition producing countless heroic stories both in front of and behind the scenes. And this year’s race probably created more highlights than ever before…
With brutally slow conditions out in the channel and overhead surf to greet paddlers near the finish line, Molokai 2015 will be remembered for a long time to come. Now that the dust has settled, I’ve been looking back at some of the amazing photos from this year’s classic race and wanted to share a few of the best. → READ MORE
Last weekend saw one of the biggest and most beloved races in America light up South Lake Tahoe: The 2015 edition of Race The Lake of the Sky.
In what has become a true festival of stand up paddling, Race The Lake again attracted hundreds of competitors to one of the most scenic paddling destinations on the planet. As in years past, the crowd was an interesting mix of first timers, weekend warriors and a few very high profile international stars of the sport. → READ MORE
Danny Ching has just won gold in the Men’s Distance Race here at the 2015 ISA Worlds, giving Team USA a critical lead in the team standings against arch-rivals Team Australia and Team Hawaii. After two of the most entertaining hours of racing we’ve seen in a long time, Danny claimed the win just ahead of local hero Bicho Jimenez. → READ MORE
