Synchronised paddling, anyone?
Carolina isn’t just about SUP: the outrigger canoes and surfskis took over on Sunday for another loop around the infamous Graveyard course.
Pictured above are Danny Ching, Ryland Hart, Georges Cronsteadt and Travis Grant in perfect formation. How good is that shot? You couldn’t set that up if you tried. → READ MORE
SUP Racer quietly celebrated its 6th birthday a couple of weeks ago (time flies), and if one thing has defined this site over the past half a dozen years it’s the world analysis.
I love analysing this sport. It all began with one of the earliest posts on the site: The Top 11 of 2011. That story got a lot of attention and helped kickstart SUP Racer as we know it, and from there it followed with year-end “best of” lists in 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015 and 2016.
And now it’s time for the Top 17 of 2017… → READ MORE
In brief: As if we needed any more of a reminder that Tahiti’s powerful paddling warriors are on the verge of dominating long distance SUP racing in the same way they’ve done for years in the outrigger world, just take a look at the Lost Mills results from the weekend where Tahiti claimed all four top spots courtesy of Steeve Teihotaata, Georges Cronsteadt, Enzo Bennett and Bruno Tauhiro.
Going a couple of spots better than they did in Carolina, where Georges was 3rd and Steeve finished 4th, Tahiti’s star duo were clearly too strong for everyone else in the field except for fellow Tahitian Enzo Bennett, better known as a sprinter but clearly someone who has some endurance potential after he hung onto the lead pack right to the line. → READ MORE
In brief: Yoann Cronsteadt has upset the titans of Tahitian stand up paddling to claim the 2-star Air France Paddle Festival ahead of his well-known brother Georges and fellow internationals Steeve Teihotaata and Rete Ebb, while Sonni Honscheid has saluted in the women’s race.
Click through to see the full results from Tahiti… → READ MORE
Tahitian paddling legend and current world number nine Georges Cronsteadt will officially be racing for the new ‘425’ Pro Team in season 2017 as the exodus from SIC continues.
Georges, who has been a permanent fixture on the international circuit over the past six years, joins 425 (aka “Addicted 2 SUP”) as he looks to retain his ‘King of Tahiti’ crown for a little while longer despite a new wave of young outrigger heroes following his lead and focusing on stand up paddling. → READ MORE
What a year it’s been for our sport, with great performances by incredible athletes at big events all around the world making for an exciting season of racing.
But who was the best? Who dominated all season long? Who were the standout stand up athletes this year? It’s time to reveal the Top 16 of 2016… → READ MORE
Steeve Teihotaata has taken out the 2016 Air France Paddle Festival in Tahiti, defeating hot favourite Titouan Puyo as well as fellow Tahitian titans Rete Ebb, Georges Cronsteadt and Tamarua Cowan to announce himself as a genuine contender on the international stage.
Following two hours of downwind and flat water paddling around Tahiti’s north-west coast, and after a close battle first with both Titou and Rete, Steeve produced an amazing performance over the final kilometre, pulling clear to win in a time of 1:58:17, one minute clear of a tight race for second. → 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
Following the unofficial “season ending” race on the weekend, the World Series Finals at Turtle Bay in Hawaii, there’s been a bit of movement on the SUP Racer World Rankings.
Though, interestingly, it was actually those who didn’t race at Turtle Bay that reaped the biggest rewards. That includes Titouan Puyo, who jumps back into the top 5, and Arthur Arutkin, who makes his debut in the exclusive top 10 club at the expense of Fanatic team mate Jake Jensen. → READ MORE
Check out the results from the latest SUP race in Tahiti, aka the land of a thousand dark horses. Tahiti is home to some of the strongest paddlers on the planet, and it’s fast becoming home to a solid little domestic race circuit as well. On the weekend it was the Rautirare Festival in the paddling mecca of Mataiea, a small village just up the road from the world-famous Teahupoo. → 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
Connor Baxter has won his 4th straight OluKai title, claiming a strong victory ahead of Travis Grant, Dave Kalama, Travis Baptiste and Danny Ching. Minutes after Connor crossed the line, Andrea Moller triumphed in the women’s race for an extraordinary 7th straight year, further extending the greatest winning streak in the sport of stand up paddling.
Click through for full results + the updated World Rankings… → READ MORE
Done. What an epic race that was. Congratulations to Travis Grant and Annabel Anderson – 2015 Carolina Cup CHAMPIONS. Massive effort from Danny Ching and Sonni Honscheid to claim the runner-up positions, and really any paddler in the Top 10/Top 20 deserves a medal. That was hectic out there.
Click through for full results and a full replay of the live webcast… → READ MORE
Georges Cronsteadt has held off the youth brigade to show he’s still the stand up king of Tahiti, while Annabel Anderson showed her unbreakable strength as the pair claimed respective honours at the Air France Paddle Festival on the weekend.
Click through for full results and plenty of photos… → READ MORE
Results are in from one of the more exclusive SUP races on the calendar: The Ultimate Waterman, an invite-only event that’s been happening in New Zealand all this week. The competition, which sees 8x elite ocean athletes descend on the country for six days of surfing and paddling, is a made for TV style production that attempts to crown the best all-round ocean athlete.
It has the backing of major companies such as Red Bull and looks to be a fairly high-end affair. And lucky for us, half of the competitors are stand up paddlers. → READ MORE
Remember the name “Niuhiti Buillard” because you’ll probably be hearing it a lot more in the future. The 22-year-old Tahitian has just taken out the Beach Race/Distance Race double here at the Manuia 404 SUP Race in Tahiti today. And against some world class opposition I might add.
Starting alongside big name stars such as Danny Ching and Georges Cronsteadt, along with a host of frighteningly-talented local dark horses, Niuhiti absolutely blitzed it. And there were more great performances from a host of other potential world-beating locals that barely rate a mention internationally. Yep, the Tahitians are coming… → READ MORE
While there have been endless Battle of the Paddle highlight reels in the past week, a new clip out today is one of the slickest yet. Created by Chainsaw Productions for the SIC crew, the video shows Team SIC training at Salt Creek on the eve of the Battle before getting down to business in the Elite Race.
Takes a little while to get going but there’s some awesome race footage near the end. I love the impromptu game of SUP limbo at the 3:34 mark… → READ MORE
We’ve just wrapped up the second and final day of the 2014 Naish Columbia Gorge Paddle Challenge, with Connor Baxter and Annabel Anderson dominating an all-star field in what will surely be remembered as one of 2014’s best events.
After their respective victories in Saturday’s Course Race, the Starboard duo made it a clean sweep by claiming today’s unique “Double Downwind” event. With the winds lighter than usual for the Gorge (but much better than we’d feared last night), the elite field battled their way up the Columbia Gorge in back-to-back downwind runs. The majority of the world’s top athletes were on show today, which gave us some intense racing and a great spectacle (especially from my vantage point out on the media boat). → READ MORE
Woah… What a race. That was 13 miles of pain. I’m hurting.
Congrats to Danny Ching for muscling his way through this one and to Annabel Anderson for coming out on top despite a huge push from Jenny and Lina. Danny has now won this event three years in a row while Annabel has gone back to back in her first two attempts.
Click through for full results from all the races. → READ MORE
Tahiti’s infamous Iron SUP race was held again on the weekend weekend. For those unfamiliar, this is an event that combines swimming, running and Stand Up Paddling (like an Ironman race but with SUP instead of bike) in what must be a fairly brutal experience. This year the triathlon-style race included a 2k swim, 3k run and 4k SUP on Friday, before following up with an 8km course race on Saturday and a 15km Distance event on Sunday.
Unsurprisingly it was Georges Cronsteadt, Tahiti’s most recognisable paddler and a guy I rate as one of the best in the world, who took out the event. Though looking through the results, Georges clearly had plenty of competition. Just check out the times in the distance race: For example Rete Ebb crossed the line only a few seconds after Georges. I’d never heard of Rete either, but turns out he’s actually Georges’ cousin and also happens to be world champion in long distance V1 racing (rudderless outrigger canoeing). Not a bad résumé.
So yeah, there’s some talent in Tahiti that’s for sure. Kinda scary to think what would happen if we all the Aussie/Hawaiian/American/European paddlers went to Tahiti for a big race (hint: most of us would get seriously smoked). It’s probably a good thing that outrigger canoeing is so insanely popular in Tahiti – that’s the only thing keeping all these uber-talented paddlers from crossing over and focusing on stand up. → READ MORE
