The ISA World Stand Up Paddle and Paddleboard Championship is an annual event hosted by the International Surfing Association. Nations compete as teams in SUP racing, SUP surfing and prone paddleboarding, with individual medals and overall team points awarded. Australia won the first three ISA Worlds in Peru (2012, 2013) and Nicaragua (2014), before Team USA swept the 2015 Worlds in Sayulita, Mexico. The Aussies reclaimed their title at the recent Fiji ISA Worlds.
The 2017 ISA Stand Up Paddleboarding World Championship will be held from September 1st-10th in Denmark.
In brief: Candice Appleby has claimed victory in the Beach Race at the U.S. National Titles in Oceanside, Caliifornia this morning, earning herself a ticket to the ISA Worlds in Denmark later this year to represent Team USA and defend the gold medal she won in Fiji.
SoCal youngster Jade Howson upset world number three Fiona Wylde in a sprint up the beach to claim the runner-up spot. → READ MORE
In brief: James van Drunen and Emma Reijmerink have taken out the 2017 “Battle of the Coast” in the Netherlands–aka the Dutch National Championship event that serves as the qualifier for the ISA Worlds in Denmark later this year.
With strong winds in the coastal town of Zandvoort helping the event live up to its “Battle” name, James, the rising junior prospect from Team Mistral, took out both the beach race and downwinder ahead of seasoned veterans Bart de Zwart and Martijn van Deth, while Emma made it a clean sweep ahead of Petronella van Malsen. → READ MORE
In a major development that could drastically alter the future direction of our sport, the International Canoe Federation (ICF) has challenged the long-standing assumption that the International Surfing Association (ISA) is the Olympic-level governing body of stand up paddling, staking a rival claim and forcing a gridlock that has left SUP communities in limbo and blocked a potential inclusion in the 2018 Youth Olympics. → READ MORE
Two weeks ago, I sent out a survey to each of the world’s top-ranked paddlers asking which events they’d be competing in this year. The goal was to paint a picture of the biggest races in the world, which I think is not only an interesting insight for everyone in the sport to analyse, it also helps me to set clear ‘star ratings’ that will produce an ever more accurate World Rankings leaderboard.
Here are the results… → READ MORE
Surfing USA has taken a big step forward by announcing the inaugural USA Stand Up Paddle and Paddleboard Championships, which will act as the team trials for the Stars & Stripes as they march towards the ISA Worlds in Denmark later this year.
Set for the weekend of June 16th-18th in Oceanside, California, the Championship represents the start of a new era for the 2015 world team champions, with the selection for the national squad previously being a loosely organised affair that was often met with criticism from some athletes who felt they never had a shot at proving themselves worthy. → READ MORE
There’s been a very passionate (but rather boring) debate raging in the SUP racing community over the past few years, with various athletes, brands and event organisers arguing endlessly amongst themselves over a simple foot and a half of foam that’s almost indistinguishable to the casual observer.
To say I’m a little tired of the whole 12’6 vs 14′ board class debate would be an understatement – I think we should be discussing far more important topics such as how to grow grassroots participation and make elite races more exciting – but I was recently asked by a few big events to produce some numbers on 12’6 vs 14, so here they are. → READ MORE
After the announcement of Denmark as host for the 2017 Worlds back in August, the ISA has finally confirmed dates for next year’s championship event – September 1st-10th – while there are potentially some big changes to the event format as well.
The 2017 Worlds will be split between the capital city, Copenhagen, and the small town of Vorupør, which is next to the village of Klitmøller on Denmark’s famous surf coast known as ‘Cold Hawaii’. → READ MORE
If your only view of the Fiji ISA Worlds last month was the live stream, you might enjoy this little trip behind the scenes that shows all the bits the official webcast didn’t.
Courtesy of the intrepid Mike Jucker, this close-up look at the 2016 Worlds is a 25-minute montage featuring dozens of mini athlete interviews, plenty of interesting insights and a few random cameos along the way. → READ MORE
While the Aussies comfortably reclaimed the Team Champions Trophy at last week’s ISA Worlds in Fiji, giving them four titles in five years, there was another nation at this year’s championship event that was almost just as dominant and, at least by one measure, even more impressive.
Team France. → READ MORE
Kai Lenny is a certified freak.
Watch this video of Kai closing a massive gap against two world class paddlers on the anchor leg of the Fiji ISA Worlds team relay, earning his nation a gold medal and dethroning the previously unbeaten Australians. → READ MORE
Australia has reclaimed the ISA Team Champions trophy, taking back the silverware they lost to the Americans last year to make it four championship titles in the five year history of this event.
Led by dual gold medalist Harriet Brown, the Aussies took 5x gold and ten 10x medals, comfortably finishing ahead of the French, with New Zealand and Hawaii almost dead even in the tight battle for third. Surprisingly, defending champs Team USA didn’t even make the top four podium, finishing 5th after a mixed bag of results this week in Fiji. → READ MORE
That’s a wrap. → READ MORE
Candice Appleby has claimed gold in the marathon race here in Fiji, with the defending champion paddling clear of an impressive trio led by France’s Olivia Piana in flat, hot and draining conditions to give Team USA their first gold medal of the championships.
Following Candice, Europe dominated the podium, with Spain’s Laura Quetglas and Slovenia’s Manca Notar paddling extremely well to fill the podium behind the Frenchwoman. → READ MORE
Michael Booth has cemented his reputation as the world’s best distance paddler, outlasting France’s Titouan Puyo and an all-star cast to win gold for Team Australia in the marathon race here at the Fiji ISA Worlds today.
Boothy helped control the pace in the lead pack along with Titou, Georges Cronsteadt, Kai Lenny and Vinni Martins, before breaking away with roughly 3km left in the 17km course. The race proved to be a grueling affair, with an almost complete lack of wind and sunny blue skies draining paddlers both physically and mentally. → READ MORE
Australia, New Zealand and France have taken the most points on the opening day of racing here at the ISA Worlds in Fiji, with four gold medals being awarded and defending champs Team USA stumbling in the small, windy and tricky conditions at Cloudbreak.
The Aussies swept the prone races before Kiwi Penelope Strickland struck gold by upsetting defending champ Candice Appleby (bronze) and outlasting Frenchwoman Olivia Piana (silver) around the 3km course that looked less like a technical race and more like a downwinder. Moments later, Casper Steinfath scored a rare wave down the point on the last lap of the closely-fought men’s final to out-maneuver Kai Lenny, Arthur Arutkin and Titouan Puyo and claim his third ISA title. → READ MORE
It’s a lay day here in Fiji today (Tuesday), which means the teams get to have a nice little rest before the opening day of racing kicks off tomorrow.
The action returns on Wednesday with the short course surf racing out at Cloudbreak for both SUP and prone. Thursday it’s the men’s marathon from Cloudbreak to Musket Cove, Friday it’s the women’s distance race, then on Sunday we’ve got the team relay (the finals of the SUP surf contest are on Saturday). → READ MORE
We’re only 48 hours away from the start of the racing events here at the 2016 ISA World Stand Up Paddle and Paddleboard Championship in Fiji, and what a week of racing it’s going to be.
With a paradisaical location and two dozen top ranked athletes on the start line, it’s going to be some tough racing for the athletes and a great spectacle for the fans watching either in person or online via the live webcast.
Here are the surf race and marathon course maps as of Monday morning… → READ MORE
Who’s going to win The Worlds?
With competition at the 2016 ISA Stand Up Paddle and Paddleboard Championship in Fiji beginning on Sunday morning, it’s time to look deep into SUP Racer’s crystal ball and try to predict which teams will triumph, who will get the gold, and how the top paddlers will perform. → READ MORE
Saturday saw the opening ceremony here at the 2016 ISA Worlds in Fiji, with 177 athletes from 26 nations descending on this paradisaical slice of the South Pacific for one big week of paddleboarding competition. And you can watch it all on the Fiji ISA live webcast right here on supracer.com.
But who exactly will you be watching? Here’s the final list of teams and athletes that’ll be competing at the 5th annual edition of the ISA World Stand Up Paddle and Paddleboard Championship from November 12-20. → READ MORE
