A few days ago I posted a clip that proved very popular. It was a quick edit of last weekend’s Painkiller Cup, an exotic-looking team relay held in the paradise that is the BVIs, aka the British Virgin Islands (it’s somewhere in the Caribbean apparently).
While that first video was a brief highlights reel of the weekend, we now have the full recap video. And this clip makes the Painkiller Cup look like even more of a Bucket List race… → READ MORE
Check out this quick little recap of Saturday’s “Painkiller Cup” race in the British Virgin Islands.
Definitely one of the more exotic events on the SUP race calendar, the Painkiller Cup is a 14 mile inter-island relay, where three-person teams battle it out for the $5,000 winner’s cheque. The 2015 champs were Team Mexico, featuring Shelby Dela Rosa Taylor, Ryan Helm and Bicho Jimenez. → READ MORE
Team Mexico have taken out today’s Painkiller Cup, one of the more exotic races on the annual calendar. Held in the Caribbean paradise of the British Virgin Islands, the Painkiller Cup is a three-a-side relay covering 14 miles. The race starts at Trellis Bay on “Beef Island” and finishes on the isle of Jost Van Dyke at the Soggy Dollar Bar.
The victorious Team Mexico was an all-Sayulita affair, with Ryan Helm, Shelby Dela Rosa Taylor and Javier ‘Bicho’ Jimenez leading the race from start to finish. → READ MORE
The 2014 WPA Paddle Championships is happening today at St. Pete Beach in Florida, with a couple of big names going for the cash and plenty of locals trying to keep up.
Following the Battle of the Paddle tradition, this afternoon (Saturday) sees the Elite Course Race while tomorrow it’s the Distance Race. Right now it’s just after 1pm on Saturday and the main event is just about to hit the water (with the likes of Danny Ching and Chase Kosterlitz starting as favourites) so check back shortly to see how it all went down. UPDATE: The event is over, click through for full results… → READ MORE
Chase Kosterlitz has defended his crown at a race in Florida for the umpteenth time, taking out Saturday’s Florida Cup race in St. Pete Beach. Chase was quickest around the 10 mile Tampa Bay course, finishing three minutes clear of the very talented Ryan Helm.
It was an impressive performance from Chase, who has showed similar early season form at last month’s Carolina Cup. The big guy from Florida (who recently moved to San Diego) hasn’t lost in his home state since 2011. Not a bad track record. So while he’s yet to crack the podium at his non-preferred BOP Elite Race, if there’s ever a hard, grinding, long distance race, you’d be a brave punter to bet against Chase finishing near the front of the pack.
Meanwhile Jenny Kalmbach, who hosted a couple of technique clinics across the weekend, was too strong in the women’s, coming home ahead of East Coast warrior Helga Goebel. → READ MORE
Ryan Helm has taken out the Rincon Beachboy SUP race in Puerto Rico for the second year running today, as over 300 paddlers hit the water for a record-breaking 6th annual event.
Ryan finished the 8 mile (12.8km) elite course in just under 1 hour and 10 minutes, though crossing the line just 30 seconds back was rising Californian dark horse, Sean Pangelinan. Mexico’s Javier Jimenez, who trains with Ryan and Fernando Stalla down in Sayulita, showed his fighting spirit to steal third overall on his 12’6, while “local guy” Bill Kraft finished 4th overall to take one for the islands. Over in the women’s race it was Helm’s Riviera teammate, Helga Goebel, proving too strong, beating not only all of the women but almost two-thirds of the men as well.
The 2014 Rincon Beachboy set a new record with a massive 310 competitors (from as young as 4 right up to 72 years old) descending on Puerto Rico’s west coast for the race. The event also helped raise $6,000 for charity, while the top guys and girls got to share in $16,000 cash prize money (which we were assured was paid out on the spot). This race has flown under the radar a little bit in the past, but it sounds like a massive, well organised event so I’m sure it’ll attract a stellar crowd next year. Could this be the Caribbean’s answer to the Carolina Cup? → READ MORE
Slater Trout and Morgan Hoesterey have taken out the “Duel” SUP Race at the 2014 Surftech Shootout at the Lane in Santa Cruz, California. In an amazing coincidence, Slater crossed the line 12 seconds in front of Chuck Glynn, which is an exact repeat of the Shootout result from twelve months earlier. Meanwhile Ryan Helm rounded out the podium ahead of a classy field of paddlers.
The win makes it four in a row this year for Slater (Orange Bowl, Dana Ocean Challenge, US SUP Tour and now the Shootout), a streak he’ll no doubt be hoping to carry over into a couple of very big races in the next six weeks: Firstly the Carolina Cup at the end of April and then the ISA Worlds in early May, where he’ll link back up with Chuck Glynn to represent Team USA.
The young gun (Slater still hasn’t turned 20 yet… annoying) had this to say after a win that has clearly got him pumped: → READ MORE
Results are in from the Punta Sayulita Classic in Mexico and it looks like the weekend belonged to Team SIC. Taking out both events (the Surf Race on Saturday and 10k Distance Race on Sunday) was Georges Cronsteadt of Tahiti, while teammate Lina Augaitis from Canada was too strong on the women’s side.
In the Surf Race, Georges was the only paddler to make it clean to the first buoy, as a set swept through the field right after the start. From there, the Tahitian big guy controlled the waves and the race to finish around half a minute clear. Sayulita locals Ryan Helm and Fernando Stalla filled the men’s podium, with Ryan overtaking Fernando on the sprint up the beach to the line. Meanwhile Shelby Dela Rosa Taylor and Kristin Thomas took second and third respectively on the women’s. → READ MORE
Danny Ching and Lina Augaitis have taken out the 2013 Paddle Royal in Puerto Rico after an incredibly tight second day of racing. Danny claimed the overall victory by winning the final round of racing on Day Two, ending the hopes that both Aussie young gun Jake Jensen and Frenchman Eric Terrien had of flying home with the $7,000 winner’s prize.
Danny had all the work to do after finishing third in yesterday’s Long Distance Race and left it until the very last minute to fight his way back into the lead. Coming into the final round of racing, which consisted of a 200m straight-line sprint, Danny was sitting third on the overall points leaderboard, one point behind Eric and two behind Jake. The reigning champ basically had to win the last race and hope Jake didn’t get second. And that’s exactly what happened, allowing Danny to leapfrog his two close rivals and walk away with the title.
Click through for results, recap and pics from Puerto Rico… → READ MORE
Connor Baxter has taken out the Chicago World Paddle Challenge, claiming both the sprints and distance events to keep his 2013 Stand Up World Series unbeaten streak alive. Kai Lenny was 2nd in both races, while Zane Schweitzer and Jake Jensen finished equal third overall and were forced into a tie-breaker sprint-off. Meanwhile in the women’s event it was all Annabel Anderson, with the Kiwi claiming the double victory ahead of Aussie Angie Jackson.
Click through for full results and pics… → READ MORE
Chase Kosterlitz has won the 2013 Battle of the Bay, claiming the overall title ahead of Fanatic Teammate Jake Jensen on a time count back, after the two traded 1-2 finishes in the Distance and Course Races. Mo Freitas was third with Ryan Helm and Jay Wild rounding out the Top 5 in San Francisco. Meanwhile Lina Augaitis, fresh from her win in Tahoe last week, put on another great display to make it a clean sweep of the weekend.
Click through to see the full results…
The race has just finished, so we’ll update results as they become available… → READ MORE
Danny Ching has won the 2013 Carolina Cup at Wrightsville Beach, claiming his second straight title in emphatic style to cement his position as the world’s fastest stand up paddler. Danny opened up a big gap on the field and was well clear by the end of the 12.5 mile “Graveyard” Elite Race course, crossing the line exactly four minutes ahead of his nearest rival.
France’s Eric Terrien also paddled extremely well to claim 2nd ahead of an all-star cast that included Jamie Mitchell (3rd), Chase Kosterlitz (4th), Ryan Helm (5th) and Matt Becker (6th).
Meanwhile Annabel Anderson put on a dominant display to claim victory ahead of Jenny Kalmbach and Brandi Baksic. Click through for FULL RESULTS… → READ MORE
Ryan Helm has just taken out the Elite Distance Race @ the Rincon Beach Boy Classic, an event that drew plenty of big names to Puerto Rico to chase the $16,000 prize money that was on offer.
The field was very solid, with Ryan coming home ahead of Chase Kosterlitz (2nd), Nick Leason (3rd), Thomas Maximus (4th), Belar Diaz (5th) and Anthony Vela (6th). Meanwhile Gail Vento was the women’s champ, finishing in front of Kym Freeman. → READ MORE
Video highlights from the 2013 Punta Sayulita Classic in Mexico, an event that often gets described as “an awesome holiday with some paddling on the side.” Set in the hidden paradise of Sayulita, this SUP Racing + SUP Surfing event looks like a lot of fun and should definitely be on your must do list for 2014. → READ MORE
Take a look at the SUP racing action from Mexico on the weekend, with the Copa Barracuda in Puerto Vallarta. Most of the paddlers from Mexico’s SUP Team were on show including international stars Ryan Helm and Fernando Stalla. In the 10k race it was Ryan who led the way, putting in a good few minutes on Fernando and the rest of the field to take out the victory.
Is it just me or does everything look more fun in Mexico..? → READ MORE
The path to Peru and the ISA World Stand Up Champs continues to gather momentum, with another national team announcing their lineup of competitors today. Mexico has a strong paddling and surfing scene and its team could realistically take medals in any or all of the events next month in Miraflores.
The racing side of the team will be led by none other than Fernando Stalla, the current Hennessey’s World Champ and all around elite paddler. Fernando is a genuine threat in every race he enters, so look for him near the pointy end of the field during both the Short Course and Long Distance races. Fernando will be joined in the SUP races by Javier Jimenez and Veronica Nava. → READ MORE
The first big SUP race of 2013 has just wrapped up in Miami, Florida, with Danny Ching and Candice Appleby taking out the Orange Bowl Paddle Championship. Ryan Helm, Brennan Rose, Krisztina Zur and Bailey Rosen also made the podium in the Elite Race, while Fernando Stalla won the sprints.
Many of the world’s best were in town, thanks in large part to the big Surf Expo trade show over in Florida last week, so the starting list of competitors was very solid. → READ MORE
It’s that time of year again, when we look back at twelve whole months of Stand Up Paddle races and decide who the top performers were.
The Top 12 of 2012 attempts to rank the world’s elite Stand Up Paddlers based on their performances over the past twelve months. That’s no easy feat: There are a LOT of good SUP athletes out there. In fact we had a short-list of 35 guys when we were trying to calculate our Top 12, and honestly, almost all of them could have been squeezed onto the final list if we slightly moved the criteria one way of the other.
But who made the final list? And who scored the #1 spot? Click through to find out… → READ MORE
What a crazy weekend.. the 2012 Battle of the Paddle has come to a close, but competitors, spectators and fans will be talking about this event for months and years to come.
There were so many highlights and memorable moments. From Danny Ching reclaiming his crown, to Annabel Anderson announcing herself as the new women’s champion, to a bunch of stoked young groms charging like crazy. They call the Battle of the Paddle “Super Bowl of SUP” for a reason…
We’ll have a full weekend recap soon, but in the meantime relive the action with the complete results from the 2012 Battle of the Paddle… → READ MORE
Ching finished 40 seconds ahead of Mitchell over the 5 mile course, while the rest of the Top 15 was a virtual who’s who of Stand Up Paddle racing (and this is despite the event being held the same weekend as Molokai…). Other top performers included Ryan Helm, who finished just seconds behind Mitchell, Jay Wild, Chase Kosterlitz, Rob Rojas, Byron Kurt, Thomas Maximus, Jim Terrell, and several other elite SUP racers. → READ MORE
