In brief: Ryan Helm has taken out the 8th Annual Rincon Beachboy stand up paddleboard race in Puerto Rico, narrowly edging out Josh Riccio for the second week in a row to make it a clean sweep in the Caribbean.
I chatted with Josh after the race and he said it was a great event with a great turnout of stoked paddlers. He had a close battle with Ryan the whole way, switching the lead a couple of times before Helm picked up a bump and paddled clear in the closing stages. → READ MORE
In brief: Ryan Helm has taken out the 3rd annual “Coconut Cup” on the Caribbean island of St. Croix, edging out Josh Riccio and a bunch of adventurous paddlers who clearly enjoyed a paradisaical holiday with a race on the side.
In what can only be described as a “Destination Race,” the Coconut Cup included both a downwinder and a course race, with Floridian-turned-Sayulita-local Ryan making it a clean sweep of the weekend. → READ MORE
In brief: Mo Freitas and Fiona Wylde have taken out the distance race at the 30th Annual Santa Cruz Paddlefest, with solid waves giving a small but elite field a good early season hit out.
After a tight race that finished in just under an hour, Mo crossed the line seconds ahead of Giorgo Gomez and Slater Trout, with the lead trio having stuck together the entire race. → READ MORE
Stop whatever you’re doing and check out this rather epic 2015 highlights reel from the Riviera Paddlesurf crew. There have been hundreds of great stand up paddling videos thrown down this year, but this has surely gotta be one of the best…
From cruising in southern California to the paddling paradises of Tahoe and Tahiti to finless surfing in Mexico and half a dozen other places in between, this clip has got it all. → READ MORE
In case you needed even more motivation to visit the paddling wonderland known as Tahiti, check out this recap of Team Riviera’s recent trip to the island.
Surfing perfect waves, paddling race boards through perfectly clear, turquoise-coloured lagoons, and generally just enjoying life in paradise. Sign me up. → READ MORE
Mo Freitas and Shae Foudy have taken out the 2015 Santa Monica Pier Paddle, after a strong lineup of elite and amateur paddlers lit up the iconic paddleboarding venue on Saturday.
Annabel Anderson triumped over Candice Appleby in the five miler, however the short, sharp SUP Cross provided a bit of an upset… → READ MORE
Ryan Helm and Gail Vento have taken out the 2015 Rincon Beachboy SUP Race in Puerto Rico, as over 300 paddlers descended on the island for another classic event.
Now in its seventh year, the Beachboy has gained a reputation of being a massive community race, with hundreds of local, Caribbean and quite a few international paddlers of all ages coming out for the show. → READ MORE
Check out a rad clip from the recent Punta Sayulita SUP Classic down Mexico way. This great edit, titled Sayulita Fever, shows off Rogue’s dynamic duo Fernando Stalla and Javier “Bicho” Jimenez as they compete in their hometown event.
These guys are looking in fine form ahead of the ISA Worlds in May, which will see the rest of the world descend on their backyard. → READ MORE
We’ve just wrapped up the 2015 Punta Sayulita SUP Classic, where the local world beaters have shown that Team Mexico will be a force to be reckoned with at the upcoming ISA Worlds.
Javier “Bicho” Jimenez took out today’s distance race to back up his runner-up finish in Saturday’s Elite Race. Bicho swapped 1-2 finishes with expat Ryan Helm… → READ MORE
Some cool shots from the latest round of the Mexico SUP Tour.
Featuring well-known names such as Fernando Stalla, Bicho Jimenez, Ryan Helm and Shelby Dela Rosa Taylor, the Mexico SUP Tour was created last year to help grow the sport of stand up paddling in Mexico. The ten-stop Tour started back in October and runs right through to July, hitting pretty much every major corner of the country. → READ MORE
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
