After announcing the 9 major stops of The Paddle League World Tour in January, which includes big international events such as the forthcoming Air France Paddle Festival in Tahiti, the Carolina Cup and Gorge Paddle Challenge. The Paddle League has released a schedule of the confirmed regionals, bringing together 41 regional events across 24 nations, with the goal of providing a stable foundation for the future of worldwide stand up paddling. The addition of these 41 “Regionals” completes the Season 2018 race schedule, bringing the total number of independent events in The League to 50.
The regionals will run all year long from the GlaGla Race in January to the King of the Cut in December, while the major World Tour stops focus on the six-month international season from April til October. The highlight of the Northern summer is expected, as always, to be the 10-week EuroTour from May to July. The Paddle League will be crowning its world champions in October (or earlier if the title race is decided before the final stops), and the 5 races in the “post-season” will count towards Season 2019.
Photo Credit: Bay Bridge Paddle
The Paddle League Regionals include a huge variety of locations – from France to Finland, Key West to Kiev and Brazil to the Basque Country, and in plenty of unique formats: downwinders, beach races, marathons, river races and plenty of flat water, entry-level events for paddlers of all levels. There are familiar names included in the regionals such as Maui2Molokai in Hawaii, the Key West Classic in Florida and San Francisco’s Battle of the Bay, as well as new frontiers like river racing in the Czech Republic (Krumlovsky Vodacky), the Kiev Open in Ukraine and other new stops from Singapore to South Africa and Taiwan to Thailand.
The Paddle League has also partnered with the established authority in European paddling, the EuroTour, to help further unify the sport. Each stop of the EuroTour will award athletes with world ranking points as the sport’s two biggest tours join forces in a new era for SUP. Charity events such as Paddle Imua, Jersey’s Round Island Challenge and the massive SEA Paddle NYC are all part of The Paddle League platform as well, with the aim of supporting the events that support the sport.
Photo Credit: Lech Dolecki
The Paddle League has also made life easier for traveling athletes by attaching a regional stop to each of the majors, for example with the Gorge Paddle Challenge in Oregon being complimented by the Vancouver SUP Challenge over the border in Canada, and the Waterman Tour Tahiti event falling one week after the Air France Paddle Festival.
Tour Commissioner and ageless athlete Kelly Margetts announced “The core aim of The Paddle League is to help unify the sport and reconnect with those awesome grassroots events that really give stand up paddling its base. We want to support and help elevate these classic regional races. We’re pumped that so many great events want to be involved in this project.”
Photo Credit: eurotour sup
Rankings mastermind Christopher Parker told us The Paddle League is simply a logical next step for the original system. “The world rankings were created half a decade ago not just because I love analysing the stats, but because we all wanted to help bring some structure to stand up paddling. I look at the world rankings as the common thread that connects all the existing pieces of the puzzle — all the great independent events that are the true pillars of our sport. The Paddle League is the next step, so I’m pretty stoked the original system has evolved to where it is today: the basis of a legit world tour. Points have been fairly evenly spread between three key regions: the U.S, Europe and the Rest of the World, with the goal of making The Paddle League World Rankings as open and accessible to all paddlers no matter what their level or location”.
Photo Credit: villefranche_paddle_race
Following the pre-season campaign that featured regional stops in Australia, New Zealand, France and California, The Paddle League World Tour begins with this weekend’s (7th April) major Air France Paddle Festival in Tahiti, which will be streamed on The Paddle League via Facebook Live from 11am local time, alongwith Mathieu from TotalSUP as part of the team!
Les 6 HEURES DE L’ERDRE OCTOBRE ROSE ont offert une expérience exceptionnelle malgré les caprices de l’automne, avec deux tempêtes qui ont encadré l’événement. Le samedi 11 novembre, entre ces deux tourmentes, plus de 100 participants ont saisi l’opportunité de pagayer aux couleurs d’Octobre Rose le long des rives de l’Erdre, grâce à une accalmie […]
Picture this: a winding river, hidden in the heart of the enchanting Ardèche region of Southern France, with its mesmerizing landscapes, dramatic twists, and thrilling whitewater sections. This is the stage for the Marathon de l’Ardèche, an exceptional multi-craft event that has captured the hearts of enthusiasts worldwide. In our exclusive interview, Paolo Marconi, a […]
With three victories in the last three races of the week, the French team won the 10th edition of the Stand Up Paddle World Championships this Sunday in Les Sables d’Olonne (Vendée). Mélanie Lafenêtre and Noïc Garioud, both winners of the sprints (200m), clinched their first ISA World Champion titles. The French mixed relay team, […]
Australia’s Gold Coast is an area we might associate with surfing, and stunning beaches with a shoreline developed for tourism, it is a hotspot for holidaymakers from around the world. But there is much more to the area than the plentiful beach breaks and paddlers looking for some longer, racier SUP action. SUNOVA paddler Monika […]
SIC Maui, the renowned global brand specializing in SUP, Surf, Foil, and Wingfoil, has proudly announced its collaboration as an official partner for the upcoming 2023 ISA World SUP & Paddleboard Championship in Les Sables d’Olonne in the beautiful coastal town of Les Sables d’Olonne, France. Below, you’ll find their official press release: “SIC Maui, […]
The 2023 ISA World StandUp Paddle and Paddleboard Championship (WSUPPC) is set to gather the world’s best SUP Surf, SUP race and Paddleboard athletes in Les Sables d’Olonne, France from September 24 – October 1. Don’t miss one of the biggest events on the planet this year. Here are 10 things you need to know […]
Originaire de Bordeaux, le jeune Louka Brard a quitté sa ville natale il y a un an pour s’installer en famille à Crozon après avoir goûté aux plaisirs des downwinds bretons. Il a ainsi pu se rapprocher du Crozon Watermen Club, où sa passion pour le SUP Race s’est métamorphosée, prenant des allures quasi-professionnelles, agrémenté […]
Christophe Colussi, alias Chris Puremagic, co-organisateur du Yaka Paddle Festival revient pour TotalSUP, sur la magnifique édition qui a eu lieu le 27 août dernier. On souffle, on prend le temps, on reprend notre souffle. On vient de vivre un Yaka fort en émotions. Très fort même. On l’avait cherché, On l’a trouvé. Retour sur […]
In the middle of May two intrepid paddlers loaded up a van with their SUP gear and headed south from the UK to the Dordogne River in France with one aim, to paddle as much of the river as possible. James Belcher and John Cobo are not ultra-distance athletes but two men with their boards, […]
Use of cookies
This website uses cookies in order to make it easier to use and to support the provision of relevant information and functionality to you.
Necessary Cookies
Necessary cookies enable core functionality such as security, network management, and accessibility. You may disable these by changing your browser settings, but this may affect how the website functions.
3rd Party Cookies
We use a set of third party tools to provide information on how our users engage with our website so that we can improve the experience of the website for our users. For example, we collect information about which of our pages are most frequently visited, and by which types of users. Keeping this cookie enabled helps us to improve our website.
Please enable Strictly Necessary Cookies first so that we can save your preferences!