Paddle Brief: California Paddlers Descended Upon Oz

Several dozen outrigger paddlers from throughout Southern California traveled to Mooloolaba on the Sunshine Coast in Queensland, Australia for the International Va’a Federation (IVF) World Distance Champs this month. The California delegation was led by a strong contingent of paddlers from the Lanakila Outrigger Canoe Club in Redondo Beach and included a standout Junior Men crew that took Second Place in their 24k event on August 14th. The Junior Men’s finishing time was 1:55:47, approximately two minutes behind the winning crew from Tahiti and more than three minutes ahead of the third place crew from Australia.

Silver Medal Winners – U.S. Junior Men’s team. Photo: IVF

Visit Webscorer for complete results from all the events at the 2019 IVF World Distance Champs. The IVF Distance Champs are held every two years. The 2021 event will be held in Samoa.

SUP Athletes Competed at the 2019 Pan American Games

SUP racing and surfing was on the docket at the 2019 Pan American Games in Peru July 26 – August 11. The inclusion of SUP racing and surfing marked an important milestone in the progression of SUP as a competitive sport.

California’s Candice Appleby’s finish in the women’s race likely generated the most memorable images from the event for SUP watchers. In case you have been under a rock and are one of the few who has not seen the footage, I’ve posted a video clip below. Candice led the race throughout the entire course only to be crushed by a wave on her return to the beach. The dramatic wipeout knocked Candice back to second place in a bittersweet end to what was otherwise a stellar performance at the Games.

View this post on Instagram

#Throwback to my Peruvian beatdown a couple weeks ago. What looked like a friendly wave, jacked up and ate me for breakfast 😂. Thanks @puredigitalmedia for the clip. Pardon the language folks 🤭 #Repost @puredigitalmedia with @get_repost ・・・ a set rolled in behind her, #wave picked her up in the beach break, appropriately called “La Campana” (The Bell)🔔, and down she went over the falls 😲🌊💦watch it in #4K #linkinBIO 👀👆🏽🎥🌊🤙🏽 one of the few times a #suprace is held at #PuntaRocas & it was #big. 🌊as usual, #candice was leading the whole #race up until the final approach where unfortunately, along with a racer behind her, she didnt make it in time, and brazilian racer came from behind to win the 🥇. candice got 🥈. good job candice. 🎥🌊💦more coverage coming soon. #staytuned #lima2019 #peru #panamgames2019 #juegospanamericanos2019

A post shared by Candice Appleby (@applesteeze) on Aug 15, 2019 at 5:17pm PDT

Hala Gear Renews Sponsorship of Pumped Up Paddler

PaddleXaminer is excited to welcome Hala Gear back as the sponsor for our column Pumped Up Paddler. Pumped Up Paddler is our featured column focusing on inflatable paddle craft, with a particular emphasis on standup paddling or SUP as it’s commonly known. Michael Chebatoris is the lead writer in charge of the column and can be found exploring the lakes and rivers around his home state of Colorado. Take a look at his recent piece, Hala Rado: Rocking the Whitewater Paddling Scene in Colorado. 

Changes to our site

I’m making some changes to PaddleXaminer’s layout to refresh our look and add some new functionality. We were hacked in early August – our DNS was hijacked and redirected to a pharmacy selling stuff you probably wouldn’t find at your local CVS. Post cleanup it seemed like an appropriate time to do a complete refresh. Let us know what you think of the new look by dropping us a line at [email protected].

#StandupPaddling #HalaGear #PanAmericanGames #Outrigger #Colorado #IVFDistanceChamps