JUNE 26^th NEW BRIGHTON STATE BEACH, CAPITOLA CALIFORNIA

The 2010 Surftech Jay Mori­ar­ity Memo­r­ial Pad­dle­board Race is an annual ocean pad­dle­board race in the beau­ti­ful waters of the Mon­terey Bay. This event is in mem­ory of Santa Cruz Water­man Jay Mori­ar­ity. Pad­dle the 12 mile or 2 mile course. Free races for kids 12 and under.

Why should you do the Jay race?
This is the 9^th annual race. It keeps get­ting bet­ter every year! We gather to remem­ber Jay! Pro­ceeds will go to Santa Cruz County Junior Life­guard Pro­grams to pur­chase pad­dle­boards and to pro­vide schol­ar­ships in Jay’s name. Par­tic­i­pants get a goodie bag, tee-shirt, fresh Peet’s cof­fee, and snacks. And…you get a Hawai­ian plate lunch from Aloha Island Grill. Of course there is the chal­leng­ing course, family-friendly atmos­phere, and great hand made tro­phies and raffle.

Divi­sions for the 12 mile Race.

Men: 12 mile Stock and Unlim­ited boards: 29 and under, 30–39,  40–49, and 50+.

Men and Women: 12 mile SUP: stock (12’6 and under) and unlimited.

Women: Stock pad­dle­boards. If pad­dling an Unlim­ited you will grouped in the Men’s division.

Four­teen foot class

*New for 2010 Life­guard Divi­sion! All life­guards and Jr. Life­guards who pad­dle the 12-mile course will accu­mu­late points for your Life­guard orga­ni­za­tion. A per­pet­ual tro­phy will be awarded to the orga­ni­za­tion who accu­mu­lates the most points!

Pre-Registration Gath­er­ing
Fri­day, June 25^th from 4 pm to 7 pm at the Santa Cruz Har­bor Beach near the Crow’s Nest Restau­rant. You can still reg­is­ter for the race for a dis­counted price. Look over the course map. This is a great time to meet other pad­dlers, dis­cuss race tac­tics, and pon­der the Mon­terey Bay currents.

Park­ing and Restrooms
Plenty of park­ing in the New Brighton Beach lot above the venue. Be pre­pared to pay the entrance fee at the kiosk. This is not included in the race entry fee. There is lim­ited park­ing in the sur­round­ing neigh­bor­hood and chal­leng­ing access to the park.… if you know where to look! Restrooms are located sev­eral hun­dred yards from the venue on a vehi­cle access path on the beach. Plan ahead!!

Race Day Reg­is­tra­tion
5:30 am reg­is­tra­tion opens for both the 12 and 2 mile races.

Race Day Entry Fees on 6÷26÷10
12 mile is $50.00, 2 mile is $25.00, The No Frills 2 mile (no lunch or tee) is $5.00 and the Fam­ily Relay and Kids Races are free (we pro­vide the soft paddleboards).

Jay Cer­e­mony
At 8:00 am we will have a cer­e­mony to honor the great Santa Cruz Water­man Jay Mori­ar­ity. This year the Jay cer­e­mony will be hosted by Mav­er­icks charger and Jay’s good friend, Grant Wash­burn.

12 mile Course
(Pad­dle­boards) Water start at 8:30 sharp.

12 mile Course
(Stand-ups) Water Start at 8:40 sharp.

2 mile Course
Water start for all pad­dle­board­ers and stand-ups at 8:50. The course par­al­lels the beach toward the Cement Ship. It is an out-and-back course. There will be plenty of Cal­i­for­nia State Life­guards patrolling the course. The winds are usu­ally calm and the swell small. This is a great course for begin­ners. Sorry… we can no longer pro­vide loaner boards. Start look­ing for one now!!

2 mile Cat­e­gories
Pad­dle any type of board! We will make up divi­sions based on participants.

Lunch
A Hawai­ian Plate lunch will be pro­vided by the Aloha Island Grill.

Kids Races
Kids races will begin around 11:00 am. We will pro­vide kids age 12 and under with Nip­per or Soft pad­dle­boards to use. Courses are age appro­pri­ate. They are out and back around a marker off the beach. There will be plenty of Life­guards on hand to keep the kids safe.

Fun Fam­ily Relay

New for 2010 a Three per­son relay around a tri­an­gle course of roughly 800 meters. Teams will use one board to pad­dle the course. All teams will con­sist of three pad­dlers and must have at least one male and one female pad­dler on the team.

After Race Gath­er­ing
We will meet at the Crow’s Nest, at the the Santa Cruz Har­bor, for a after race gath­er­ing at 5pm.

New age restric­tions for the 12 mile pad­dle.
If you are 15 years old or under, you must be pad­dle the entire dis­tance with another respon­si­ble adult (buddy pad­dle). How­ever if you are 15 and under and have com­pleted this race in the past, the race com­mit­tee will decide if you can pad­dle solo.

Addi­tional Infor­ma­tion
Fri­day, June 25^th: 4 to 7 pm is pre-race check-in at the Crow’s Nest / Har­bor Beach. Look over the course map. You can also reg­is­ter for the race if you haven’t yet done so online. Sat­ur­day, June 26^th: Race Day! 5:30 am Check-in starts for both the 12 mile and 2 mile pad­dle. 8:00 am Jay Cer­e­mony. 8:30 am 12 mile Pad­dle­board start. 8:40 am 12 mile Stand-up start. 8:50 am 2 mile start. 9:20 am first 2 mile fin­ish­ers. 10:20 am first 12 mile fin­ish­ers. 11:15 am Lunch, awards, kids races and Fun Fam­ily Relay. 12:00 pm Raf­fle. 5pm Post-Race Party at the Crow’s Nest.

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So you’ve been rid­ing your SUP for awhile, and now you feel like it’s time to take it to the next level. Well, in 2010, you’re scor­ing the oppor­tu­nity to show off that wicked bot­tom turn!

Call up Aunt Hilda and tell her to get her ortho­pe­dics on, because March 26–28, it’s going down.

The 24^th Annual Santa Cruz Surf Kayak Fes­ti­val

@ Steamer Lane in Santa Cruz, CA

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Nearly 900 peo­ple, includ­ing elite ath­letes from all over the coun­try, par­tic­i­pated in one of the most envi­ron­men­tally con­scious triathlons in the world Sun­day at McN­ears Beach County Park on San Rafael California’s east side.

Rac­ers were treated to a per­fect day at the sec­ond annual Marin County Triathlon, a fundraiser for sev­eral nonprofits.

TJ Tol­lak­son, 29, a pro triath­lete from Des Moines, Iowa, was the top male fin­isher in 1 hour, 55 min­utes, 40 sec­onds. Sarah Hask­ins claimed the women’s crown in 2:03:26.

While the ath­letes were out on the race course, the Surftech SUP demo was treat­ing spec­ta­tors to the world’s hottest new water sport, stand up pad­dling. When the rac­ers fin­ished their race, many of them joined the fun at the Surftech tent down at the waters edge. Notable triath­letes includ­ing Chris Lieto and TJ Tol­lak­son to triathlon coaches Reid & Eileen Swan­son of Tri Lab Coach­ing, Neil Fraser of Tri More Fit­ness and Dor­rette Franks of Trifin­ity to triathlon hope­fuls and non-athletes alike, the water was filled with stand up pad­dlers enjoy­ing the beau­ti­ful day on offer in Marin County pad­dling the best stand up pad­dle­boards on the planet!

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Jamie Mitchell crosses over to take out the 2^nd Annual Bat­tle of the Paddle!

DANA POINT, CA. – (Octo­ber 3, 2009) — Aus­tralian Jaime Mitchell is the reign­ing eight time champ of the gru­el­ing Molokai to Oahu Pad­dle­board Race held every July. Known in elite pad­dle­board cir­cles for his prone pad­dling prowess, Mitchell recently took his pad­dling act to his feet at Doheny Beach, Cal­i­for­nia for Rain­bow San­dals’ 2^nd Annual Bat­tle of the Pad­dle, the world’s largest Stand Up Pad­dle (SUP) race.

“Mitchell is more suited for the races in Hawai’i than in Cal­i­for­nia”, “…a fast prone pad­dler, but he won’t hang with the top guys in stand up”, was the online chat­ter posted on mes­sage boards before Octo­ber 3^rd, 2009. Accused of being a one-dimensional ath­lete, Mitchell sur­prised all with a stun­ning win, a full 4 min­utes and 39 sec­onds ahead of water­man Chuck Patterson’s win­ning time at the pre­vi­ous year’s event.

The morn­ing after Mitchell’s glo­ri­ous vic­tory, crit­ics ate their words and Wheaties in stunned silence. Mitchell’s magic for­mula: sheer ath­letic abil­ity and a unique SUP race board designed with sim­i­lar fea­tures to his Molokai to Oahu prone race board.

For stand up paddling’s elite, the Bat­tle of the Pad­dle rep­re­sents the world’s largest and most com­pet­i­tive race. A “motocross” style course has par­tic­i­pants zig-zagging in and out of the break­ing surf. It’s a chal­lenge that tests the endurance and surf­ing skills of the world’s best water­men and women. Ath­letes fly in from around the world to com­pete for the cov­eted Bat­tle of the Pad­dle crown and a cash purse of $25,000.

Doheny Beach resem­bled a NASCAR event last Sat­ur­day morn­ing with dozens of ven­dors show­ing off their lat­est speed machines. With its fes­tive atmos­phere and a jubi­lant throng of onlook­ers stak­ing out view­ing spots on the sand, the salt air was buzzing with antic­i­pa­tion. As the sun rose that morn­ing, no one could have antic­i­pated what was in store. Mitchell had never com­peted in a stand up pad­dle race in the USA before.

Could the suc­cess he’s enjoyed in tra­di­tional “prone” pad­dle races be his in an SUP event? Dozens of rivals were there to take on the chal­lenge. The sud­den pop­u­lar­ity of SUP in the fit­ness, kayak­ing and surf worlds has fueled fierce com­pe­ti­tion amongst ath­letes, board design­ers and shapers. Every inno­va­tor, huck­ster, fit­ness guru and expe­ri­enced board and boat builder is climb­ing on the SUP bandwagon.

With a build­ing swell and increas­ing onshore winds, this year’s race was to be far more chal­leng­ing than the last. Mid-way into the first of four laps, and near­ing the lead, Mitchell’s hopes were nearly dashed when he fell, loos­ing his board. Caught in white water, the board arrived almost back to shore with­out him. Swim­ming to recover it, Mitchell got back on course. The mishap had cost him approx­i­mately eight places.

Now in tenth place, he sum­moned his inner war­rior to make up the lost time. When he over­took young phe­nom Slater Trout and Andrew Logreco to take the lead with a nice mar­gin, the win­ner was clearly “MITCHO!”, a first time BOP com­peti­tor. “After the wipe­out at the south buoy, I just put my head down and told myself that I wasn’t going to make any more mis­takes” com­mented Mitchell.

Indeed, his remain­ing three laps were aided by surf skills honed in Aus­tralia and Hawai’i. Mitchell, per­fectly posi­tioned, surfed sev­eral set waves which extended his lead. Jamie com­pleted the 5 mile course with a record time of 1:07:45. The ever so hum­ble “Mitcho” gave credit for his win to his board design­ers, and added, “I’ve been busy trav­el­ing and work­ing with my surf school back home so we didn’t really have much time to train before com­ing out to California.”

Just days prior to the Bat­tle of the Pad­dle, Mitchell and a tight knit crew of fel­low Aussies were up in San Fran­cisco for the Hen­nessey Inter­na­tional Pad­dle­board­ing Cham­pi­onships. Mitchell was there to defend his title in the Unlim­ited (prone pad­dle) Class. Vic­tory was his when he won that race with more than a three minute lead.

By about 2:30 in the after­noon on Sat­ur­day, Mitcho’s lead at Doheny had left lit­tle doubt who’s board was the fastest! Mitchell’s uncon­ven­tional SUP board has a unique con­cave bot­tom, chine rails and con­sis­tent thick­ness flow from nose to tail. A stark con­trast to the major­ity of rac­ing boards in the water, Mitchell’s board was designed by Lahui Kai, the Aus­tralian part­ner­ship of Adrian Birse and Mick Di Betta. The “Mitcho”, Jamie Mitchell’s 12’6″ model rac­ing SUP board will be man­u­fac­tured by Surftech, the inno­v­a­tive Santa Cruz, Cal­i­for­nia com­pany known for bring­ing exclu­sive shapes by elite design­ers to mar­ket. Surftech’s unique pro­pri­etary con­struc­tion makes their boards both hi-performance and ultra-durable. Fast, sta­ble & light, the 12’6″ Mitcho is a great board for rac­ing or cruis­ing on a long pad­dle. It’s a solid and proven per­former, even in windy or bumpy con­di­tions. Look for Surftech’s Mitcho in stores world­wide by Spring 2010.

Con­grats Mate!!

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Last week­end Mette and I were in south­ern WV  for the Gauley Fest (an annual white­wa­ter river fes­ti­val).  Every fall the Army Corp of Engi­neers draws down Sum­mersville lake to its win­ter level and as a result for 6 weeks in the fall the Gauley river has con­sis­tent flows that make for some world class whitewater.

We decided to skip the crowds on the river on Sat­ur­day and spend a relax­ing day pad­dling the 14′ Bark and 10’6 Pear­son Arrow Laird around Sum­mersville lake.   This is an amaz­ing lake that is absolutely beau­ti­ful and great for SUP.  If you are ever in the area make sure to check it out.

Here are a few pics from the day.

Enjoy,

Joe Mos­quera

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Despite heavy winds and rain, the 1^st Annual South­east SUP Cham­pi­onships went off yes­ter­day.  The bad weather couldn’t dampen the par­tic­i­pants’ spir­its as over 50 pad­dlers pad­dled the race.  Rac­ers from Hawaii, Cal­i­for­nia, Florida and Vir­ginia joined local pad­dlers all in search of the crown.  Jeremy Riggs ended up claim­ing the title, “SOUTHEAST SUP CHAMPION”, fin­ish­ing with a time of 41.18 min­utes.  The tem­per­a­tures were low, but just like the winds dur­ing the race, the stoke remained high through­out the day.

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EIGHT-TIME world pad­dle­board­ing cham­pion Jamie Mitchell had the sur­prise of his life when a hump­back whale sur­faced cen­time­tres away from him off  the New South Wales north coast yesterday.

Mitchell told news.com.au he was out film­ing a pilot for his com­ing doc­u­men­tary, Liv­ing in Liq­uid, when a pod of up to five hump­backs sur­faced, and started fol­low­ing him off Tweed Heads at about 7.30am (AEST).

He said the pod played around him for about 10 min­utes.

“We were just out on the water pad­dling around and all of a sud­den, boom, a whale breached about 100m away from me,” he said today.

“I thought that was pretty cool and then all of a sud­den another whale came up right in front of me.

“At the start it was sort of scary, I got goose­bumps and the adren­a­lin started flowing.

“But then I real­ized that they were just play­ing. They swam right under­neath my board and I thought I’d be in strife if they came up but they had a good sense of where I was.”

The 32-year-old,  who lives on the Gold Coast and spends most of his time in the water, said the migrat­ing hump­backs drifted off after a while.

“It’s cer­tainly the clos­est I’ve ever been to them,” he said.

Mitchell is soon head­ing to Cal­i­for­nia to com­pete in the Hennessey’s Inter­na­tional Pad­dle­board Race.

Link to story from News.com.au

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Another day at the lake.  The sun is shin­ning and the SUPs are in full-effect… This time behind the boat.

With a Stand Up Pad­dle­board, the fun never stops!

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Hey Guys,

What a week­end. The Gore Canyon fes­ti­val was a huge hit once again and the turnout was great. So was the response to stand up pad­dling! I arrived Fri­day and within an hour had five peo­ple out on boards run­ning the class II stretch from our camp spot to about three miles down­stream. One of the pad­dlers had done it before and the other four were first timers, and they all did great. If I had 10 boards they would have been used too. I had to turn peo­ple away as I had five boards total. We ended up doing a cou­ple runs so every­one got a chance.

On Sat­ur­day I vol­un­teered for the race as the head fin­ish line timer. I could have raced but wanted to give my shoul­der some rest from kayak­ing to make sure it’s strong. Stand up pad­dling puts lit­tle to no stress on it com­pared to kayak­ing so I’ve been super stoked on being able to run rivers on my board. I decided to hike up from the bot­tom and pad­dle up the flat-water to the fin­ish line so I could pad­dle the mile down to the camp ground when the race was over. We even used the Black­tip and Surftech pad­dle to mark the fin­ish line for the rac­ers. Wrapped it in pink rib­bon and stuck it out next to the river so pad­dlers knew where the race ended.

Typ­i­cal of the race every­one gath­ered at the fin­ish line for a bit of par­ty­ing before pad­dling down­stream to the camp ground and race head­quar­ters. You should have heard the hoot­ing and cheers when I jumped on my board and ran the first rapid in front of every­one! They were so fired up. I pad­dled the remain­ing class III rapids with a few dozen kayak­ers /rafters and sev­eral of them asked when they could try it out. “Back at camp” I told them and sure enough a bunch showed up. Some rac­ers, a few rafters with their fam­i­lies and oth­ers all did a down river with me. Must have had 25 peo­ple in our group. We switched out boards and rafts and just made our way down. We had kids as young as 4 on them to new pad­dlers as old as 55 on the same sec­tion of river. I even had Bill Mat­ti­son, cap­tain of Team Vail (they won the Eco chal­lenge a few years back) He was so into it. Asked where to get a board also. Talk about a diverse crowd of river run­ners. Every­one picked up SUP fast and many asked ques­tions about what board to buy and where can they get them. A total suc­cess with even more folks com­ing up to me at the awards cer­e­mony and party ask­ing about boards and where to get them to try.

So thanks to Surftech for hav­ing boards out here for pad­dlers to try out. All we have to do is get peo­ple on the boards and the rest takes care of itself. The river was full of stand up stoke this week­end. Stand up pad­dling is going to BOOM out here by next sum­mer, watch.

Pad­dle,
hobie

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Vol­ley­ball fans got to expe­ri­ence walk­ing on water at the Corona Wide Open Vol­ley­ball Tour stop in Santa Cruz, Ca. this week­end. In record hot tem­per­a­tures, com­peti­tors and fans got to cool off while try­ing out Surftech’s stand up pad­dle­boards. Out on the water many par­tic­i­pants pad­dled through the Santa Cruz Wharf and got up close and per­sonal with the local sea lions who were bask­ing in the hot sum­mer air on the docks below the wharf.

While back on the beach the vol­ley­ball action was intense as com­peti­tors from all over the coun­try bat­tled it out in the sand for the Corona Wide Open title. To help beat the heat after test­ing out the SUPs, those with access to the Corona VIP area were greeted with the infa­mous Corona “Octo­bong” which made the after­noon enter­tain­ing to say the least…

Be sure to check the next Corona Wide Open Tour stop and Surftech demo in Santa Mon­ica July 11^th-12^th

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