The Battle of the Brands. The BOB. It’s the one race of the year where virtually all the major manufacturers come together to duke it out for glory, bragging rights and market share. In the same way the Battle of the Paddle draws all the top paddlers, so too does it attract all the leading board and paddle makers.

But who are the leading brands? Our sport (and our industry) is a bit like the Wild West right now: We’re growing so fast that new companies are popping up every week.

However some are staking a stronger claim than others, at least on the elite side of the sport, so I decided to run the numbers from the BOP and see which boards and paddles the elite guys and girls are choosing to use.

While throwing a bunch of athletes into macking surf at Salt Creek isn’t exactly a scientific study of which brand makes the fastest gear (let’s face it, Danny Ching could probably beat you and I with a door and shovel), it does give us an indication of the current landscape.

And either way, it’s kinda fun to dig into the stats and numbers…

So after Quickblade and SIC were the clear winners at Molokai, let’s see who “won” the other biggest race of the year.

Who came out on top at Battle of the Paddle @ Salt Creek?

If you look at the numbers at the bottom of this page – click here to jump straight to the stats – two brands will stand out pretty sharply: Quickblade absolutely dominated when it came to paddles, while the rejuvenated SUP ATX/Lahui Kai brand stole the show from the big boys in the battle of the boards.

Quickblade Is Still The Ferrari Of Paddles

Despite some great innovation from boutique operators and huge investment in paddles by the large board manufacturers, the original standard, Quickblade, is still the paddle of choice for the elite guys and girls.

Both of the 2014 Battle of the Paddle champions – Candice Appleby and Kai Lenny – chose to paddle with a Quickblade, while roughly 50% of all top finishers made the same call.

In the uber-prestigious and insanely-competitive Men’s Elite Race, more than half of the top 15 guys were paddling a QB. Quickblade took home 8 of the top 15 spots, which is a 53.33% “market share” of the elite racing scene. On the women’s side the QB domination was slightly smaller but still clear: 40% of the top 10 women chose one of the Mad Scientist’s creations.

Apart from Quickblade – and this stat is kind of amazing – no other brand had more than one single team rider in the mix. Outside of the 8x Quickblade paddles there were seven other brands represented: 1x Fanatic, 1x Hippo Stick, 1x Sawyer, 1x Select, 1x Boardworks, 1x Lass and 1x Naish.

In the Women’s Elite Race it was a bit more of a fair fight. Other than Quickblade with 4/10 (or 40% ‘market share’) the only other ‘multiple’ brand was Werner, who had 2 riders in the mix. Actually if you zoom down to the absolute top of the list, Werner was even more successful than Quikblade on the women’s side: Werner grabbed positions #2 and #4, whereas in addition to the #1 spot, Quickblade’s second highest paddler was #5.

Just like Quickblade, Werner is a niche brand that’s known for making paddles and nothing else. Again, while this isn’t exactly a scientific study, it’s a strong indicator that elite paddlers still prefer to get their boards from a board maker and their paddles from a paddle maker.

Outside of the 4x Quickblade and 2x Werner, the other four paddle brands in the Women’s Elite Race Top 10 were: 1x ZRE, 1x Fanatic, 1x Naish and 1x SIC.

Quickblade’s continued dominance of the high end paddle market is staggering. I’ve seen how their operation works and it’s not far above the “mom & pop” level. QB is a relatively small company but they’ve built a huge and very loyal following.

Word beaters such as Kalama, Jamie, Travis, Casper, Candice, Kelly, Jenny, Lincoln, etc are all official QB team riders, however the brand has a pretty impressive list of unofficial team riders as well. Quickblade designs are in such high demand that some of the young superstars of the sport are going out of their way, even risking upsetting their primary sponsor, just to race with a Quickblade paddle.

For example Kai Lenny is sponsored by Naish for both boards and paddles, however he’s been using a Quickblade “V-Drive” the past five months.

Perhaps the young superstar has been hanging around his mentor a little too much (Kai has worked closely with V-Drive creator Dave Kalama for several years), or perhaps he just thinks that Quickblade make better paddles. Either way it’s certainly an interesting situation and one that speaks volumes about the appeal of the iconic QB logo.

(So on a side note: The rather ironic thing about the ‘handlegate‘ incident is that Kai and Connor are technically on the same “team” – they’re both using a Quickblade.)

SUP ATX Lahui Kai Is The New Kid Race Board On The Block

Even more visible than an elite athlete’s paddle is their board, and the Battle of the Paddle is a perfect opportunity for the leading manufacturers to showcase their new gear (hence our nickname “Battle of the Brands”).

But this year it wasn’t one of the regular logos that stood out. It wasn’t Naish, Starboard, Fanatic or SIC that dominated. This year it was the new kid on the racing block: SUP ATX.

SUP ATX has never been an elite brand. They’ve long been known for mass producing mid-range, all-round touring boards and not much else.

But then something changed.

First, they bought the rights to the Australian-based Lahui Kai brand, which instantly gave them far better shapes as well as world-class team riders such as Kelly Margetts and Lincoln Dews. Then a few months ago they snapped up the universally respected designer Brian Szymanski (along with industry stalwart John Becker) to make an even stronger push on the racing side.

 

And that push is clearly paying off.

If you only look at the Men’s Elite Race results it’s obvious: Lahui Kai had three of their team riders inside the Top 10 whereas no other brand had more than one. Lincoln Dews, Kelly Margetts and Jayden Jensen all claimed a spot on the podium, while seven other brands each had a sole representative.

Outside of Lahui Kai’s domination, the Men’s Top 10 also featured: 1x Naish, 1x Fanatic, 1x 404, 1x Starboard, 1x Focus, 1x BIC and 1x Infinity/Boardworks.

If you expand the results out to the Top 15 it’s a little more respectable for the big boys: Naish scraped in with two paddlers near the bottom of the top 15 (positions #13 and #14) while Starboard rounded out the list with their second team rider. That gave Naish 3x, on par with Lahui Kai, while Starboard were the only other ‘multiple’ brand in the top 15 with 2x.

Throw in NSP and Rogue scoring a top 15 spot and we had an amazing 10x different board brands represented inside the Men’s Elite Race Top 15.

SUP ATX/Lahui Kai wasn’t satisfied with dominating the men’s podium, they also managed to get their sole international female team rider (Sondra Purser) inside the Top 10 of the Women’s Elite Race.

The women’s side did look better for the big brands though: SIC, Naish and Starboard each had 2x riders, while in addition to Lahui Kai the top 10 also featured an appearance from Surftech, Fanatic and Riviera.

Lahui Kai’s new found strength was highlighted again 24 hours later in the Elite Team Relay, where they led for much of the race and went oh so close to ending Naish’s winning streak.

So there you go. That was the 2014 Battle of the Brands.

Obviously we’re only focusing on one single race – this isn’t exactly a scientific analysis of the entire sport – however I still think it’s an interesting way to look at the ever-changing race board / race paddle market.

Now here’s a closer look at all the numbers…

RESULTS: 2014 Battle Of The Brands

TOP 15 MEN

#	NAME	PADDLE	BOARD
1	Kai Lenny	Quickblade	Naish
2	Jake Jensen	Fanatic	Fanatic
3	Danny Ching	Hippo Stick	404
4	Lincoln Dews	Quickblade	SUP ATX Lahui Kai
5	Connor Baxter	Quickblade	Starboard
6	Mo Freitas	Sawyer	Focus
7	Kelly Margetts	Quickblade	SUP ATX Lahui Kai
8	Eric Terrien	Select	BIC
9	Slater Trout	Boardworks	Infinity/Boardworks
10	Jayden Jensen	Quickblade	SUP ATX Lahui Kai
11	Travis Grant	Quickblade	NSP
12	Javier Jimenez	Lass	Rogue
13	Casper Steinfath	Quickblade	Naish
14	Riggs Napoleon	Naish	Naish
15	Zane Schweitzer	Quickblade	Starboard

TOP 10 WOMEN

#	NAME	PADDLE	BOARD
1	Candice Appleby	Quickblade	Surftech
2	Lina Augaitis	Werner	SIC
3	Annabel Anderson	ZRE	Starboard
4	Fiona Wylde	Werner	Starboard
5	Jenny Kalmbach	Quickblade	Naish
6	Angie Jackson	Fanatic	Fanatic
7	Karla Gilbert	Naish	Naish
8	Sonni Hönscheid	SIC	SIC
9	Sondra Purser	Quickblade	SUP ATX Lahui Kai
10	Talia Decoite	Quickblade	Riviera

TOP 10 MEN – PADDLES

5x Quickblade (50%)
1x Fanatic (10%)
1x Hippo Stick (10%)
1x Sawyer (10%)
1x Select (10%)
1x Boardworks (10%)

TOP 10 MEN – BOARDS

3x SUP ATX Lahui Kai (30%)
1x Naish (10%)
1x Fanatic (10%)
1x 404 (10%)
1x Starboard (10%)
1x Focus (10%)
1x BIC (10%)
1x Infinity/Boardworks (10%)

TOP 15 MEN – PADDLES

8x Quickblade (53.33%)
1x Fanatic (6.67%)
1x Hippo Stick (6.67%)
1x Sawyer (6.67%)
1x Select (6.67%)
1x Boardworks (6.67%)
1x Lass (6.67%)
1x Naish (6.67%)

TOP 15 MEN – BOARDS

3x SUP ATX Lahui Kai (20%)
3x Naish (20%)
2x Starboard (13.33%)
1x Fanatic (6.67%)
1x 404 (6.67%)
1x Focus (6.67%)
1x BIC (6.67%)
1x Infinity/Boardworks (6.67%)
1x NSP (6.67%)
1x Rogue (6.67%)

TOP 10 WOMEN – PADDLES

4x Quickblade (40%)
2x Werner (20%)
1x ZRE (10%)
1x Fanatic (10%)
1x Naish (10%)
1x SIC (10%)

TOP 10 WOMEN – BOARDS

2x SIC (20%)
2x Starboard (20%)
2x Naish (20%)
1x SUP ATX Lahui Kai (10%)
1x Fanatic (10%)
1x Surftech (10%)
1x Riviera (10%)