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The Carolina Cup isn’t just a race. The annual pilgrimage to Wrightsville Beach, North Carolina signals not only one of the largest, most competitive and most significant events on the international calendar, it’s also probably your best opportunity to learn from some of the world’s most talented paddlers. The Carolina Cup is a true festival of paddling, and one of the best parts of the schedule is the clinics.

So while race day at the 2016 West Marine Carolina Cup presented by Surftech is Saturday April 23rd, there’s plenty happening from Wednesday morning right through til Sunday afternoon.

Annabel Anderson, Travis Grant, Candice Appleby, Lina Augaitis, Zane Schweitzer, Fiona Wylde, and Dan Gavere are all hosting clinics, from 1-on-1 intensives to group sessions.

I can’t think of another event where so much talent lines up to offer insights into their paddling techniques, skills, strategy and wisdom. Imagine going down to your local golf course and having Tiger Woods and co. willing to teach you their secrets for as little as fifty bucks.

And it’s not just the elite athletes — there’s also “Team Quickblade Kids Clinic & Pizza Party,” outrigger lessons with Johnny Puakea, SUP yoga sessions, land paddling with the Hamboards crew and even a sports science session with Carolina veteran Dr. Bob Arnot.

The sleepy hollow of Wrightsville Beach literally turns into a SUP mecca for one week of the year. And that week is next week.

So check out the official site for the full list of Carolina Cup clinics (where you can still register for some of them), and get ready for the first major race of the season in just 8 days’ time…