The Paddle League is today revealing “stage two” of its plan to help unify the sport, with the key announcement being the addition of 41 regional events to the existing 9 majors, which creates a combined platform of 50 independent races in 25 nations that we’re hoping will be the start of a new era in stand up paddling.

After announcing the The Paddle League World Tour in January, which includes “Majors” such as the Air France Paddle Festival, Carolina Cup and Gorge Paddle Challenge, the addition of these 41 “Regionals” completes the first wave of Season 2018.

The number will almost certainly grow in the coming weeks as more late-season Regionals are finalised (we’re still in talks with a few well-known races), with all events contributing points to the new interlinked Paddle League World Rankings; the new name and new home of the original SUP Racer World Rankings.

Supporting the grassroots of the sport is a key goal of everything we’re doing at The Paddle League (which, full disclosure, I’m a co-founder of), so we’re stoked to be working with and helping support so many classic regional events.

We’re being careful not to promise a lot, especially in this inaugural season, but we’re really striving to help unify the sport, and by connecting these 50 events to a wider storyline about the sport… well, let’s just say we’re excited!

The Regionals include a big variety of locations – France to Finland, Key West to Kiev and Brazil to the Basque Country – plus a range 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: Maui-2-Molokai, Florida’s Key West Classic and the Battle of the Bay in San Francisco.

There are bold new frontiers: river racing in the Czech Republic (Krumlovsky Vodacky), the Kiev Open in Ukraine and other new stops from Singapore to South Africa, Taiwan to Thailand and dozens of other places in between.

The Paddle League is also partnering with the reigning authority of European paddling, the EuroTour, to help further unify the sport. Each stop of the EuroTour will award athletes world ranking points as the sport’s two biggest tours join forces. This is particularly exciting and could potentially herald a new era for the sport. Again, we’re not promising a lot, but we’re pretty damn excited about this season.

The 10-week EuroTour also includes a couple of fresh stops this year, with the new event in Alicante (Spain) looking particularly promising as a “Regional Major.”

Looking further afield: One of the biggest events in the world, the 1000+ participant Aloha Spirit Festival in Brazil (pictured below), becomes a post-season Regional Major as The Paddle League expands to support one of the largest and most passionate paddling nations.

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Charity events such as Paddle Imua on Maui, Jersey’s Molokai-length 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.

Kelly Margetts, the ageless veteran and now Paddle League Commissioner, summed it up with this quote as first posted by TotalSUP:

“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. Pumped that so many great events want to be involved in this project.”

Another goal of The League is to make life easier for traveling athletes by attaching one of the Regionals to each major, for example the Gorge Paddle Challenge in Oregon is complimented by the Vancouver SUP Challenge over the border in Canada, and the Waterman Tour Tahiti event falls one week after Air France.

While the big points and the key chapters of The Paddle League story will focus on the 9x major World Tour stops, the 41x Regionals (and again, this number will likely grow in the next two weeks) will play a key role in shaping the extended rankings and building a broader platform for the sport.

When I created the world rankings five years ago, the goal wasn’t to just rank the best athletes, it was to help give some structure to an often-disorganised young sport. And The Paddle League is just the logical next step down that path. It’s simply connecting what’s already there: the great independent events that form the true pillars of our sport.

Our aim is to create a common, stable foundation for the future of the sport through the world rankings, quality media production and support for the athletes, brands and events in general. Tying it all together is the storyline we’re creating, which we’re hoping will re-energise the sport, get fans more excited and grow the size of the sport’s audience.

As the guy in charge of organising a points system that’s both fair and competitive, one of my key goals this year was to balance three key regions: Europe, the U.S. and the “Rest of the World.” And I got close.

Europe is clearly the center of the paddling universe right now, however it’s almost equally weighted against North America (670 vs 600). The rest of the world is lagging slightly (510 total points from 15 races), but we’re looking to support and elevate as many international events as we realistically can to help drive the global growth of the sport.

Each of the World Tour “majors” counts for a full 100 points, while the two World Tour specialty events (OluKai and 11 Cities) earn 60. The Regionals use a star-rating system from 1-4, which corresponds to between 10 and 40 points at each stop.

The 4-star events are known as “Regional Majors,” with the star rating formula rewarding amateur numbers just as much as the traditional measure of elite participation. Other factors such as regional significance, history/prestige, unique challenge and prize money are also considered in determining the star ratings.

The 25 nations participating in The Paddle League this year are Australia, the Basque Country, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Czech Republic, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hawaii, Hong Kong, Italy, Japan, Jersey, Netherlands, New Zealand, Singapore, Spain, South Africa, Tahiti, Taiwan, Thailand, the U.S. and Ukraine.

Some of those nations aren’t exactly SUP hotspots (can you point to Ukraine on a map?), but that’s exactly why they’re included: We want to help grow the sport beyond its traditional boundaries.

And every event we’ve listed is doing great things for its local, regional and national paddling communities, which is exactly what we want to support with The Paddle League.

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.

So there are three parts to the year: pre-season, international season and post-season.

The 2018 pre-season and international season will decide the 2018 Paddle League World Champions, while this year’s post-season and next year’s pre-season/international season will decide the Season 2019 standings. Or in other words; Season 2018 is nine months long, whereas Season 2019 will run for a full 12 months.

The Paddle League plans to crown its world champions in October (the final points race is the PPGs), though there’s a good chance the titles will be celebrated earlier if any one of the athletes can dominate the points-heavy month of June.

While our goals for The Paddle League are fairly straightforward (this sport isn’t rocket science), we’re so excited to jump into the season. It’s going to be such a fun year.

And we don’t have to wait long: the first official stop of The Paddle League World Tour is happening this weekend in Tahiti. We’ll be livestreaming the Air France Paddle Festival from 11am on Saturday April 7 via Facebook Live, and then two weeks later it’ll be the big one in Carolina.

The full schedule for Season 2018 is below, and you can follow The Paddle League on Facebook and Instagram for more.

 

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The Paddle League: Season 2018

#	Date	Event	Location	Region	Rating	Points	Men	Women
1	Jan 21	GlaGla Race	France	Europe	4-star	40	Tom Auber	Melanie Lafenetre
2	Feb 17	Sydney SUP	Sydney	South Pacific	2-star	20	Lincoln Dews	Angie Jackson
3	March 3	12 Towers	Queensland	South Pacific	4 star	40	Michael Booth	Yuka Sato
4	Mar 23-24	Villefranche Paddle Festival	France	Europe	2-star	20	Martin Vitry	Inès Blatge
5	Mar 23-24	Hoe Toa Paddle Festival	New Zealand	South Pacific	2-star	20	Lincoln Dews	Penelope Strickland
6	Mar 24	Santa Cruz Paddlefest	California	North America	3-star	30	Mo Freitas	Jade Howson
7	April 7	Air France Paddle Festival	Tahiti	South Pacific	Major	100	Marcus Hansen	Sonni Honscheid
8	April 7	Thailand SUP Festival	Thailand	Asia	1-star	10	Beau O'Brian	Kate Johnson
9	April 14	Waterman Tour Tahiti: Paparā	Tahiti	South Pacific	4-star	40	Georges Cronsteadt	Olivia Piana
10	April 21	Quiksilver Waterman Carolina Cup	North Carolina	North America	Major	100	Michael Booth	Sonni Honscheid
11	April 28	OluKai Ho'olaule'a	Hawaii	Hawaii	Specialty	60	Connor Baxter	Sonni Honscheid
12	April 28	Key West Classic	Florida	North America	3-star	30	Enzo Bennett	Seychelle
13	April 28	Florence Paddle Games	Italy	Europe	1-star	10	Bruno Hasulyo	Olivia Piana
14	May 5	Paddle Imua	Hawaii	Hawaii	2-star	20	Ty Judson	Sonni Honscheid
15	May 5	Taiwan Paddle Games	Taiwan	Asia	1-star	10	Bruno Hasulyo	Mei-Hong Kuo
16	May 6	EuroTour #1: Battle of the Coast	Netherlands	Europe	2-star	20	Arthur Arutkin	Susak Molinero
17	May 12	Kerama Blue Cup in Zamami	Japan	Asia	Major	100	Connor Baxter	Sonni Honscheid
18	May 12	EuroTour #2: Namur	Belgium	Europe	2-star	20	Paul Ganse	Susak Molinero
19	May 19	EuroTour #3: Vendee Gliss	France	Europe	3-star	30	Titouan Puyo	Olivia Piana
20	May 19	Treasure Island Pirate Paddle	New Jersey	North America	1-star	10	Jack Ballard	Stephanie Shideler
21	May 26	EuroTour #4: Crete	Greece	Europe	3-star	30	Michael Booth	Amandine Chazot
22	June 2	EuroTour #5: Costa Blanca	Spain	Europe	4-star	40	Michael Booth	Noelani Sach
23	June 2	Bay Bridge Paddle	Maryland	North America	3-star	30	Eri Tenorio	Seychelle
24	June 9	EuroTour #6: San Sebastian	Basque	Europe	4-star	40	Michael Booth	Olivia Piana
25	June 9	Battle on the Blueway	Florida	North America	1-star	10	Eri Tenorio	Kim Barnes
26	June 16-17	Bilbao Paddle Challenge (EuroTour #7)	Basque	Europe	Major	100	Michael Booth	Olivia Piana
27	June 16	Return to Goat Island	Maryland	North America	1-star	10	Fielding Pagel	Kim Barnes
28	June 23-24	Hossegor Paddle Games (EuroTour #8)	France	Europe	Major	100	Titouan Puyo	Sonni Honscheid
29	June 24	Stand Up for the Hooch	Georgia	North America	1-star	10	Eri Tenorio	Kim Barnes
30	July 1	Mercedes SUP World Cup (EuroTour #9)	Germany	Europe	Major	100	Lincoln Dews	Olivia Piana
31	July 7	EuroTour #10: Finland	Finland	Europe	2-star	20	Francesco Mazzei	Noelani Sach
32	July 14	Maui2Molokai	Hawaii	Hawaii	4-star	40	Connor Baxter	Devin Blish
33	July 14	Canadian Downwind Championships	Canada	North America	1-star	10	Lina Augaitis	Paul Jackson
34	July 14	Jersey Round Island Challenge	Jersey	Europe	1-star	10	Aaron Rowe	Verity Thomas
35	July 14	The Kiev Open	Ukraine	Europe	1-star	10	Claudio Nika	Инна Осипенко
36	July 28	Noli SUP Race	Italy	Noli	1-star	10	Claudio Nika	Laura dal Pont
37	July 29	Molokai 2 Oahu Paddleboard World Championships	Hawaii	Hawaii	6-star	60	Travis Grant	Terrene Black
38	Aug 4	Stand Up For The Lake	Vermont	North America	1-star	10	Tommy Buday Jr	Veronica Ribot
39	Aug 11	OABI Detroit	Michigan	North America	1-star	10	Larry Cain	Katniss Paris
40	Aug 11	Vancouver SUP Challenge	Canada	North America	3-star	30	Mo Freitas	April Zilg
41	Aug 11	Zinkwazi Dam Race	South Africa	Africa	2-star	20
42	Aug 11	SEA Paddle NYC	New York	North America	3-star	30	Fielding Pagel	Seychelle
43	Aug 19	Hong Kong International	Hong Kong	Asia	2-star	20	Michael Booth	Kenny Kaneko
44	Aug 18-19	Gorge Paddle Challenge (Double Downwinder)	Oregon	North America	Major	100	Noic Garioud	Fiona Wylde
45	Sept 5-9	SUP 11 City Tour	Netherlands	Europe	Specialty	60	Bruno Hasulyo	Seychelle
46	Sept 15-17	SUP Japan Cup	Japan	Asia	4-star	40	Lincoln Dews	Fiona Wylde
47	Sept 29	Battle of the Bay	California	North America	4-star	40
48	Oct 6	Chucktown Showdown	South Carolina	North America	1-star	10
--	Oct 6-7	Pacific Paddle Games presented by Salt Life	California	North America	Honorary	100
49	Oct 13	Krumlovský Vodácký Maraton	Czech Republic	Europe	1-star	10
50	Nov 3	Surf to Sound	North Carolina	U.S.	1-star	10
51	Nov 23-25	Aloha Spirit Festival	Brazil	South America	4-star	40
52	December	Singapore Ocean Cup	Singapore	Asia	1-star	10
53	December	King of the Cut	Perth	South Pacific	4-star	40