Dust off your ABBA records and pour yourself a glass of Absolut; the Stand Up World Series is about to hit SWEDEN!

The $5,000 Betsafe Paddle Challenge happening this weekend (14th & 15th July) at the West Coast surf town of Varberg, and the event is set to feature a bunch of Europe’s finest Stand Up Paddle racers. Varberg is Sweden’s traditional home of windsurfing & kitesurfing and now enjoys a rapidly growing SUP community.

Making the trip out for 5th World Series event of 2012 are European stars such as Casper Steinfath (Denmark), Leonard Nika (Italy) and Greg Closier (France). They’ll be battling the locals for the prize money in the signature Stand Up World Series race format: the Long Distance Race (Saturday) and the Knockout Sprint Slalom (Sunday).

Team SUPracer.com will be on location bringing you live updates all weekend, so make sure you’re following us on Facebook to get the latest race results and pics of cute blonde girls, meatballs and any other Swedish stereotypes we can throw at ya!

But on a serious note: Massive congratulations to the Betsafe Paddle Challenge organisers (SUP.se and FahlenSurf.se) for getting this SUP race happening. Five thousand dollars prize money is extremely tough to raise for any SUP event in any country, let alone Scandinavia, where the sport is still a few years behind the hotspots like California and Australia. So this is going to be a huge step forward for the sport of SUP racing in Northern Europe.

Check out the official Betsafe Paddle Challenge page on Facebook for all more race info, and if you’re anywhere near Scandinavia this weekend, come on over and join in the fun.