The Queen of the BOP, Candice Appleby, announced her departure from long-time sponsor Surftech yesterday. This morning the reason why became clear, with the revelation she was joining the Infinity team in search of a SUP surfing world title.

Candice, winner of a record 6x Battle of the Paddle Elite Races (3x California, 2x Hawaii, 1x Brazil), has one of the most recognisable names in the sport and will be a huge addition to the Infinity squad, where she’ll join her boyfriend Anthony Vela as well as superstar Slater Trout and Infinity boss man Dave Boehne.

The reigning champ and current world #2 is focusing less on racing and more on surfing this year, with the clearly stated goal of winning the women’s SUP surfing world title. To achieve that, Candice will work closely with Infinity’s chief designer and hipster-in-residence, Dave Beohne. Just like Candice, Beohne is a San Clemente local and a stalwart of the SoCal SUP scene, which will allow the pair to work very closely together.

Though from what I can gather, Candice’s move to Infinity is only for the surfing side of stand up. It’s not clear whether or not she’ll experiment with some of the Infinity race boards (which are looking very slick these days I might add), though for now the current world #2 said she’ll race on customs from long-time collaborator Joe Bark.

Congratulations to Candice on the new chapter and to the Boehnes and everyone at Team Infinity on the great pick up. Here’s the welcome vid that’s been doing the rounds of Facebook all morning: