Stand Up Paddle Boarding comes in many forms… Recreational, surf, flat water and river but one of the big emerging trends in the world of SUP is the endurance or marathon paddle board event and for those of you who follow the Airhead Blog you will know that we were involved in the Paddle Round the Pier 20 mile Endurance race, the event was a first for the UK and it proved a huge success with all the competitors.

The next event on some of the riders calendar was the Jever World Cup in Hamburg Germany, with some 143 participants including world surfing legend Robby Naish in the different races and with over 27,000 spectators throughout the weekend you could say that Germany is embracing the sport of Paddle Boarding.

Jever SUP World Cup in Hamburg

The UK has it’s very own talent in the world of international SUP in the shape of John Hibbard, being one of the first to do the Thames Devises to Westminster race on a Paddle Board, a 4 day race covering 125 miles. A 2nd place in the 20 mile race at Paddle Round the Pier and John also took 3rd in Hamburg distance event which is no small feat when he was up against some of Hawaii’s biggest names in the surfing world … you can see John has a formidable pedigree in SUP.

John Hibbard

John is a Starboard team rider and well known in the world of Windsurfing but over the past few years he has been one of the few leading the way in Standup Paddle Boarding… With surf and river runs under his belt and now he has firmly sunk his teeth into the SUP Endurance side of the sport, John has now set his sights on the Cape Cod Bay Challenge which is a 30 mile marathon across the Cape Cod Bay.

Cape Cod Bay Challenge

The Cape Cod Bay Challenge is a charity event that has support from dedicated paddlers and fantastic sponsors that have helped this event take place for the second year. The 2009 beneficiary is Christophers Haven, a home for kids when cancer hits home which is a fantastic cause and what better reason for paddling 30 miles… The Cape Cod Bay Challenge takes place on August 15th 2009 and we wish the whole team all the very best and we hope the John Hibbard will keep us up to date with how he and the others get on throughout the challenge..

The Airhead team are sure that the paddle board endurance events we have seen this year will be just the tip of the iceberg… as the sport grows we will surely see more, which can only be good for SUP and I for one am starting training now for next year! so Mr Hibbard look out it may well be me chasing you through the sea next year.. but to be honest I dont think you need to worry to much