USA Surfing held the first ever SUP/Paddleboard Team Trials & Championships in Oceanside California, and Santa Cruz, California on June 16 and 17. Participation in every age group across all disciplines and in multiple locations led to an extremely competitive and exciting weekend of competition.
This weekend marks the first time ever that USA Surfing has crowned Champions in SUP Technical, SUP Surf, SUP Distance & Paddleboard. Additionally, USA SUP/Paddleboard are using this weekend’s results to select the international travel team that will represent the USA in the ISA World SUP and Paddleboard Championships in Denmark, September 1-10.
“This weekend our sport took a big step forward. As a board, we set a path for us to elevate how we compete on the national stage and select our International Team by having open competition for anyone in the U.S. who wanted to try out,” said Erik Logan, USA Surfing board member.
“The overwhelming success of the event gives us great confidence heading into the world championships and the early planning for our 2018 event, which we are already looking to expand by an additional day to accommodate the early demand.”
The 2017 USA SUP / Paddleboard team features 7 returning ISA competitors, 4 world champions and 5 first time competitors. The weekend competition gave opportunity to many elite paddlers and others the equal opportunity on the water to represent the United States.
The SUP Technical and Distance team is anchored by world champion and three-time ISA competitor Candice Appleby. Giorgio Gomez, Slater Trout and first-time team members Noa Hopper, Fiona Wylde, Ryan Funk and Jade Howson round out USA SUP’s race teams.
