Paddleboarding events up and down the California Coast have long existed as disjointed pieces of the same ocean-going pie--an Encinitas 7-miler here, a Santa Cruz 14er there--but in recent years the numbers on paddleboarding races have gone up--both the races themselves and the number of entrants in them.

Still, the events aren’t interconnected at all. Pre-race scuttlebutt might alert a paddler to who the big dogs are at the start line, but there is nothing like the unlying fact of cold, hard statistics in the world of sports for competitors to stake their claim on who they are, who they beat, and who’s winning.

And while we see this play out at our biggest races every year--the Catalina Classic and the Quiksilver Molokai seem to cruise on the back of their own mythology at this point--what of it for us mere mortals? Where do we fit in the mix?

Nicely, it turns out, as Paddleboard.com has partnered with 8 established races up and down the California Coast, along with a handful of sponsors, to create the Paddleboard.com California Grand Prix, a race series that will combine a paddler’s top five results from these 8 races and crown a series champion in the Unlimited and Stock Paddleboard categories, as well as in Stand-Up Paddle.

At the end of the series, a banquet (or at least a good ol’ fashion taco and beer throwdown) hosted by Hennessey’s at a yet-to-be-determined location will award the winners in each category with prizes from our sponsors (stay tuned for details there) and every contestant will be rewarded with a prize for participation (just like in Little League.

The events on the schedule? Here’s a list:

Seaside Slide, Encinitas, CA, 4/5/2-008

Mike Eaton’s La Jolla Cove Paddleboard Race, La Jolla, CA, 4/19/2008

5th Annual Malibu Downwinder, Malibu, CA, 5/10/2008

Hermosa Beach Street Fair, Hermosa Beach, CA, 5/23/2008

The Loop Race, Coronado, CA, 5/25/2008

Hobie/Hennessey’s Waterman’s Challenge, Dana Point, 5/31/2008

The Surftech 7th Annual Jay Moriarty Paddleboard Race, Santa Cruz, CA 6/21/2008

Hennessey’s Paddleboard Festival, Hermosa Beach, CA, 7/12/2008

Register for each event through the event site--we’ll be keeping track of results through a points-based scoring system that we’ll describe in more detail as we progress, and keep coming back to Paddleboard.com to check our Pipe’s Cafe Leaderboard.

Hope to see you at the start line, and Happy Racing.