Tyler Anderson had to catch his breath before he could soak it all in.

The 24-year-old Long Beach native had just pushed by the competition to take first place in Sunday's Rock 2 Rock paddleboard event in a time of 3 hours and 48 minutes.

The meet began early Sunday morning at the Catalina Isthmus. Participants made the 22-mile trek to Abalone Cove in Palos Verdes, where it was Anderson who crossed the finish line first.

"It feels great to see my training pay off," Anderson said. "I felt really good this morning, both mentally and physically, so I hoped I'd have a good performance today."

Anderson is no stranger to paddleboarding, but this was his first Rock 2 Rock event.

Last year's winner, Kyle Daniels of Redondo Beach, did not participate.

"It was a tough race," Anderson said. "I felt like I had to be on top of my game today and I guess I was. Nobody gave an inch."

Anderson said extremely choppy waters early in the morning didn't help matters any.

"It's an endurance competition so it's tough no matter what, but the water got pretty rough from time to time out there," Anderson said. "I think everyone felt it."

Anderson fended off late runs from the standup unlimited relay team of Rob Rojas and Tom Gallagher, who finished second overall and first in the standup unlimited relay, and Palos Verdes resident Sean Richardson, who finished third overall and second in the unlimited division at 4:02.

"We train together so I'm not shocked to see him do this," Anderson said. "I know what kind of an athlete he is and what kind of competitor he is."

Richardson echoed Anderson's thoughts about the course conditions.

"It was pretty brutal out there at times," he said. "Very sloppy with lots of backwash and we got hit by a couple of big sidebumps. It was tough."

Richardson made a late push to try and reach Anderson toward the home stretch of the race, but never made up enough ground to lap him.

"I knew I was going to have to make a big push like that in the second half of the race," Richardson said. "I don't know if I did it consciously or subconsciously but I definitely tried to turn it on a bit at the end."

Redondo's Matt Singley took third place in the Stock Solo division, which is for boards 12 inches or smaller. Anderson's roommate and training partner Jared Vargas took first place in the standup unlimited solo division.