As a vehicle for fundraising, the sport of paddleboarding is perhaps not an obvious choice. It’s a small, idiosyncratic sport whose biggest events still draw less than 1,000 people. Races are long and grueling and not conducive to drawing huge crowds. Its champions are little known regular folks who don’t have a giant soapbox from which to campaign.

            And yet, for the past several years, it’s the sport of paddleboarding that’s been drawing huge sums of money to a charity that has chosen this niche sport as its main vehicle.

            The Ocean of Hope campaign is a charitable effort whose mission is to remain, in their words, "dedicated to the sea of people affected by cancer." At nearly every major paddleboard race in California (and at many races internationally) one can spot the O2H logos on the sides of paddlers’ boards, demarking their efforts to paddle not simply for their own intrinsic reasons, but to raise money and awareness for the Sarcoma Alliance, a non-profit dedicated to helping people suffering from sarcoma, which they describe as a rare and aggressive form of cancer.

            As we’ve written about before on paddleboard.com, many paddlers these days are turning their channel crossing and race day efforts into fund-raising, attention-grabbing charitable acts, but what’s remarkable is the O2H campaign’s ability to use niche ocean sports such as paddleboarding and outrigger canoeing to raise real-world sums of money. Last year, for instance, through their efforts with the Catalina Classic and in garnering the support of the Lanakila Women’s Outrigger Club, 02H raised more than $80,000 for the Sarcoma Alliance, becoming that organization’s number one fundraiser.

            "In years past we have focused primarily on the Classic as our core event," explains O2H frontman Mark Schulein. "This year this will continue but we are also spreading O2H to encompass more than just paddleboarding. Last year we got Lanakila involved and they are fired up for this year. We also will have paddlers, SUP guys, anyone really that wants to do something big on the water, and wants to raise funds for a great charity involved."

            And plenty of people, it seems, do want to get involved. Consider the fact that all the proceeds raised from the Cold Hands Paddle held in March at Cabrillo Beach in San Pedro went to the Sarcoma Alliance, with race director Fred Sardisco--himself an O2H paddler--donating all of the funds.

            As paddlers themselves diversify into new and other forms of ocean endurance sports, O2H is poised to grow along with them and to seek new ways of raising funds.

            All of these funds raised will be used to fit into the Sarcoma Alliance’s goal of providing "guidance, education, and support" to the people and families affected by Sarcoma. The group provides a number of outreach services throughout the Sarcoma community, and within the world of ocean sports, many who join the O2H team say that seeing the real impact their efforts have make grueling paddles much less tiresome.

            According to Schulein, O2H is aiming to have their biggest year ever and hopes to break all of their previous fundraising efforts. Join paddleboard.com in helping to reach those goals.

Continue checking back to paddleboard.com for updates on the O2H campaigns success as we move through the paddleboard season.

For more information on O2H, visit www.sarcomaalliance.org/oceanofhope