From Kyle Daniels: Here’s a great cause to help a little grom in need of some help.  Sign up and paddle or just check it out!

The Coopers Cause

Burro Benefit Paddleboard Relay Race

The time has to come to gather our asses and paddle for a cause.

When: Sunday June 8th 7:30am Check in – Race starts at 8:30am sharp!!!

Where: Hermosa Beach Pier (north side 16th st.)

Who: Everyone – Open to all! Ages 10 to 100 whether you’ve got no previous paddleboard experience or you’ve paddled the Catalina Classic 21 times in a row – you need to be a part of this day!

Why: To benefit 5 year old Cooper Jones. All money raised (every penny of your entry) will go to the Jones family to help with the medical expenses and research towards the a cure for Duschenes Multiple Sclerosis (see cooperscause.org.) The coopers are a local family with a wonderful 5 year old son that has been recently diagnosed with Duschenes MS. They’ve got a battle ahead, but we can help…

What: The first South Bay Paddleboard Team Relay Race Event.

The Teams:

Each Team will consist of 4 or 5 paddlers paired at random based on paddling ability/history. Each team will be comprised of an “A” Paddler (Catalina Classic experienced, top notch) a “B” Paddler (good paddler, just not that fast) a “C” Paddler (new to the sport but competent, or long time surfer) a “D” Paddler (“I can do that for 20+ minutes, but I never have) and an “E” Paddler ( “I hate the water and I’ve never been on a boat but I’ll do anything for a good cause for a short period of time).

The Courses:

The courses will be staggered based on the paddlers ability. The better the paddler - the longer the course. For example – the “A” course will be approximately 2 miles, the others will be considerably shorter based on experience level. The goal will be to keep everything close to shore so that thrilling high pace action can be witnessed and cheered for the entire race!

The Equipment: Joe Bark (the Pioneer of modern day Paddleboarding) will provide a 12’ stock paddleboard for each team to use. You don’t need to bring anything but your able body and possibly (depending on water and weather temps) an appropriate wetsuit!!!

Awards: Top 3 teams get special burro trophies created by Buffalo Roebuck!!!!

Cost: $25 per individual

Includes T-shirt

Bagels, Coffee, Breakfast Burritos and good times!!!!

Raffle: Thanks to all our good buddies that are sales reps, or otherwise employed by people they could wrangle cool stuff out of there will be heaps of stuff raffled off!!!!

You don’t need to get in the water to enjoy a little Sunday morning beach time and support your friends and family. It should be a short but very sweet event. Please join us!!!

Donkey Race Committee

George Plsek narrowly beat Kyle Powers to win the Eaton Cove Race today. That’s two in a row for George. Mike Carr took the stock win. Check back for full results later.

Don’t forget, tomorrow is the Eaton Paddleboards
La Jolla Cove race. 7 miles. 8 AM start. Kellogg Park at La Jolla Shores. This is a fun and beautiful race. Second event for the Grand Prix. Get out and paddle!

Surftech leads Ford Ironman Arizona swim on standup paddleboards. Sunday, April 13, Surftech took part in the 2008 Ford Ironman Arizona event held in Tempe, Arizona showcasing the sport of standup paddling to the triathlete community and leading the 2.4 mile swim segment of the race.

Paula Newby Fraser, 8-Time Ironman Triathlon World Champion and triathlete coach with Multisports.com, worked with Surftech’s team to lead the pro division, where top finishers completed the leg in just over 48 minutes.  Starting 15 minutes later, the huge field of amateur athletes was lead by Surftech standup paddlers with the top swim finisher beating the pros time with a finish in just over 47 minutes!

For many of the 2500 athletes, Surftech’s involvement in the event was their first introduction to standup paddling. Their positive response mirrored the original excitement of the Multisports.com team, who played an instrumental role in activating Surftech’s involvement in the event. “It’s an amazing workout”, comments Heather Fuhr, 2008 Ironman Hall of Fame inductee, “You’re just working your core the whole time”. Heather and the coaches at Multisport.com are regularly using SUP’s (standup paddle boards) in training, a testament to their value as an incredible full body workout and optimal cross training activity for swimming.  Unlike the often grueling routines undergone by triathletes, SUP’s offer a fun, social and challenging activity while providing a rigorous core workout to supplement their regular training.

Due to restrictions, only a limited number of athletes had the option of trying out boards at the Tempe event, but those who did were visibly impressed. “It’s so much fun, and such a great workout!”, commented Megan Flanagan of Austin Texas who won her age group in Tempe in her first ever Ironman event. “ I can’t wait to get a standup board back home to train on”. Other athletes and local community members eagerly checked the boards out at the event booth and worked with Surftech’s crew to determine the best option and size for their specific needs. With the resounding positive response, Surftech will take part in next months Ford Ironman 70.3 (half Ironman) in Orlando, Florida, offering competitors and local community members alike their first time trying the fastest growing sport on the water.

It has been brought to our attention that the best 4 out of 8 races could lead to 2 winners that never actually race each other. Point well taken. Therefore, we are changing the rules to make it the best 5 out of 8 races, best 4 out of 6 for 14 foot class. The interface to track the points should be up this week with the Seaside Slide being the first results to come in. Thanks everyone for bearing with us and lets see everyone get out there and paddle this season!

What does Stay Covered head honcho and Seaside Slide race director Mark Cappa do when confronted with gloomy weather, challenging shorebreak and less than ideal paddling conditions? He laughs, shrugs it off, and still puts on a great race. George Plsek took top honors with over 70 paddlers hot on his heels around the 7 mile course. Check out a few photos from the race…

We’ve talked about our upcoming race series elsewhere on the site, but here’s a rundown of the rules and scoring system for our California Grand Prix Race Series. (Reminder: The first race is the Seaside Slide, being held tomorrow in Encinitas).

- 8 races
- Classes are Unlimited, Stock, 14 Foot, Women’s, and Stand-up.
There will not be any age groups within each class, at least not this year.
-The best 4 of 8 races will be counted; if you miss a couple, no big deal.
- For 14 Foot class, best 3 results out of 6 count.
- First place in each class is worth 20 points.
- Second place is worth 15, then third will be 14, fourth will be 13 etc. down to 1 point.
- Everyone that enters the race, no matter how many people are in their class, will receive at
least 1 point.
- Anyone completing at least 4 of the 8 races, no matter what their placing, will be eligible
for a participation prize to be given away at the “Paddleman’s Ball” in September.
- The person with the most total points for 4 races in each class will be Grand Prix Champion.
- Specific prizes for each class will be announced as the season progresses.

Download File

This Saturday, at Seaside in Encinitas, marks the beginning of the Paddleboard.com California Grand Prix, an eight event series that will crown an overall champ based on the results of the races in our series. Be sure to be at the start line if you want to be in contention for the Grand Prix title; the best five results of the eight races will count toward the Grand Prix title. Entry form below in PDFformat.

This just in from Catalina Classic Committee member (and last year’s event champion) Kyle Daniels: “Can you let people know that the Classic is on August 24th, that qualifying races will be announced soon and that we will have a new website up and running soon as well?”

Stay tuned to paddleboard.com for more details on the Classic and more races this paddleboard season.

Check out the photos from the recently concluded State Paddleboard Championships in Florida.

Ron Roebuck, aka RoBuff, Master Buff or Bufflao, as he’s known to his fellow South Bay Donkeys, is quite a motivator. Along with Matt Walls, Ron’s weekly training alert emails regularly encourage a posse of year- round paddlers to accompany him on morning launches out of Hermosa Beach- when there is no surf, of course. His enthusiasm, steady stream of humorous banter and respectable paddling pace make him the perfect training buddy.

His nicknames, however, have derivations rooted not in humor, but in outright amazing feats of endurance.

It was only a few years ago that on his 3rd attempt at the prestigious title, Ron returned to the mainland crowned the Marathon 40 yrs + and 200 lbs + ‘Master Buffalo.’

Matt Walls, Jon and Josh Loren and a handful of other paddlers-cum- runners actually ‘trained’ for this year’s island 26.2 miles. Ron did not. Neither did the 3 shiny, new shoed paddlers that followed the auburn-haired Clydesdale to Two Harbors this past weekend.

The results were better than you might have expected- Ron took a top ten seat in his Master Buffalo Class, and his 3 even less qualified running buddies came in around the 5 hour mark, proving that without a mile of tarmac training underfoot, a paddler can respectably complete the ‘hardest sea level marathon in North America.’

Ok, Josh Loren trained and succeeded, taking second overall at a hair over 3 hours, but he’s from the East Coast, so he doesn’t count. Just kidding East Coast…

Think you can take down 6 time Molokai Champion Jamie Mitchell? Probably not, but here's your chance to learn from the man himself. The Florida Big Boards Clinics presented by QuikSilver Edition will teach you the basics of paddling and stand up paddling, advanced technique, nutrition, race strategy and anything else you might care to know from the most dominant paddler in the history of the sport.

Click here to download the flyer.

On Saturday, the Dana Point Ocean Challenge went down, with over 250 entrants in the paddleboard, stand-up and OC1 classes.

Some headshots of the winners:

Stand-Up Paddle: Kyle Mochizuki

Unlimited Paddleboard: Chad Carvin

Stock Paddleboard: Mike Carr

This came to us via Paddleboard.com forum member CRDF, who’s told us for a while now that there is a nice kelp lane to paddle in in North San Diego County, where conditions are almost always calm. Check the photos and the writeup:

This may come as a surprise to most people but there is a third major traffic artery running north and south in southern California.  Its not the 5 or 15 freeways but lies just offshore to the west. Its
called the Kelp Superhighway and it lacks traffic, pollution, and road rage. What it does have are dolphins, birds, whales, seals, and the occasional thresher shark. The only man-made obstacles to avoid are lobster buoys. The most frequent users are like minded individuals that usually pass you on some sort of self propelled watercraft with a wave and a “how’s it going?"After your next hellish commute home, grab your paddleboard and head west out from the beach until you reach the kelp. Then make a right or a left and follow the highway north or south until the sun starts setting. Watch the sunset from atop your board and head home in the gathering dusk. What the hell, try to break the speed limit. There’s no one to give you a ticket.

The first major event of the paddleboard season went down today in Los Angeles Harbor. 90 competitors, apparently eager to get into some paddleboard racing after the winter hiatus packed in to Cabrillo Beach in the LA harbor for the Cold Hands Paddle, which amounted to a sunny, glassy season opener. Catalina Classic recod holders, Molokai title holders, men, women and kids from 12 to 82 enjoyed sunny, glassy conditions Sunday a.m., a solid start for the 2008 season.

A preliminary list of results:

Overall- Eric Abbott
Mens Unlimited- Eric Abbott
Mens 14- Keith Johnson
Mens Stock- Nick Sullivan

Womens Unlimited- Christina Powers
Womens 14- Kristi Mirich / Amie Spector
Womens Stock- Cori Raffaelli / Amanda Calhoun

Stand Up- Ernie Johnson

Check back soon for full results.

Saturated and surf-stoked, red-eyed and bleary, sore, tired, hungry, beaten down and pulled-in, with a bruised foot and that healthy respect for the ocean you lose when it’s two foot and sunny and playful, I have but one question: WTF was that?

It got massive out of nowhere here in California yesterday, and while anybody who was paying attention to the buoys knew that it was going to happen, actually watching it happen was something else entirely.  Pulled up yesterday to my favorite haunt at 3 p.m. after a rainy day to an empty parking lot, I thought myself pretty clever. The swell wasn’t hitting yet, so I hitched it down the road to see how it was filling in elsewhere, by the time I’d gotten back to my spot, it was packed with people and pumping. By the time I suited up and got ready for what figured to be a pretty heady paddle-out, it was massive-- solid ten foot and unrelenting.

I watched a buddy get a solid wave in, and when I saw him on the beach he looked glad to have gotten it.

“There’s some heat out there,” he said. “Do you smoke?” he asked while spitting on the sand.

“No,” I said.

“I do,” he said, and we laughed as he tried to catch his breath.

I got lucky on the paddle-out, and was happy to have been keeping up on my wintertime paddling as I took sets on the head and made it through them.

This morning, still more waves, even if word had gotten out.

This afternoon, dying, dying, dying.

It was a Hawaii-type swell--quick and dirty--and it was impressive to watch happen.

It was cold (relatively, that is) and rainy (ibid) here in Southern California today, giving the distinct impression of a typical winter’s day--driving home the fact that it’s late February, and that, with more fronts moving through and storms lined up for the next week or more, we’ve got more typical weather headed our way. It’s this same weather, combined with an epic run of swell (if not epic than decent, at the very least), that had me sitting idly by, smiling through the rain (we need it anyway), waiting out the weather and thinking that on the other side of all this poor water quality, those of us who rely on the North Pacific for our winter juice are apt to get a heady dose of swell again.

Then I get a call from a prominent big wave surfer I’ve been working on an article with.

“I was thinking about heading to (location withheld, though I can
tell you it’s in another ocean) because it looks like winter’s over.”

“Excuse me?” I said.

“Yeah, looks like the jetstream split and that might be it on swells.”

My little heart skipped a beat; I’m no big-wave surfer, but I like a dose of juice when I can get my hands on it.

Then he corrected himself. Said it looked like we might get one,
maybe two more swells.

But still, for me, the seed is planted. Nothing lasts forever. Not even a California winter that actually felt like one.

Here’s hoping we get one more.

What’s your alternative? You’re going to actually work? Forget that.Check the world’s first Stand-Up Paddling Big Wave Contest Live on the computer all day at http://www.kuikaikachallenge.com.
Heats are in the water right now.

Well here we are finally..Sorry its taken so long for a blog but im definately not the sharpest tool in the shed when it comes to COMPUTERS. I forgot my password and blah blah blah 2 weeks later haha.. But here we are on the Donkey Blog and here goes nothing. First of all what a great website hey! I love checking it out and seeing all the different type of stories of everyone and whats going on. Hows that kid and the shark? Legend.. But as for me personally 2007 was a fun and cool year.. I think our sport of paddleboarding is going to the next level wether it be with new events and locations or the athletes stepping it up a notch in performance and the calibre of Athletes ie for eg Chad. A olympic medalist. Awesome. And lets not forget the women.We keep seeing more and more each year which is great to see.... Keep em coming.

As for life outside of Paddling i have been lucky enough to have the chance to surf some different surf spots for the 1st time last year! Which is always good. Havent done that for a while. Got to go to Nor Cal and Mexico which was really cool..

2008 started for me in Hawaii..I have been hanging out here trying to get some waves but it hasnt been the typical Hawaiian winter.Pretty slow with waves.Dont get me wrong its had its moments but just not enough ha ha.. Seems like California has been the spot this winter..Lots of swells hitting the west coast. Hope everyone has been getting some water time whatever it may be. So my time in the US is coming to a close soon and it will be back to Australia for a while and back to work and dare i say it back on the Paddleboard as well. Hey why not one more season.

Well im sure theres more to say but hey its already taken me 30 min to write this and my eyes are sore.. So ill leave it to my next blog. I hope everyone had a great Xmas and New Years and look forward to the upocoming season and seeing everyone again.

Oh yeh heres a photo of some cross training over xmas on the Nth Shore. Cheers Jamie

P.S Hopefully the rest of the guys will start blogging..Come on RA. lets here some of your comedian antics mate!!!!!!

Jamie,

Freaking incredible story about Mavs and Todos!  Can’t say I’m anywhere in that league of surfing but heck of a story about chasing it up and down the coast.  I’m just glad you’ve only challenged me to paddle, can’t say I want to have anything to do with some of those waves I saw you charging!  Good on ya!

KD