The AC Open, HUGE news for SUP...

Meow. Those are some expensive cats, but when you add up all that carbon fiber, crew wages and shipping costs, you’re probably looking at 1000 times the cost of a top end SUP campaign. 

But do they go 1000 times faster? That’s one of many questions the Stand Up World tour was asking at the AC Open of Stand Up Paddling this weekend in San Francisco.

Run in conjunction with the Americas Cup event which is nothing short of massive, the Stand Up side of things just ads another dimension to the on water action this month in San Francisco. Racing right alongside the AC72 catamarans, the worlds best stand up paddlers battled it out against the backdrop of the Golden Gate bridge in front of thousands of spectators.

The Americas Cup has this year undergone a complete overhaul after a 3 year break. The worlds second longest running sporting event after the Olympics was suffering a severe lack of audience interest and desperately needed a revamp. So what they did was scrap the slow old yachts they used to race, and introduce the incredible AC72’s. These 72 foot long catamarans use hydrofoils to suspend them out of the water, reaching speeds of over 40 knots with ease. If these don’t get the worlds attention, then sailing as a sport is doomed.

So where does stand up paddling come in? Stand up paddling already HAS the worlds attention, in fact it’s all the Americans are talking about right now. So by bringing the two together, you create one of the biggest things to happen in San Francisco in a very long time. Zane Schwietzer was there (he came third by the way) and describes the incredible atmosphere during the racing as electrifying, with stadium style seating around where the paddlers were racing, everyone got a perfect view of the action. 

“People from all over the world came to watch this amazing event, and had a surprise to see the awesome new sport of Stand Up Paddle Racing with the Stand Up World Series!! We had great reactions and awesome support from the crowd and the America’s CUP coordinators/organizers and even the athletes who competed in this prestigious yachting event!”

That’s exciting. What an amazing opportunity for the sport of stand up paddling, and for those who have never had the chance to witness the excitement of stand up paddle racing! Maybe we’ll see some sailors getting into SUP for a bit of cross training?

By the way, the hot shot paddlers are paddling at around 6-8 knots through flat water. These AC72's are running at 40 knots most of the time, so no. They're definitely not 1000x faster...