Quiksilver Hosts Waterman Collection Waikiki Paddle Festival

By: Lianna Cabrera

With the increased popularity of paddle boarding in the action sports community around the world, it is only right that it has its own festival taking place this weekend. The Quiksilver Waterman Collection Waikiki Paddle Festival is a two-day competition on May 6th and May 7th. The event will sure to be a big success among paddleboard enthusiasts of all skill levels. This is will be the first ever paddle boarding event that Quiksilver has put on.  

Opening ceremonies start at 9am on Saturday and continue with a paddle board expo, demos and the first round of races. The festival will hold 30 different races through Saturday and Sunday. The courses for these races were all strategically planned and promise to be strenuous and fairly difficult. Awards ceremonies will be held on both days and will give away over $25,000 in prizes. The weekend is not only catering to athletes. There will be live music, vendor booths, beer gardens and lots of food. Winners of the races will receive awards, gift bags and cash prizes. 

The event promises to bring in more than 500 athletes from all over the world including Brazil, Australia, Korea, Tahiti and the United States.  The competition is being held at the Duke Kahanamoku beach in Waikiki. The race is also expected to bring in big name athletes such as Travis Grant, Connor Baxter, Gerry Lopez and Candice Appleby.

Both Saturday and Sunday offer a unique and endurance testing competition along with the regular races. The first unique trek takes place on saturday and is called the Survivor Stand Up race. Quiksilver rider and 10-time Molokai paddleboard champion Mark Healey uniquely designed the Survivor stand-up race for the competition. The race begins with 50 competitors and is an M shaped course with a sprint finish for each heat. Each heat will eliminate 10 competitors until the final 10 are left standing. The final 10 competitors will compete one final heat for the $500 and $1500 cash prizes.

 The second unique race is a saltwater triathlon type event called the Waterman Challenge. This race will be the closing event for the Waikiki Paddle Festival. The challenge starts with a 50-yard swim, followed by a 1,000-yard prone paddleboard leg trek and ends with a 1,500-yard stand-up paddle to finish.

Overall, the event promises to be a strenuous and exciting experience for athletes and spectators alike. The event is truly unique because it has never really been done before in this magnitude. It offers something for paddle boarders of all skill levels, and is a great opportunity to showcase some of paddle boarding's greatest talents from around the world.