2011 Battle of the Paddle Hawaii Recap!

Travis Grant-BOP Elite Winner

Vertra paddlesports athletes had a successful weekend at the 2011 Gerry Lopez Battle of the Paddle SUP event in Hawaii this past weekend. With top athletes from around the world asending on Waikiki to compete for top honors, the elite races were nothing short of heart pounding excitement.

On Saturday, the elite surf race event took place in Waikiki. Defending champion Danny Ching and second runner up at last years BOP Hawaii Travis Grant battled shoulder to shoulder during the 4-lap roughly 8 mile course.  In a close finish the Australian Travis Grant took top honors.  Matt Becker and Arron Naopoleon Finished 7th and 8th overall respectively. In the women’s elite Morgan Hoesterey of Hawaii and Gillian Gibree finished 4th and 5th overall.

On Sunday Danny Ching came back strong in the Elite Distance race. The course was the infamous Hawaii Kai run starting from the bathhouse in Hawaii Kai and ending roughly 9 miles downwind in Waikiki. In light tradewind conditions Ching dominated the rest of the field in addition to setting a new course record in a time of 1:20:27

A killer video by Soul Surf Media Productions of the 2011 Battle of the Paddle: http://vimeo.com/23788920

This entry was posted on Monday, May 16th, 2011 at 10:03 am. It is filed under paddlesports and tagged with 2011 Battle of the Paddle Hawaii, Best SUP Paddlers, BOP Hawaii elite winners, C4 Waterman BOP winner, danny ching, Gillian GIbree SUP, Morgan Hoesterey SUP, SUP racing in Hawaii, Travis Grant BOP Winner, Vertra Sunscreen. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.