SUP Surfers Cross the English Channel

UNITED KINGDOM — A brand new and thrilling record has been set June 28 in the Stand Up Paddle (SUP) by the British team paddling 21 miles (about 34 km) across the English Channel.

The solo paddler who received the challenge and the relay team itself joined the environmental campaigns run by Surfers Against Sewage (SAS). The smooth breeze and the bright sun made the trip awesome.

This was a historic achievement for SUP, with the crossing in some 5 hrs and 38 min setting a new benchmark.

The members of the relay team were: Jock Patterson, the 2009 SUP champion (UK), Matt Argyle, BSUPA Champion, the 2nd British stand up paddle surfer (UK), Simon Bassett, head coach of BSUPA (UK), Elliot Dudley, the long-boarding champion and SAS representative (Wales). The latter had the best ever solo result (5 hrs 38 min) in the unprecedented official SUP solo Channel crossing, June 28.  The holder of the current record is Michael O'Shaughnessy, a prone paddler (USA), who managed the crossing at 5 hrs 9 min in 2006.
The contest was held under the aegis of the British Stand Up Paddle Association (BSUPA) and SAS. Fundraising brought the SUP boarders around £10 thousand earmarked for SAS activities to safeguard wave-riders, surfers, as well as beaches and waves along the UK coastline. Visit www.justgiving.com/2010challenge for more info. The SUP paddlers' training blog is available here www.supglobal.com.

"I am thrilled that the riders have completed this massive challenge in support of SAS's ongoing campaigns to protect the UK's beaches and seas for all to enjoy. Well done to them all for setting such fantastic new World-records, which we hope the Guinness Book of Records will endorse as soon as possible. I'd like to say a massive thank you to the riders for all their efforts and for contributing so much to our campaigns against marine pollution", said SAS's Executive Director Hugo Tagholm.