“If the paddler can't come to the Nationals, then the Regionals shall come to the paddler”.
- A wise old paddler
The poorly paraphrased quote above, is often attributed to mean “if something is not how you like it, then you must adapt".
After two years of National Championship events, hosted firstly on the West Coast and then the East Coast, it became clear that not all paddlers were able, for a variety of circumstances, to travel long distances to participate and race in these events.
So USA SUP needed to adapt.
We needed a way to allow our members to participate in races ‘closer to home’ but still be recognized by a ranking system that, as objectively as possible, compared their performances to other paddlers both within their home region and across all regions over the country.
If you have not already, visit and bookmark the latest USA SUP Member rankings here. You can also follow links to your specific region from that page.
The USA SUP Regional Races Series (RRS) came into being.
At the start of 2025, USA SUP Board members began working closely with all Race Directors & Organizers across the country to include their races in a series. We also needed to ensure that we had race representation across all regions.
As we are now at the 3 month mark of RRS, we can look back at events and races completed so far and the participation in those events.
In this first graphic you can see all completed RRS Events by Region.
Clearly our paddling community prefers to start their season in warmer climates with SouthWest and SouthEast having completed most events in these first 3 months.
And we can further break this down by RRS Races per Region.
Often Race Directors will host multiple races within the same event, so the USA SUP team works with those race directors to identify what we refer to as an ‘A’ and ‘B’ race for inclusion in the series.
As a general rule of thumb, the ‘A’ race will be longer, have more participants, be more competitive for example, while the ’B’ race typically recognizes and rewards the ‘weekend warriors’ who are out paddling.
Using factors such as those above, we “weight” the ‘A’ and ‘B’ races, so that when assessing results we can create a more objective comparison of paddlers in the rankings.
To see when the next races are coming up you can check out the Regional Series Races page on the USA SUP website. You can find here links to RRS races in ALL regions and also your own Home Region.
As we evolve the RRS and associated member rankings, we are considering limiting the Top 5 races which make up the cumulative total for your ranking place, to include 3 races from your Home region. This ensures we support and grow our sport at home as well.
Another interesting aspect to come out of the RRS results is the number of events in which we share the water with our non-SUP paddling friends.
This of course has an impact on rankings, what if you are 4th overall in a race behind 2 OC-1’s and a surfski.
Currently when determining placings for rankings purposes, we consider you 1st place from a SUP perspective.
So get out there and enjoy the time on the water, you are always going to get more ranking points than them.
Of course races wouldn’t exist without paddle racers, so who was out there on the water.
And the charts again currently reflect a higher proportion of member racers from the warmer climates, but this will change during the next quarter as more of our regions thaw out and start racing.
And of course we split our rankings on gender.
It is also important to USA SUP to recognize all those paddlers who get out on the water and make the races an experience for all.
If you have participated in a RRS race, you will see your name on the ranking table, but you will not be recognized at the end of the year as RRS Champion for your region or perhaps across regions.
If you have not already, visit and bookmark the latest USA SUP Member rankings here. You can also follow links to your specific region from that page.
And for those of you not yet a member, but would love the bragging rights of Regional Champion, we would love to have you join us. Visit over here for USA SUP All Race Rankings to see where you currently stand in the table.
It’s never too late to become a member and start climbing up the table.
One of the best loved aspects of our sport is the “community”. And although it is challenging for many of us to travel and share the camaraderie of racing and enjoying each other’s company afterwards, there are still a few intrepid souls who journey far and wide, to race in and enjoy the time with their ‘tribe’.
So a big shout out to some of those racers who do make the journey and cover the miles.
RRS is underway, it is a first time series for USA SUP and there will be some learnings and likely more adaptations, and as athletes it's all about adaptation, along the way. But it is important for our sport to continue this evolution and continue to grow.
And of course none of this would be possible without the support and encouragement of Race Directors and you, the paddlers who turn up at the water’s edge each race day.
A big thank you to all of you for supporting the USA SUP Regional Races Series, a series which will not only grow and get better over the coming months of this year, but well into the future.
Are you a Race Director that would like to participate? Reach out to Kristin.Thomas@usasup.org
If you wish to find out more about Rankings Calculations, visit our Rankings FAQ page
And for any questions about USA SUP reach out at info@usasup.org
