Spectators crowded around the finish line on Wrightsville Beach in front of the Blockade Runner Beach Resort around noon on Saturday, April 26, all eyes trained to the north where the first pack of Carolina Cup Elite competitors was slowly coming into view.
As the athletes paddled through the open Atlantic Ocean in the final leg of the grueling Graveyard Elite course, world champion paddleboarder Danny Ching’s lime-green hat and board shorts were easily visible out in front.
The crowd cheered him on as he surfed a wave into shore, jumped off his board and sprinted to his third consecutive Carolina Cup victory with a final time of 2:23:56. Tahitian Georges Cronsteadt, who briefly pulled away from the pack going through the inlet, and reigning Molokai champion Travis Grant, who lead the competitors through the flatwater leg, finished second and third, respectively.
Calm seas and light winds played well into Ching’s choice to ride a board more suited to flatwater conditions. However, with the technical nature of the course and the high caliber of talent in this year’s competition, the Graveyard Elite race lived up to its reputation as one of the most challenging in the world.
“The course is one of the hardest, because it’s a little bit of everything. It’s upwind, it’s downwind, it’s open ocean, it’s flatwater, it’s tough currents, and this year in particular with how many people showed up, how many of the top fast competitors, men and women, it was brutal,” Ching said.
Not long after the first men crossed the finish line, world champion Annabel Anderson powered to her second consecutive Carolina Cup victory, holding off a late charge from Jenny Kalmbach and Lina Augaitis.
Anderson took an early lead in the race, making her competitors chase her and try to close the distance, a difficult feat in paddleboarding.
“I know how hard it is to make up that amount of ground,” Anderson said. “You know however tired you’re feeling, after two and one-half plus hours, you know they’re going to be feeling much the same as well,” Anderson said.
Now in its fourth year, the 2014 Carolina Cup drew the best paddleboarders from around the world, including world champion Connor Baxter, Olympic gold medalist Larry Cain and Quickblade founder Jamie Mitchell. One unique aspects of the event is that it allows athletes of all ages and ability levels to learn from and paddle alongside the sport’s elite.
“To see them willing to come out and hang out with us everyday kind of people, it’s cool,” said Micalla Mikus, who travelled from Pittsburgh to enter the 3.5-mile Harbor Island Recreational Race and enjoy the many other activities the five-day event had to offer. “We also plan on checking out the barbecue and the music … and we’re signed up for the race clinic with Danny Ching.”
Athletes also had the option to enter the 6.5-mile Money Island Open Race. With more than 700 paddlers taking part in Saturday’s races, there was a definite sense of the friendly, supportive nature of the paddleboard community. First-time competitors mingled with world champions and Wrightsville Beach paddlers chatted with athletes from New Zealand, Australia and Hawaii.
“The locals are what make this event,” said Anderson, who came from New Zealand for the week. “They’re really the reason that I come. The race is just kind of a painful hard-work excuse to come and enjoy their company.”
