Jamie Mitchell crosses over to take out the 2^nd Annual Bat­tle of the Paddle!

DANA POINT, CA. – (Octo­ber 3, 2009) — Aus­tralian Jaime Mitchell is the reign­ing eight time champ of the gru­el­ing Molokai to Oahu Pad­dle­board Race held every July. Known in elite pad­dle­board cir­cles for his prone pad­dling prowess, Mitchell recently took his pad­dling act to his feet at Doheny Beach, Cal­i­for­nia for Rain­bow San­dals’ 2^nd Annual Bat­tle of the Pad­dle, the world’s largest Stand Up Pad­dle (SUP) race.

2009 Rain­bow San­dals BOP Champion!

“Mitchell is more suited for the races in Hawai’i than in Cal­i­for­nia”, “…a fast prone pad­dler, but he won’t hang with the top guys in stand up”, was the online chat­ter posted on mes­sage boards before Octo­ber 3^rd, 2009. Accused of being a one-dimensional ath­lete, Mitchell sur­prised all with a stun­ning win, a full 4 min­utes and 39 sec­onds ahead of water­man Chuck Patterson’s win­ning time at the pre­vi­ous year’s event.

The morn­ing after Mitchell’s glo­ri­ous vic­tory, crit­ics ate their words and Wheaties in stunned silence. Mitchell’s magic for­mula: sheer ath­letic abil­ity and a unique SUP race board designed with sim­i­lar fea­tures to his Molokai to Oahu prone race board.

For stand up paddling’s elite, the Bat­tle of the Pad­dle rep­re­sents the world’s largest and most com­pet­i­tive race. A “motocross” style course has par­tic­i­pants zig-zagging in and out of the break­ing surf. It’s a chal­lenge that tests the endurance and surf­ing skills of the world’s best water­men and women. Ath­letes fly in from around the world to com­pete for the cov­eted Bat­tle of the Pad­dle crown and a cash purse of $25,000.

Doheny Beach resem­bled a NASCAR event last Sat­ur­day morn­ing with dozens of ven­dors show­ing off their lat­est speed machines. With its fes­tive atmos­phere and a jubi­lant throng of onlook­ers stak­ing out view­ing spots on the sand, the salt air was buzzing with antic­i­pa­tion. As the sun rose that morn­ing, no one could have antic­i­pated what was in store. Mitchell had never com­peted in a stand up pad­dle race in the USA before.

Start­ing Line

Could the suc­cess he’s enjoyed in tra­di­tional “prone” pad­dle races be his in an SUP event? Dozens of rivals were there to take on the chal­lenge. The sud­den pop­u­lar­ity of SUP in the fit­ness, kayak­ing and surf worlds has fueled fierce com­pe­ti­tion amongst ath­letes, board design­ers and shapers. Every inno­va­tor, huck­ster, fit­ness guru and expe­ri­enced board and boat builder is climb­ing on the SUP bandwagon.

With a build­ing swell and increas­ing onshore winds, this year’s race was to be far more chal­leng­ing than the last. Mid-way into the first of four laps, and near­ing the lead, Mitchell’s hopes were nearly dashed when he fell, loos­ing his board. Caught in white water, the board arrived almost back to shore with­out him. Swim­ming to recover it, Mitchell got back on course. The mishap had cost him approx­i­mately eight places.

Jamie extends his lead

Now in tenth place, he sum­moned his inner war­rior to make up the lost time. When he over­took young phe­nom Slater Trout and Andrew Logreco to take the lead with a nice mar­gin, the win­ner was clearly “MITCHO!”, a first time BOP com­peti­tor. “After the wipe­out at the south buoy, I just put my head down and told myself that I wasn’t going to make any more mis­takes” com­mented Mitchell.

Indeed, his remain­ing three laps were aided by surf skills honed in Aus­tralia and Hawai’i. Mitchell, per­fectly posi­tioned, surfed sev­eral set waves which extended his lead. Jamie com­pleted the 5 mile course with a record time of 1:07:45. The ever so hum­ble “Mitcho” gave credit for his win to his board design­ers, and added, “I’ve been busy trav­el­ing and work­ing with my surf school back home so we didn’t really have much time to train before com­ing out to California.”

Just days prior to the Bat­tle of the Pad­dle, Mitchell and a tight knit crew of fel­low Aussies were up in San Fran­cisco for the Hen­nessey Inter­na­tional Pad­dle­board­ing Cham­pi­onships. Mitchell was there to defend his title in the Unlim­ited (prone pad­dle) Class. Vic­tory was his when he won that race with more than a three minute lead.

By about 2:30 in the after­noon on Sat­ur­day, Mitcho’s lead at Doheny had left lit­tle doubt who’s board was the fastest! Mitchell’s uncon­ven­tional SUP board has a unique con­cave bot­tom, chine rails and con­sis­tent thick­ness flow from nose to tail. A stark con­trast to the major­ity of rac­ing boards in the water, Mitchell’s board was designed by Lahui Kai, the Aus­tralian part­ner­ship of Adrian Birse and Mick Di Betta. The “Mitcho”, Jamie Mitchell’s 12’6″ model rac­ing SUP board will be man­u­fac­tured by Surftech, the inno­v­a­tive Santa Cruz, Cal­i­for­nia com­pany known for bring­ing exclu­sive shapes by elite design­ers to mar­ket. Surftech’s unique pro­pri­etary con­struc­tion makes their boards both hi-performance and ultra-durable. Fast, sta­ble & light, the 12’6″ Mitcho is a great board for rac­ing or cruis­ing on a long pad­dle. It’s a solid and proven per­former, even in windy or bumpy con­di­tions. Look for Surftech’s Mitcho in stores world­wide by Spring 2010.

Con­grats Mate!!