It was one year ago this month that Naish team rider, Karen Wrenn, took on the challenge of crossing the seven channels of California's Channel Islands - all on her Glide 17'0". The epic paddle, over five consecutive days and 150 nautical miles, made Karen the first stand up paddler to cross all seven channels (let alone the first female to brave crossing the sharky waters of SoCal's Santa Barbara Channel on an SUP).

Team Naish (including defending World Champion Kai Lenny, big wave legend Chuck Patterson, young Frenchman Benoit Carpentier, Oahu local Noa Ginella and Maui's Kody Kerbox) put on an incredible performance this past week at the 3rd Annual Sunset Beach Pro on Oahu's North Shore. The first stop on the 2012 Stand Up World Tour was treated to some epic waves where the world's best riders stepped up to do battle.

This has been a full summer of paddling for sure, whatever your style: downwinders, flat-water, waves or the Moto X of SUP: SUPCross. I’ve been getting lots of emails from you as you improve your SUP skills and increase your strength. That’s awesome! I’m glad the SUP-specific fitness tips I’ve designed for you are working and will continue to help you each and every session.By now, your core, legs and upper body are getting stronger and you are learning the fine dynamics of building your strength specifically for stand up paddling. So it’s time to go to the level of power here. In these exercises, we’re not only going to engage our core to the highest degree, but I’m going to give you the power to learn how to get the most of each stroke so you can really turn on the juice!

Naish Kiteboarding has announced that Ewan Jaspan has joined their International team. Ewan has been a National Team Rider in Australia and has just graduated from high school. He can now devote all of his energies and hard work to kiteboarding, his real passion. It will be great to see Ewan's enthusiasm hit the world. Stay tuned for the adventure! Below is Ewan's biography and a question and answer segment.

For a second consecutive year, the 10km stand up paddle crossing through Paris on the river Seine was held on Sunday, December 4th. While over two hundred paddlers signed up for the race this year, the competition was unfortunately limited to only one hundred people.

Long Beach, Kommetjie played host to the 5th edition of the Surfers Challenge which, for the second year running, incorporated the PRIMI Naish SUP Racing Series final. The series, which began last May in Durban, is endorsed by SUPSA and constists of five races which combine to decide the Juniors, Ladies and Mens SUP South African racing champions.

After three contests this year, Tahiti's 2011 Surf and SUP champion was crowned in December of 2011 at the Pink Coconut restaurant in the Marina of Punaauia. Naish Tahiti Junior team rider, Raioha Poenaiki took top honors in the Junior division after winning all three contests ahead of O'Neil Massin and Wong Teihotu in third.

On December 10th, Naish rider Arnaud Frennet crossed the entire Strait of Magellan on the Mana Air inflatable SUP - as part of his “MallSport Magellan Expedition”, an SUP adventure through one of the most southern regions of the world. This marks the first time the Strait has ever been crossed by SUP and for Arnaud, concludes a project he began three years before.

19 year old Kai Lenny secured his 2nd World Title at the Hawaii Island Finals of the Stand Up World Tour with an impressive and dominant performance that saw his four counting results as 2 firsts and 2 seconds. His discards were a 3rd and a 4th, meaning that he was in every single final this year and has only missed out on one final since the Stand Up World Tour's inception.

Kody Kerbox, one of Naish's original "young guns", has come up through the ranks to prove himself a fierce competitor in the SUP world. Kody is the son of big wave legend, Buzzy Kerbox, and lives in Maui, HI where he surfs shortboards, longboards, SUP, tow-in, foil, windsurfs and races stand up paddleboards. We sat down with him after his return from the Hawaii Island Finals - the last event of this year's Stand Up World Tour - where he wrapped up the tour with an overall 8th place finish.

In December of 2011, the Danish SUP Surf Championship took place on the frigid coast of Klitmøller, Denmark and Naish rider, Casper Steinfath, became the first ever Danish SUP Surf Champion. In this article he tells us all about it.

At 6:00 am on Saturday morning, I was driving towards Kihei, admiring a spectacular plum-colored sunrise over Haleakala, and trying to imagine what to expect from a "Beach Fitness and Paddle Challenge". Having ultimate faith in Suzie Cooney, I knew that whatever it was, it was going to be FUN.

Stand-Up Paddling South Africa (SUPSA) announces the national SUP team members selected to represent South Africa at the 1st ISA World Standup Paddle and Paddleboard Championship to be held in Miraflores, Peru from 20th to 25th February 2012. The world championships is to include both SUP surfing and racing disciplines.

Tucker Ingalls won the open race, Chuck Patterson won the Kahuna division in the elite race and placed 2nd overall, Jenny Kalmbach finished 2nd for the women and Karen Wrenn placed 5th and to finish it off, the Naish relay team got 2nd overall.

The Waterfront Park in Hood River, Oregon hosted the first annual Naish Columbia Gorge Paddle Challenge on the weekend of August 20./21. Elite athletes from across the U.S. including Naish's own Dave Kalama, Kai Lenny, Chuck Patterson, Jerry Bess, Michi Schweiger, Jenny Kalmbach and Karen Wrenn plus members of the Hood River community came out for this two-day festival that boasted 250 entrants in four events, including a course race, a 8-mile downwinder, a team relay race and a non-competitive Paddle for the Park fundraiser. The festival also had an SUP expo with demos and clinics running in-between races as well as nightly entertainment.

Naish Team rider, Arnaud Frennet, shares his new definition of the perfect day riding in Punta de Lobos, Chile.

Dakhla, with its open bay on the Atlantic, is fast becoming a hotspot in the world of water sports. For the 5th consecutive year, amateur and professional of windsurfing, kitesurfing, surfing and stand up paddling disciplines met in a festival that creatively mixed sport and culture. Congratulations to Nicole, who placed first in the women’s SUP event!

Bernd Roediger describes his experience at the 2011 Dakhla Festival:

This month, Jenny Kalmbach and Morgan Hoesterey continued their environmental and standup paddleboarding adventures – this time traveling to Costa Rica where Jenny was born and raised. Starting in the capitol of San Jose, the girls and friends, including photographer Shannon Switzer, traveled to the Pacific coast to surf, paddle and raise awareness against plastic contamination in the ocean. Along the way, they paddled on Lake Arenal, around Isla del Ca–o, up rivers through Corcovado National Park and along the beautiful Costa Rican coastline.

Naish France is very happy to welcome Faustine Merret on it’s SUP team. Faustine, whose impressive sports career as a professional windsurfer has been turning heads since 1996, finally succumbed to the joys of SUP.

The UK can be dark, bleak and freezing cold in January and 2011 began with no exception, so Naish UK windsurfing team rider Jan Sleigh took off to Cape Verde in search of warm winter wind and waves and discovered an SUP playground.

Kai Lenny, SUP world champion, came back from the first event of this year’s tour a winner. We got a chance to pick his brain about the challenging conditions the riders faced at the Sunset Beach Pro this year and what Kai’s board choices were for the event.

It seems that with the wide variety of conditions that you guys encountered during the event (ranging from 12 foot waves to slightly over head high), you had to switch between different boards in order to match the conditions. What was your board choice for the big days?