King of the Harbour New Zealand is This Saturday

This photo was from King of the Harbour 2012.

WAITEMATA HARBOUR, New Zealand - King of the Harbour is this Saturday April 6th.  This is the grand finale of the NZ Summer Season, and an Australia vs NZ finale is always nail-biting stuff.

Known as the "Molokai of NZ Ocean Racing", this exciting 20km downwind Ocean Ski and SUP race sees an incredible elite field of NZ and Australian stand up paddlers coming together to navigate fickle winds and difficult currents on the busy Waitemata Harbour in a bid to win the esteemed King of the Harbour SUP title, currently held by SUP "Queen" Annabel Anderson.

World SUP Champion Travis Grant is coming from Australia, as well as NSW Champ Jake Jensen and possibly Aussie Champ Beau O'Brian.

Both Travis and NZ Elite paddler Jeremy Stephenson are making strong comebacks from injury that saw them both out of action for most of the Southern Hemisphere season.  Jeremy broke his arm after the Molokai2Oahu World Paddleboard Champs last July, after winning his age division in the Open Mens.  Travis also had a broken arm last year, and returned to the water late this season with some impressive performances, winning the ISA World Champs in February.

This is the first time they have come up against one another in a race since Battle of the Paddle 2011, when Travis Grant took the gold medal ahead of Jamie Mitchell and Connor Baxter.

Also strong contenders from New Zealand are Olympic RSX Sailor JP Tobin and King of the Waves Armie Armstrong.  JP has missed most of the big NZ SUP races this season due to his sailing schedule, so there is an exciting "unknown" factor as we see him coming up against some strong competition in his local training grounds.

Olympic Gold Medallist Jo Aleh and World Series SUP Champion Annabel Anderson will be contesting the Womens title.  This is one of the only races worldwide where the Mens and Womens Trophy and title are equal and prize money is equal.  Annabel beat the entire King of the Harbour fleet last year on a 12'6, with only Jeremy Stephenson ahead of her on a longer 14'0 board.  This year Annabel will be on a 12'6 but most of the male competitors will be on 14'0 boards, so we're not likely to see the same "beat all the boys" showdown, but it will be impressive none the less.

.