Pau Hana Crossfit Wins Gear of Year Award

LOS ANGELES, California - Just yesterday news stands were hit with the latest Outside spring/summer Buyer’s Guide by Outside Magazine.  The guide is in its 17th year of publication and reaches over 1.3 million frequent gear purchasers, but this year there is extra awesome news for stand up paddlers world wide and especially for SUP board manufacturer Pau Hana Surf Supply.

After months of testing, trying, exploring and reviewing the team at Outside Magazine revealed their favorite 315 products.  They also unveiled the winners of the 14 "Gear of the Year" categories.  Among those categories, in its history making debut, was "Stand-Up Paddleboard",  and the newly redesigned 2012 Pau Hana Crossfit made history as the first ever board winner!

Not only is there a huge congratulations in order to Pau Hana Surf Supply for producing such an outstanding stand up paddleboard, but this is also a time for the entire SUP industry to celebrate.  Just the mere fact that stand-up paddleboard was included as a category in the Gear of the Year selections indicates how mainstream, recognized and accepted as a legitimate outdoor sport SUP has become.  Todd Caranto, designer of the winning crossfit and co-owner of Pau Hana Surf Supply, put it this way: "For the outdoor industry, this is a formal recognition of the sport as having a legitimate and ongoing place in the active outdoors category.  It's good news for all board builders."

In an announcement by Outside Magazine about the Crossfit win, Mark Anders (Outdoor Magazine author) was quoted as saying, "Stand-up paddleboarding is growing faster and evolving more rapidly than any other outdoor sport. Six years ago, SUPs were fringe crafts just starting to pop up in surf lineups in California and Hawaii. Today they represent a full-fledged sport that’s spread from the coasts inland to lakes and rivers nationwide, with a professional competition circuit and burgeoning regional amateur race scene." Again, how exciting to see the sport of stand up paddle grow and be reinforced by the general outdoor world.

It is a proud day in SUP history.

About Pau Hana Surf Supply:

Pau Hana, [pronounced Pow Hana], is a Hawaiian phrase that means “Work is over.” “Pau Hana Time” encapsulates the spirit of play and good times with friends and family. To that end, Pau Hana Surf Supply is a design and manufacturing company that designs equipment for that purpose.  The Pau Hana Surf Supply team researches, designs, builds, rides, and tests all of its stand up paddle boards, adhering to a rigorous iterative development strategy. They continuously innovate and improve models based on feedback from athletes, riders, surf schools, river guides, and industry and trade publications. Pau Hana believes that a team-based approach to all of its design processes produces superior results and exceptional performance.

About the Crossfit Stand Up Paddle Board:

12'6" & 14' - In replace of a full quiver for different uses and conditions, the 12’6” SG2 Crossfit is made for high performance training in flatwater or ocean, but is also a competitive stock class raceboard with race proven results in the 2011 Battle of the Paddle in Honolulu Hawaii.  Stability and glide were the primary design goals for the board. Those two elements make it an unbeatable platform for distance training and core workouts. With stability and glide, a rider can concentrate on stroke and pulling from the abdominals rather than on balance and staying afloat.

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