Red Bull Privateers Returns to Marco Island

MARCO ISLAND, Florida - The Red Bull Privateers stand up paddleboard (SUP) race is back for the second-straight year and scheduled to take place on Cape Romano, just south of Marco Island, Florida for a full event weekend from Friday to Sunday, February 15-17, including the competition and a beach cleanup, among other activities.

In this one-of-a-kind event, teams of four paddlers have two and a half hours to do their best buccaneer impression and navigate through the mangrove mazes of the Ten Thousand Islands to retrieve doubloons from fifteen hidden treasure chests. The team that collects all fifteen gold doubloons – Red Bull treasure coins – and cross the finish line in the shortest amount of time wins.

Since the early 1700’s, Native American tribes, swashbucklers and outlaws have called the Ten Thousand Island area home. The most famous of which was Captain “Calico Jack” Rackham and there are legends of treasure still buried in the Ten Thousand Island area based on Calico Jack’s infamous stories. Red Bull Privateers is inspired by those tales and encourages everyone from experienced stand-up paddleboarders to novices from any area to join in on a modern pirate adventure.

The inaugural event was won by Team Choinski, a group of two Florida-based paddlers with teammates from the United Kingdom and Ohio, in a contest that featured more than 230 entrants on 58 teams. The weekend long event will also include a cleanup of the Ten Thousand Islands area in Rookery Bay National Estuary helmed by the 4ocean Community Cleanup Team.

Photos Courtesy: Red Bull

The entry fee is $100 per team of four or individual entrants can join for $25 and be assigned to a team of paddlers. The three-day event weekend includes a Friday night sunset party, the Saturday event and day-long beach games, and Sunday’s cleanup. Participants are allowed to camp at the event site or take a boat to the event on competition day.

For more information, visit here.

Event Schedule

• Friday, Feb. 15: 6:00 p.m. – Tunaskin Sunset Social with fire, food and drinks
• Saturday, Feb 16: 7:30 a.m. to 9:30 a.m. – Morning paddle clinic for novices and those leaning the tunnels of Cape Romano 11:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. – Red Bull Privateers competition 3:30 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. – Sun Bum Lounge with fruit, snacks and drinks, as well as a bon fire, beach games and beach side film premier
• Sunday, Feb 17: 9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. – Cleanup led by the 4ocean Community Cleanup Team

To find a SUP event in your area check out the Supconnect Events Calendar.