Schweitzer Clinic Sets Unofficial World Record

Newport Beach, California - What an incredible day!  With the help of elite stand up paddle athlete Zane Schweitzer and his family, the "Standup for the Cure" event in Newport Beach, California was a world record breaking event!  For those who were there, this will not be forgotten anytime soon.

Over a year ago, the young and energetic Zane Schweitzer, along with his family, committed to playing a large role in planning and executing the "Standup for the Cure" standup paddleboard event / clinic at Newport Dunes in California. The event was to be an effort to raise awareness and money to fight breast cancer.  This struck a cord with the Schweitzer family as they had been directly affected by the disease two years earlier when their dear friend Judie Vivian was diagnosed.  In fact, "Standup for the Cure" is Judy's brainchild and her way of giving back and helping other women become breast cancer survivors like herself.  

In the process of planning the event, however, all was going well until the Schweitzer family found out that the date of the "Standup for the Cure" event was scheduled precisely on the same day as another very important event to Zane's career, namely the Stand Up World Tour in La Torche, France.  However, being true to his word, Zane Schweitzer missed part of this important competition when he left the world tour 3 days early to keep a promise to Judy, "Stand up for the Cure" and all the people who were counting on him.  It's a good thing too, because the result was truly awesome and will have Zane, his family and many others in the record books for a very long time to come!

Thanks to the "Standup for the Cure" cause and hundreds of participants who came out to support the fight against breast cancer, the Zane Schweitzer paddleboard clinic unofficially set a Guinness Book World Record for the most people ever in a standup paddle board clinic.  Documentation shows that there were 414 paddlers on the water at the same time which would break the world record.  However, before this can be made official, reports from local military who were on hand to validate the world record attempt will need to be reviewed by the Guinness World Record Organization who will follow all their protocol and ultimately announce the official results.  Needless to say, it was an incredible event and quite a sight as a sea of pink shirts flooded the waters.

When all was said and done, the event was exceptional.  Shawneen Schweitzer, master of ceremonies for the event and mother of Zane, mentioned in a video interview with Supconnect that $35,000 was raised to fight breast cancer and that there were actually more than 700 people who came to the event.  It was all about people from different backgrounds uniting in the fight against breast cancer by participating in the fastest growing outdoor sport in the world.  It was definitely a winning combination!

Congratulations to all those involved, both participants and planners/organizers.

Watch more video from the event on our Supconnect home page video player with the location "Newport" on May 5, 2012.   This video is also available on the Supconnect You Tube Channel.  Please subscribe while you are there and enjoy the show!

.