Supconnect Awards: The People's Choice 2023

San Diego, CALIFORNIA - As we prepare to announce the winners of the 14th annual Supconnect Awards we wanted to begin by giving a special shout-out to those who had the most votes—what we call the People's Choice Awards. These folks had the largest support from their friends, family and SUP community and we want to give these nominees an extra bit of recognition.

As a reminder, the Supconnect Awards official winners (to be announced in the coming days) are chosen by following our criteria of Ambassadorship, Involvement, Performance and Support. To help us decide the winners of these awards, we here at Supconnect go through an extremely rigorous process that includes consulting and receiving feedback from our advisory board, whose members are made up of those who are passionately involved in the sport of standup paddling and who have a unique take on the sport. We take into account the many thousands of interactions with the Awards from fans and consumers, we add in our own feedback from our editorial board. We've also had extensive feedback and contact with brands and retailers in the industry. You can dive deeper into our Awards history and selection process here.

Without further ado, here are the People's Choice from the 2023 Supconnect Awards.

Man of the Year

Ryan Burgess

Ryan Burgess (Jupiter, Florida) is a community leader and role model to many. Sharing his love of the sport of paddle boarding he has participated in the Cystic Fibrosis Crossings for the last several years and has moved into taking a leadership mentoring role to help those who want to participate themselves. You will never see Ryan without a smile, or far from the water. His love of the ocean and paddling is dynamic and contagious. Skilled, highly motivated and a great guy dedicated to his craft.

Woman of the Year

Mariecarmen Rivera

Mariecarmen Rivera (Puerto Rico) is an exceptional standup paddle racer that for the past few years has consistently been proving herself at each event she enters. As a regular competitor on the APP World Tour and representing team Puerto Rico at the ISA World SUP and Paddleboard Championships, Mariecarmen has some impressive results under her belt. She's got a silver and multiple bronze medals from the ISAs under her belt and multiple podium finishes on the APP World Tour.

Grom of the Year

Jameson Roeber

Jameson Roeber (Long Island, New York) loves paddling out of his hometown, Port Jefferson on the North Shore of Long Island, New York. Jameson has a strong love and connection to the water. Jameson started paddling at the age of four when he took his mother’s board and paddled off. Since winning his first grom race at age five, he is now racing nationally, including winning or placing at The Pacific Paddle Games, The Gorge Paddle Challenge, The Carolina Cup, The NY APP, and many other races. Jameson also loves SUP surf, Foil, and prone. Although he enjoys racing, he loves helping others. Jameson has found a way to blend his love for the ocean with his love for animals. In 2020, he sponsored an organization called Kids Paddle and SUP Pup division for Paddle for The Cure, based out of NY in efforts to cure Breast Cancer. Jameson looks forward to growing as a Waterman and passing on his love for paddling to others.  

Shop of the Year

Standup Panama

(Panama City, Panama) StandUp Panama offers a great variety of SUP boards for all levels and budgets, they are superb with the latest accessories and customer service. They also coordinate SUP tours, explore/tourism bringing the best sights to be discovered. The shop offers the best brands in the market and are always ready to give you the best advice for the sport. The shop is family owned and has years of experience. The owner, Arturo, is a great guy and always do his best for his clients. His coordinates trips, classes, and personal time, make a huge difference in comparison with other stores. The shop has worked really hard to create a SUP community in Panama and the support for this family-owned business really shines through.

Brand of the Year

ECS

ECS Boards Australia is one of the hottest brands on the market due to their versatile shapes and lightweight design. Their great styles also add to the reason for their popularity. Focusing on their SUP styles here in the USA, ECS started as a surf company, owned and designed by surfers in Australia. They took their love for the water, their knowledge of the waves and their proven surf designs and created the best riding SUP models in the industry. Their retailers and customers come back time and time again to say how much they love the ECS brand.