Thames River Opens Up to Paddlers During Big Ben Challenge

LONDON, England - On Saturday, September 23, the Big Ben Challenge and Putney Foreshore Festival, supported by Tideway, will be taking over the River Thames in central London. The SUP event, organized by London based SUP school Active360, gives participants the chance to paddle in a 20K race from Putney to Big Ben and back. After a positive response to the first Big Ben Challenge in 2016, where some of the top UK SUP racers took to competing, the race will return for its second consecutive year but with a few additions.

This year, there will be both a 14’ class and a 12’6” inflatable board class as well as two different events - the 20K race and the 10K + 10K challenge. The 10K + 10K challenge is not considered a race and times will not be recorded, but participants will be expected to cover the first 10K to Big Ben at a moderately fast pace. Different from the 20K race, challenge participants are allowed to paddle back from Big Ben at a slower pace, giving them an opportunity to look at the nearby sights and landmarks. They can also take a quick break at Lacks Dock, a river beach just before Vauxhall Bridge, prior to finishing the remaining 8K back to Putney.

All racers, men and women, will receive the same prize money for the main race and all challenge finishers will be entered into a prize drawing for other prizes.

“We are very pleased to be running this unique race again and delighted to be able to extend the event to people who are confident paddlers but not necessarily racers. Our partnership with Tideway has made this possible and we are sure this event can continue to grow and attract more SUP paddlers from around the World just like the Paris Crossing which now attracts hundreds of stand up paddlers to the Seine every December. The event has a theme of protecting the Thames from pollution including the growing threat of plastic pollution which makes it even more special,” said Active360 Founder, Paul Hyman.

Along with the SUP races, Tideway, the company behind Thames Tideway Tunnel, is hosting the Foreshore Festival to celebrate the beautiful Tidal Thames and encourage recreation, environmental engagement, and safety. The festival will begin at Kew Bridge with a massive SUP paddle cleanup on the river where participants will collect plastic waste and save plastic bottles to be used in a later art installation. Following, there will be screenings of films about plastic pollution in Westminster School Boathouse along with presentations from Watertrek about plastic pollution reduction and marine environment protection.

Photo via Paul Hyman.

“I’m really excited to be running the Foreshore Festival. We have a great river running through the middle of our great capital, and with the festival we want to celebrate this river and help reconnect Londoners. Stand Up Paddle boarding is a fast growing, engaging sport, and we’re proud to work with this thriving London community. The Big Ben Race and Challenge, racing through the centre of town, is an iconic 'must do' event on the SUP calendar. It’ll be a great opportunity to bring this sport to new communities, and work with SUP boarding by supporting a new, iconic event,” said Tideway Legacy Program Manager, Andrew Triggs Hodge.

The Big Ben Challenge, Foreshore Festival, and Thames Tideway Tunnel were all created in an effort to support Tideway’s goal to improve the Thames river life and the life of the river users. All participants will help support this mission and improve the growth of the river’s ecosystem. The Big Ben Challenge and Foreshore Festival is put together by Tideway and its partners: Active360, Thames21, Tideway West & Tideway JV partner BMB, Watertrek, PLA, RNLI, London Youth Rowing, Local Business, Local Residents.

For more SUP Race news, click HERE.