In one of the most action-packed races of all time, defending champions Titouan Puyo and Annabel Anderson were crowned the 2017 Carolina Cup Champions.

The Carolina Cup has consistently been a major paddle boarding event that attracts both elite and amateur athletes from around the globe. Attendance records are broken year after year and the event has become the place where standup paddlers come to test their grit and compete against the best in the World. 2017 is expected to be another record-breaking year and with the caliber of athletes in attendance there will be no shortage of excitement. Here are our predictions for how the event will unfold in 2017.

World-class competition with excellent weather and surf conditions ruled this weekend’s 2017 Hobie and Salt Life SUP Surf Pro-Am in Wrightsville Beach. After back-to-back qualifying heats and intense finals competition, Martin Letourneur from Saint-Malo, France, captured the coveted and overall performance trophy, the Haywood Newkirk, Sr. All Waterman Award.

In a recent interview, Annabel Anderson shared her thoughts about the upcoming Cup competition, how she maintains her dominance, a glimpse into other aspects of life in New Zealand, and how she feels about returning to the world’s largest gathering of professional and amateur racers in Wrightsville Beach.

West Marine Carolina Cup, the world’s largest gathering of professional and amateur standup paddle board athletes, has added the World Paddle Association’s World SUP Tour in 2017.

Already one of the biggest and paramount paddle gatherings in the world, the West Marine Carolina Cup is expanding in 2017 with the addition of a one-day retailer-only trade show, a nine-mile outrigger canoe race with six-person teams, and a 6.5-mile junior championship standup paddle board race for youth under 18.

A scant 6-seconds at the finish line separated Canadians Larry Cain and Tamás Buday Jr. in their exciting rematch at North Carolina's 2016 Surf to Sound Challenge. Cain, an Olympic Gold Medalist and inductee into Canada's Sports Hall of Fame, regained the men's championship from fellow Olympian Buday, posting a time of 1-hour 12-minutes 35-seconds in the 6.5-mile ocean to sound elite paddle board competition. Cain has captured the Surf to Sound Championship four times with Buday winning twice.

Steadily climbing in the SUP Racer World Rankings, ninth-place April Zilg will defend her championship on home surf in Wrightsville Beach at the 2016 Surf to Sound Challenge, Nov. 4-6.

Supconnect Contributor and media boat driver for the Carolina Cup, Haywood Newkirk, gives his take on the 2016 event and how it all went down. Get the inside scoop from Wrightsville Beach local HERE.

Today kicked off the first big race of the 2016 stand up paddle race season and it was more exciting than ever. With an incredible start and lead changes throughout the majority of the race the action was intense from start to finish. In the end Tituoan Puyo and Annabel Anderson both claimed the victory for the 2016 Carolina Cup.

Wrightsville Beach, North Carolina has been on everyone’s radar for some time now because of the world renowned Carolina Cup. After this year’s Hobie Salt Life Pro Am, the world’s paddle boarding community now has a legitimate reason to come a week early and watch the world’s best in the surf.

The time has come for the best stand up paddlers in the world to come together and face off yet again at the first major stand up paddle race of 2016, the Carolina Cup. Top athletes in the sport will be there including 3x women’s winner Annabel Anderson, Travis Grant, Candice Appleby, Danny Ching, Connor Baxter, Fiona Wylde and many, many more all going head-to-head aiming to conquer the grueling Graveyard Course.