Sand Point Outrigger Canoe Club

Next in our shoutouts for the Blazing Paddles Challenge goes to Firefighter.com, Seattle Institute of East Asian Medicine, and Laugh's Comedy Club. After the intensity of racing was over, we gave our firefighters a chance to enjoy some light hearted games for bonus prizes. Winners walked away with custom decals and job shirt from Firefighter.com, a $100 gift certificate from Seattle Institute of East Asian Medicine, and $50 from Laughs Comedy Club! Thank you sponsors!

Our next Blazing Paddles Challenge shoutout goes to the sponsors who donated the prizes going to the teams that finished in the top 3! Hottubboats.com donated a hot tub boat rental on Lake Union, Seattle Bouldering Project donated day passes, and The Museum of Flight donated tickets 🙌 These speedy teams walked away with not only bragging rights and trophies, but some pretty sweet activities to do as a crew together later too. Thank you sponsors for providing them with some fun activities to do on their off days together!

Next up in our Blazing Paddles Challenge shoutouts is the winner of the best costumes category, station 40 from the Wedgewood neighborhood. They competed under the name “Fruit Boat” and also won 3rd overall! For best costumes, they walked away with some amazing prizes from our race donors including BBQ sauce for the station from Torcatha BBQ Sauce, goodies from Fran’s Chocolates, a kit from WetGlaze Finish Care, and gift certificates for float sessions from Float Seattle! Thank you to our sponsors for the donations rewarding our firefighters while they have some fun on their off day. The best part about this award category is it was born out of the participants’ own desire to spice things up with costumes and add to the fun. From the beginning we never mentioned outfits, but they all showed up in funny costumes last year too and we can’t wait to see what they come up with next year!

On Sunday we hosted the 2nd annual Blazing Paddles Challenge for Seattle firefighters, their friends, and families. Teams braved the early rain and chilly temps to battle it out on the water for fire house glory (and plenty of awesome prizes from our amazing sponsors, more to come on that!) Station 35 from the Crown Hill neighborhood came out on top this year, edging out 2nd place station 13 from Beacon Hill, and 3rd place station 40 from Wedgewood. Outrigger canoe requires working as a team rather than individuals sharing a canoe to do well, and of course, all of the firefighter crews excelled at that, while having little to no paddling experience. We can’t wait to host again next year!

Sand Point and some friends from other Pacific Northwest Outrigger Racing Canoe Association clubs have been representing the PNW and USA in Singapore at the IVF World Sprint Championships. Our crews have been battling hard on the international stage against the titans of our sport. We are grateful for the experience to compete and gain valuable experience while bonding even more. But most of all we are grateful for all the support from those back home that helped get us here and continue to cheer for us from an ocean away!

Ok, one more big mahalo to Seattle Gummy Company from a few of our juniors. The PNW Challenge was their last race before heading to the sprint world championships in Singapore this week! Thanks for keeping them and all the other racers free from muscle cramps during this long distance race as they transition to sprints 🤙

Don’t forget your promo code for 20% off at SeattleGummy.com: 2026SandPoint

Another thank you goes out to Stoup Brewing for donating to our PNW Challenge race raffle! One lucky winner was definitely stoked to win this one 🍻



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A huge THANK YOU to Seattle Gummy Company for helping fuel our PNW Challenge racers! 🚣‍♀️💪 (Promo code below! 👇)

Seattle Gummy generously donated HydraFuel for our race participants, giving paddlers a boost of hydration and energy to keep them going out on the water.

We’re incredibly grateful to have a local Seattle company supporting our paddling community and helping our athletes perform at their best.

Thank you, Seattle Gummy, for bringing the fuel! ⚡️🌊

Promo code: 2026SandPoint for 20% off at seattlegummy.com

📷: Locke Bradley and Samantha-Lynn Martinez

The 2026 PNW Challenge change race hosted by SPOCC and Kikaha O Ke Kai is in the books. Thank you to all the racers and volunteers that made it happen. Lake Washington was covered in outrigger canoes from the north to the south ends of the 22 mile lake. Some made change outs on beaches while others made them in the water. Some didn’t change paddlers out at all! We will be making future posts to highlight and thank our generous sponsors 🙌 In the meantime, congratulations to all the racers on a fun day on the water.

📷: Samantha-Lynn Martinez and Patrick Hwang