Chattajack Paddle Race a closer look

Paddling in Tennessee, 31 miles through the Tennessee River Gorge.

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It was this picture that sparked our interest: Where could this be? Where are so many people meeting for a SUP race and why it is flying under our radar?

We spotted the picture on the USA SUP Facebook page and had to immediately share it and ask for more info. We were directed to the website of the ChattaJack 31, a 31 mile paddle race in the middle of the south east United States.

This is not particularly a region of the US we associate with a progressive sport like SUP. Chattanooga lies on the border between, Tennesse, Georgia and Alabama. The heart land of the US Biblebelt.


We had to give it a closer look and find out more about this race and started digging around their website. After looking at some videos and reading the name of the race we got some hazy memories having heard of this event before but never really looked into it further.

What is more astounding than the race in it self, is its location and the turn out. While we see a big decline in SUP at the initially trend setting locations such as California and Hawaii. SUP seems to be thriving in land locked locations. We been focusing on the elite and Europe so much that an event like this gets over looked easily. Evidently more so by the media rather than the participants. Looking at the picture above we see well over 100 people and their boards. The race get sold out and the wait list is 186 people deep.

Beautiful landscape draws the crowd

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Looking at the content this race is putting out it can see its appeal, the landscape of the southern Appalaches looks very beautiful and attracts people from all over the United States. The SUP 14′ 2021 result list alone is 188 paddlers deep and people seem to come from all over. In fact there are far more out of state participants than from Tennessee itself. The winner of the 2021 14′ division came from Ontatrio Canada: Tim Oliver finished the 31 miles in 4:31:14.6

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Now that we are looking at the results one might be curios if we find a familiar name in the international SUP Sport to make the search easier we had a look at the course records and found Jim Terrell (Founder of Quickblade Paddles) holding the course record of 2021 in the OC-2 division paddling with Dave Spitzer.

Future of very long distance SUP Racing

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Races like this have a certain kind of appeal and are fascinating. Similar to the SUP 11 City Tour in Ultra Longdistance individuals have to over come mental and physical challenges along the way and have to prepare far ahead of time.

It sure would be great to see a race like this to make it into an international tour or somehow attract the international elite once a year. Wouldn’t it be interesting to see longdistance pros like Michael Booth or Titouan Puyo going into a race course of this length?

Now that Chris Parker “sold” “found an investor” for his SUP Racer he might be pushing this side the sport more as he often exclaimed his passion for Ultra Long Distance Races. Such a the Yukon River Quest, the SUP 11 City Tour and many others.

Having the entire SUP Elite exclusively participating in SUP Races beyond the 30 mile mark is extremely unlikely but having one race like this a year where elites find their limit in distance racing sure would be a real treat for media and organizers alike.

We are hoping to get more info’s and insights from the organizers about the ChattaJack 31.

Happy Paddling!