“Ch-ch-changes. Oh, look out, you rock ‘n’ rollers..” -Bowie

Chattajack, you know it, we love it. It’s THE destination Paddleboard race every October. Or, is it? Over the last few years there has been a gradual shift. What began in 2012 as a SUP event with 39 paddlers, 24 on SUP boards, is now quite different. Last year (2023) paddlers to hit the water totaled 727. That in it’s self is a fascinating story and worth a Documentary. Yet there is another, interesting change that has slowly altered the landscape of Ross’s Landing on those Saturday mornings.

The demographics of craft have shifted. Here is a break down of paddlers by general craft type.

SUP	OC	Kayak	Ski	Canoe	Prone
24	2	5	6	2	0

SUP	OC	Kayak	Ski	Canoe	Prone
175	336	114	45	33	24

Looking at the boat class breakdown, it’s clear that the Outrigger growth is elevated by the options within the OC class. OC-1, 2, 4, 6. Still, if you exclude OC6 paddlers, the SUP vs OC paddlers continue to favor OC class. 2023: SUP = 175 vs OC = 180
However, on a one-to-one, single paddler category, SUP(14) has a clear lead.
2023: SUP14 = 140 vs OC1 = 70.

So? What’s the point…? I didn’t mine this data to show favor to one class over another. I paddle both SUP and Outrigger. Additionally, I started SUP due to not being able to afford a Surfski at the time. They’re all great craft. I dug into this data as prep for launching Okona. Surprised at what I found, I thought others would find it interesting as well.

Raw Data

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I mined this data from runsignup.com and itsyourrace.com. Numbers reflect each, individual paddler. An OC-1 equals 1 paddler and an OC-6 equals 6 paddlers. (seems obvious however race site results are tallied by number of craft, not paddlers.) I have done my best, check and double checking for errors and getting the correct count. If there are errors, please note them so that I can make correction.

Totals are for paddlers that were present, at the event. This will be inclusive of Finishers as well as DNF marked paddlers.

Additionally, in the early years, some classes had not been split into Men/Women/Mixed. In some cases there is a boat sub class, (like) Canoe-2 with one boat having 2 men competing with 1m&1w combo. It has no effect on the totals but worth a mention. I tabulated from this past year(2023), backwards. Therefore some sub classes are greyed-out if they where not available/ used at an earlier year.

2020 is not represented as it was the year a Virtual Race was conducted and no location event took place.