The Paddle to the Moon Competition by Aquaplanet!

Who knew competitions had to stay on Planet Earth? Aquaplanet have recently launched their Paddle to the Moon Competition which runs from January to June 2023, and hopes to travel the distance from Earth to the Moon in this time frame. The distance from Earth to the Moon comes in at 384.4 million meters and is a milestone that would be fantastic to achieve by the SUP paddleboard community across the UK.

This goal is a big collective target, however, together across the paddleboarding community the goal is possible. Aquaplanet says they are launching this competition to also bring togetherness, as well as promote health and well-being across paddlers.

So far, the competition has travelled 201,191 meters, with paddlers all across the country coming together to achieve this great start. If everyone participates or increases their time out on the water, the goal of 384.4 million meters can be achieved by the end of June!

Why are they running the competition?

The competition comes at a time when SUP paddleboarding has become one of the ‘highest increases in the participation of all watersports, rising from 502,000 in 2008 to almost 1.4 million in 2018, according to the Watersports Participation Survey’. This is likely to be an even higher number today in 2023. This only helps the competition’s target become more achievable, due to a higher number of paddlers on the water!

Health and well-being benefits to the competition

Of course, the main theme for the competition is SUP paddleboarding. However, there are also many other benefits that will make this competition fun and rewarding around health and wellbeing, even if the entrant doesn’t win a prize.

For example:

  • Healthy competition across the SUP community. This helps you make more friends and develops your team-building skills and communication.
  • Fitness goals, with the ability to lose weight. Entrants can potentially lose up to 400 calories an hour, whilst having fun!
  • Sleep better. Exercise helps active people fall asleep quicker as well as increases their quality of sleep, which will be the same for the competition entrants.
  • Improving technique through all the extra paddleboarding paddlers will be undertaken. It will help increase confidence too!
  • An adventure. The chance to increase SUP paddle boarding time may expose paddlers to exploring new rivers and canals around the area. This will be great fun as paddlers go into spring and summer.

How do you enter?

To enter, paddlers need to track their SUP progress through a tracking app, that can be used on their mobile phones. From here, entrants can upload their progress to Aquaplanet, and then their distance will be added to the overall distance travelled. Just make sure you screenshot your progress through your chosen app! As you can see, it’s really easy for anybody to enter.

Are there prizes?

Paddle to the moon offers multiple prizes to entrants. All paddlers that enter will be in with a chance to win a £600 paddle board from Aquaplanet, as well as a prize given every month for the top paddler of the month. It’s important however that the paddler has travelled at least 500 meters to qualify.

Do you want to get involved but don’t have a paddleboard? Aquaplanet have you sorted, as the UK’s number 1 inflatable SUP board supplier they offer many beginner-friendly boards that will kickstart your paddleboarding journey, as well as your paddle to the moon entry.

So what are you waiting for? Join the mission and start paddling here.