With My SUP Across the Straits

With My SUP Across the Straits

In celebration of normalization of relations between the United States and Cuba, the Friendship Association has created a new program series: Across the Straits.  Musicians Across the Straits is the first event. With My SUP Across the Straits is our second in the series.

The Friendship Association has organized an international exhibition of Stand Up Paddling (SUP) to be held in Baracoa, Cuba, late spring of 2016. Experts from Florida and other countries, including Italy, Puerto Rico, and Ireland, will bring their boards and paddles to Cuba to share this delightful sport with our nearest neighbors to the south.

The seven-day event will include river paddling, cove and bay paddling, and open sea paddling. Each day we will explore a different location, which will include some of Cuba’s most exquisite natural landscapes.  Each day’s sporting event will conclude with delicious native dishes prepared by local people living in or around the new venue.

Each non-Cuban participant will be partnered with a Cuban paddling enthusiast; local fishermen/women on their rafts will accompany the paddlers on the rivers; small rowboats will join us in the coves. Only expert SUPers will be permitted on the open sea events.

This is not a competition.  It is an exhibition, and an experiment in sharing of our equipment and talents. We hope this will be the first of many SUP events. Cuba holds a wealth of beautiful rivers, lakes and bays, waiting to be paddled! We are already planning the second annual With My SUP Across the Straits to be held appropriately in the infamous Bay of Pigs!!!