BY MATT KITE for WEEKLY VOLCANO | 9/18/2026
How did a world-class stand-up paddleboarder from San Diego’s Mission Bay find her way to Gig Harbor for this weekend’s Narrows Challenge?
It just so happens that the sixth annual Narrows Challenge will be joining forces with the USA SUP National Championships for three days, starting today. (For the uninitiated: “SUP” is short for stand-up paddleboarding, a modern sport with roots in surfing.) Kristin Thomas, a master athlete who still trains regularly in the warm waters of Mission Bay, will be serving as co-race director for the championships.
“We have six regions,” said Thomas, a cofounder, board member, and former president of USA SUP. “We just started out five years ago. This is our fourth USA National Championships. We try to move it to a new region every year. We talked to a great community in Hood River and Portland, but the biggest was in the Seattle area. We looked at existing races and talked to them. This one fit the bill in so many ways. It has been beyond expectations.”
She added, “The whole town has been super supportive.”
The Gig Harbor Canoe & Kayak Racing Team (GHCKRT), the City of Gig Harbor, and Visit Gig Harbor have all thrown their weight behind the race, as has Tod Cole, the race director of the Narrows Challenge and now the co-race director of this year’s USA SUP National Championships, alongside Thomas.
Combining the Narrows Challenge with the National Championships injected some local energy and a distinctly Pacific Northwestern vibe into the weekend of racing. The Narrows Challenge, now in its sixth year, is a community race open to any human-powered craft, including surfskis, kayaks, outrigger canoes, prone paddleboards, and, of course, stand-up paddleboards.
The race is broken into three distances, ranging from a short, relatively easy five-kilometer course to an expert-level twenty-kilometer course. Those who enter the longest distance will trek beyond the swirling waters beneath the Narrows Bridge before returning to Lighthouse Point and the mouth of Gig Harbor. On the way back, they’ll face a powerful flood tide that will make the going tough, if not a bit spicy.
Meanwhile, the USA SUP races feature 100-meter sprints today, the 5K and 10K distance races tomorrow, and technical courses on Sunday to wrap up the weekend.
“We’ll have a lot of people who race but are local,” Thomas said. “Local knowledge of waters is always advantageous, but we’re getting all kinds of good tips ahead of time. The big question is what to wear, because your water is colder. I keep comparing the course to a river. We don’t know what the winds will be like, but in one direction, you have the tide against you.”
The waters in and around Gig Harbor will likely hold steady at a brisk 57 degrees, which is about as warm as Puget Sound ever gets. Nevertheless, Thomas said, the most the average competitor will wear is a thin wetsuit. Leggings will suffice for many in the heat of competition.
An accidental dip, Thomas said, will be “refreshing.”
“We always joke that when you fall in, you did that on purpose,” she said. “You’re just cooling off.”
The main race, the 10K, will see almost 100 SUP competitors, plus other human-powered craft from the Narrows Challenge. An inflatable SUP (or “iSUP”) category has been added to make the championships more inclusive.
“Huge shout-out to Hydrus,” Thomas said, “for sponsoring the new division.”
As part of its sponsorship, Hydrus Board Tech donated ten inflatable race paddleboards to the event and contributed to the $3,000 prize purse.
“Inflatables got popular during COVID,” Thomas said. “Having equipment takes up space. A lot of people wanted the thing they could roll up or keep in their trunk or their apartment.”
By adding the division, USA SUP has further democratized a sport already known for its grassroots community. Considered a hybrid water sport, stand-up paddleboarding combines surfing with paddling.
“It has a short history,” Thomas said. “Twenty years at most. But it’s quite varied. It’s been all over the place and is a potential Olympic sport. It’s accessible. Anyone can do it. Ninety percent of people who do stand-up paddleboarding do it recreationally.”
Thomas said she feels fortunate to have joined the sport during its earliest days. She has raced, officiated, and volunteered at races all over the world, from her hometown of San Diego to far-flung locales in Puerto Rico and China.
The sport’s hybrid nature means it dips its toes in multiple waterways.
“Surfing believes we’re part of their sport,” Thomas explained, “and canoeing and kayaking believe we’re in their sport. And we are, in both, standing on a board but with a paddle in hand.”
USA SUP’s collaboration with the Narrows Challenge is in keeping with a sport that since its inception has been open to all comers and receptive to new ideas. The home base for the weekend’s activities will be Gig Harbor’s Skansie Brothers Park, where spectators can enjoy food trucks, bands, award ceremonies, and even an evening drone show, courtesy of high schoolers from Peninsula School District.
The best day for spectators, Thomas said, will be Sunday, which will feature the technical race, typically the most fun to watch.
To learn more, visit the Narrows Challenge website at Narrowschallenge.com or USA SUP at Usasup.org/2026NatChamps.
