That's what Subaru want you to think anyway, and it's probably going to sell them a few cars over the next few years. 

Especially if Annabel Anderson continues winning all these events in the stand up paddling scene! The 'most dominant' female paddler in the world right now has just signed a deal with the automotive manufacturer Subaru, to promote their cars to stand up paddlers. As you can imagine, Subaru are pretty stoked about having Annabel join the team, saying earlier this week:

"Annabel’s partnership with Subaru makes sense. The Subaru brand is a bold automotive brand with a unique voice; confident without arrogance, sophisticated but never pretentious, adventurous but always in control, just like Annabel."

While someone from the PR department worked really hard on that line, it's pretty much on the money. Annabel's been consistently in the top 5 for the last few months and after winning the Battle of the Paddle event earlier in the year, she's in with a pretty good shot in the world tour events too. Supported by someone as big as Subaru, there's nothing stopping her from coming away with the win. Well, maybe the Aussie girls will give her a run for her money...

But back to the deal, it's great to see companies taking notice of the sport now it's become more mainstream. For years it was simply the manufactures and shops supporting paddlers and events, with limited sponsorship opportunities for paddlers themselves in terms of getting support to travel. Could this be the little push we needed to get the big brands to stand up (excuse the pun) and take notice of our 'little' sport? It's not actually that little, and when they realise this we're sure to see a lot more paddlers driving around in fancy cars... 

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