Just watched the vid of the Magallanes paddle challenge.
I used to spend time there years ago and it's a beautiful location.
I am a great fan of Connor and Kai as they are fantastic paddlers.
But calling that a world title serie???!!!!
Call it a show if you want. But if the future of the sport is to bring 4 kids around the world in different locations with no local SUP paddling base just to make movies for the sponsors you'd better get a sponsorship very young or choose another sport...
I find it funny to see that Hawaians and Americans could not send 1 paddler for the SUP race in Peru for logistical reasons but suddenly can send 3 padllers (out of 5 decent paddler on the starting line ) to Patagonia which is further away from their base and even more complicated logistically.
And yes next stop ...The emirates!....I guess all the locals can't wait to see the race of their favorite sport and they'll be all cheering on the beach
Just my opinion but I was hoping the sport would evolve differently
By the way if I was Connor or Kai or Zane I would love it So I totally understand they go for it.

It took about 30 years for surfing to get the dream tour and about 40 years before we got it live on (fuel) TV, so im willing to give SUP a break and try a few things out, but yes I don't see the Emirates being huge other than with $$$$.

One thing I notice is that kite surfing happens in some quite funky places like St Barts and Dakhla for example and I believe SUP would be best to not follow the well known places haunted by surfers and the ASP but rather find there own niche spots for tour events, I highly doubt Emirates is one of them but for a flat water race I guess it could well be, in which case you are going to have separate tours one for surf and the other for racing.