Paddle Across the Bay x Lifeline: a shared SUP challenge for mental wellbeing

Once a year, as the sun rises over Port Phillip Bay, hundreds of paddleboarders gather on the water in Melbourne for Australia’s biggest SUP event. Not to race, but to paddle 10km together. Paddle Across the Bay brings people of all abilities onto the water for a shared challenge that’s about way more than just paddling the distance.

Taking place at Green Point, Brighton, Paddle Across the Bay is a 10km loop – this year, held from 6am on Saturday 21st March 2026. Open to paddlers of all experience levels, the event is fully supported with safety crews, marshals, and medical cover, ensuring that everyone can take part with confidence.

At its heart, Paddle Across the Bay is about connection – to the water, to community, and to mental wellbeing. The event proudly partners with Lifeline, helping raise funds and awareness for a service that provides vital support to Australians experiencing emotional distress. For many participants, the challenge of spending over two hours on the water is a powerful reminder of what can be achieved with encouragement, shared purpose, and the mindful rhythm of persistent paddling.

As part of our ongoing commitment to positive change by the water, the Red Foundation is supporting Paddle Across the Bay in 2026. So this year we’ll be at the event with our market-leading Red Equipment inflatable paddleboards, changing robes and waterproof bags.

If you’re up for the challenge in 2026, you can register now – or to support Lifeline, simply donate here.

We caught up with Cesar, founder of Paddle Across the Bay, to talk about how it all began, and why paddling together continues to be such a powerful force for good.

What’s the inspiration behind Paddle Across the Bay?

Paddle Across the Bay started in 2015 as a spin-off from the original event – Across the Bay to Conquer Cancer – which was a 75km kitesurf crossing of Port Phillip Bay in Melbourne to raise awareness and money for cancer charities, as my mother died of cancer in October 2012. We founded that event after Richard Branson kited across the English Channel, but soon realised that it wasn’t very inclusive or scalable. You needed a lot of experience to participate, so we decided to move away from kitesurfing and go for SUP instead.

Although Paddle Across the Bay isn’t technically a crossing – it’s along the bay really – the event shared the same ethos: looking for a physical challenge that might, in a way, reflect the courage of those going through cancer. And that’s how the event grew from 100 participants to beyond 500 in 2020, just before the pandemic. Then, of course, we didn’t run it for a couple of years, but we decided to return with a new beneficiary. So that’s how we came back in 2023, partnered with Lifeline. 

How does Paddle Across the Bay aim to be inclusive?

We love to see participants who have never paddled for two hours, or taken on a 10km route, be able to achieve that. The challenge component is very important to us, because if success were guaranteed we feel it would remove the opportunity for people to explore a part of themselves that they maybe haven’t seen before. Being able to achieve something they didn’t know they could is invaluable, especially for someone who’s struggling with mental health issues.

We invite everyone to participate – in fact, most don’t have a great deal of experience. As marshals on the water, we often help teach people how to paddle more efficiently. I’d say half have no more than 20 hours of paddling prior to participating in the event. And fitness levels vary: we have a bit of everything, which is why it’s so important for us to provide medical support and safety cover throughout the event. 

Why did you choose Lifeline as your charity partner? 

We believe Lifeline is a beneficiary that very much resonates with all participants. Some suffer mental health issues first-hand, but everyone has a connection in some way at some time. Lifeline provides incredible support and is well aligned to our event. 

Have you seen fundraising outcomes or community impact you’re proud of?

Yes, we’re very proud of what we’ve done over the years – we’ve raised over a million bucks, averaging about 400 participants every year. We’ve been the reason why a lot of people became new paddlers, so we’re pleased to have influenced healthier lifestyles and improved physical and mental wellbeing.

What role does community play in Paddle Across the Bay?

This challenge typically takes over two hours – and success isn’t guaranteed. Putting yourself out there, being vulnerable, we’re trying to replicate the struggle of anyone going through tough moments. Being a part of a community, engaging with so many others with the same goal, gives people the energy to finish. And it isn’t a competition, we try to keep the whole group at a comfortable pace for the average paddler. 

What moments really capture what Paddle Across the Bay is all about? 

Perhaps it’s the ordinary stories – nothing spectacular, but things we get to see over and over again… People register to do something they don’t necessarily know they’re capable of: they don’t always have the greatest fitness level, maybe they’re not even confident paddlers. But they have the motivation to challenge themselves, try something new, do it within a supportive community environment. And they get to discover a different side of themselves, one they’re proud of, that they feel they can build on. Often we see people make new friends, and engage in a much more active lifestyle by paddling more often. We’re very strong believers that doing something on the water brings a whole bunch of benefits, physically and mentally. 

Especially for us in Melbourne, Port Phillip Bay is a unique body of water – quite magical – and every year people get to experience this together at sunrise. It leaves paddlers feeling confident, proud of themselves, motivated to keep going and lending a hand to anyone else who might be struggling with their mental health.