US woman battles through hurricane delay to paddleboard record 520 miles in 30 days

By Katherine Gross
Published 25 November 2024
Split image of Bonnie paddleboarding on a lake and posing with her GWR certificate

For one whole month, Bonnie Goethels (USA) stood six inches above the flat waters of Lake Norman in North Carolina and steered her paddleboard southwards.

For hours each day, across 30 days, she persisted despite raucous boaters and Hurricane Helene for a total of 520.4 miles (837.5 km), earning the Guinness World Records title for greatest distance by stand up paddleboard (SUP) on flat water in one month. No woman on earth has gone further in that time.

“When you take a passion, and a desire to make a difference, and you pair that up with the idea of how far you can take something, I suppose that’s when you end up with a world record,” she said.

She completed the journey in part to raise money and awareness for Victoria’s Voice, which promotes drug use awareness and seeks to fund overdose prevention efforts, a cause which is particularly valuable to her state of North Carolina as it battles its opioid epidemic.

But she also wanted to show herself (and her four children) that you can do anything you put your mind to.

Although she’s been stand-up paddleboarding for almost 13 years, and spent her younger years out on the water riding handmade styrofoam cutout paddleboards, until recently she never imagined completing such an endeavor. But once it was an idea in the back of her mind, she couldn’t shake it, and she began to prepare for her adventure.

Bonnie standing on her paddleboard

She trained for months by working on her core muscles, running to strengthen her legs, and she acclimatized herself to the bright sunny weather by doing high-temperature workouts. She then threw herself into hours of planning routes, figuring out the navigation and distance-tracking technology, and doing endless certification paperwork (“I felt like I was back in grad school!” she remarked) before she could even get on the board.

Yet once she strapped her speaker to her paddleboard and was waved off by a crowd of friends and family, she found the journey surprisingly meditative.

Bonnie paddleboarding past some yachts

“Once you start to feel in control on the paddleboard, when you’re moving with the water and switching your paddling sides with ease, the confidence develops. It becomes a natural movement, like walking,” she said. “And the moments when I was just lost in the paddling, my speed was the highest.”

She started her journey on an overcast day near the top of Lake Norman and worked her way down along the tree-lined coastline of the largest lake in the state. Her husband gave her a sunflower in honour of her mother, which she attached to her paddleboard along with her cooler and speaker, and set off.

On the way she waved to and chatted with supporters, cruised past fishermen and under bridges and through party boats, all while keeping close to the calmer waters near the shoreline.

Bonnie paddleboarding at sunset

And when waves came from the wakes of passing speedboats and pontoons, she squatted to keep momentum. When the southern sunlight beat down on her for hours, she tied her tank top around her neck and head and kept paddling. When she fell off the board on day three, she got back on.

“I welcomed the pain, I welcomed the challenge,” she said. “The journey was mine to conquer.”

After 30 days of hard work (only stopping during Hurricane Helene!) she finally crossed the pink finish line set up by her friends and family, to cheers of support and the boom of a smoke cannon.

“This adventure has truly been one of the biggest gifts of my lifetime,” an emotional Bonnie reflected. “I feel Officially Amazing.”

Bonnie posing with her GWR certificate