Release the Kraken!
CELEBRATE ST. PADDLE'S DAY !
Date: Saturday, March 16, 2024
Time: Matches begin at 8:00 A.M.
Host: Riverbrook YMCA (Wilton Y) and 20 local/partner clubs
Format: 32-team or 16-team draws: Men's Open/A, Men's B, Men's B2 & Women's Open (A/B)
3 match guarantee
BBQ lunch, live Irish music — Hitch & the Giddyup Duo weather permitting, player favors, team prizes, sponsor gifts, St. Patrick’s celebration, Kraken sightings, and more…
Not PTI point-bearing
Benefitting the Riverbrook Regional YMCA’s Annual Campaign
2024 Tourney Sponsors: Athleta, Aventine Hill Importers, Kraken Rum, Nod Hill Brewery, The Tennis Spot, The Vital Stretch, Wilson, Wilton Physical Therapy
we Released the Kraken!
2024 Winners
Men’s Open/a champs: Keillor Mose & Scott Robbin
Men’s B champs: Adam michalek & Alex Hively
Men’s B2 champs: Michael Fisher & Eric Hargrove
Women’s Open champs: Anat Stein & Hadley Miller
2024 Photos: Capacity draws & record crowd pond-side at THE KRAKEN
2024 Men's Open/A finalists: brous & cotet, champs robbin & mose
2024 Women's finalists: wackerman & burke, champs: miller & stein
2024 men’s b finalists: ording & Cole, men’s b champs: hively & michalek
2024 Men’s B2 Finalists: Geary & Sussman. Champs: fisher & hargrove
Sun setting on kraken 2024
Release The Kraken!
Our
Sponsors
Thanks to our loyal sponsors for making the Wilton Open the longest-running annual charity paddle tournament in the country -- and to our knowledge, the largest one-day, co-ed paddle event on the planet. Now in our 39th year, the Wilton Open celebrates our great game, sportsmanship, the broader paddle community, Kraken fortitude and St. Patrick's Day. Net proceeds directly benefit the Riverbrook Regional YMCA’s Annual Campaign.
Wilton Open sponsors in 2024 include Wilson, Proximo Spirits/Kraken Rum, Athleta, Wilton Physical Therapy, The Tennis Spot, Nod Hill Brewery, Aventine Hill Importers and the Vital Stretch.
Our host The Riverbrook Regional Y is an APTA member club.
For sponsorship information, contact paddlekraken@gmail.com
Paddle with Purpose
wilton open supports:
Riverbrook Regional YMCA’s Annual Campaign
Proceeds from the Wilton Open directly benefit the Riverbrook Regional YMCA’s Annual Campaign. The Annual Campaign provides crucial finacial aid and scholarships to children and families in the communities of Norwalk, Wilton and Redding. These funds support campers, free swim lessons, and families who could not afford the Y without this generosity and much more.
Please consider donating to the Riverbrook Regional YMCA’s Annual Campaign below.
Gordyland Summer Camp Counselors at the Y paddle hut
The Kraken — Modern Mythology
The story of the Wilton Open's beloved mascot -- the Kraken -- finds its origins at our 2010 annual event. A powerful nor'easter with 70 mph winds & producing 10+ inches of rain descended on the Wilton Y and partner clubs that memorable Saturday. Incredibly, of the sold out 32-team field, only one tandem cancelled their participation, all others persevering in nearly unplayable conditions and demonstrating fearless commitment to the sport and tournament. The intrepid spectators and finalists braving the elements recall during the championship match (APTA national champions Albrikes & Fried prevailed) witnessing an enormous, eight-limbed, menacing creature emerge from the adjacent Y pond. The playful Kraken appeared to be paying its respects to the participants' valiant spirit -- an esprit de corps the Wilton Open has fostered for 39 years and celebrates to this day.
The Wilton Open Committee honors the Kraken in a myriad of ways including the awarding of Kraken Rum and medallions to all finalists, serving up charred kraken at our annual BBQ lunch, providing krakenized player gifts to all participants, etc. In 2019, we released a look-alike cephalopod to celebrate its first tournament appearance (below).
Location
Riverbrook Regional Y
(formerly Wilton YMCA)
404 Danbury Road
Wilton, CT 06897
Phone: (203) 762-8384 Ext. 286
Email: PaddleKraken@gmail.com
“Below the thunders of the upper deep,
Far, far beneath in the abysmal sea,
His ancient, dreamless, uninvaded sleep
The Kraken sleepeth: faintest sunlights flee
About his shadowy sides; above him swell
Huge sponges of millennial growth and height;
And far away into the sickly light,
From many a wondrous grot and secret cell
Unnumbered and enormous polypi
Winnow with giant arms the slumbering green.
There hath he lain for ages, and will lie
Battening upon huge sea worms in his sleep,
Until the latter fire shall heat the deep;
Then once by man and angels to be seen,
In roaring he shall rise and on the surface die.”