Why Are Witches and Warlocks Going Stand-Up Paddleboarding to Celebrate Halloween?

Carving jack-o’-lanterns, watching scary movies, touring haunted houses and trick-or-treating have long been beloved Halloween traditions. However, in recent years, a new spooky ritual has also taken hold: witch paddles.

This month, revelers across the nation are dressing up as witches and warlocks. But rather than straddling brooms and pretending to fly through the air, they’re climbing onto stand-up paddleboards and floating across bodies of water.

Dressed in their costumes—which often include pointy hats and billowing robes—the paddling witches and warlocks become striking silhouettes on the horizon.

“Four hundred people dressed as witches launching at the same time is wild to see,” said Anna Marie Madai, who co-founded a witch paddle in Colorado, to the New York Times’ Remy Tumin last year.

Events take place on bays, reservoirs, rivers, lakes and harbors in Colorado, California, Michigan, Florida and beyond. Witch paddles have even gained an international foothold, with gatherings in the United Arab Emirates, British Columbia and more.

Though witches have long been associated with evil, these costume-wearing paddlers are anything but.

Watch on

Some use their annual gatherings to raise money for charity, like the group in Chatham, Massachusetts, that organizes an event called Witches on the Water. Since 2020, the group has donated more than $80,000 to local nonprofits, reports CBS Boston’s Anna Meiler.

This year, it will raise funds for Dream Day on Cape Cod, a nonprofit that supports children facing serious illnesses. The organization offers families a free, fun-filled week of adventures at its 31-acre Camp Nan-Ke-Rafe.

“It became pretty clear that we had hit upon something that could really do some good for the local community,” Susan Price, one of the event’s co-founders, tells CBS Boston.

Similarly, the annual Witches and Warlocks Paddle in Morro Bay, California, benefits the Food Bank Coalition of San Luis Obispo County. The event started in 2013 as a way to celebrate a few friends’ birthdays and has since blossomed to include hundreds of people.

Other witch paddles are just for fun. These joyful, festive occasions help foster a sense of community among both participants and onlookers. As they glide across the water, some witches like to playfully cackle at passersby, per the Times.

“A lot of what I do is try to do things for the community and just bring people together who love to be on the water,” Tara Scheller, who owns Rivertowns SUP and Yoga in Tarrytown, New York, and organizes the annual SUP Witches event, told Westchester magazine’s Cristiana Caruso last year. “The idea of witches on the water, people really connect with.”

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Sarah Kuta is a writer and editor based in Longmont, Colorado. She covers history, science, travel, food and beverage, sustainability, economics and other topics.