Why You Should Put Sea Otter Australia on the 2026 Calendar

When Sea Otter Australia finally landed in Batemans Bay last October, there was a fair bit of curiosity around what an Australian version of the long-running cycling festival would look like. Would it be another race weekend with a larger expo attached? Would the industry turn up? And, perhaps most importantly, would riders have enough reason to make the trip to the NSW South Coast if they weren’t chasing a result?

By Sunday afternoon, most of those questions had been answered. Nearly 200 exhibitors filled the expo, riders were spread across everything from enduro and Superflow to marathon, gravel, cyclocross and eMTB racing, and some of the best moments of the weekend happened nowhere near a timing mat. AMB came away from the inaugural event feeling that Sea Otter had found something slightly different in Australia. Rather than being built around one headline race, it worked because there were so many different reasons to be there.

That first year is now the best argument for going back. Sea Otter Australia returns to Batemans Bay from 23-25 October 2026, with the Sea Otter Australia School Championships running on Thursday 22 October before the main festival opens. The event hub returns to Hanging Rock, while the broader programme again stretches into the Mogo trail network and beyond.

Plenty of racing, but that’s still only part of it

Last year’s race programme was deliberately broad, and that variety remains central in 2026. The current programme includes the THULE Marathon, SMITH Optics Enduro, Fox Superflow, Shimano XC Crit, MAXXIS Effervelo Gravel Fondo, Muc-Off Ottercross, eOtterX and Otter Jam Freestyle Comp, alongside kids racing and the Schools Championships. 

For mountain bikers, the Enduro and Superflow will inevitably attract plenty of attention, while the marathon offers a different way to spend a day in and around the Mogo network if you’re looking to suffer. Last year, the mix was one of Sea Otter’s strengths. A gravity rider could spend the morning racing before wandering back into a festival filled with XC riders, gravel bikes, eMTBs, kids and people who hadn’t raced anything all weekend. It didn’t feel as though everyone was there for the same reason.

Then there’s eOtterX, which was one of the stranger and more entertaining things AMB watched last year. The inaugural format put four eMTB riders into short, head-to-head heats on a course using multiple lines, steep features, logs and loose corners. It borrowed some of the tactical chaos of four-cross, but with climbs and features designed around what modern e-bikes can do. Bosch ePowered eOtterX is back on the 2026 programme, so anyone who missed the first edition gets another chance to work out exactly what the hell it is.

The expo was bigger than we expected

One of the clearest lessons from 2025 was that Australian riders will turn up for a proper bike expo. AMB reported nearly 200 exhibitors at the inaugural event, and talking to people around the village, there was a genuine sense of surprise at just how much of the Australian bike industry had converged on Batemans Bay. Bikes, components, apparel and technology were all there, but the best part was being able to stop, look, talk and get hands on with products rather than scrolling through another launch online.

For 2026, the expo again runs across all three festival days, from 10am–5pm Friday and Saturday and 10am–3pm Sunday. Sea Otter’s organisers are promoting demo rides, skills coaching, product demonstrations and other activations alongside the stands, while the confirmed exhibitor and activation lists continue to grow in the lead-up to October.

With racing and other activities feeding back towards the main festival area, the expo isn’t somewhere riders need to make a special trip to visit. Last year, it became the place you naturally ended up between rides, races and whatever else was happening. 

There’s plenty to do without racing

One of the things that worked particularly well last year was the amount happening away from the race courses. AMB’s post-event wrap highlighted a women’s social ride where more than 30 riders met for coffee before heading out on the trails together. It was a small part of the weekend, but it helped give Sea Otter a broader feel, with plenty going on for riders who were there to catch up, explore the area and be part of the event without necessarily lining up for a race. 

That element is more formalised in the 2026 programme. There are self-guided rides on the Mogo Trails, an Adaptive Ride, plus Mt Wandera and Narooma Explorer Shuttle experiences. Kids activities and social riding also sit alongside the racing throughout the festival.

For those working within cycling and the wider outdoor industry, the Sea Otter Australia Summit also returns from 21–23 October. This year’s theme is “Potential Energy”, with the programme built around topics including trail assets, volunteers, e-bikes, community health, business growth and funding. It’s very much the industry end of the week rather than something most riders will travel for, but it adds another layer to what Sea Otter is trying to bring together in Batemans Bay.

Why go back in 2026?

What made Sea Otter work last year was the variety. Riders could race, check out the expo, head out for a ride around Mogo or simply spend a few hours catching up with people around the event village. It meant the weekend didn’t revolve around a single race or result, and there was enough going on that it was easy to make a full weekend of it.

Batemans Bay isn’t around the corner for everyone. AMB said exactly that after last year’s event. But putting Sea Otter beside the Mogo trail network also means a trip can involve considerably more riding than whatever appears on the official programme. The main festival runs 23–25 October 2026, registration is open, and year two now has something the inaugural edition didn’t have: proof of concept.

In 2025, plenty of us went to Batemans Bay wondering what an Australian Sea Otter would actually be.In 2026, there’s a much simpler question: which bike are you taking?