Santa Cruz Classic

As any of you reading may know, I have been a bit distracted from my blog lately with organizing the American Windsurfing Tour. The first event, the Santa Cruz Classic, had its final day today and I wanted to do a little reflecting. This blog is meant to be about my personal windsurfing, so I want to take a moment to think about how I did as a competitor in the event.

First off, this was the first time I had ever competed. Ever. I was scared, I will be honest. Matt Pritchard gave me a pep talk before my heat saying there is nothing to be scared of and to just go out and rip. Kevin Pritchard gave me the best advise of all: "Just have fun!" That is what this tour is all about anyway, so I went out and was prepared to just have fun. It was a lot of pressure to have so many people on the beach watching and hearing Josh Sampiero announcing, bringing a lot of attention to me. Yikes! I was able to catch 3 wave and 1 jump score, so I advanced to the next round! In round 2 I knew the girls I was against were really good, so I just did my best with a huge smile, felt like I did a great job for me and was stoked, even though I didn't move on.

The next day was double elimination, so I got another chance to prove myself. I used strategy to be on the outside when the clock started and happened to be on an awesome wave right at the buzzer, but unfortunatly I had a massive wipeout and had to swim for my gear. The water was so cold and Josh's voice on the PA kept me going, swiming, swimming for my gear. When I got to it, there was still 7 minutes in the heat, plenty of time to get my points in. I did catch some good waves and got a baby jump in, but it was not enough to advance me. Thats OK because I had fun and got my first experience competing wave sailing.

Now I am really excited to compete in the rest of the contests on tour. Back to Maui tomorrow to train :)

Thank you to everyone who made the Santa Cruz Classic such a success!