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Sunday, May 22, 2011

Busy Week!



In the past week I did the OluKai race and won first place in the open division,
Went to Battle of the Paddle on Oahu with the Naish team,
did the relay race with the Tahiti team,
Signed on with the Naish Team!
And, went skydiving!!
OK, time to breathe . . .

Monday, May 9, 2011

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!