Thanks to my amazing navigational skills After doing a full tour of China Camp State Park and tracing back our tracks we finally found ,McNear Park:)
We got to camp at the event site Fri to Sunday... only a couple of us camped but it was beautiful and fun with amazing sunrises and sunsets and good conversations. I wish we could camp at more event sites;)
I was paddling:
2014 Starboard AllStar 12'6x 25.5: It was fast and good in the chop. I felt stable and comfortable on the board. I look forward to paddling it more in the future.
Werner Small Grand Prix Paddle: as always AWESOME!
New Local Honey bikini: love racing in my bikini..... she is small and local to Santa Cruz and just has a great vibe and beautiful suits!
Laiph shorts: comfy and great!
Onit Pro: Makes me glide oh so fast:)
Chacos: my faborite sandals before and after all of these races....
Ryders Eyewear: cool and functional sunnies... I wear them everywear: my fav are the Tranquilo style
Distance race 10 miles
We got it all on this race:from head wind, side chop, more side chop, small downwind, mega headwind, weird side downwind all the way to the finish. It was hard and there were moments where I was wondering what I was doing suffering so much but at the same time I loved it. It was totally my kind of course.... I for some reason have developed a niche of enjoying and succeeding at the punishing stuff?!? I sometimes wish I was really good at the fun stuff like surfing and downwind:) Anyways, I had no idea where I was concerning the women etc so I just pushed hard the entire way. I managed to come in first female and 11th overall....
Landshark Sprint
SO FUN! We were all on the same soft top boards... no rules (maybe we needed SOME?!?!) but anyways I am glad Morgan stepped up to the plate and sacrificed her finish to throw us all off our boards... haha... It was great fun watching the young guns out there.. they are so quick on their feet, light, and have no fear... they were able to jump from board to board and pull some pretty amazing feats.... we gotta watch out for them 'cause they are going to show us up very very soon!
5 mile course race
I was nervous coming into this race.... right now I realize my strengths and weaknesses which is good and bad... good as I know what I need to work on and bad 'cause I know where things can go wrong:) It just so happens that although feeling a little sore in certain areas from the previous days long course I quickly forgot about it once the race started and felt strong throughout the race. The course was good for me, lots of straight aways into the wind and fairly long.... It was a tough start with trying to keep a good line and getting away from people that were obstructing it. I was feeling good the first lap but knew that I had to keep pushing hard to stay in front as I had some very fast ladies on my tail. It is tough sometimes trying not to draft the guys and finding a line that wouldn't be seen as drafting but I dealt with it and in the end it was okay. It is always fun to paddle along the entire field of racers dodging and feeling the stoke. Sometimes I wish I wasn't so focused and yelled some kudos along the way.... but I did my best after I finished when I felt more relaxed:)
Bay Challenge
All on the same BOGA soft top boards... lots of turns... I was pretty bad:) hahaha... but sooo fun!
Team relay
So there I was left wanting to race in the team relay but with NO team:( Then Chris made an announcement and I found myself with two great guys! They weren't the quickest but they had soul:) Thank you teammates for wanting to race with me:)
Then it was Awards! My first BIG CHEQUE, my first 1st OVERALL in California, Champagne, amazing supportive community, SMILES!.... I would love to go back!!!!
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| My first big cheque:) |
Thank you Bluerush Board Sports for putting on a really great event!
THANK YOU ANDREW DYE: You are so amazing and I could not be doing all of this without you... I love love love having you there!!!!!!!!!!!
PICTURES CLICK HERE! by ANdrew
PICTURES by OnIt Pro
As always thank you to my amazing supporters: Werner Paddles, Nikki Rekman Sales, Tiki Starboard/Trident Performance Sports, Chacos, Ryders Eyewear, OnIt Pro, Laiph!!!!!!!! I love being a part of your communities
I also met some amazing new people such as Local Honey, Pro-Lite, Just Add Water, Zhik,...the list goes on:)
And lastly congrats to all the racers, supporters, and volunteers, you are all fantastic and all part of this amazing experience!
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| top three ladies Champagne time:) |
Now I am back in Vancouver... work starts, there are more races, and its time to juggle it all for a bit... should be an adventure:)
live, love, laugh,...DREAM!
lina
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