Time Flies!

Holy Smokes, the summer is flying by with nary a blog post since Memorial Day. It is already August and Labor Day is just around the corner. I don't know what any of this has to do with Stand Up paddling except that time flies when you are having fun, and I've have had a whole bunch of  fun on the paddle boards this summer.  From solo morning sunrise sessions, to afternoon group paddles, teaching lessons, a full race calendar, and even a few night paddles I have been paddling my butt off this summer. 

You might think with all the time I spend on the water that I would get tired of this but, I don't.  It just keeps getting better and better.

It is hard to pick out the highlights of the last two months. There have been so many, but I have to think at least for the shop, pulling off the 3rd Annual East of Maui/ Eastport YC Chesapeake Stand Up Challenge has to be one of them.

2014

 

We had over 100 racers in 8 classes on two courses. The weather was about as perfect  as could be, and with the exception of a computer registration and timing problem  everything ran smoothly, and I think, and hope everyone had a great time.  (Sarah and her friend Leslie did a great job of doing the scoring by hand and then loading the results on the computer, so everyone could see the results by Sunday morning).  There are so many people to thank for helping East of Maui  pull this off, but special thanks to Joe Donahue and Ramzi Bannura  at EYC for providing us with such a great venue.  Also to the sponsors, Naish, Da Kine, Raw Elements,Supreme, Landshark, Refllekt, Starboard, and Wise & Donahue, thanks for helping us make it happen.

Before the race I had decided I wanted to do something special for whoever was the last person to actually finish the long 6.5 mile course. Not to take anything away from the people who win, but sometimes I think  it is harder to finish some of these races than it is to win.  While the leaders are  fighting it out for glory at the front of the race, it can be an awfully long day and lonely day at the back end of the race. It takes a lot of motivation to keep on keeping on when you know everyone else is a ashore and the party has started without you.  Just before the start, Mark Colino  gave me a carbon Starboard paddle and told me to use it for a prize. I immediately knew what I was going to use it for, I just didn't know who.   That who, turned out to be a guy by the name of Allan Navo.  I began the awards presentation by announcing that I had a special award to the last place finisher for completing the tough course and rising to the Challenge.  I think Allan was in shock when I presented him with the paddle. At the time I didn't realize just how a big a challenge Allan had conquered. Allan stopped by the shop the following week to have us size up and cut his new paddle. Turns out he had on recently completed  rather aggressive chemo for cancer in April and was just retuning to Stand UP after a long absence. He may not have had the fastest official time, but Allan is the new Champion of the 2014 Chesapeake Challenge.

Which somehow brings me around to the beginning of this mess. I have been paddling and selling Stand Up boards for 10 years now. I can't believe how fast the past 10 years have flown by. It seems like just yesterday Trip Foreman loaned me his board, showed me how to hold the paddle (correctly I might add) told me to "have fun and don't  f' up his board". Every minute, every hour, every day I have spent on water on a stand Up board the has has flown by and be insanely fun (well actually not some of the long upwind paddles but that's another story), and like I said before, when you are having fun time flies.  

Mark Saunders and I having fun several years ago. Note the state of the art aluminum paddles!