Here we go!

Aloha,

MAPA hosted the 5th annual Paddle for the Lynnhaven River yesterday.
Beautiful weather and happy paddlers set this up to be an excellent way to welcome the opening of paddling season here in Virginia Beach.
Race proceeds went 100% to help keep the Lynnhaven River moving towards a healthy recovery.
Hats off to the MAPA crew for being ecologically active and putting this race on.
They have taken on the responsibility for the other local fun-fund raiser, The Paddle for the Bay in July, as well.

This is the first time since I started paddling at the Lynnhaven River event that I wasn’t hanging out with my more reclined paddling ohana…today I stood up!
Two paddlers SUP’d the flat-water and light winds out on a shorter 3mile course. After the gang got back from the 7 mile race we had a fun SUP demo session with the new SUP race quiver on the Lynnhaven. You can check out my neanderthal kin evolving into the higher SUP lifeforms on the MAPA/Shutterfly link.
It’s official; now that we have been stoked with boards and paddles by Freedom Surf of Virginia Beach, the beginning of the ECORA sanctioned Stand-Up-Paddle Eastcoast-Racing series will kick off next weekend at the Buckroe Beach OC-1/OC-2 race.
Unless you have something to race on already, we will be competing on a level playing field with regards to equipment.
The Jimmy Lewis 12’6” Distance boards go very well and I can’t wait till we are all working the bumps in a full on effort.
The S.U.P.E.R. series will run in conjunction with our OC-1/2 races, with points, trophies and eventual series champions for the men and women.
Throughout the race season we will have schwag and prizes provided to all SUP racers by Freedom Surf, O’Neill, DaKine and Revision eyewear.
The concept is to introduce, in a racing format, the ancient form of Hawaiian stand-up paddle surfing to the east coast outrigger community.
We will figure out each event’s course the day of racing and exploit the wind and wave as much as possible to keep this fun.
As the season progresses we will ramp up the distance and eventually have a single day championship.
Look for weekly updates on the ECORA website and the S.U.P.E.R. website.

A Hui Ho,

Dukey

OBX Weekend

My wife wanted to spend her 40th Birthday down in the Outer Banks of North Carolina, kiteboarding, paddling and partying.

We reached out to Trip Forman of REAL for help and he linked us up with a rental agency for a place to stay and stoked my wife out with her first kiteboarding lesson.

The "Tri-cities" area, Rodanthe, Waves and Salvo, of the Outer Banks (OBX) is world renowned for great kiteboarding and REAL has a world class facility with an amazing staff.

What an outstanding way to break from the winter blues. We caught the back end of a nice swell and there were some good waves out in the Atlantic. When the swell died off we had a couple of really fun downwind SUP paddles on the bay side. Anne dug the little blue 10' Jimmy Lewis SUP Surf and the gang at REAL made me a deal I couldn't refuse. (I WILL be "borrowing" that gift when the conditions are right!)

My only regret was that we couldn't take pictures of everything we experienced while we played.

We are back home in Virginia and we got word that the fleet of 12'6" JL Distance boards arrived the day after we left the OBX. The SUPER Series will be kicking off the first weekend in May with the Buckroe Beach ECORA race and I can't wait. This weekend will offer an opportunity to try out the new rides at a fund raiser for a local tributary sustainment paddle. The Lynnhaven River Challenge is all about bringing awareness to the plight of our local waterways and we will have the JL Distance boards there for demos.

Stand-by for the first performance reports...

Aloha,

DRD