The World Surf Kayak Championships in the Outer Banks of North Carolina will be held at the end of the month. My passion for surfing is pretty obvious, and even though I wasn’t ready to compete, I was ready to participate.
Hurricane Irene has thrown some serious monkey wrenches in the planning for the competition. This notice from the World Surf Kayak Championships doesn’t paint a particularly rosy picture of the wreckage left of Cape Hattaras. The competition is bravely going forward. I hope the competitors are looking forward to it, based on my disappointment of not being able to attend.
The simple fact is, I have two conflicting, but equally important agendas. I’ve wanted to create a community of rough water paddlers on the Great Lakes for as long as I’ve been kayaking. I tried several times to get a training event that builds this community. I’ve been fortunate enough to find a ton of support and initial momentum for The Gales – Storm Gathering. Geneva Kayak Center, Downwind Sports, Kelly Blades, WMCKA, Tiderace, and my friends have all believed enough in the idea to support it.
My other agenda is to build my competency in Surf Kayaking enough to participate in a competition without looking like a total loser. Part of that goal was to watch most of the competition from the water to be able to understand the whole picture of how everything is run and scored first hand. I wanted to know which skills were weak, and what to really focus my effort on. So I am a bit disappointed about not being able to get down to North Carolina. I really wanted to meet a lot of folks I’ve had e-mail correspondence with over the last few years.
I wish the competitors the best and hope the competition goes really well, I’ll be watching Youtube, Twitter, and Facebook for updates along with everyone else.
But, we will also be tearing it up in Marquette for the Gales, so look out.
That’s to bad indeed! I was looking forward to hearing the stories!
David J.