Beginning of Summer 2013!

My summer has been off to an awesome start!! I've been crazy busy, but it's all super fun so far. I'm nearly halfway through the summer, but it feels much longer than that already. It's been great to be off school and I've had a lot of excellent adventures!

At the end of May, I was fortunate enough to take part in Paddle Against Cancer in it's third year. The event takes place at the Treasure Island Yacht Club, and all of the money goes to fight cancer. Last year I was the first female in the 7 mile course, but there's no prizes or money-just a fun paddle!! This year, I was asked to participate in an interview with News Channel 10 about the event!! It was really cool to see how they do the news cast and even cooler to be involved and interviewed. Check out the feature here! 

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B6Qa0xnndEWARm5obDRxTXdHQlU/edit

At the final hour, my friend Marc Shen talked me into paddling the course on a prone paddleboard. Even though SUP is my specialty, I decided to go for it because it wasn't a real race. I'm so glad I did!! Marc paddled with me the whole time. The course was really fun, and at one point we even turned the opposite direction to catch some fun bumps!! It was fun to change it up and I had a great day. 

The next weekend I was invited to go surfing by my friend Madison Massey. Her mom drove us to Cocoa Beach and we spent Saturday and Sunday surfing!! I longboarded and surfed my SUP. The waves were small and not fantastic, but it was a nice vacation weekend and great to finally catch some waves. The next day I started my week of volunteering at Tampa Bay Watch at a kids' marine science camp. It has been a ton of fun!! I'm going back for another week in July. 

The weekend after the camp, my family and I drove down to Naples and stayed with my uncle for the Naples Beach Paddlefest. It was heats of sprint races, and I was NOT happy with my results. Two of the lanes were easier than the others because of their proximity to the jetty. I made it to the final and was doing well, but the girl in one of the better lanes caught a couple bumps on the way in and nosed ahead of me. At first I was really mad and thought it was unfair. But I understand that conditions aren't always perfect and fair and that's an obstacle I'll have to put up with sometimes. 

I managed to shake it off and have fun the rest of the weekend!! My team did really well in the sprints and I decided to paddle the 3 mile race with my little sister instead of racing myself. She had a great time and so did I!! It was an excellent family weekend. By then it was time for me to prepare for my trip to California!!! Summer has been off to an excellent start :)