The Jay

Man, this summer has been crazy!! I only have one more week until school begins, and I realize that I've pretty much neglected my blog this summer because I have been super busy traveling and volunteering. But I'm back home, doing homework and now, updating my blog with my adventures from this summer!! I left off at the Naples Beach Paddle Fest in mid June. A couple days later, it was time to leave Florida and go back to California. But this time I wasn't going to SoCal, but instead Santa Cruz for the Jay Race!! 

We got in to Sacramento super late on Wednesday night and from there drove to Santa Cruz. We rented a super little house and went around and explored Santa Cruz. It was really cold, even in the middle of June!! First stop was Surftech HQ. It was awesome to see their headquarters and how everything worked there. It was really busy because everyone was getting ready for the big race that weekend! My little sister's favorite part was Murdock, the potbelly pig that lives in Surftech's backyard!!! Duke, the team manager, let me, my brother, and my Maui friend Brit Oliphant borrow boards and we headed over to Pleasure Point for a surf sesh! Unfortunately the waves were so small they were practically unridable :( but it was cool to check out the break!!

We had some time to kill on Friday, so my family and I headed over to the Monterey Bay Aquarium!! The drive down was sooo beautiful. It's always cool to check out other ecosystems, like the dry mountains and dunes of central Cali. And the aquarium was fun of course!! It had a lot of really excellent attractions like otters, penguins, sea dragons, kelp forests, etc. Definitely a great way to spend the day, especially with my family along with me!

My little sister Georgia in Monterey

Photobomb by Matix

The next day was race day!! It's a long race, and I was really nervous. But it made me feel a little better to see some of my favorite Bark/Surftech riders like Candice Appleby, Matt Becker, Chris Aguilar, Anthony Vela, and the Bark family. Plus some of my favorite SUP kids like the Carters, Staples, and Springers!! The race had a bit of a delay because the fog was so thick we couldn't even see out. Finally it was time to start the race!!

Writing "Jay Race" on Trent's Stomach-Zoe and Sarin in the Background!

I had a really strong start in this race. For the first three miles I was leading all of the SUP girls. Brit Oliphant and Jen Fuller caught up to me around then and we kept up a draft train for a little while. But suddenly I was having some trouble breathing. I started to cough and couldn't get a full breath. I dropped off of the other girls to rest, which usually makes me feel better. But for some reason I still couldn't breathe! It was a little scary because I didn't know what was happening to me. I knew something was wrong, but there was NO WAY I was going to quit on a race I came all the way across the country for. I coughed and gasped my way through the next 8 or 9 miles to end up in almost dead last. 

Once I made it to the beach I told the lifeguard and a couple racers what kind of problem I was having. They diagnosed me with exercise induced asthma (which I later got validated by a doctor). I borrowed a friend's inhaler and sat down with Sean and Judy Sweet to rest. It was pretty upsetting that I wasn't able to race like I wanted to, but everyone was so nice and made me feel much better!! Alison Riddle offered to let me draft her during the race, Jack Bark let me borrow his inhaler, and Brit Oliphant (who ended up winning!) came up and gave me a hug after because she knew something was wrong with me when I dropped off of her and Jen. It's hard to be sad when you have so many people stepping up to help you!

I spent the rest of the day watching my friends compete in the Waterman's Challenge and spending some time with some of my favorite kids in SUP! Later that night I watched part of a showing of Chasing Mavericks--and watched my brother get an award!! He won his division in the 2 mile course!!

What was really special about the Jay Race was the spirit behind it. It's named after Jay Moriarty, an incredible surfer who began surfing Mavericks at 16 and loved paddleboarding. Jay died in his early twenties in a tragic diving accident. The Jay Race celebrates Jay's spirit and encourages everyone to Live Like Jay, living life to the fullest and just being an all around decent human being. Videographer Chris Aguilar really captures the spirit of the Jay in his videos--and I'm in it too!! Check out here http://vimeo.com/70421346

Next stop--Lake Tahoe!!