Thanks for running
the contest. I’ve missed the last few years based on just being
too busy. The second weekend in December works better for
me.
My buddy was running the Palm Beach Marathon on Sunday which got me
thinking that I needed to do something manly. I did the
I-to-I race back in 2007 taking over 3 hours so I knew what I was
getting into. I brought the Kona and 9.3 gaastra GTX
down from Jupiter. Discovered on Saturday that the boom had a
little crack in it so added some extra adventure to it. Start line
was exciting with kiters and windsurfers all hitting the line at same
time. It seemed like it took me forever to reach the first buoy 2
miles off the inlet. I was way behind Steve Campbell however once
I finally got to the buoy and headed downwind I flew past him. I
saw him go west of the freighter and struggle in the wind shadow so I
headed to the east of it and just flew past it. I was in the
zone flying downwind all the way to the Hillsboro inlet and the red and
white buoy. My only issue was that I had lubricated the
daggerboard and it kept dropping. I had to keep coming out of the
footstraps to put it up. After I rounded the Hillsboro buoy
I knew I was in for a long way back. The southeast wind had me
going right into shore. Had to tack at least 15 times heading way
out to point back south. It was definitely a mental struggle to
keep at it. A few times it crossed my mind to retire and give
up. I kept thinking of the marathon comparison and decided to just
push on. I was physically fine but the mental part was hard.
After 3+ hours I finally made it to the beach and the guys were nice
enough to bring my stuff up to the parking lot.
Awesome party at Adventure Sports with pizza and beer and plenty of
water for me. I really enjoyed talking to Van and Steve Campbell
about windsurfing and watching the cool windsurfing videos on the
television. Ron scored some great prizes and everybody went home
with a ton of stuff. I personally liked the individual
mental challenge of pushing my limits. I also liked seeing the
young kiters guys participating especially the guy riding the foil
board.
See you next year.
Steve Eagen