Just got back from the Carolina Cup. Boy what a fantastic race & venue. The Blockade runner resort did a great job with this well organized paddle event. The Distressed Mullet crew was very calm cool and professional throughout the entire weekend with the race starts and announcing. Very patient with everyone and all of their questions. Very thorough when explaining the coarse to each division. The timing system they used worked great. Registration was quick and painless. They really know how to put on a great SUP race.

It was awesome having such a big presence of Starboard team riders. Dan Gavere and myself did the 12.5 mile Graveyard coarse which started on the beach and went in the south inlet, into the intercoastal came out of the north inlet and finally finished on the beach where we started. I thought the intercoastal was fun, but the open ocean was very difficult for me since I was on a 25 inch wide board. I definitely was haulin in the intercoastal and passed about 30 people until I got to the open ocean again. The winds were about 15-20 mph, the seas were choppy and about waist to chest at times. Jessica Cichra and Mark Colino represented in the 6 mile intercoastal race or the Money Island race.

I'm so stoked that they both placed in the top ten. Jess was riding her battle of the paddle 12’6” and Mark was on an AST white ACE Pro. Wrightsville beach is an awesome beach town. kind of like a more laid back version of New Smyrna, but the water is a lot colder. I learned a lot from this race. It is better to have a quiver of boards because you never know what the conditions will be like the day of a race. It’s so awesome to see the sport growing so quickly and can’t wait for the next race - Key West Classic!