HIHO revisited

This weekend marks the start of the annual HIHO race event in the British Virgin Islands. I was fortunate enough to participate in it last year and I hope to get back there again within the next few years. What an awesome experience it was and I still have great memories of it. Even if you're not into racing (it was my 2nd official race in 20+ years of windsurfing), this is something you won't regret doing. I wrote a story about the experience that appeared here on my blog first, then on Windsurfing Magazine's website, and edited again for All At Sea Magazine.

Pics & video -

Enjoy!

SUPing in Hilton Head

I was visiting Hilton Head Island last weeked for a reunion with old friends (I'll post a summary of that reunion as a separate post later). The focus of the weekend was the reunion itself so I didn't make plans to get on the water until everyone was leaving Sunday morning. I had earlier done a search of Hilton Head Stand Up Paddling on StandUpZone.com and found Glen. I emailed him and made plans to meet for a SUP session. The ocean was flat so we decided to hit the inland waterway since it might provide an opportunity to see more wildlife. I brought my own paddle and Glen let me try out a couple of nice boards. We had a great session and workout which included a mother and baby bottlenose dolphin pair swimming around us....so close I could see the mother's eye looking right at me to check me out. That's when I realized I left my camera in the car...DOH!

Glen is a great guy and a pleasure to SUP with. If you're ever in the Hilton Head area, contact him to get out on the water. He reps and sells for a couple of SUP companies and has demo boards available. He also provides lessons.

By the way, Glen's brother is deployed in Iraq serving with the Army's 320th MP Co. It's guys like Keith that enable people like Glen and I to be able to have the freedom to go SUP'ing. Thank you Keith for all you're doing and hoping for your safe return this fall.

My sisters are in town visiting this week and have their kids in a local sailing camp. I took one of my sisters out on the lake for a SUP session and now she loves it. She's big into yoga and instantly recognized the exercise and core workout benefits of SUP'ing. Another convert!

Fun with NEWJ & Windsurfing Magazine

Stoked! Two of my pictures from our April Outer Banks trip made it into the New England Windsurfing Journal June 2008 issue (page 4, WindFest article). Our sailing compadre, Rob Cornwell, was correctly credited as the sailor in the picture. And my Sanyo Xacti helmetcam set up was featured. Here they are again:

On another note, I joined Alan, Rob, Donald, and Mark for some dinner in Charlotte last week as Alan hosted Josh Sampiero, the Senior Editor of Windsurfing Magazine. Josh was passing through town on his cross country summer road trip from Florida to California and Oregon. The wind didn't blow for those guys that day but they still got time on the water...wakeboarding. I first met Josh at last year's HIHO race event. He's a great ambassador for windsurfing and has made significant improvements to the magazine. Like I told Josh, I envy his job and I don't envy his job because it's hard to please all the readers. He gets a ton of accolades and criticism from readers about what they want to see in the mag and he handles it all very well. You can follow his cross country adventures on his new blog .

Last but not least, it's been 6 weeks now since my hernia surgery and I'm ready to go windsurfing. I've been doing some early morning lake SUP'ing to start getting back into shape. This weekend I'm headed off to Hilton Head Island for a reunion with some old friends. Not sure if I'll get to sail or SUP...we'll see.