The Sayulita JR SUP Team At The Pacific Paddle Games 2017 - Part 3

Part 3 of 3.  Read Part 2 HERE.

The last day of competition arrived and we woke up early to overcast skies.  It was actually pretty chilly as far as some of us were concerned though a nice break from the jungle heat and humidity.

Brrr.  Ozzy and Sonia, Habana's mom

The kids(and parents) were weary but were ready for their next challenge.  The "Long Distance" race.  The race would be 3 miles for the youth or so we thought.  The Pros and "Open" divisions would be paddling 6 miles so the kids had been training for that shorter distance at home.  Boards again were brought to the beach and the kids went off to attend the pre-race briefing.

Pre distance race

The race would be a staggered water start.  In other words, the race would start in the water and different divisions would start at different times.  The kids would be in the last group.  The important piece of information was that the kids would be racing 6 miles and not the original 3 miles they had trained for.  We are not sure why they changed this moments before the race but again, there were lots of kids looking around a bit shocked at the last moment new information.  Many of our kids decided not to paddle with or even bring water to race with since the race would be short.  We were now worried that they would get dehydrated going the extra distance.  The kids were just worried if they had the energy to complete the race.

Long Distance Race Map - 2 Laps

After the meeting the kids kind of stumbled around as they soaked in the announcement that they would go twice the distance that they thought they would.  Racers were called to the start line which would be along a jetty at one side of the venue.  There would be 400 racers out there waiting to begin the race

Trace and Ozzy contemplating the 6 mile effort coming up

With 400 paddlers all in the water it made the beach very quiet.  Once the kids paddled off to the starting area it quickly began to be impossible to follow them in such a crowd.  Once again, I failed to bring my binoculars so we were really only able to see the kids when they came close to the beach to make their first lap turn where we were looking for them cheering them on.

Can you pick out Trace and Alex?  We can't either.

Traffic Jam at the beginning of the "Open" division race

The Team had a pre-race strategy early on and stayed together for a while but broke off into smaller groups as the race developed.  Alex and Trace stayed close for most of the race.

Alex center with Trace just off her left shoulder.

During the second lap the wind and water chop began to get worse but the kids all pushed through and made it to the finish line.  The 6 mile race in a field of 400 paddlers was in the books.

Alex runs to the finish line.

Trace paddles to the beach

Just like that the kids had completed their competition.  Everyone got big hugs from family and coaches after making it to the beach and we listened to kid stories from their experiences in the water which was really fun too.  Our kids have never competed at an event of this scale and we think they handled it amazingly.

The rest of the last day we were able to watch all the Pros compete in the Technical Race Semi-finals and Finals.  The kids could finally switch off, kick back and just do kid's stuff.  Our group all sat together near the finish line and were able to see all the big name compete and come across the finish line.  There were awards giving to those who finished top three in their respective divisions.  During the awards the announcers and race director gave our program and coaches a big "Thank you" for making the effort to come from such distance to compete.  It felt good that we were noticed and I can tell you that we were most certainly heard during the weekend.  Let's just say people attending the race knew we were there and where we were from.

Our weekend was not quiet done yet.  We still had the challenge of getting from LAX back to Mexico.  Once we were on the plane, Ashley would be leaving us to head back Atlanta.  We left Dana Point super early to avoid LA traffic and had no idea if we would even make the flight in time.  Not only did we make it but we succeeded in getting on the flight flying "standby" and ended up sitting first class on the way home.  A great way to end a most awesome weekend!  

Alex, Trace and Coach Bicho on their devices in LAX

Was the travel, time and expense worth it?  Absolutely!  The kids and the families involved will talk about this one for a while.  We all want to return next year and do it all over again.  We want more kids to attend if possible so fundraising and applications for travel documents will begin early.  This first experience will help us plan for future trips to this event.  The coaches even mentioned a trip someday to the east coast USA to compete in a similar event to the Pacific Paddle Games.  For now, it is back to practice as usual and push to be better each week and welcome new paddlers to the program. Looking forward to the kid's first inter-team contest next month.