Oregon Pics+Duck Surfing

The contest didn't go as well as planned but the trip was one of the best ever. The sailing was really fun the day before the event, 3.7 and logo high onshore waves. Sick. The first day of the contest started with light winds and small waves. The wind slowly built all day and by my heat it was solid 4.2. Then it really started nuking. I started my heat with a tweaked jump(notice the hoodie)

and then got destroyed on a forward. .













Here is the sequence;








The take off was good

Here I am just starting to sheet in

Now I start to get into trouble if you click on the photo you can see that my frozen hand has slipped off the boom.

At this point I have hit the ejection bottom and I am trying to get as far away from my gear as possible. I know it's going to hurt but I should land far away from my gear and be fine or so I thought...

My foot got stuck in the strap and my sail sheeted in again, launching me even faster at the water, at this point I'm out of control and saying my prayers. I think the booties had something to do with getting stuck. This is my favorite shot of the sequence and my new facebook profile shot.

I'm blessed to not have landed on my gear. The wind got knocked out of me, I was seeing stars, and coughing up blood. Not the best start. I managed to finish my heat but kind of just sailed back and forth for most of it. I coughed up blood for about an hour, but besides a sore neck and back I was fine. Super thankful because it could have been much much worse.
More stories to come, but I got to get in the water now. Warm water whoohoo!
This is just funny.

Duck surfing