I want to start off this particular blog with a huge THANK YOU!! People have been so supportive of me on this journey and I can not express how much it means to me. So again THANK YOU!!
I also need to give a shout out to my first two donors.. Of course the first person to step up was my sister. She is the same sister who is the inspiration for me doing this. Again this goes to show her selfless nature. Man do I love her!! The second person to donate is a friend in my paddling circle, Sylas.. I have only met this guy a couple of times. However, sometimes you just meet someone and know they are amazing human beings. Sylas is one of those people. He brings the Aloha spirit to our little corner of this country. Thank you both so much!!
Health update:
Good news! I am feeling really good!! I am currently at a point where I already feel I am winning against this disease. I know it has not been very long, but I also know I have not been messing around. I have ramped up my cardiovascular exercise. I have been hitting the weights a couple days a week. I have been finding time for mental decompression. I have been eating pretty darn clean... Heck I have lost about 23lbs. Nothing is perfect, no science experiment is. A quote I really like when it comes to this type of challenge is "There are no bad days just good data". So when something does not go as planned you need to ask yourself, "What did I learn?" if you take away a tidbit of data then you are still moving forward.
Exciting News:
Drum roll please................. I am officially starting the paddle challenge portion of this Tomorrow!! I am so excited to get going.. To add to the fun I get to start it off while paddling in Hoodriver with the NSP team!! I will literally be starting off my 1000 miles with my two favorite professional paddlers, Travis Grant and Titouan Puyo. These guys have traveled from New Zealand and New Caledonia just to paddle with me;) Okay not really, they are actually here for the Gorge Paddle Challenge this weekend. However, I reached out to the NSP team manager Jeramie Vaine and along with Gorge Performance of Portland they are offering a paddle with the pros day. So what better place to start this 1000 mile journey.
Speaking of NSP paddleboards, I am also excited to announce that they have agreed to share my journey along the way. In modern fundraising Social Media is the key. So having such an amazing board builder support me is huge.. We are talking about a world wide reach. I want to say thank you to @NSP_northamerica specifically Jeramie. I reached out to these guys because of an experience I had last year during a board demo day hosted by Gorge Performance. I have been in the board sports world for over 30 years now. I have to say the the SUP community is second to none. The NSP guys showed up from all over the world to race the Gorge Paddle Challenge. They still took the time to come and hang out on a beach in Portland to play, talk boards, give pointers and just hang with our local community of paddlers. I was so floored by this. This is the equivalent of Lebron James just coming out and hanging at a local barbecue and shooting some hoops. When I reached out to them there was no hesitation either. Just how can we help. So when you see me paddling a bright blue board you know why.
All these people all this excitement all equals Tribe. I am proud to say I am part of the SUP tribe. Like I said this community is amazing.