One of our Paddlers, May, wanted to share her Kine experience with us–and specifically how Silverback Hawaii helped her achieve her goals more effectively. Here is what she wrote to us:
Hi!
Here’s a little short version of my Hanohano experience:
I’m May, I’m a Maui paddler.
I aspire to be a badass…on the journey to becoming a badass I’ve been incredibly blessed with who I get to have aquatic adventures and learn and grow as a paddler with.
When Team Silverback invited me to come along to the Hanohano ocean challenge race in San Diego it was a no brainer, the answer was YES!
This Maui girl wasn’t ready for how cold it was!
Racing in cold weather was such a completely different experience from what I’m used to!
Zero warm up.. starting a race while you’re freezing!!… It was crazy.
Almost 400 boats on the starting line.
Oc1, oc2, surfski, prone, SUP.. it was incredible!
The energy was wild!
Bumper boats with canoes flipping left and right–It was hard not to look around, hard to focus forward. It was my first “mainland” race! The pelicans along the race course were my favourite! What amazing looking birds. The feeling of cold water every time my hand went through the water while holding my paddle..I’ll never forget it.
We paddled oc2, myself and Matt– who is the founder of Silverback Hawaii.
Me in the back steering– which was hilarious as I’m 5ft and Matt is.. well.. a gorilla!
I just had to pick a line and try and not worry about all the other boats that I couldn’t really see.
We pushed hard and had a fantastic race!
It was a cloudy and gray kind of day and we were like a bunch of bright skittles in our amazing neon hydro hoodies just brightening up the gloomy day!
I had the pleasure of meeting so many amazing people while hanging out in the Silverback tent talking.
Meeting paddlers from other parts of the world is so incredible! It’s an instant connection as we share the same passion for the wa’a and the ocean! I loved every minute of the whole weekend. We laughed, we complained about how cold it was, We paddled , we ate good food and most importantly; We extended our incredible Paddling Ohana. And we looked dang good doing it!
Can’t WAIT for next year.