The First Ever Rainbow Sandals Event Called Battle Of The Paddle
The evening before the worlds biggest gathering of stand up paddle racers to date, it hit me: This is going to be gnarly!
Small shorepound today, with more on the way tomorrow. Rainbow Sandals event organizers Barrett Tester and Pat Huber and their crew have the beach dressed like a rock concert. Met young Slater Trout, got some shots of him, very unique paddle style. He is fired up; gonna give the big boys a run for the money.
Every one seems so focused checking each others gear out. Chuck Patterson is exceptionally focused because this is his home town, he either needs to go big or deal with the disappointment of facing them the next day. Meanwhile Ekolu Kalam shows up with his board inside of his Hummer.
Patterson uses all the latest tech advantages he can get his hands on from Extreme Clean, which makes the underside extremely slippery, to Monster Paint which is used add traction to the top. He has lost at least ten pounds for this event and is super fit. His new Hobie carbon fiber race board is ready to go.
Their where a lot of lighter weight racers showing up and this began to worry Chuck a little. Board size is limited for this event so with all things being equal a lighter racer will have and advantage over a heavier one.
Chuck need some crazy wave conditions to make it a fare fight and he ended up getting his wish. He earned every penny of his prize money!
The night before the race Chuck simply took his dog for a walk and went home and relaxed dreaming of victory the next day. Every one else stayed up late practicing and getting mentally ready for the race. It looks like Chucks method worked because is dream came true.