Two months ago (in May), if you would’ve asked me if I wanted to be on prone paddleboard team and race across the 22 miles from Catalina to Cabrillo, I would’ve said ‘no way, no how!’ But a month ago, in June, I started prone paddling. Actually, my first time on a 12 foot stock was on a board a borrowed from a friend to use in a 2 mile race in June. In June I got 60 miles of time in the ocean. 30 miles of Surfing plus 30 miles of prone paddling on a variety of prone paddleboards. I even took up lessons with DJ and Kurt from Oceans Prone. I was loving it and I felt like I was getting in the best shape of life. I got first place in my division in both of the 2 mile Paddle races hosted by the South Bay Boardriders Club. The next race was set for 7/13/25 and it was the 22-mile Rock 2 Rock.
LZ designed the trophies for the 22 Mile Rock 2 Rock paddleboard race. When Matt Walls picked them up, I mentioned I’d like to do the race on a relay team and asked if he knew of anyone looking for people to join a team. He said he did and would get me in touch with them. Next thing I knew I was on a team with a few of the SBBC board members. Jani Lang was also on my team, and I thought that was super cool because we were on the Redondo High surf Team together years ago. There was a group text with the two teams of four people where we all coordinated where to sleep on Catalina the night before the race. I got the sofa on one of the boats.
Saturday around noon LZ and meet up at Jani’s house to pick up him, Cam and Steve. Then LZ dropped us off at the San Pedro Catalina Express. We caught the afternoon boat ride over to Two Harbors. The ride over was quick and we all chatted about the race cracked jokes and told stories. When we got to Catalina, we checked into the race got our race numbers written on the back of our hands and headed for the bar.
The place was packed, and everyone was drinking the local Buffalo Milk (I’m not much for dairy so I just had beer). As the evening progressed, I meet more of the racers and learned that our race boat broke down. Luckily our friends said we could share their boat with them. That worked best for me since I was already sleeping on their sofa, so I didn’t have to worry about hitching a ride over to them early in the morning.
The race started at 7 am on the dot. Jani was starting the race of our team Coors Lightning and Steve was starting for his team Prone To Win. Right after the racers cleared the harbor, we picked up the rest of our team members and headed out to find Jani and Steve. We finally located the guys about 2.7 miles out to sea and did a racer swap. Cam went next for our team, then I was after him, and then Ed was up.
When it was my turn, I jumped off the boat, swam over to the board and started paddling hard. The other team did a racer swap at the same time, but Dave couldn’t catch me! The conditions were near perfect. The water was surprisingly comfortable for me in the overcast skies. The wind was calm, and I felt strong and comfortable out there. I tried to keep my speed between 4.2 and 4.5 MPH or faster. I did a quick 3 miles and then swapped with Ed.
Ed was an animal out there! He was passing people left and right. The problem was he was so fast that the boat had a hard time keep up with him and the other racer from our boat. Eventually he was so far ahead that he got tired and just sat on the board for 10 minutes waiting for the boat to come so he could swap with Jani.
It was agreed that me and Steve would end the race since we had family waiting at the finish line. Jani, Cam and Ed would paddle again and then I would finish up the race. With all the back and forth their team Prone to Win had a 5-minute head start on my last leg of the race. But I wasn’t going to give up, I wanted to catch Steve and pass him. I sprinted towards the tall white building closest to Cabrillo beach. The water temp dropped by nearly ten degrees and the wind picked up and make the ocean surface choppier.
Still, I kept paddling hard, looking up every once in a while, to maintain my course and look for Steve. I finally spotted a racer off to my left and as I got closer, I could see it was Steve. I caught up to him, asked how he was doing and wished him good luck as I continued to sprint the last mile towards the finish line. As I got closer to the coast, I hit some patches of seaweed but managed to get through it without losing momentum.
Finally, it was the home stretch! I made it around the last orange buoy, caught a little wave onto the shoreline. Then it was the last run up the sand bank to cross the finish line! Our team got 2nd in our division and our friends got 3rd in our division! It was an amazing feeling being part of a team that paddled 22 miles across the channel from Catalina Two Harbors to Cabrillo beach. Any way you look at it this race was an adventure of a lifetime. It was filled with obstacles, opportunities, laughter and new friendships.
