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US Open of SurfingPosted at 07:30:00 PM
I know you guys are probably freaking out because I'm writing two days in a row, but hang on to your seats cuz' I'm gonna try to do it more!
So today I went to the US Open of surfing with my friend Francis and we had a blast! The US Open is in Huntington Beach and the event has grown to include BMX vert, a RedBull motocross freetstyle event, and I'm sure some other things that I didn't get to see. I was going there to support LRO www.liferollson.org and also Go211.com www.go211.com who was the title sponsor of the event this year. LRO has been at the event I think for a few years now and they do an Expression Session. Basically in between the heats of the surfing comp some of the Ambassadors of LRO go out with not only volunteers to help them surf, but also some of the professional surfers. They basically go out for about 30-40 minutes and catch as many waves as they can. It's not a competition for the guys from LRO it's just to go out there and show people that you can still go out and do amazing things even if you have a spinal cord injury (SCI). It was so great to see the response of the people there and everyone clapping and hollering while watching them. And like I said some of the pro surfers were out there surfing alongside with them and it was just a really cool thing to see.
Well, anyway when we got there we went straight to the LRO booth to find Seth who helps run things and we were sent to the RedBull tent they had there for the athletes. We got in and had a sick place to watch the comp. They had a ramp and everything for me to get up. Sweet! So we watched for a bit and then I got on the phone with Sean who is the CEO of Go211.com. He asked me if I wanted to do some commentating on their live web feed and I was like, "Hell Yeah!", so he took that as a yes and came and got us. We went over the booth and next thing you know I've got a mic in hand and I commentated while the Expression Session was going on basically explaining my accident and injury, what LRO was all about, was are the different degrees of SCI's, etc. The next thing I know Francis is pointing while we were taking a 30 second break and I look up and my face is on the huge Jumbotron in front of everyone at the event. It was such a geek and was all stoked on it.
After we finished up I had heard Stephen Murray was there and I haven't seen him since I left Craig months ago and I really wanted to see him. So we went over to the SoulBowl. At least I think that's what they called it. It was the bowl the BMX vert guys were playing around in. We got there and got a chance to hang out with Stephen for a couple hours just trying to catch up. It was super good to see him and he looked great. We watched some BMX and then some moto freestyle and by that time it was about 6:00 and I had only planned on staying till about 3:00! I was having too much fun though and more importantly I wasn't in any pain! I couldn't believe it. I was soo stoked. You know everyday when I wake up I hope that I'm not going to hurt at least for half a day, but when I have days like this I am ecstatic and I can count on one hand how many days I've had like this.
Anyway, so we finally ended up leaving around 7:30 after Stephen and I met up with Jesse and Christian from LRO. Oh but before we left Christian wanted to see my Jeep so he came with us back to the car so he could hear it.
I finally made it home around 9:30 pm and have plans to go with my Mom back to the beach tomorrow. Except this time I'll be in Long Beach for the AVP (Pro Beach Vollyball) women's finals. I have some friends that are playing so it'll be good to see them. Crossed fingers...no pain.
Go check out the pics that I'm posting.
tara
Never Give Up!
www.tarallanesroadtorecovery.com | | |
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