Every year in may, hundreds of skaters from around the world decent on the little island 30 wish miles off the coast of LA for a race. This year it was thought to be cancelled so when someone pulled out the money to hold it last minute, I was overjoyed. I am fortunate enough to be supported by wonderful companies (who’s sites will be posted below) that financially support me and my passion of skateboarding. My newest sponsor, Long Island Longboards, covered all my cost for racing bed and travel and my luck in dice covered a decent amount of my food, so I was pretty stoked. Like almost every other skate event nowadays, I dislocated my shoulder skitching up the hill when my race suit caught my wheel… so that sucked. Otherwise our team was graced with good fortune until my friend had an accident and fractured three of his vertebrae, luckily not causing any damage to his spinal chord, he needed to be medivaced to MERCY where he could be safely monitored.
Racing for juniors like me at catalina is a struggle, mainly because their is no junior class, so we race with the pro’s in open. Racing in open is always a rad experience getting close and personal with open racers gives you a better perspective on lines and drafting, so even though i didn’t do especially well, I came out with a smile on my face and a chance to race next to many of the people I was watching mesmerized when I first started skating. One of the main attractions for catalina however, is that you and all of your friends from around the world are put in a town that you can cross in less than 3 minutes by foot. This makes for fun times at night and after racing and makes it easy to make new friends and skitch some runs with a golf cart.
The catalina race attracts more than just skaters too, making it a really cool place to go and meet new people and make new friends, so even though I slept on a hardwood floor for three days and hurt my shoulder even more, it always a good time to get out there and have fun in far or close places without parents, guardians or counselors looking over you, and I’m lucky enough to do things like this normally.
Huge thanks to Dubes Eldorf for organizing, Long island longboards for cover my trip and all my other sponsors who helped out as well as Thomas Flinchbaugh for making everything happen for me. and like I learned from my aussie housemates, Chuck ‘er in the Ute!
http://www.longislandlongboards.com
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