Memorial Day: Thank you veterans!

As the daughter of a veteran, I am very aware of the sacrifices that all of our service men and women have made for us. So on this Memorial Day, I want to give a heartfelt thank you to all of you out there who have sacrificed for the freedoms that we enjoy.

Including the right to keep and bear surfboards- which I exercised today at DogPatch. Check me out swooping a couple on the big, 12' Boga El Rey... the SUV of the Boga line (because that board can do it all!).

The El Rey is super fun when it get's really small... if you want a no hassle session where you slide into a few and cruise down the line like a big ol' whale finned Caddy, this is your board.

Whooo hooo.... with a board this big, taking off is a challenge. Even though you get in early, you have to be careful to keep the nose clear. Think about it, the wave is only two feet tall and you've got to fit 12' of board into it... like I said, it's a challenge!

A World of Gratitude

Yesterday our Annual HOKISA fundraising event at Sushi On a Roll was a success!  We had at least 75 guests who enjoyed sushi by acclaimed chef Jeff Roberto and rocked to the music of Pulse Liberation, a band made up of three Eastlake High students.  You've go to google them on You Tube to listen to them!  I couldn't have done it without my fab five team- Aida, Rebecca, Nicole, Nick and Nylie!  Also, a big high five to the Mar Vista High students who helped throughout the event.

There were more than fifty silent auction items!  Thank you to everyone who contributed.  Here are just a few of the items:

Thanks to Trevor from Ocean Minded by providing all the cool
OM swag and gift certificates!  Also to Reid for the donated subscriptions
to his magazine, Stand Up Paddle Magazine.

Everyone wanted the SUP lessons from the one-and-only
John Ashley from paddlesurf.net.

These came special delivery from Maui!
This was another hot item-- thanks Ina from Boobie Shack.

Dakotah sold four limited edition messenger dolls, each
carrying an original hand-written message from a child in HOKISA.
Everyone wanted the surfer.  Local IB surfer, Chow, was the winner!

We were short only $600 from our annual goal of $5,000.  Not bad.  But it would be great to reach it! So if you would like to make a small donation to help us reach our goal and to read who our fundraiser benefits, please check out my daughter's website www.messageoutsideabottle.weebly.com for more information.

MIA

I haven't been a very good blogger lately.  I know I've been MIA most of the time in the past few months but I've got a good reason.  I've been planning my annual fundraiser.  "For what?"  I'm glad you asked.  My daughter and I traveled to South Africa for the first time more than 5 years ago.  We returned with the intent to have a single fundraiser for an orphanage called HOKISA (Home for kids in South Africa.)  We learned about these kids during our travel to SA and wanted to lend a helping hand that year when we returned to San Diego.  Five years later, we're still "helping" by having annual fundraisers for their benefit- mainly for high nutritious diets and medication.  We've become close friends with the twenty AIDS affected orphans and haven't had the heart to stop giving what we can.

I would like to cordially invite you to attend our HOKISA fundraising event this Sunday, May 20, 2012 at Sushi on a Roll in San Diego from 11am - 3pm.  For event information or to donate, please go to the event page at www.messageoutsideabottle.weebly.com.

Friends and Family

One of my favorite things about stand up paddling is making new friends and reaffirming friendships I've made over the years. This last weekend, I was lucky enough to get to surf the DogPatch twice and to participate in the Stand Up Paddle for the Cure event at Newport Beach. It was a great weekend of paddling. The icing on the cake was reconnecting with my Boga family. Dave and Trish Myler and their two boys are great people. In addition to supporting me in all of my paddle aspirations they are just plain fun to be around and their devotion and commitment to the sport of stand up paddle is inspiring.

One of a million funny moments with my friend Trish Myler. 

Boga donated a board to the event and also brought down somewhere in the neighborhood of twenty demo boards for anybody and everybody to use totally free of charge. Dave Myler busted his butt setting up the Boga display booth sometime around sun up, hung out all day teaching stand up lessons, then loaded it all up at the end of the day- what did he do next? Beat us to the DogPatch the next morning (he got there around 6am!), surf for four hours, pack up the family and drove eight hours back home. Now that's commitment! I love my Boga family, they're an inspiration- I'm just hoping we can finally pull together the mainland Mex surf trip we've been talking about for so long!