Race the Lake of the Sky

This just in from the mainland: Naish’s Kody Kerbox just completed a weekend of racing, for a total of 20 miles on Lake Tahoe, California. The Lake of the Sky race consisted of a 5 mile race, a SUP cross, and a 14-mile long distance race. Kody finished second in both distance events and first in the SUP cross, which left him in 2nd Place overall. Well done Kody!

He comments:

“This past weekend was the Race the Lake of the Sky on South Lake at El Dorado Beach. It was a huge event, most board manufacturers were there with tents set up, and there were tons of spectators. Top SoCal racers including Danny Ching, Anthony Vela, and Candice Appleby showed up for the event that included three categories over the two days.

On Saturday June 30th, we had a 4 mile course race, as well as the SUP Cross sprint division. The 4 mile course race started and I found myself right behind Danny after turning the first buoy. After chasing him the entire race I ended up hanging on to a 2nd place overall. A few hours later they started the SUP cross. This was pretty cool because of the new starting gates they had built. It started out with four, 6 man heats in the first round. After racing hard in all my heats, I ended up in the Final with Danny Ching, Ben Sarrazin, Anthony Vela, Rambo Taylor and Austin Young. The course was very short with four buoy turns, and since it was so tight it seemed whoever was leading at the first buoy would win the race. So as soon as the horn blew, I put everything I had into making it first to the buoy. I could feel myself starting to pull away and it just gave me the confidence to put even more into it. I made the first buoy turn and never backed down until crossing the finish line first! It was definitely the best feeling in the world. I went into this event with the goal sticking as closely behind Danny as possible, so to beat him in the final was a dream come true.

The next day, Sunday July 1st was the 14 mile long distance race. I knew going into this it was going to be difficult since I had never paddled that far in flat water before. The nerves started to hit me as I lined up with the 70 other racers. The race started and I once again found myself drafting Danny. I ended up being able to hold the pace for 7 miles, but once a singe boat wake came through in Emerald Bay, Danny took off and I wasn’t able to catch him again. It was difficult for me to set a hard pace once I was by myself, but with third and fourth not too far behind me I knew I couldn’t let up. I just put my head down and got into my own zone to finish the second half of the race. It was pretty hard, but I walked away with another Elite 2nd place finish.

It was a great weekend overall and had a lot of fun racing with some of the top guys.”