The 2025 SCORA season is officially underway, and NAC Outrigger kicked things off with an epic showing at the Crystal Pier Race in San Diego! Margo, who first joined us through the Intro to Outrigger program at the start of the year, jumped into their first OC6 race—and didn’t hold back. From pre-race jitters to post-race tunnels of celebration, it was a day filled with big energy, team spirit, and a few classic first-race moments (shoutout to the novice huli squad). In this blog post, Margo shares a firsthand account of what it’s like to line up, paddle hard, and cross the finish line for the first time. Spoiler alert: they’re hooked
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This past weekend I went to my first oc6 race, Crystal Pier in San Diego. I was already in love with paddling, but after race day, I’m totally hooked! As a novice paddler, I wasn’t quite sure what race days would feel like, but what I found was a thrilling intensity and a welcoming community that I’m so excited to become a part of.
The novice crews were the first races of the day, and after some last minute tips from our team, we pushed off and headed for the start line. It wasn’t long before we decided to test the temperature of the water and go for a swim, but hey, what’s a first time novice race without a little Huli action? After heading for shore to dump our boat we paddled out once again for the start line, feeling crisp and refreshed after our little dip.
The start line was INTENSE! There were so many more boats than I imagined, and this was only one of three starts of the day! The anticipation was palpable, emitting off of everyone, prepping us for that quick, hard start. I love to go hard, and lemme tell you, we went hard! We had a strong start, digging into the water and propelling our boat forward. There was a short kurfuffle with another boat’s Ama finding it’s way up my back before taking its rightful place on the water, but we freed ourselves of that and settled into our race pace. We kept the energy up, doing a short sprint whenever the intensity slackened or there was a boat around us. Our practice making turns served us well, getting us around those buoys swiftly. We made huge strides on the turns, passing boats and gaining distance after! It was so satisfying to put all of our time practicing together on the water to use, keeping our bodies swinging together, our strokes in sync, and our paddles connected to the water.
My favorite part of the race was the last stretch to the finish line. After we made our last turn, we had the perfect distance remaining to go all out, and we sprinted the whole rest of the way for a strong finish. It felt so good to push hard for that long, and I was rewarded handsomely with all the endorphins flooding my body afterward. We started strong, we pushed hard, and we finished stronger. What a rush!
We paddled to shore and were greeted by our team who gave us ti leaf leis they made on Lei day and congratulated us on our first race. After that, we got to watch our teammates paddle out for their races, and welcome them to the finish line with cheers and encouragement. We created tunnels for everyone to run through at the finish line, which was so fun and so silly and created a lot of smiles and laughter. I’ve been with NAC since the learn to paddle class in February, but race day is something extra special. The bonding and positive team vibes we created in San Diego make me feel more connected to my crew and so much more excited for the next race!
Let’s goooooooooooooooooooooooo!
