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Weekend in Puerto Rico!
The Culebra Challenge is the second in a series of races held in the Caribbean, the first being the North Coast Challenge in Trinidad and the other two races later in the year in St Maarten and Guadeloupe.
 Ian Gray (race winner) lauches down a wave mid-channel (Pic: Harry Negron)
 Costa Bonita Resort (Pic: Pat Hemmens)
The other racers were all either at the resort already or arrived during the afternoon, which was spent getting our borrowed boats ready and going for a short paddle. The weather was promising, with a good breeze blowing and some rideable swells outside the bay. We had registration and a race briefing in the evening before wandering off to the small town for some food and a little fun.
I shared a room with Derrick and Dylan and we woke up on Sunday to a very quiet morning. Damn - looks like Culebra 2006 revisited. No matter, there was paddling to be done, so we made our final preparations and wandered off to our boats. The start was fairly late, so most of us sat around snacking and talking waiting for 8.30, when we got our skis in the water and paddled about 2k across the lagoon to the start at the ferry dock in the main town.
 Warm up paddle to the start
The wind had definitely picked up a bit and we could see the odd white-cap outside the bay. We had a water start, with the starter standing on the ferry dock, making sure we were all lined up. I didn't have much fight in me on Sunday for various reasons and let the front bunch paddle off after a half hearted attempt at riding a wave. The bunch shed paddlers in the first few km, which was all flat water. I planned to catch these guys up during the race one by one.
There was a small swell wrapping around the south of the island and you could get a bit of a ride by moving offshore a bit. Unfortunately this took you away from the race line so there had to be a compromise. Once clear of the headland, there were great, easy to catch, runs of about 1 to 1.5m to be had coming from the south-east. The wind was blowing about the same speed as we were paddling so there was not much help there.
 Culebra Challenge 2008 - course
After about an hour into the race, the swell wrapping around the North of the island started interfering with the swell that we had been riding. I really lost the plot here for a while and a few of the guys I had caught earlier pulled ahead slightly. These conditions carried on for a while until the more northerly swell began to dominate about 12km out from the finish.
At about 7km out, I saw a group of 3 paddlers to the south of me. This gave me some extra motivation to concentrate on the runs and to try get the most out of the sea. I had a slightly more favourable line for the finish with the swell direction and decided to cut across the reef to the south of Palomino Island. The smallish swell made a few gentle breakers that gave me a very welcome rest as I surfed for almost a kilometre across the shallows. This brought me level with the group of paddlers I had seen and I held them for the next few km on a slightly more northerly course.
 Stuart Knaggs, mid- channel (Pic: Harry Negron)
With four ks to go, I made my move, dug deep and found nothing. What a bummer. I held with the group as we converged, trying to get as much rest as possible for a sprint finish. Unfortunately, I was in no position to contend and had to watch as Joe, Jamie and Harry pulled away slightly in the final 500m of the race.
Then hobble up the small beach to join in the war stories and beer - much as the end of any other ski race I have ever competed in. The borrowed Millennium's seat was a bit narrower than my Icon's - I didn't really notice it too much during the race but afterwards my legs were very dead and felt bruised on the sides.
Overall comments: Great race. The quality of the field in the Caribbean races is continually improving. The location is excellent, the security provided in part by the US Coastguard was excellent, access from around the world is easy. In short, no real reason to miss this race.
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