After Sea Paddle in NYC I was looking forward to getting back to California and the next adventure.  After a few days to organize and re-pack Dad and I loaded up the truck and headed off to Lake Tahoe and the next SUP event.  We wanted to make the most of the drive and so we chose the road least traveled and what we thought would be the most scenic route since we had a few days to get there.  We took off towards Mammoth and the 10,000 ft Spencer Pass in the Sequia National Forest.  We stopped at some beautiful rivers and lakes to cool off with a swim. I got to drive quite a bit so that was cool since I have to log a certain amount of hours to get my license when I get back home to Hawaii.  We were going to spend the night in Lone Pine but could not find a hotel so went on to Bishop where we spent the night and had the worst pizza dinner ever!  The next morning we had breakfast in Mammoth then took an awesome swim in June Lake and got into Tahoe that evening.   It was my first time to Tahoe and it is beautiful!  I did not plan on racing because my shoulder was still a bit sore from the Sea Paddle.  I want to give it plenty of time to recover before I start training hard again.  The weather was beautiful and so Friday I got out on the lake for a fun easy paddle with my friends Matt Becker and Jack Bark to check out my new 14 ft Bark race board, it’s a fast one!  The next day was race day and unfortunately it turned cold, drizzly  and with an offshore wind.  Even with the challenging conditions I really wished that I was racing.  It was fun to cheer on my friends but I wanted to be out there with them.  It was impressive to watch all the racers take on those conditions and do so well.   I was excited for my friend Danny Ching who took home the prize.  That night everyone ended up at the campground for what someone called the “Woodstock” of  SUP, lots of great paddlers there and everyone had a great time.  Sunday afternoon it was time to head home.  My Dad grew up taking family vacations to Yosemite and it is a place he has always wanted to show us so we made a point of stoping off there on the way back to LA. We came in the back gate and drove 77 miles to the valley floor.  Dinner that night was at the Owanhee Hotel (I know I spelled that wrong). It really was an amazing place. On the way out of the valley that night we were headed to Lee Vining to spend the night but got behind a super slow motorhome.  Dad finally got around it but just as we pulled ahead we got pulled over for speeding!  He let us go with a warning after he found out we were from Maui.  Not too long after that we came very close to hitting a deer in the road then got to Lee Vining only to find out that the last room had been rented just five minutes before we got there…not a lucky night.  So we headed down the road and ended up staying at June Lake which was fine because I had a photo shoot there the next morning anyway.  The next morning I got on the lake to do some padding and photos with two amazing athletes, top triathlete Chris Lieto and marathon great, Ryan Hall.  We did some shots for an article about cross training.  It was cool meeting those guys and hanging out.  In the meantime Dad met a kayaker at the beach and got him to try one of the Bark race boards, he fell in love with it and bought a board, bag and paddle on the spot.  Dad is quite the salesman especially when it come to getting people stoked on SUP. So now we are back in LA, training with Tom, getting in some fun 6 man outrigger with Danny and the boys, yoga…oh ya, and school too.  Friday night we went to Bo Bridges photography gallery for a Lost party.  He is an amazing photographer, check out his website.  ESPN radio was there and I did a short interview with them which was fun.  Aloha, ST

On the road to Tahoe.

One of the rivers we stopped at for a swim.

Yosemite...amazing!