Great write up Don! I am sure I am speaking for all of us when I say
thank you for coming. Hopefully we will have you in a Waveski in heat
number one in Sept<grin> Everyone really dug the clear kayak,
absolutely the cutting edge coolest looking craft on the beach..

On another note, the gentleman that passed was a close friend of
member Frank Casciottas. Frank was sharing a room with at the event
and his friend Brian was here to check it out and support him.
The real tragedy is always the friends and family left behind.
My heart goes out to Frank who watched one of his best Friends pass
and Brian's family who will miss him dearly.

On that note, I have since purchased a Heart Defibrillator to keep in
my car and bring to all future contests etc.. I am also looking to
take a CPR course which I highly recommend to anyone that does not kn
ow it. Fortunately we had some competitors (Ricky Miller NJ and ?)
who performed CPR and tried to revive Brian, a BIG thank you to these
guys as they did there best and knew more than I so I was glad they
were there, everyone should thank these guys, I could only hope that
if something happened to me that these guys would be there.

Anyways, Thanks again Don, appreciate your presence and
participation. We hope to get you and your crew back here surfing
with us.

Much regards to all
Brian Kuszmar
USWA Organizer


--- In WaveskiUSA@yahoogroups.com, "Don" <woodkayaker@...> wrote:
>
> To the members of Waveski USA that I met on saturday, this past
> weekend, at your inaugural event in Cocoa:
> Thank you for your hospitality! One of the things that I do with
> the two clubs that I belong to, here in SW Florida, is to write
trip
> reports for both clubs' Yahoo groups (Paradise Coast Paddler's Club
> Naples - 124 members - http://groups.yahoo.com/group/pcpcnaples/
and
> SW Fl Paddler's Club - 245 members -
> http://groups.yahoo.com/group/swflpc/)
> I had a great time meeting so many people from your group, and I
> look forward to seeing you again at your upcoming event in
> September. I hope that my trip report will convince others from my
> area to join me in attending. - Don McCumber
>
> The report:
>
> A couple of months ago, I was searching Yahoo groups for other
> kayaking groups. This is something that I do from time to time,
> just to see what new groups may be forming, especially in our
state,
> or our area. I discovered a new group called "WaveSki USA"
> (http://sports.groups.yahoo.com/group/WaveskiUSA/).
> They have 81 members that are very active in the Wave Ski scene,
and
> they were planning their first big event, a Wave Ski Competition,
in
> Cocoa Beach. This event took place over this past weekend, and I
> was happy to be able to attend on saturday.
>
> I posted a few messages on their Yahoo group, and even asked for
> some advice in designing a skin-on-frame kayak that might be an
> entry-level surfing kayak. I got a lot of good tips, and some
> invitations to try out the real thing.
>
> On saturday morning, I found my way to Oceansports, in Cocoa, where
> they directed me to Anthony's On The Beach, where the competition
> was held. This is a great group of people, and they made me feel
> very welcome, even letting me try out a WaveSki, before I launched
> my 10" Toibote.
>
> The conditions weren't ideal for the competition, but they made the
> most of the 2 to 4 foot waves, and really showed their skills in
> tweaking some decent rides out of that low surf. I even saw one
> competitor (Pam) that consistently pulled off some good rolls in
> water that couldn't have been more than 2 or 3 feet deep. One of
> the best things that I saw about this group, was their attitude.
> This was a competition, but whenever anyone would pull off a good
> trick, or an especially good ride, there'd be a lot of hooting and
> hollering, cheering their competitor on! This was FAR from cut-
> throat - this was comraderie, at its best.
>
> My clear vinyl-skinned Toibote got a bit of attention. I guess
it's
> an oddity. But... I had fun with it. I took it out into the areas
> outside of the competition, but close by, and I did some surfing.
I
> was very pleased with the way it acted, and was even able to catch
> some decent rides, despite my lack of experience. At one point, I
> made a glaring error, and blocked a more experienced Waveskier from
> a wave, that he had the right-of-way on. As little as I knew about
> surfing, I realized instantly that I had made a mistake, and
> apologized profusely. He was very gracious, and tried to explain
> how it all works... but it is all just too new to me, and I had
> trouble understanding the "breaking right", and "breaking left"...
> etc. etc. There is a definite "surfing etiquette", and they even
> have this information posted in their links and files area at their
> Yahoo group.
>
> Later in the afternoon, I had just finished riding a wave in, and
> rolled over, with a wet exit. It took a half-minute or so to empty
> the water out of my kayak, and after doing that, I stood in the 3
to
> 4 foot-deep water, watching the competition. I noticed that about
> 30 feet away, there was a teen playing in the water - I think maybe
> he had a boogie board. About 20 feet further on, I saw someone
> doing the "dead man's float". At first, I thought it was the
teen's
> companion, but after 15 or 20 seconds, I asked the young man, "Is
he
> all right?" and started rushing towards the other person, dragging
> my kayak, thinking I might need it to help this person float, if he
> was in trouble. It turned out he was in trouble - when I grabbed
> his arm, he was totally limp, and I tried lifting him out of the
> water. At this moment, another man from the beach reached us and
> started to help, so I threw the kayak out of the way, and together
> we started dragging him toward the beach, lifting his head as we
> went. I yelled for help, and others came running - two were
> lifeguards with recent training in CPR. Everyone deferred to their
> experience, and they immediately began rescuscitation efforts.
>
> I wish I could say that this part of the story had a happy ending,
> but he did not make it, despite everyone's efforts. I later heard
> that the man had back troubles, and was taking several medications,
> and had drank two beers on the beach, before going in the water.
He
> was not kayaking, or Waveski-ing. An autopsy will be done. You
> could try to draw some moral conclusion from this sketchy evidence,
> such as "follow medication directions strictly"... whatever. The
> plain and simple truth is, it was just a tragedy, and there was
> nothing anyone could do about it. Plain and simple.
>
> I don't want to leave this report on a bad note, because, as the
> earlier part of the report shows, it was truly a great event, put
on
> by some really great people. They are planning a follow-up event
in
> September, and I would highly recommend to anyone that is
interested
> in this aspect of our sport of kayaking, to go to Cocoa and meet
> this great group of people. I will post the details as soon as
they
> are available.
>
> Don
>