The second annual Phase 5 Regatta took place on Lake Jackson, FL on February 16-18th. This is quickly becoming our favorite event of the year because it’s a time where not only the whole team gets together for plenty of riding and hanging out but they also get to bring some family and friends of Phase 5 that usually wouldn’t have the chance to all be together at the same time! It really is a blast to get everyone together who shares a mutual love for surfing and good times on the water. This year, we had multiple international riders making the trip, including Mike Kunz and Rachy Leikela from Europe, Tanya Dobryakova from Dubai, Markus Lahmer and Flo Dungl from Austria, and Bailey Rush from Canada. It was really cool to have them travel all the way to Florida to hang out with everyone.
We all began to arrive on Friday, February 16th and as the cars piled in, the hype for the weekend grew and grew. After all the hugs and high fives were out of our systems, we loaded up the boats for the first of many sessions. Now you may be asking how we were able to get everyone out on the water, right? Luckily for us, we had plenty of team riders graciously tow their boats down to Lake Jackson so we had enough room for everyone! No riders left behind at the Phase 5 Regatta! With the lake being large enough, we were all able to find our own spots to ride so we weren’t throwing rollers at each other the whole time. Once we all picked our boats and headed out, it was time to ride. The first in the water was Flo Dungl, aka the CageSurfer himself. For those who don;t know, Flo is a paraplegic wakesurfer who doesn’t let his injury hold him back. He always has a smile on his face when he’s riding and just has the best time. Given Flo’s condition, he needs a little help in the water and getting up to start riding so Drew Danielo jumped in to give him a hand. After a solid session, they got back in the boat and the rest of the crew got some pulls in.
Once we headed back to the dock, we came to find that even more riders had shown up. So we swapped out and got the rest of the rider on the water. The day began to wrap up and we all geared up for dinner. Hitting up a local spot around the lake, we had to have a private room since there were so many of us. We’re talking about 50+ people! Not too bad of a turnout if you ask me. Dinner went by as we all ate, laughed, and enjoyed seeing one another and before we knew it, it was time for sleep because we had a full day tomorrow!
Saturday rolled around with the threat of potential rain but lucky for us, it never actually happened. It turned out to be an awesome day so we took advantage of it! The boats loaded up as everyone wanted to get out and slice the buttery water. After some time on the water, it was time to head in for lunch and to get prepped on the game that Mark Walser had come up with. The idea was to split all the riders into pairs and have them double on the Kahuna. The twist is one rider starts with a pair of Phase 5 board shorts on and the shorts have to be taken off and put on by the other rider while riding. Whichever team does it the fastest wins! Sounds simple enough, right? Well, it’s not! With some teams struggling to get up and stay up, a handful of teams seemed to take to it rather quickly and started battling for the fastest time. At the end of it all, it was the team of Whitley Stewart and Evie Shropshire who took the win with a blazing time of 7 seconds!
As the day kept on, the wind started to pick up which made riding not as enjoyable so everyone began to head in to hang out at the house. We all geared up and headed to the Awards Dinner where we got to recognize some of the accomplishments of the team over the last year. The Phase 5 team is made up of the best riders in the world so they definitely deserve all the praise! There will be more about the Awards Dinner on the next blog so don’t worry.
We woke up to poor conditions on Sunday which was a bit of a bummer but that’s the one thing we couldn’t control. Despite the bad weather, Dave Williams was still down to take out whoever wanted to go ride so there were some brave souls that went out to cruise in the rain and cold. After a few sets, they said enough was enough and came back in. With the weekend coming to a close, riders started saying their goodbyes and reminiscing on the good times over the weekend. Be on the lookout for a full recap video coming soon! Thanks again to everyone who came out to the 2nd Annual Regatta and we’re looking forward to next year!
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