I thought it was high time I actually go out and do some real sailing. Funny that hey? How we spend hours and days and weeks sitting around and talking about sailing, but then it’s a challenge to actually get out on the water. In an effort to do just that, Kristine Williams and I have marched ourselves down to San Diego for some fun in the sun and great racing. It’s a real change coming from the World Cup 470 circuit to local events. Lots of fun for sure, and a real refresher, but I find myself needing to take a deep breath to remind myself that we’re on the all fun all the time program. Keep it Riel as they say…which is why we’ve been sporting Louis Riel pinny’s for the event. Nerdtacular? Yes. Hilarious, of course. Here are some signs that the San Diego 29er fleet is keeping it Riel:
10) All sailors arrive at the boat park via skateboard with their gear on their backs
9) Regatta officials provide burritos after racing…oh yeah…
8) No one gets stressed out by the US Military Seals performing exercises in the bay which involve helicopters and live machine gun fire
7) The race committee calls you sweetie when you check in
6) Back flips off the 29er either intentionally or not
5) Narrowly averting disaster by loosing the mast during a rig change results in the “let’s just sail in this mode” policy
4) Americanos during briefing, debriefing, and while launching
3) All burritos all the time. Just maybe don’t stand downwind of us.
2) Morning stops at the balsamic vinegar tasting bar beside Starbucks the owner now knows us, because we’re “just popping in for one more bottle.”
1) 29er boys yelling “viva la revolution” when we explain the picture of Louis Riel on our pinnys.
‘Nuf said. Keep it Riel, and just go sailing.
thesaltysister 
Mac on! (John A that is!)
The following is to be read with a french accent that has been broken by those bastard anglo-canadian swine:
“I suppose the half-breeds in Manitoba, in 1870, did not fight for two hundred forty acres of land, but it is to be understood there were two societies who treated together. One was small, but in its smallness it had its rights. The other was great, but in its greatness it had no greater rights than the rights of the small, because the right is the same for everyone.”
Louis (The man) Riel
True that A.