Last month, I traveled to Miami to participate in the Olympic Development Program (ODP) with my crew Holland Vierling, and we were there among 13 of the best teams in the 29er class from all over the United States.
The first day at ODP was different from our training in San Diego, we had lots of Olympic class coaches and three different meetings were scheduled each day.
Once we completed the meetings it was time to race. When we raced we applied what we learned about cloud formations and speed. We ended up scoring some pretty good races and at the end of the day we were around 6th place.
On the second day, it was a little bit more chill. We did really well because we determined that the right side of the course was super favored. At the end of the day we still stood in a strong 6th/7th place.
On the last day, the conditions were gnarly. When we were heading back we got stuck in the waviest part of the channel and pitchpoled. Thankfully our coach Noah was able to swap in for my crew and right the boat which allowed me to sail back with him. Overall, we had a great race and were ready to celebrate our ODP experience and Holland's birthday!
Finally, we managed to get 5th place out of 14 boats, which I think was a great performance considering we started racing 29ers only 9 months ago. I am super grateful for the experience at ODP because I had the opportunity to learn to sail better and meet other sailors from all over the world!