Puerto Rico ‘24-25
I landed in San Juan in the afternoon of December 1 and felt like I’d be ready to hit the water right away! My whiplash symptoms had mostly subsided and it seemed like I was ready to ease back into all of my sports. Stepping out of the airport is always a nice transition: warm air, palm trees and Puerto Rico flags everywhere you look! For December through February, I rented a 2BR apartment at Playa Montones and was looking forward to having friends visit throughout the season. I planned for a five month stay and booked a 1BR tiny home for March and April, just a short drive up the hill from Jobos Beach. The upcoming forecast looked windy with chest-high to overhead surf, pretty much the best I could hope for!
View from the apartment at Playa Montones, Isabela
For 2-3 weeks, I was feeling good while kitesurfing but was having trouble sleeping and it seemed like my body was struggling to recover from each day. I was limiting myself to 2 hour sessions each day (instead of the usual 3-4 hr) and felt a little better while riding than I did in Chile. However, my heart rate was staying elevated late into the evenings, joints were feeling increasingly stiff and achy, muscles didn’t seem to relax and recover after exercise and I was noticing some cognitive issues as well. Lyme Disease can stick around in the body for a long time and my best guess was that I was still healing from the Spring 2024 infection. I hoped that eating well, doing plenty of stretching and yoga, and staying hydrated would be all I needed for my condition to improve over time, and for most of December it felt like I was on track!
A few months earlier, I had ordered the Tow Boogie from Australia and couldn’t wait to hit the water with it! While I had 2 or 3 great sessions, it was challenging to operate it comfortably while managing my symptoms and I had many short sessions where I had to call it quits before riding much at all. It seemed that I was becoming fatigued very quickly from the strong pulls of the tow rope, and my cognitive issues were making it challenging to keep track of the Boogie’s location and drive it accurately. One day I accidentally squeezed the throttle with the Boogie facing me, and I was thankful my board blocked it from hitting me! (photo below) Getting it out of the water in Puerto Rico is a challenge too: most of the shoreline is a rocky shelf with sea urchins, and the few sandy sections often feature a heavy shore break. While I was disappointed to get very little use out of my new toy, I could see the potential from the successful sessions and am looking forward to using it more this upcoming winter!
Tow Boogie to the nose!
The swell was relatively large for all of December and I don’t think I had my first prone surf foil session until late in the month. After two years of feeling confident pumping around, linking waves and dialing in my technique, I could barely paddle or pop up catching waves, and I knew something was seriously wrong. Around Christmas I started to experience severe headaches, full-body tension and discomfort, red and inflamed skin, sinus congestion, brain fog and memory issues. I had already exhausted all options in the US healthcare system in 2024 to address Lyme Disease, compounded by Covid, Strep and shoulder injuries, and already experienced neck whiplash kitesurfing in 2022, so I started to try acupuncture and laser therapy in Puerto Rico, as well as receiving frequent massages from my friends at Healing Wavez (Facebook/Instagram).
Sadly, this happened right as my friends and colleagues from Cabrinha arrived on the island! We had an incredible sunrise tow foiling session with The Anada Experience, but I struggled to get up on foil and spent the rest of the session flying my drone while trying not to become sick. I still didn’t know what exactly was going on with my body and it felt like equal parts injury and illness. It was disappointing to miss out on a bunch of really good sessions with my friends, but at least I had a couple of kite days with them and managed to fly my drone during a few of their sessions. Much of this content was used for 2025 Cabrinha marketing and I honed my video editing skills to keep myself busy while I rested and healed. Puerto Rico is a beautiful backdrop for photoshoots and I’d love to keep inviting team riders to visit!
Shooting the 2025 Cabrinha Wing Lineup
A couple weeks later, I was lucky to get a redemption tow foil session and felt better while riding, but I now know that the high-speed wipeouts that day triggered a “freeze response” in my body. As the day progressed, it felt like my entire body was swelling up and my mind was becoming foggy. The symptoms described above returned in full force overnight, and any attempt to surf, kite or wing in the coming weeks was followed by an intense flareup of pain and inflammation.
In March I decided to get a neck MRI, but after the results came back negative I started to think about leaving the island earlier than planned to seek treatment in the US. I was back in the states by mid-April and was fortunate to discover Myofascial Release therapy (MFR) later that month! MFR is considered the “missing link” in healthcare and can address a wide range of symptoms and conditions, just about anything that involves an inflammatory response. It was clear from the first session that MFR was exactly what I needed, and writing this now in October, I can say that it has healed my body to an extent I didn’t know was possible. My range of motion and flexibility across my entire body has never been better, and in many ways I feel like I’ve turned back the clock on aging and am in my early 20s again!
I was disappointed to leave Puerto Rico without getting much of water time, but at least I’m set up to try it again this year! As I was packing up, I rented a storage unit in Arecibo and left 4 surfboards, 3 kites, 3 foil boards and a wing to use this upcoming season. My Tow Boogie is also sitting at a friend’s house and I’m excited to whip myself into some waves soon! I’m not sure of my exact plans yet, but it’s looking like I’ll spend at least a few weeks in Puerto Rico sometime between January and April 2026.
