Kenny Emerson and his team paddle the Gulf Stream for a night they’ll never forget
enny Emerson admits he didn’t know what he was in for when he signed up to paddleboard from Bimini to Lake Worth last summer. His son, Chris, had mentioned it almost a year before, but COVID postponed that one until June of 2021. When he mentioned it again, Emerson thought it was a worthwhile father-son experience, and it also benefited a heartfelt charity, Piper’s Angels Foundation for Cystic Fibrosis, which was founded in West Palm Beach by local entrepreneur Travis Suit to
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raise funds for cystic fibrosis, with which his daughter Piper had been diagnosed at age 4. Launched in 2013, the long-distance paddleboarding race, “Crossing For Cystic Fibrosis,” covers 83 miles across Florida’s Gulf Stream, and takes an average of 1516 hours. The event begins with a midnight launch from the Bimini Big Game Club Resort & Marina, and lands mid-afternoon the next day at Lake Worth Beach. It’s an endurance race, comprised of both “amateur” teams and competitive racers; Emerson’s team would number four: two women, Kerry O’Connor and Romi Glazer Wallach,
AARON BRISTOL
BY MARIE SPEED
summer 2022
5/4/22 12:31 PM
