Lost audio from the spiritual heart of the Seventy48, Dean Burke.

If you see some poignant, heartfelt audio laying around, please return it to us, because we lost it somewhere between the Seventy48 finish line and here.

Man, that sucks, because we just ran into Dean Burke, and he had so much amazing stuff to say.

If you don't know Dean, he's a huge part of the heart and energy behind this thing. After finishing paddling the Strait of Juan de Fuca last year during R2AK, becoming one of the first human beings to do that on a SUP, he floated the idea to organizers for a human powered pre-race between his beloved hometown and Port Townsend, and after a herculean organizing effort, here 117 teams of you are a year later. 

Dean was (almost unbelievably) racing in this event after also organizing it, but had to pull after 50 miles on his paddle board at Point no Point due to a shoulder injury. I can tell you though that he's feeling good about the experience. The massive community support and response has clearly been incredibly moving for both Dean and his wife Heidi, because they were both tearing up talking about it. 

Don't worry - we'll track him down again for some audio commentary, but in the meantime, if you see this guy wandering around, watch the injured right shoulder, but give him a hug and tell him he's amazing, because this thing he helped dream up has the makings of an iconic event in this crazy community of water people. And paddling a SUP 50 miles over night isn't a bad effort after coordinating an event of this magnitude.