Blake’s Crossing: The Crossing for Cystic Fibrosis

Blake Carmichael finished first in the Competitive Men’s 14’ SUP Solo Division of The Crossing for Cystic Fibrosis. But it was about much more than winning a race.

Blake Carmichael’s professional calling is developing user-friendly dive systems to explore underneath the waves. It was on top of the ocean that he achieved one of the most meaningful achievements of his life.

 

Hundreds of participants converge in Bimini every year to participate in The Crossing for Cystic Fibrosis, an open ocean event where paddleboarders and kayakers cross from the Bahamas to Lake Worth Beach, Florida. The 80-mile challenge was created by Travis Suit to help those living with cystic fibrosis.

Suit’s daughter Piper was diagnosed with cystic fibrosis when she was four years old. Suit created the Piper’s Angels Foundation with a mission of helping patients and families in the cystic fibrosis community. The ocean’s incredible health benefits to those living with the terminal lung disease was the inspiration behind creating the ocean event. Now hundreds of paddlers participate, while hundreds of captains and crew also participate in support boats – all raising funds to support the Piper’s Angels Foundation. 

Carmichael is the CEO and founder of Dive Blu3, which creates battery powered tankless diving systems allowing divers to dive up to 30 feet for 60 to 90 minutes. When Blu3’s social media manager, Emily Smith, introduced The Crossing for Cystic Fibrosis to Carmichael as something the company might want to sponsor, Carmichael was interested.

It was Romi Wallach, a longtime Crossing participant who raised more than $30,000 in the most recent event, who convinced Carmichael to not only be a sponsor of the event, but to become a paddler as well.

“I was so jacked up after talking to Romi that I was like, ‘Man, I’m going to do this this year,’” Carmichael said.

Carmichael started training for the 2022 Crossing for CF, but after only having two months of training before the event and falling ill, he decided to regroup for the 2023 event instead. He began training for the June 2023 event in December, attending clinics that The Crossing for CF hosts with world renown paddlers like Kim Barnes. 

“You don’t realize how much goes into paddleboard racing or long-distance paddling. There’s a lot of little aspects to your technique, and then how you adjust that in different conditions, like with wind and waves,” Carmichael said. 

The transition from ordinary paddleboards to narrower and faster race boards was also part of the clinics, and as part of his training he spent many hours in the gym as well. Making sure his gym time focused on his legs, core and back was key as he prepared for the 15 or more hours of constant paddling.

Once Carmichael was comfortable with the new paddleboard, as well as the fundamentals he learned, he planned to gradually increase the amount and time he paddled before the event.

“I had a concern of overuse injury so I didn’t want to paddle too much and ramp up my volume like crazy, so I was doing long paddles every two weeks and then during the week I would do shorter ones at a higher intensity,” Carmichael said.

Two-and-a-half months before The Crossing, Carmichael injured his shoulder and pec muscle while paddle racing. Carmichael could hardly lift his hand over his head because of his injury and he had to pause his training, unsure if he’d make it to the 2023 event.

Carmichael’s injury healed by the time of the event, however it had limited his training more than he would have liked. Still, he made the trip to Bimini.

“Mentally you just have to prepare yourself from a meditation perspective and relax your mind and tap into gratitude,” Carmichael said. “All in all, I felt pretty prepared.” 

Participants begin the crossing at midnight, and with no moon in the sky the night of the crossing, the six to seven hours before sunrise were spent paddling in darkness. 

“That was one of the more difficult parts of the entire paddle,” Carmichael said. “A few storms had passed through just before we launched off Bimini, so the ocean was really confused. There were swell directions coming from two different directions and then you had boat wakes because all of the boats were launching off.”

Carmichael’s father, Robert, captained the support boat, while his father’s friend Doug Brandon and David Golubev, sales and marketing manager for BLU3, were a part of the crew. The nighttime launch caused Carmichael to fall into the water quite often, but the crew aboard his support boat helped call out waves and keep him focused. 

“I was extremely frustrated and concerned because you don’t go very fast if you’re falling off the board, and I was concerned I was spending so much energy just trying to stay balanced on the board,” Carmichael said. “I yelled up to the guys on the boat and I said ‘Hey, if you see a wave coming, just yell it out.’” 

Those instructions were clear for Golubev, and for the next 13 hours he did just that, yelling out for every single wave he saw so Carmichael could brace himself.

“I think having those guys on the boat and seeing they’re clearly as determined as you are, part of it is you don’t want to let them down,” Carmichael said.

Carmichael began the trek not feeling very competitive, but instead grateful to be there and fulfilled to be a part of an organization supporting a great cause. Although he is a competitive person, Carmichael wasn’t sure whether his injury was going to kick in and make him stop at some point in the paddle. However, once the sun rose at the 30-to-40-mile mark and he still felt fine, Carmichael turned a corner.

“That’s when I got pretty competitive and started to push myself,” he said. “The whole time I was monitoring my heart rate and I could watch my heart rate rise. My goal was to keep it in the 135 to 140 range, and I was kind of letting myself go a little bit higher because I felt good.”

At mile 60, Carmichael didn’t feel as great as mile 40, but he still felt good. However, at some point between mile 60 and 67, Carmichael’s mentality changed.

“I just went complete tunnel vision, I started crying like crazy, something just kind of came over me and as I was paddling tears started running down my face,” he said. “I think it’s just something that happens with a long-distance event like that, but also at the same time, just so many emotions of gratitude, just thinking about everybody who supported me and inspired me, and of course you’re thinking about the people with cystic fibrosis.” 

Soon after, he was taken off the water due to a storm that was deemed dangerous to participants. Although Carmichael was overcome with frustration and disappointment of having to enter the boat, even if it was just for relocation, he trusted the decision made by the safety officers.

“I think most people, including me, if they could have decided in that moment to stay in the water and just paddle through the storm rather than get back into the boat and then have to get back in the water – I think they would have chosen to stay in the water,” Carmichael said. 

In the boat, he sat down and realized how heavy his legs felt. He could feel them stiffening up during the crossing, but in the boat he realized they had become swollen. Through tears of disappointment he propped his legs up and Doug Brandon started massaging his legs to keep his blood flowing. 

Forty minutes after he was called back into the boat, Carmichael’s new location was deemed safe. Although it was pouring rain and windy when he reentered the water, there was no lightning. Carmichael soon realized he had bigger problems than the weather. 

“As I’m getting back on the board my body could barely move, my legs were completely tight,” Carmichael said. “The whole lower half of my body was pretty much rock solid, which I remember it made my board feel more stable actually, because my legs were just weighing it down – it was a weird feeling.”

Carmichael’s paddle technique deteriorated as he continued paddling due to his inability to use his lower body as much as he did before. Carmichael’s memory of the last two hours before he reached Lake Worth Beach are spotty, but one thing he does remember is something that pushed him to reach the finale.

“I remember paddling through some super hard rain and looking over and seeing Travis (Suit) up on his boat. We were paddling right next to him, and he was just clapping and cheering me on,” he said. “I remember seeing it out of the corner of my eye and I didn’t really acknowledge it because I was in this tunnel vision, just focus on one stroke after another, don’t fall over, but inside it just made me so hyped up to see him there.”  

When Carmichael reached Lake Worth Beach, family members, other participants, and volunteers were gathered to cheer him on. Later in the week, Carmichael was awarded First Place in the Competitive Men’s 14’ SUP Solo Division, with a time of roughly 13 hours and 30 minutes. Carmichael also raised close to $10,000 for The Crossing and the Piper’s Angels Foundation. His company, Dive BLU3, was also presented with the Outstanding Sponsor award. 

Carmichael plans to continue paddling and looks forward to defending his spot at next year’s Crossing. His experience crossing the Gulf Stream became unforgettable, but so did his experience with the cause behind his trek.

“To be completely honest with you, I didn’t really know what cystic fibrosis was,” Carmichael said. “But it doesn’t take long after you’re involved with The Crossing for you to really feel like you can make a difference and that you start to really care for these people, even if you’ve never met somebody with it.”

Blake’s incredible paddling experience was documented by South Florida production team, Locale Films. Every single event in the Bahamas leading up to the crossing itself was caught on camera. Their documentary short film “The Tenth Year” covering The Crossing’s 10-year anniversary and Team BLU3 will be released at the end of this year.

Triton’s new charter issue is now out! Click here to read it. 

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