Help A Fellow Boarder in Hurricane Ravaged BVIs
 

As you may know, most of the British Vigin Islands were utterly destroyed. Thousands of people lost their homes, boats, and businesses. This is the story of one of those people. He made a living out of wakeboarding. Hurricane Irma took away his livelihood and his passion. We’re trying to help him out.

My wife and I have spent some time in the Caribbean, most recently in the British Virgin Islands. We’ve enjoyed incredible scenery and met some amazing people over the years. On our last trip down, we decided to hire out the only wakeboard captain in the islands - Orandae Pitt. His website, SeaLingo Watersports, made him seem like any other charter business. But once we met him and boarded his boat, we knew he was different. His boat, a humble Ski Nautique, was one of only two ski boats in the British Virgin Islands (the other reportedly belonging to Richard Branson). Orandae took the bare hull from the scrap yard and set out to restore it several years ago. Orandae saved his own money to rebuild the boat from the ground up. He saved for a motor. He saved for interior. He taught himself fiberglass repair. And he painstakingly restored. What came out was not only a meticulously rebuilt boat, but a source of immense pride. It was also how Orandae would make his living for the next few years.

Orandae is just one of those people whose kindness strikes you immediately. We only spent a few hours boarding with him, but he never stopped smiling. He made you want to ride harder and more often. His work ethic and personality are something special. I know he could have done anything he wanted with his life, and he chose to build his own boat and teach others to wakeboard. And then Irma took Orandae’s boat. Split the hull

There are a lot of noble relief efforts in the BVI, Antigua, Texas, Florida, and St. Maarten, for sure. So many deserving folks whose lives were devastated in the past few weeks. But we felt a personal connection to help out a fellow boarder. Boarding and surfing has introduced us to so many great people over the years. It has given us priceless time with our friends and family. It seemed logical than, that we help out a fellow member of our community whose life was turned upside down by the recent hurricane. We hope you agree.

Please go to https://www.gofundme.com/bviwakeboarding to learn more and donate if you can.

Thank you,

Patrick Cuezze