Congratulations to Zane Schweitzer for successfully defending his title of Master of the Ocean in the Overall category for the second consecutive year. Talented as he is, Zane finished first in the Windsurfing division, second in standup paddle surfing division, third in the surfing division and fourth in kiting, with his sister Shelby Schweitzer finishing second in the Women's division. Read his report below:

Coming back to the Dominican Republic is such a treat for me, it's always nice to see familiar faces and reconnect with friends on my travels, the people along with experiences are truly what makes trips like this special. Cabarete calls for the gathering of an epic group of passionate and talented watermen, especially when the Master Of The Ocean is on in town! Everyday with the #MasterOfTheOcean is the best day ever for me; hanging out at the beach all day surfing all the wave riding vehicles that the conditions will allow us to and being pushed by our friends.

When training for this event since last years’ competition my sister, Shelby Schweitzer was inspired to also start picking up her experience and skills in her windsports, since she already is a ripper in surf and standup paddle surfing she was confident for a good result! What's so special about this competition is that it pushes us athletes to not only excel in our strong suits, but more importantly motivates us to be experienced all around, even if that means we get to become a kook again and learn from a lower level of experience than we are used to in our area of expertise. There are not many people in the world that have become an expert in the 4 major surf sports of the world; surf, standup paddle surf, windsurf and kitesurf, but if there is anyone close to it, they most likely are competing here at the Master of the Ocean!

The weather wasn’t totally cooperating with us the first few days that we arrived; our days set aside where we planned to practice kiting and windsurfing... It was raining and overcast coming into the start of the event, but with a major blessing from the gods, we scored some of the best waves I’ve seen and surfed in the Dominican Republic during our first two days of competition, along with beautiful sunny skies that cleared up for us just in time for the opening day of competition. Although the wind was still super light and we didn’t start the wind sport events until our 3rd day of competition, which worked out because we were able to get great conditions for the early rounds of surf and standup paddle surf divisions.

I was super excited to get out and compete in my first heat of kitesurfing because I knew I would do better than my results the past 2 years. I still have not yet reached the point of confidence as where I would have liked to be since I have not had much time to practice kitesurfing with my crazy hectic schedule training and competing on the SUWT/SUWS. I had a great start and rhythm coming from my first ever advancement in a kitesurf heat and even won my heat of the first round putting me straight to Round 3 and earning my best result yet in kiting. I wasn’t expecting to make to the finals of kiting because I still consider myself a bit of a kook in the sport, but that's why it's so exciting; after every session I feel major improvement!

The windsurfing on the other hand was a blast!! We scored some epic wave riding and some exciting action to kick off the start of windsurfing, especially with guys like Diony [Guadagnino] from Venezuela and the local rippers, Tiki and Franzi, here to conquer the windsurf division for their hometown.

We had three solid days of competition banging out more than half of our event in some really fun conditions for all our sports, I was grateful to have came here well prepared with a diverse quiver for most conditions, including big sails by North Sails for light wind and some big boards by Starboard, courtesy of Vela Windsurf who were nice enough to lend Shelby and I a bigger board than we brought. For most of the competition in windsurf I rode my North Sails 4.7m² and 5.6m², in kitesurf my Airush 10m² wave kite, for SUP my Pro model Starboard Pro 7’1” x 24” Carbon and for surf my Starboard Surf AMP 5’7” Active Carbon.

We were fortunate enough to finish off the windsurfing event with great conditions and I was awarded the champion of the windsurf leg of the event with three good wave rides and a big back loop that truly secured my 1st place finish! As quick as the waves and wind came, they were gone, or at least for what we were hoping for at our primary event site of Encuentro Beach...

We moved the competition site to a location that was able to pick up a bit more of the current minimal swell, but like I mentioned before, even on the worst day in Dominican Republic you can always find something to surf, #SomwhereInDR. We finished off the event in conditions that were not ideal but none the less we got it done with style and with the modo of the MOTO in mind, fly high and surf! I ended up finishing 2nd in the standup paddle surf event after a great performance from Francisco from Venezuela in conditions that were hard for me to find a wave! That's how it goes sometimes with surf events in minimal conditions!

For the surf I ended up finishing 3rd and in the kitesurf I finished 4th place. With the overall tally of scores at the closing ceremony which took place at Millennium hotel during a huge concert on the beach with hundreds of people. I was also very proud of my little sister, Shelby, for doing so awesome, competing in every discipline and achieving 2nd place for the women's division of the overall event! We had an epic night of celebrations then a hectic early morning packing everything up and heading back home to Maui!! A hui hou Cabarete!!!

Aloha and Mahalo,

- Zane Kekoa Schweitzer

- All pictures by Tony Roberts Photos -