Wednesday 23 September 2009

brightair goes off....

No wind as expected but as I said before the event there was certainly loads to do which was cool. Climbing walls, simulators, zorbes, wakeboarding, high divers, bands, parties, freestyle jet skiers doing barrel rolls in the air off flat water and the list goes on and on and on, wish they had that stuff at every event, wouldn't that be cool.
Despite the lack of wind some little people + Max Rowe went out for some crazy light wind freestyle spinning tricks, whilst Al Bentley, Joe O'Callaghan and myself hunted down a jet skiier to tow us. We managed to get out for a couple of runs but there was so much going on that only Joe and I got a go. It's not the easiest thing in the world but more fun than light wind freestyle.
Jeri plans are coming together, finalising when I'm leaving/who I'm going and staying with, anybody know of a cheap way to get from the airport to Jeri that isn't the bus?

Wednesday 16 September 2009

Mini Pozo

Got out today for a few hours at Mini Pozo (Greatstone), was on 4.7 but could have been on 4.2 easy. Was awesome fun, big shakas on the way out as well as backies, pushies and practiced those port tack forwards... being a south coast boy we don't get this port tack stuff very often which makes it a bit harder when I go to these comps which are more often port tack than starboard...
We had some nice ramps though, head high out back and some good sections to hit on the way in!

Next up is the White'Bright'Air event, seems there is going to be no wind so probably no competition this year but looks like there will be heaps to watch and do though.

Tuesday 15 September 2009

2010 RRD Twintip 100l first thoughts


Picked up my new 2010 Twintip last week on the day the first shipment arrived into the UK and you can see what I thought of it on the sSs site, click HERE.
The main points were that it somehow allows you to pull off the bigger moves, air funnels, shakas, Konos, etc... when your not even fully powered, which is a massive bonus. I mentioned I would test its sliding ability in it, I got out the next day and well it certainly slides well, got my first one handed eslider 540 and a wet but claimable one handed 'air' bob (was the right technique just not high enough to claim the whole air rotation).

Click here for some boardseeker coverage just put up. Thanks guys.

Also thanks to Guy Peters for the pic.

Lastly check out another friend of mine from Uni who has been recording a few songs. Not bad Tim.

See some of you at White(Bright)air

Wednesday 9 September 2009

Lazy Daze Vid online and working fine!!



Link to my new freestyle video from the early summer up now on youtube (be sure to watch it in HD) (click here).
It's been a long time coming but it's finally there, I started making it as soon as I got back a couple months ago but then got a new program (Final cut express) and had to learn how to use it all. It's pretty awesome though.

Also check out these new hoodies/clothing brand from a Uni friend of mine, pretty simple but catchy.

Photos: Danielle Lucas

Tuesday 8 September 2009

National Windsurfing Festival 2009


What an awesome event.

Each year this event seems to work so well, even if there is hardly any wind or if it's howling and despite the presence of a main sponsor Alan Cross did and awesome job at getting it all organised, a massive thanks to him.

I decided to enter the night windsurf 'super-x' and had to qualify during the day. Then there was also the tag team event, representing RRD on an x-fire and 7.5  ezzy freeride with 2 other sponsored riders and a randomly selected freeride fleet sailor we managed to get off to a good start (3rd place) and by the end we had gained the two places, finishing with a first overall. Just to top it off team Ezzy managed to come in second. the night 'super-x' also went pretty well with a 5th overall, especially as it was more of a slalom race and that's not really my discipline. The straight line speed wasn't so much an issue, just the gybing, I prefer to jump around. Then there was an awesome party hosted by Boardseeker and just to top it all off there was a freestyle comp on the Sunday, which I managed to win the £100 cash prize for, which pretty much paid for the event for me!

Still new to this blog thing but the pic above is of the Friday when it was 4.2 weather all afternoon (landing a one handed air funnel), I managed to land my first air chachoo one handed and one footed...probably a little bit by accident but I sailed away from it and someone was filming and got it on their helmet cam... Couple more pics up soon.

New 2010 Twintip arrives on Thursday, I'll test it as soon as I get it and give you my thoughts.

Wednesday 2 September 2009

Busted UJ...

Got out at Camber early last week and was on 4.2 for about half an hour when my UJ snapped right out back. Was about a kilometer out and I managed to wave a friend over for some help. As we tried to tie the rig onto the back of his board for him to tow it in a wave broke over us and swept my board away... I had no chance of getting to it as in about 5 seconds it was about 30 meters away. Alex said he would sail in and call the coastguard, he tried to assure me it would be fine but I decided that leaving me on my own was probably not the best call as there was a strong rip and it was a pretty lumpy sea. 
20 minutes later I found my board about 100 meters downwind of where I managed to swim into. Thanks to Alex for staying near me whilst I swam in and stopping to let me rest on his board.
The lesson learnt: get a better UJ!