Friday 24 December 2010

Went for a windsurf yesterday...

...and this is what happened...

CLICK HERE

... thanks to my new sponsor SPARTAN wetsuits for keeping me warm on the water and of course the legendary RRD for making me look suuuuuper cool in those speedos (for Jai...inside joke) and of course www.silte.co.uk for making me look just as raaaad off the water!

Merry Christmas everyone!

Monday 20 December 2010

Skiing/Time off

So just got back from a weeks skiing in St Anton, well we stayed in Lech but it's all the same area.

Two highlights: the powder was over chest deep on the first day and sometimes I found it going over my head as I put in a turn. Never skied in anything quite that deep before, the rest of the week it was waist deep. Absolutely scored it on the snow front then. The other highlight was this toboggan run we went to, where you get the cable car up, have a meal then toboggan down on these tiny little sledges. I made a quick video of me and my brothers having a few crashes on the final bend of the run. Awesome fun and I massively recommend it to anyone who gets a week or two in this year.

http://vimeo.com/18011091 - Short Tobogganing vid with my brothers.

So at home now and ready for some serious christmas meals. Also just noticed the forecast has a couple of good days coming up. Will have a chance to try out my new spartan suits!! Awesome! If anyone is interested in any last minute Christmas presents then there are some awesome watches, tees and hoodies on this site:


more soon...

Friday 10 December 2010

Cold sessions - oh yehhh

Not much to say really just read/watch this - http://www.boardseekermag.com/features/windsurfing-action/sims-cold-session.html

Happy to make a boardseeker feature though. Outside of the cold sessions I do have some news of a new sponsorship deal and a job... I won't leave you in the dark too long, but check back soon for more!

Also heading off to Cape Town on 4th Jan for a bit - hmmmm human eating sharks...

Thursday 2 December 2010

A cold one...

So went to Whitstable yesterday... still alive...!

Got a video coming soon! Was seriously cold and got the ice cream hands and feet every 2/3 runs, not even joking! Summer boots were probably a bad call!

Anyway I'll be staying in today...as I'm stuck here! I'll try out this snow windsurfing though and get some pics! I guess that means Bubble is stuck in his complimentary 5 star accommodation in Sharm for another night. Was supposed to be picking him up from the airport last night!

A few pics...
Rescuing a someone stuck on a hill

-5 recorded in the car before the snow began

Outside my window literally just now..still snowing!

Bubble back to nature..making a log fire (before he left to Egypt)!

A really cold shaka from yesterday (video frame)

Friday 12 November 2010

Something in the pipeline

So here is a little clip of a vision Josh and myself have had for some time.

http://video.mpora.com/watch/GQK5MZZ0W/

We plan to film a video that is almost completely unique, it is something that we don't know how long it will take and how big it will be but we really hope it will be something special. I'm not going to rant on about it, just post snippets from it from time to time. When we decide that we have collected enough footage to begin editing the final picture we will set a deadline...and let the www. know about it!!!

For now, this session was at Whitstable, last night from 8-11pm, 40 knots from the west sailing on my 4.1 Superstyle and 88l Twintip Twinzer. It was fairly warm, in-fact warmer than the session we had this morning at 10am... straaange!

Monday 8 November 2010

Home ground!

Sailed at Camber this morning, nothing unusual about that except it was sub 10 degrees and about 40 knots!!! Super windy, super stacked, super cold and double ice cream hands! Perfect, winter is here then!

Bubble met me down at Rye station, he even decided to get the train for this 'epic' session, getting up at about 6.15 this morning for it! It was good fun..generally... but not quite what we had in mind. We preped the video cameras and waterproof housing the night before, thinking we could do a bit of filming as well but our power hour finished when the tide got a bit on the high side and the wind picked up even more! I think even holding a video camera, let alone trying to press filming buttons in those conditions would have been almost impossible!

It's sessions like that where you think if I can land this move in these conditions or even learn something new then that's one ticked off the list of being able to do it in all conditions. Shame it was the puneta show and I didn't land anything new but did get close to a new combo for me...so learnt something! Time to crack out the gloves and hoods...

Wednesday 3 November 2010

Weymouth power hour!!

On my way home yesterday and thought I would stop off at Weymouth for a quick power hour of glassy flat freestyle.

Feels like ages since I've actually had a fully dedicated freestyle session, aside from the 5 gusts I caught at the lake at Aussie Kiss! Turned out to be an amazing session on the 4.9 Superstyle and 88 Twinfin Twintip. Busting out all the old moves and even a couple new ones helped me keep up to date with a lot of the new moves/combination moves that are coming out at the moment.

It was pretty gusty but that freestyle board was unreal, so spinny, still fast and with loads of pop!! Off for more practice now and even more tmrw! 14/15 degrees and we are in Nov!! 25 knots+ wind forecast for almost everyday this next week and 25 knots+ wind pretty much everyday for the last week!!! Happy days!!

Also noticed someone taking photos at Weymouth yesterday... would love to get hold of them if anyone knows who it was?!

Monday 1 November 2010

BWA Cornwall Classic and series title!!!

So a quick write up on the event...

photo: JC
Seeing the forecast I decided to head down a couple days early via Exmouth and thanks to google maps for taking me the slowest route possible. The conditions were amazing, fully down the line, with head to logo high sets, probably the best I've ever seen anywhere (in real life). It was certainly a good days practice considering as all my wave sailing I do at the moment only seems to happen during competitions.
photo: JC
Competition day (92l RRD Twinfin/84l RRD Hardcore Quad and 5.3/4.9 RRD Superstyle) - the wind pretty much did as forecast and picked up all day...until the final... but with the dropping tide this meant we had some pretty decent conditions for most of the comp. I was pretty careless in my first heat, just going for broke and trying to hit the latest possible aerial I could at the end of every wave, resulting in a lot of crashes. This left it pretty close to the mark and put me a bit on edge. Playing it safer in the second heat saw me score a reasonable early wave but then I couldn't pull it together for the next wave. So for the rest of the heat up until about 20 seconds to go I was struggling with the one good wave and nothing else particularly special. Getting worked for about 4 minutes with no wind to water-start didn't help matters. This was after they had already abandoned our heat once already. Anyway with about 20 seconds to go I tacked onto a wave, nothing too big but made the most of it, scoring a small aerial right at the end.

I came in from this heat to hear Scotty had been pretty unlucky in his last heat with not much wind to help him get out and some close out waves. This meant I went into the final already having taken the series title!!! It was good in a sense that I could sail the final just for the fun of it, but I would have liked to see Scotty in the final. As it was I still wanted to win the event and with the Sheridon brothers in the final with myself and Emile Kott (not Lewis... ;) ) it wasn't going to be easy. With the wind completely backing off as some rain began to kick in they got the final underway in the lightest of conditions. The waves were still holding up, head high at best, but getting out was a nightmare, and I found myself getting worked for a lot of the heat, having to uphaul to get going and only catching 3/4 waves in 14 minutes. My second wave was quite nice, with a couple of turns and an aerial and then all I could grasp from the other waves was a single nice turn on the shoulder of one wave... So when I came in I had no idea who had got it. It was only when someone mentioned that the only other person to get out was Emile and he had only got one wave that I realised I had clenched the event title as well!!

So overall, super happy with my results this year and really happy with choosing to go for the amateur fleet as waves aren't really what I practice and this gave me the chance to practice and sail more heats at each event. It certainly wasn't easy with the battle against Scotty but it was good fun and never too serious.

photo: Globalshots, Jay Haysey

Thanks to everyone that has helped this year, particularly my sponsors providing me with all my RRD needs, Jai and Wouter at SeaSpriteSports and also Mike at TurfDog. Also Jem Hall for some acceptable abuse and good pointers/coaching tips. The support from my parents and girlfriend and all the good work from the guys behind the BWA. Last but not least, good work to Big Davey (fellow RRD team rider) for winning the masters at this event and overall 2nd!

Friday 22 October 2010

Pics, Tiree and more

Having received a few really nice shots from JC yesterday has kind of inspired me to write up how Tiree panned out for me.


We had a pretty epic drive up, stopping at Boardwise on the way for Bubble to pick up some gear and for Greg to grab some much needed fast food. It was cool to see the Boardwise shop, sooo much gear there!!! Arriving in Oban we stayed at John Bainbridges house the night, which we all massively appreciate as it meant sleeping in beds instead of upright in the van!!! Up early and on to the ferry then as soon as we arrived we drove straight to the Maze, where we scored some pretty decent conditions, head high 4.9 conditions on the 84l hardcore quad. The next day, we were hoping for the same before the start of the competition, but the wind failed to come through and the swell was not really happening, so sacking in the down the line mast foot high Maze we went for some shoulder high side on jumping at Crossapol, it was good fun on the 5.3 and my 88l freestyle twinfin as the ramps were very few and far between so I managed to make the most of them being on the plane the whole time.

Then the competition began... a serious amount of mincing was undertaken, especially with virtually no phone signal and limited internet access, as we were all trying to use it at the same time! That said the organisers arranged some form of entertainment after lunch each day; volleyball, rounders, football and of course the tow in windsurfing. JC got to warm his camera gear up with some incredible photos from all over the island which we got to see on the last day.


The tow in was a lot of fun and certainly took the edge of being stuck on a windless waveless island, it was also a good chance to get a grip at it as some events seem to be giving prize money for tow in windsurfing... the first session we did was pretty funnel-tastic, i tried a couple of burners/ponches, whatever you wanted to call them in the zero wind conditions, but kept flying out the straps. the next session we had I tried some different moves and landed a couple of shakas and got some switch konos with a landing that would have been nice if there was some wind...

Mincing over and we got some surf before the final day, just enough to get the SUP out then the short boards.

Everything was down to the final days forecast, we had a lot of expectations and the chat in the bar and at the house the night before was getting a little out of hand, talk of half mast to logo high waves and planning conditions didn't quite appear but we did get some nice head high down the line starboard tack conditions, which meant I had a chance to practice my goiters, after nailing a few in my first heat...off the back of the wave... I thought I would try one last one, and although I didn't land on the wave I got super close and found myself mushing around in white water before slipping off the back...

The heats went well, and although quite a few people said I had won we I came into the beach, I was pretty unsure as I knew what Scotty's turns were like from Ireland and that he was not easy to beat. My choice to use a freestyle board meant I sacrificed those rail to rail turns to catch more waves, my tactic worked as I racked up my number of waves with about 5 minutes to go I realised I still hadn't scored that really nice wave that makes you think 'yes that's one in the bag'. I got one not a minute later and then a one that was close on the next wave, which left me feeling pretty unsure when I came into the beach. I knew my previous heat had been better so I just had to wait and see...

In the end Scotty got a well deserved first and I came second. This does mean he is having to make the trip to Cornwall in a weeks time for the final 'showdown' as we both hold the same results, a first and second each...

Nice pic from JC during the semi final heat
Thanks to JC for all the pics.

Right off to Aussie Kiss now for the next stage of the RRD Road trip, a student style demo weekend. My van is literally rammed with more kit than you can shake a stick at. In fact more gear than I've ever had in my van.

Thursday 14 October 2010

Tiree fun and games

So tiree has been pretty quiet as you may be aware... But looks like we are meeting at the beach for first possible start at 3!

For a lot of no wind days we seem to have been getting up to quite a bit, I managed to lose my bumper the other night but it was swiftly repaired by mechanics bubble and bryony shaws boyfriend (what a guy), he's called greg king!

Other highlights have to be the tow in freestyle most evenings, wakeboarding and tow in surfing minus the surfing waves part!

Now the community centre is open we've been doing some sweet table tennis practice and smashing some table football goals....

Oh can't forget George and muzzas attemps at flight using two windsurf rigs! It was all filmed so I'm sure it'll be up somewhere soon!

Just noticed a cheeky clip on coninentseven of a puneta during my heat, take a look!

Better head to beach soon, just incase we get rolling today (just said that mid de-bag from sam Neal...niiice)

so yeh more soon

Wednesday 6 October 2010

The long road to Tiree and 88TTT test

Could be my last post until after Tiree as I still don't have my mac back...good work Apple....

Had an epic journey up here!! 13 hour drive, one stop at Tunbridge Wells and one at Boardwise in Cannock! Literally never had the van more rammed with kit..something like 15/16 boards in total and too many sails to count, all in a SWB low roof Transit!

Bubble got dropped off by Max at mine yesterday on their way back from Sylt...pretty sure he is a professional van passenger now?!
 
It's pretty windy on the island by the sounds of it and the forecast looks good for the next couple of days but light after that... we've got video cameras, so I'm sure we will capture some stuff and get it up from a riders perspective.
 
Updates on other recent stuff, I've used the new RRD Twintip 88l Twinfin board. Absolutely awesome board, it gave me a lot of pop for my moves and you could really feel it for shakas. Yet in the earlier moves, spocks, flakas it just felt really slidy and controlable. I'll get out on it this week and get some more up on it, but I'm certainly getting the 100l in the twinfin version as well!!!

Saturday 25 September 2010

Fat Face photo shoot

Here is a quick snapshot of what was going on yesterday at the fat face photoshoot. It was a really fun day and the photographers were brilliant, if not a little crazy ;) shouting at us to get closer and closer on each run until eventually I shot by about 4 inches from the lens and had to look back to double check nothing had actually glanced him.

To keep it short we got up pretty early and drove down to Portsmouth where Thomas Cawte and I were picked up in a rib and taken over to Cowes, where we met the boat (in the background of the pic). We rigged up pretty quick on a private beach. Then sailed about in front of the boat for a couple of hours pulling off a load of moves for the cameras.

The boat then pulled into Portsmouth harbour where I ended up baring my chicken legs for the camera as I was asked to be in the sock shot for the catalouge. So make sure you grab a copy of the spring summer catalouge next year and pop into the shop to see the pics and a video..loads more like the above.

Off to Whitstable for a cheeky windsurf now!!

Thursday 23 September 2010

blogging hell!!

So a quick blog update!! My comp has been down for sometime now, so using oneof my brothers but to keep anyone who is interested in the loop I came thrid at the freestyle nationals, which I was really happy about as I made the podium, which I knew wasn't going to be easy. I was second in the tow in freestyle which was cool. Third time I've ever done that and tried ducking the sail for some new skool moves....hmmm...

Aside from that I've just started to hit the road on the UK RRD road trip... turning up at a shop near you, and showing off all of the 2011 gear. Got out on the hardcore quad the other day... awesome board, I'll be going with those for this year then. I have yet to try the twinfin freestyle board RRD are bringing out this year but as soon as I do I'm sure I'll write something up on here. I hear they work suuuper well!!

Off for a fat face photo shoot tmrw in the middle of a secret location.. ;) should be fun though as I think me and a kitesurfing friend of mine just have to do loads of moves behind the people who are modelling...or something like that!!

Anyway I'll see if I can get more info up on here tmrw eve!

Thursday 9 September 2010

Surprise sessions are the best!!!

Just got back from a power hour on the water at Camber and it was one of the best sessions I have had at home in a looong time. It was so quiet down there, maybe 5 windsurfers and 5 kites. Some good stunt rumps, pushing shoulder high every now and again. Fully powered on my 5.3 RRD superstyle and my RRD 88TT and busting out just about all the moves I can do and more...it was awesome!! Definitely a good confidence booster for this weekend:

http://ukwindsurfing.com/news/2010/0907_national-freestyle-championships-1112-september-2010/

It's rare to get surprise sessions like that but when you do they are some of the best. The forecast for the past few days was for rain all day today but the sun was out from the word go, then the gentle breeze that was forecast got a kick from the sea breeze and I checked the weather update once and saw 18 knots, so went for it. After Monday's disappointment of a drive around most of kent for the afternoon but no wind, I feel I deserved it.

Only bad note, a huge rain cloud killed the wind an hour in...probably a good thing though as it left me feeling fully buzzed!! Also the way that cloud rolled in, set an amazing backdrop, maybe I'll take the video camera next time!

Monday 6 September 2010

National Windsurfing Festival 2010



As per usual the National Windsurfing Festival was on top form this weekend. Loads of people competing, 300+ is what I heard. I had a good event myself, 8th overall in the racing which I'm pretty happy about as I have never done a proper weekend series of races before. It was actually really good fun as well and pretty exciting. The boards and sails that have been designed for slalom racing are really really fast and its very close racing at such high speeds.

It was great to see everyone who you don't get to see much and to just be able to sail on the water with sooo many people.

It was good to see so many spectators as well, I swear more come along each year. This year the beach was lined from top to bottom with them all at the night windsurf and then still a huge amount of people during the day.

A freestyle comp was put together during the event and we were lucky to get about 20 knots of wind again. I managed to bust out a few of my latest moves and in the end it came down to a four man final; me, Ben Profitt, Al Bentley and Oscar Carmichael. It was a close one between me and Ben and he just got it with a solid backloop a planning forward and a very slick switch chachoo in the less than perfect conditions. A couple of pics above of myself styling it up...going for an air chachoo on the way in... :s !!

A bit of wind about this week so I'm off to practice for the freestyle nationals at Poole next week!!!

Friday 3 September 2010

Fuerte Video

So I just put my video up last night and its already gone a bit mental, almost 5000 hits in 12 hours... and that's been over night...

Take a look. Basically it's a whole load of footage caught from before this Summers PWA event that I entered in Fuerteventura, Canary Islands. First PWA event for me and I'm keen to do more (sponsorship anyone?! ha, well out of windsurfing industry stuff only, got the gear covered, cheeeeky)! Anyway check the link below!

http://video.mpora.com/watch/5mO9MKfbX/

Monday 30 August 2010

Home and Worthing

Finally home now from my summer travels and what a journey home it was. I was out in Greece for a few days with my family and girlfriend and it took us from 7am to 2am the next day to get home from Vass. Basically we did it the public transport way, taking the bus from Vass to Lefkada, then Lefkada to Athens, then Athens to the Airport, then the Plane and finally home. Anyway I got home and found myself waking up at 6.30 due to jetlag, then it was straight down to Worthing.

Worthing was good fun, it was good to catch up with a lot of people and see what everyone had been up to. The standard on the UK tour is definately on the increase with some pretty good young guys on the tour making their mark. Unfortunately I ended up coming second, if I'm honest I'm a bit disappointed by this as all the judges missed one of my moves in the final!! I don't think it helped that I sailed my worst heat in the final either as I was landing double flakas in just about every other heat as well as shaka flakas, sw konos, funnels, no handed flakas. Ahh well sounding like a sore loser now making up excuses for it...

Will Rogers who won was certainly sailing very well and even if my move had been seen and scored it still would have been a close call as he was very consistent throughout the competition, not dropping many of his moves.

More comps coming up over the next couple of weeks, hopefully we will get some wind...

Oh yeh one of the highlights of the weekend had to be the sw kono into forward that I was seriously close to sailing away from... might just work on that one!

Friday 20 August 2010

Home and Video...

So back for a whole 48 hours before I head out to Greece for a few days then home on Friday to go to the Worthing freestyle competition! It will be interesting to see who turns up... after that its the legendary night windsurf event, probably the biggest UK event on the calendar in terms of participation and spectators, although I'm sure the SWA are near-about that mark at their Aussie Kiss event each year!!

As said in a previous post my video is going to be up soon, although had a few words with a friend of mine and looks like I'm going to hold back for an extra week or so and see if I can get some shots in Greece. More on that soon...

As it is, I'm heading down to Camber Sands tomorrow for a sneaky UK windsurf with a few of my friends. Really looking forward to getting out there with them and just enjoying it and having fun, then it's on to a house party and a 3am departure for Gatwick airport...sleeps over-rated!

Tuesday 17 August 2010

Turkish Press...the evidence

As promised in my previous post here are some pics of the paper I managed to make it into:



Made it both front page and back page!! But what's this about Slalom sailing in the first pic? Translations welcome if you can read it?

Funny thing is that the first shop we went into they pulled out the paper and asked if it was us... famous in Datca... ohhh yehhhh!!

Turkish press

So yesterday the owner of the Villa we are staying in organised for the local Turkish newspaper to Interview me for a small feature. It was quite amusing with the language barrier but they wanted my thoughts on what windsurfing in Datca was like and if it is a good place to hold events, etc... I'll post a copy up once it has gone to print, maybe someone can translate it for me and see if they got everything I said right?!

Aside from that I managed to get a little windsurf in at the Datca Municipal Windsurf centre, it was actually good fun, the kit was a little dated, I was on a 105l (Unamed) Wave board with a 25cm Wave fin and a 6.5 Ezzy. Anyway I landed a few forward loops, spocks, shuv-its, nothing too special but was good fun  despite that.

Also a little pre warning for anyone interested, my next little vid project with BlackLab Films is in the editing phase and should be up in about a week. In the meantime BlackLab films have released a short video of UK wave sailor Sarah Bibby, which I have seen on her Facebook but will hopefully be online shortly.

Friday 13 August 2010

Boards Contents Page!!!

So if you haven't picked up a copy already I made it onto the double page spread of the contents page of Boards mag, not quite the cover but the next best thing so super happy with that. Go buy yourself a copy!!! Thanks to Josh Wilmott for taking the photo that windy evening, we were hoping to get more pics but we had been filming for an hour or so and then changed to photos and on the thrid run I stacked it, putting my foot down on the bottom at about 20knots and sliced my toe open really deep on a oyster shell. Still have the scar, it went all the way through my new booties as well it was that sharp. Still can't complain when that was the first of the three pics :)

In other news, out here in Turkey at the mo having a two week break with my girlfriend and her family, nice to have a non-windsurfing holiday for the first time in two and a half years other than the week skiing I do every year. This is giving me some time to work on my next video, having got all the clips from Fuerte together. A bit of help from my mate Josh and we should have something I reckon.

After this trip its home for two days and then Greece for just under a week with my family. I'm taking kit and the camera so hopefully stop at Vass and get some action as well, then it's back for the UK comps, Worthing Freestyle, Night windsurf, Poole Windfest...etc...
Ponch in Fuerte at Centre 2

Monday 2 August 2010

PWA Fuerte all done

What an amazing day of action here,the level always seems to be going up at each event and this certainly didn't fail to meet expectations. I will leave the surprises to the likes of the boardseeker vids that will be up shortly!

As for my expectations I definately exceeded them,coming 25th overall has been a great acheivment for me at my first event, my aim this year was to get some experience from the events and I really have learnt a huge amount about competition freestyle sailing and I know what I need to do to help me next time and also what to learn!

I will update this again soon with more details as I'm doing it via my phone but i'm happy about my result and now looking forward to a little bit of rest back home in the uk! I've got a small amount of footage from out here so will try to put together a vid of the trip over the couple of weeks!

Saturday 31 July 2010

The double and the second single at PWA Fuerte!!

So being my first event I'm really enjoying it actually, not as nervous as I thought I might be and I've managed to get through a couple heats which is good. I'm getting some good experience from it all.

So the Double took place and I won my first heat against Sanllehy, getting a culo a shuv-it vulcan and a whole load of other moves and only falling once. Then I had Edvan, I knew I had to up my game a bit but I should have just sailed a safe heat as getting the full quota of moves can get you a long way. I did get probably my biggest shaka of the competition so far though.

The second single started and I got a lucky draw against Antxon who was out due to injury, this meant I only had to sail, so I went out and just went for all the biggest moves I can do to see if I can get them in the event area and under pressure.

Tomorrow brings my heat against Leo Ray I belive which is not going to be easy at all as he is currently lying in 6th place overall!!!

Anyway it's all good experience and now I'm off for Pizzzaaaa!!!

Friday 30 July 2010

single and going into double tomorrow!

So the single saw my first heat being against bubble...seems the PWA like to test new brits that way after max got drawn against him in his first PWA heat...haha!

Anyway was good experience, i didn't go through as I got thrown by a crash that i have never had before and then it was a bit messy after that, although i almost made the full quota of moves on each tack and did them in the area...!!

Into the double tmrw, i think my draw isn't too bad, well saying that i've got edvan in the second heat, thats if i beat the first person.... we shall see, anyway went downwind for a practice today and had an amazing session, fully stacked on 4.5 and landed sooo many of the latest moves...well thats if you dont count the ridiculous combos seen today on the water, gozzada into burner by gollito!!!

More soon...

Thursday 29 July 2010

Day 1 PWA Fuerte

Sitting around at the mo waiting for the wind, feeling sorry for myself with a nice solid cold...good time to get my first one of the year!!!

Everyone was on the water training yesterday, some big moves being landed! Now we just have to wait for the wind to fill in,could be a late one today!

More later ...

Saturday 24 July 2010

The world cup kicks off...

So it's day one of the racing side of the World Cup event out here, we saw the racing kick off from our flat in Costa Calma earlier, looks as thought they are getting a lot of races under the belt already.

Forecast looks pretty good for the next week or so, not the 3.7 weather we have had pretty much every day for the last 2 weeks. Makes a lot of the newer moves easier..once you get setup!

Took a day off yesterday and headed up north to Corralejo and its Water Park, almost worth the entry fee... then did a bit of surfing down the west coast, got my best wave yet I reckon, rode it right in to the inside, then we took the scenic route back. Probably wasn't the best call as the first obstacle we hit was a river bed with some high rocks which our car had no hope of clearing but some how we 'scraped' through.

Off for a long day windsurfing now, got to get in tune with where they are holding the event...

Thursday 15 July 2010

Quiet couple of days

So the last couple of days has been pretty relaxed after I crashed an air flaka at full speed (about 30 knots on my 4.5) on my head. To cut a long story short I went off a bit of a wave and it was super gusty so I went in to it as fast as I could to lose the effect of the wind, but I got hit by a powerful gust at the top of the move and got tilted forwards, next thing I know I've hit my sail head first flat on the water and my neck was killing me! Felt like some sort of whiplash or something! Anyway it's been a bit light yesterday and today so that's helped matters, went for a surf yesterday in basically no swell....

More people are turning up out here for the event, the level is so high, it's crazy!

Off windsurfing now...

Sunday 11 July 2010

FIRST WEEK IN FUERTE!!

Having been here once before I was pretty excited to get to Sotavento and sail. Despite the slightly bizarre wind patterns, that have given us longer lunch breaks than we all really wanted, we have scored some pretty epic conditions. 3.7 - 4.5 everyday except the first, where we chose to head to the north shore for a surf and scored some overhead sets at Cotillo beach! Great chance to get some practice on my new Al Merrick surfboard that Thorpy sold to me. Awesome board!

The set up for the PWA Fuerte event is a little more progressive than the last minute Pozo event, the massive kit marquee is almost setup on the beach already and a few of the PWA boxes are in place. Also people like Phil Soltysiak, Edvan Souza and Quincy Offringa have already been on the training mission out here!

I've really had a good test of my new RRD sails and well they are working an absolute treat!!! I'll see if I can get a couple of clips up fairly soon, or some pics!!

One last thing to note is the strong UK scene out here. Quite a few of the UK guys from the ex-student scene have been busting out some serious moves...

That's all for now as the wind has kicked in, bit later than usual today!

Saturday 3 July 2010

Days 3 and 4 in Pozo

Things are starting to hot up here in preparation for the event,all the pros are turning up and going out, a whole load of 2011 kit on the water and some ridiculous moves going down. Saw Koster get a shaka into flaka on the wave yesterday, in wave speak that would probably be a wave shaka into taka! Doubles everywhere and insane full planing tweaked pushloops where they sometimes come out faster than they went in?? All off what is effectively chop!

That's basically what it's been like this week, sailing stacked in chop...there were a few wave like things that formed yesterday for half an hour or so but that has been about it. I hope they get better conditions for the competition! If not it looks like the Canarian guys will rule... saying that it seems like the UK guys are ripping.

I've managed to get some good sessions in myself, even a freestyle sesh two nights ago. I sailed with Mike Archer right up until it was almost too dark to sail, made me think it would be a great place to put some floodlights up and have a night windsurf edge to the comp they have out here....

Anyway that's it that's all folks (I know, watching too many snowboarding movies), more soon!

Wednesday 30 June 2010

Pozo day 1/2 and move to RRD sails

It's not really going off here in Pozo at the moment, the wind is there (stacked on 4.5 yesterday afternoon) and all the pros are out still busting the usual tricks but off waves that are no more than two foot at best! Didn't stop Koster, Campello and Fernandez busting out doubles and tweaked pushies all over the place!

It was a good intro to the place for me though but now keen to see it really go off!

If you didn't catch my video up on boards and/or boardseeker, then here is the link:
http://video.mpora.com/watch/m25Na7jyH/

It's a short video clip filmed and edited mainly by Josh Willmot at Whitstable on Kents 'North Shore'.

Few more days left in Pozo before heading over to Sotavento...

More updates soon!

Sunday 27 June 2010

3...2...1...outta here

Off to the canaries tomorrow for 6 weeks. First stop Pozo for one week then we are staying in Costa Calma right by Sotavento. I've got a few hours to pack now, I'll see if I can't get some pics/a list of it all and get it up on here just before I leave tomorrow.

Did something completely different yesterday, my girlfriend took me to go-ape, some sort of high wires course thingy, which was awesome fun. Going down these massive 100m+ zip wires and throwing yourself off platforms into a free-fall and then into a cargo net! Think I'm making it sound a bit lame really but was really good fun, definitely recommend it for a day out/light wind day!

Anyway forecast for Pozo doesn't look too bad, now bring on 3.7 port tack jumping....hahaha.. :s

Sunday 20 June 2010

Sunset sessions

So this week we have had wind basically everyday from the north east! I decided to venture north to Whitstable to sneak in some evening sessions as I heard it was going to be good at the Street.

It well and truly fired. Tuesday, I arrived about 6.00ish and met up with my friend Josh Wilmott who was as keen as I was to get some footage as the sun went down. We couldn't have asked for better conditions, it was sunny, I was in my summer suit and rigged a 4.5! Josh and a few of the locals went out on 4.0's and were planing happily. I got out for about 3 hours that evening, wasn't home till 11pm!!

The next day it looked to be a tiny bit windier but all the same with the tides running that bit later. I got rigged (4.5 again) and out on the water by about 8ish and again there was an amazing sunset as the tide dropped and at about 9.15 the sky turned pinky-red and there was me and one kitesurfer out. I had about 45 minutes before the end of my session. It was absolutely awesome and we got some wikid pics and vid clips which I've almost finished putting together and will put out soon.

I did unfortunately finish the Wed session on a downer though as I put a nice deep slice in the bottom of my big toe running all the way across the crease, so here I am sitting with my toe curled and steri stripped up..since Wednesday, in the hope that it will be healed by the 28th (when I leave for the Canaries)!! I was wearing boots as well with about 8mm of rubber on the sole, just a clean slice straight through, from an oyster or something!

Anyway so much for no wind...

Sunday 13 June 2010

Wind!!

Having looked around the forums lately there are a lot of depressed and negative people at the moment... a lot of complaints about a lack of wind... Don't really understand why, well maybe I do a little bit but there is still some about, I've got out pretty much every week even if it's just for an hour.

Anyway good forecast ahead, even if it's not 30-40 knots every day, still a good week ahead so hopefully see you all on the water instead of reading about complaints on the forums!! Bit drastic, talking about selling up all your kit and packing it in isn't it? How about getting a new (bigger) sail or board and getting out more often than you ever would have? Anyway off windsurfing, see ya all on the water hopefully... 'keep positive'

Saturday 12 June 2010

Update...

It's been pretty light here in the UK so have been getting down to some hardcore work which isn't all that bad. Despite the lack of wind I have actually managed to get out quite a bit, keeping the moves up but not really learning anything new. Anyway I'm off to Pozo and Fuerte for that in two weeks..
Something completely different, went out last night with my family to seen Keane at an open air concert in the middle of a forest. Despite not listening to his music that much it was actually really good fun and to top it off I got his plectrum which he threw into the crowd right at the end.
Watched a bit of the EFPT Vass event live yesterday and hoping to catch it today, what an awesome idea that is. Maybe I'll go compete next year?!

BWA Ireland Amateur wave champion

Got back from Ireland a couple weeks ago and had an amusing trip... check the boards mag for a full write up on that by George and Muzza from team tushingham. In short, a lot of emptying eachothers vans, turning things upside down, putting wheelie bins in vans, playing golf, windsurfing, windsurfing, windsurfing, surfing, pub, pub, egging and prizes!

Yeh so I won the event,  I think it was a good call to go in the Amateurs although having previously competed in the pros as I got a lot of heats and more importantly I got to experience my first double elimination come back, finally beating Scotty McDowell twice.

Check pic below taken by Mike Archer, one of the bigger waves of the week...

Monday 10 May 2010

1st UKWA Freestyle Round 1, Poole!

So the event had about 15 knots maximum of wind and that was for about 2 minutes once we had all packed up and finished for the weekend... either way it was good to catch up with people and see how things are going to be for the up coming year.

So Saturday we did a bit of professional mincing which was pretty ideal after sending it hard the night before, then we sacked it in and did some turfdogging for a while, shredding up the concrete down at sandbanks! Then crashed at Al and Nick Bentley's place, had a goooooood meal and a late start the next morning thanks to a few bottles of wine! Got down to the beach to some light winds on Sunday but we gave it a shot and they ran some heats. Al and I were drawing after the first two heats so it was down to the final round, somehow I managed to get planning a couple of times and put in a semi e-slider...if you can call it that.... and a radical duck tack, then a few geckos, upwind 360's and clew first upwind 360's later and I managed to nab it! Unfortunately Sam Neal got stuck in a bit of a tacking trance and came consistently third, good consistency though.
Anyway a fun weekend and still really enjoy going to events even when there is no wind, always something to do. Thanks to Trevor Funnel and the team for organising it all and Duncan and Hugo for judging.

Wales next weekend, then Ireland! Hopefully get some pics for then and maybe some video if I can get a new camcorder in time (left my other one in Funny Mummy's Restaurant in Dahab...)!

Tuesday 27 April 2010

Pimp my ride anyone....


So just before I went away I got my van wrapped in a Matt black vinyl, its a very quick way of getting your van colour changed and cheaper than anything else, unless of course you spray it yourself. Anyway at first I was pretty unsure when I first saw it, but then it only took a day or so for it to sink in and I reckon anything beats a white van, although I guess I no longer have an excuse for driving like a absolute pen15!!

Anyway I took them less than a day to do and cost a good part under a grand. If anyone is thinking about getting it done though, book your van/car in for the sunniest hottest day you can, as the vinyl shrinks when it gets hot, causing it to grip tighter to the panels, but it does pull the edges in. It's not been too much of a problem except for one corner which has pulled itself in to show some of the white underneath.



Got a few extra bits for the outside coming, but one thing it seriously needs is some alloys... any ideas/donations...

Monday 12 April 2010

El Tur 2010

Been in Egypt for something like a month now, had some massively windy days and not many days of now windsurfing, we made a tactical trip to Dahab for a few days a week ago which paid off with some nice 5.2 conditions! Then a couple days off just after I sliced my toe open on my footstrap screw which exploded out as I landed a burner dead flat...always favourite!
Had a brilliant time so far with my girlfriend being out here for two weeks for the last two weeks, but she has left just now! Two weeks of intense practice now and then home for a bit before heading out to Fuerteventura!
All in all having a good time and learning some new moves, watch out for vid soon!



Sunday 14 March 2010

Xpression - DVD Trailer and news!

So here is a link to the first Xpression DVD, named the imaginative Project ONE...(leaving it open a bit for possible future plans) and this is an Xpressions

CLICK HERE TO GO TO THE TRAILER

It's nothing to rave about, none of this four dimensions malarky but it is a lot of good moves by a lot of good sailors who you may hear about in the mags and online and not really get to see very much. A few of these vids have gone up online already but this is a collaboration of all the UK Freestyle windsurfers on one disc, in one place and some bonus footage, including unseen rider videos, move clips and a short movie dedicated to the UK freestylers who trained hard in Brazil this winter.

This is just the trailer...the DVD is available as of Friday 19th March. So to pre-order please get in touch with myself or willy@freestylexpression.co.uk

The final cost is £6.75 for the DVD all proceeds go to covering costs of the manufacturing of the DVD and   if there are any profits then these will be put into the running of the freestylexpression.co.uk site and their meet ups!

Enjoy...

Saturday 6 March 2010

Reality

Been getting down to a bit of hardcore work action at the moment...real fun!

Outside of that I went down to Portsmouth a couple weekends ago for their wave event....shame the wind didn't really show up except for a twenty minute squall... Did some intense turfdogging though, couple of pics below!




Been out windsurfing 3 times in 3 months now... keep telling myself the break is doing me good. Tried to go out again today but wind wasn't quite there, it was stupdily cold and shore dumpy! Also kept telling myself I'm going to be in Egypt in two weeks, out there for 5 weeks. Also booked up some of my summer with a week in Pozo and a month in Sotavento, Fuerteventura.

Not much windsurfing then but I have been pimping my van instead. Got it wrapped in a Matt Black vinyl and changed the interior a lot, no bed anymore. Wasn't convinced with the new colour at first, but love it now, I'll throw up some pics soon.

Working on a movie for Uk freestylers, had issues as my mac broke down on me and I only just got it back. Also a Student Surfari I am organising through Centaur Travel for anyone who wants to be a student, is a student or feels the have a right to hang out with the young windsurf folk (most people who windsurf then...) CLICK HERE to be taken to the facebook group for it!!!

Can't wait to get to Egypt now!!!!!!!
KIT FOR SALE, get in touch if interested, email: adam.k669@live.co.uk!!

Monday 4 January 2010

Home and not a whole lot of wind..

Been home for a while now, celebrated New Years pretty well with a 48 hour party and had a nice Christmas with the family and girlfriend, Emily.

With not too much going on I've decided to set myself a classic New Years resolution...get fit! I'm going to make sure I go out for a run or to the gym at least 4 times a week with the aim to be 5 times a week. Surprisingly the amount of fitness I've done in the last year and a half has consisted of nothing but windsurfing... and anyway I hear from the mighty Jem Hall that fitness is good for your windsurfing, so here we go!

As for windsurfing, well that will happen as often as possible when it's windy.

Hopefully get some more clips up from Jeri on here soon, some crashes and random lifestyling...

Next trip Egypt early easter...