Wind Jinx!!!

I'm not really a massive complainer or do I think I'm much of a wind jinx, but after checking the forecast I feel I may become both...

We leave to Austria today to a landlocked windless lake (well maybe a bit of wind on monday) for my first PWA event of the year. We are also leaving behind the best forecast of the year, for me, in terms of freestyle and port tack jumping. With the forecast as it is Whitstable will be firing for glassy flat freestyle for as long as the forecast can reach and St Marys Bay and Greatstone will be awesome for port tack jumping... I've been at home for a while now and had pretty much nothing in the way of wind! So heading to Austria with only tow-in freestyle as practice since Egypt (3 and a half weeks ago!!!!!)!

Aside from that the tow in the other night was good fun, we got some decent pics so keep an eye on the mags for a write up of that from Sam Ross!

Let the journey begin!

Hayling Freestyle - Round 1

So the weekend didn't really turn out very windy at all... infact I think it must have been 5 knots or less 99% of the time. We had a couple light wind freestyle contests which was great for my dodgey foot. Then to cap it off we had a bit of a tow in freestyle comp, which went well as I couldn't sail back in and then got some help to de-rig my kit! I just over-used my busted foot I think and it was giving me a lot of grief, it's back to how it was before the event now but still at that stage where I'm sure it's more than just a chipped bone. Anyway I managed to win the tow in comp but we didn't have too much of a shot at it as time was running out. Soooo... we've somehow managed to arrange some practice (well some sort of interview thing!?) on the Hove Lagoon 2.0 cable tow, this afternoon. A few of us are heading down there for 5pm, so if your about, come and watch... as I'm sure it'll be entertaining.

Better get off, I'll see if I can upload a few sneaky pics of it this eve...

Link to freestyle round one (Hayling) video, thanks to globalshots:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZrSHwrOn8UE&feature=player_embedded

ROAD TRIP!!!!

So with 3 events coming up in such a short amount of time it looks like we are on for a bit of a road trip... Good job we've got a double bank holiday weekend to prepare for it. The plan begins with the Hayling event, then we (Max, Bubble, Bry, Drume'd, Global and myself) meet at mine before driving to Austria for the PWA, then the short hop to Wales for the UK wave event and then finally home. Cool thing is I've managed to get us a bit support from Red Bull for the journey, a few crates to keep us awake as we drive several thousand kilometers in the next two weeks. So thanks in advanced for that. Any other offers welcome... ;) There's plenty of video and mag coverage to come of it... haha

Also looks like this weekends wind for the Hayling Island event is desperately trying to show it's face... could be a light winder though, good to put all that practice on my 4.5 to the test then. Actually joking aside at least it will be good warm up for Austria, I feel I haven't sailed in ages!

From the National Windsurf Festival @ Hayling last year

Have a look at Max's twitter/blog, think he worked out somewhere the exact mileage, I made a rough guess on an earlier post. Bring it on...

Val Thorens skiing and what's in store...

So just got back from a week's skiing with Emily and her Uni friends. Absolutely awesome week. The snow wasn't too bad, the apres ski was pretty intense and the fancy dress was brilliant. Still having issues with the foot though...not good :s A few pictures below of the apres ski and the actual skiing. I've never been over easter before and we got quite lucky most of the time. A couple days I didn't even need my jacket!

The plan from here for the next few weeks is first off to get out on the water before the Hayling freestyle event next weekend. Then drive down to Austria for the PWA event in two weeks time. Just checked and that's a 1600 km's there..... I think the plan is for 6 of us to all go together in two vans, so should be a funny little road trip. Then it's straight back for BWA Rhossi! We have one day to drive from Podersoft to Rhosneiger.....2020 km's in...one...day!!!!!

The foot the foot

Went on an adventure to A'n'E last night to get my foot checked up by someone that wasn't going to tell me it will be 'ready in six days'...ready for what?

Anyway, sat around for almost two hours and had a couple more x-rays. The verdict...well originally I was told nothing was broken by the doctor in Egypt, however it doesn't quite seem that that is the case. Having had a good look at the inside of my foot, the UK doctors managed to find that I've chipped the bone on the inside of the 'big knuckle' part of my big toe. The joint where the toe becomes the foot. It's not too major and there isn't really much they can do about it as it is now just floating bone. There is some ligament damage but they can't tell how bad it is really without an MRI scan. Anyway as it is I left the hospital knowing that I can put weight on it but I should keep it strapped to the other toe for a couple of weeks. I was told moving it will help the repair process...so off skiing on Friday, to Val Thorens!

Egypt

(Pictures below)

Just arrived home late last night after a bit of a hectic last day, I somehow managed to smash my left foot in to my board one hour before our transfer was supposed to arrive. So I shot in to town and had a quick X-ray and got some 'fixation' as the doctor liked to call it. Initially I was convinced I had broken it as I have done it before and it felt exactly the same. Fortunately or unfortunately... I've yet to find out... the X-ray showed no broken bones, however each bone in my big toe and the next toe along has compressed into the other, which to be honest I don't really know what it means but it doesn't feel very comfortable. Alongside that I've been told of a load of potential ligament damage...we shall see. Hopefully its not as bad as it feels and should all go away soon enough. The upside of it is that I managed to get the special treatment with Easyjet, first on the plane, first off, got one of those airport buggy jobbies that you always see the injured riding on. Anyway a quick special thanks to Steve Thorne who I was travelling with for helping me out massively and also to Max and Steven Van 'Donk' for getting the safety boats attention and helping me pack up. Thanks guys!

Anyway aside from that excitement the whole trip was really successful, got loads of footage, a new combo move for myself and stepped up my power moves a little. The whole trip started off in El tur for one night (where I sliced my head open wakeboarding, 4 stitches... accident prone are we) and then on to Moon Beach, back to El Tur and finally Dahab. Josh Willmot was following us around with the BlackLab camera gear and we all took turns filming at various spots, using the crane etc... have to say, Moon Beach has some seriously good locations when its firing. Awesome stunt ramps on the way out and super flat on the way in. Anyway bit of a lame update but don't want to give away too much as we have a video coming out in a few weeks and some mag coverage coming up. But make sure you like the BlackLab facebook page to get all the latest info on it all:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Blacklab/210232355658449

Some snaps taken from the BlackLab page (link above)