Author: AALVAA Media

UKWA Worthing Freestyle Round 4 – 1st place

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Ok so it wasn’t exactly epic conditions but we did get some good heats in 20 knots of wind on the Sunday afternoon.

It wasn’t easy though, the classic high tide south coast death chop isn’t exactly ideal for freestylin’ it up but when timed well you could bust out some big moves… using the 5.8 was also hard after 6 weeks on 4.2/4.7 but keeping the moves fairly simple meant I managed to successfully take the overall 1st place. Super happy with that and outside of the heats I could practice the bigger moves on a massive sail for what is bound to be an even harder comp at Poole Windfest with the return of some of the Vass crew, Bubble, Max, Jamie, etc….
Looking forward to the next few weeks with National Windsurf Festival, Poole Windfest and Scottish Windfest all coming up, an awesome chance to catch up with a lot of friends, do some road trippin’ and windsurf windsurf windsurf!

PWA Freestyle

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So it’s been a busy week here in Fuerte with the PWA in town. It’s been incredible to watch some of the action live but also a bit disappointing as I’m stiull struggling with this hip injury. I’ve been told it’s something to do with tearing the skin on the bone?! Not too sure what this means, but one to two weeks to recover. It’s been over a week now and I sailed the last two days, only managing sliding moves as it causes too much pain to try anything else. Fortunately the wind has been a little light and the forecast is epic, so a few more days rest and then back on it full power.

Tonight is the closing ceremony of the freestyle so I think we make party…

Hope to release a video shortly, when I can find somewhere with decent enough internet to upload it in under 24 hours…..

Triple dose of Valium!

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So had a sick session today, pushloops of knee high waves until about half an hour in when I went for a planning pushie in front of Nick Bentley but too far off the wind and the rotation stopped about three quarters of the way around, where I went full power into the boom. Unfortunately we were about a kilometer downwind of the centre, so some help from my regular rescue team who have now de-rigged for me three times and carried me off the water twice, and an off road drive later and I was on my way to hospital.

Arriving there they recognised me and got my file out… then decided a triple shot of Valium would help ease the pain. No I just have to wait to see if I’m going to be sick or not, as this decides whether I’ve ruptured my appendix or if its just muscular bruising, etc…. either way it’s not ideal and another few days off the water.

Here are some pics from a session a few days ago… thanks to Steffi Hoffmann for the pics.

Fuerte…two full power weeks!

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So we are two weeks in, the first of the weekly videos will be up by the weekend, here are a couple of stills from it:

It’s really been full power here, we even took a day off just because it was too windy and we had been sailing fully maxed out for the whole previous week. On a personal note I’m happy that i’ve learnt quite a lot already, more getting moves consistent then new moves but a couple new ones for me.
Will update again soon with the video and more pictures. The idea behind the video is to push the younger guys as well, so expect to see a lot from the ‘groms’ who are all out here over the next few weeks! Now time to go sail again in the Lagoon… 4.2 again… love to!
One other thing, thanks to the Rene Egli VW Transporter that drove over my 2012 RRD 100 Twintip yesterday, I now have a board that is in exactly the same condition but with the knowledge that it can take the weight of a loaded VW Transporter… sick!!!

Fuerte..first two days – FULLL POWER!

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First two days in fuerte and have already had 8 hours on the water.

We arrived at 4pm yesterday and sailed for a couple hours then had a massive session today. On the 4.2 vogue at the moment, just trying it out to see how it ducks in the new skool moves. Also the 2012 (V2) RRD Twintip. Initial thoughts on this board is it has incredible speed! So so fast!

A better update soon with pictures…

1st place @ UKWA Mumbles Freestyle – Round 3

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So had a good weekend up at Mumbles in south Wales these last couple of days. (Pictures below)

The wind was light but we managed to run two rounds of competition. I used 5.8 for both heats and on the 100l Twinzer Twintip. The combo actually worked really well and in the second heat I racked up something like 13/14 moves. Including a couple fairly decent new skool moves. The only problem was the fact that we were about a mile out to sea as the wind was soooo light and sooo gusty and the visibility was rubbish on the first day. We literally had to pump in to every move and then spend 20 minutes sailing upwind back to the beach. Probably something to do with the cliff that was in the way…
Some pics below of the event, thanks to Phil and Danielle from getwindsurfing.com Phil also helped out a bit with the judging as spotting the moves from so far away wasn’t easy. Fortunately Danielle’s lens was pretty big otherwise we would literally be specks in the distance.
Cold Saturday

Zoomed in to the max!
One of the best things had to be the pier jumping… at high tide each day the water was deep enough for us all to just bust out our best pier jumping freestyle. Phil and I kind of synchronizing with him doing a back flip and me doing front flip.
Hot Saturday

 Team Spartan Pier Jumping

All in all another successful event and good to see yet even more new faces and a healthy turnout despite the forecast.
Results:
1st Myself
2nd John Palmer 
3rd/1st Am, James Wheeldon
1st Youth – Alex Mitchell
1st Junior – Oscar Carmichael

Now bring on 6 weeks of training in Fuerte!

1st Place @ 2011 Freestyle Xpression Round 2 – Weymouth

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So had an epic weekend windsurfing in Weymouth, the wind really came in on Saturday and it was full power 4.5/4.9 weather. There was a decent turn out considering many of the top guys were either on the PWA competing, in Vass (or similar) or injured. 10 people competed for a shot at Xpression round 2 and going for the PWA style single elimination, the heats were drawn up. Two other stylers decided to opt for the chilled out approach and just freesail, gaining a few move tips of the guys between heats. Included in the competition was Julia Slack, our numero uno female representation! She sailed well with the more old skool maneuvers but keeping them clean and consistent. It was cool to see and I’m sure she and many of the guys… haha…would love to see some more lady’stylers rocking up…

My first heat was up against Dan Hollman, I feel I sailed a strong heat with a mix of new skool and old skool moves and progressed to the next round. Further down the draw, Oscar Carmichael also advanced and one heat later we met in the final. A bit of a sketchy open to the heat for myself, with a badly crashed move causing a lot of pain in my foot where I recently ruptured the ligament supporting the big toe… this affected me for the rest of the heat and initially Oscar clearly took the lead with his powerful double bouncing flaka, funnel and spocks. However I managed to pull it back in the second half with a nice one handed bob, a shuv-it spock 540 and a couple power moves as well as a couple slidy moves.

Winners pic at the top, also some good sailing from Alex Mitchell and Nick Bentley who fought hard for 3rd place. Note Angus Patrik Webb lying on the floor, who won a pair of the RRD Speedos for best wipeout.

Results:
1st – Myself
2nd – Oscar Carmichael
3rd – Nick Bentley

Pimp my shed.com

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Had a bit of clean up the other day, finding out what boards I have under the cobwebs and Bubble was about, getting ready for Bonaire. Everything was in a bit of a mess so we decided to convert this empty garage/shed thing I have at home. It may not be in Hawaii but it is a garage of toys and that’s definitely a start.

Check it out…

EFPT Sardinia – Tow In

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So the tow in just finished here in Sardinia and it was pretty choppy, which I kind of prefer anyway as it gives you a ramp to aim for. We had a training session yesterday and then the qualifying heats. 22 guys entered and the top 8 went through to the final session today.

In the qualifying I managed to get a decent air funnel and a burner, which put me through in 3rd place for the final.

One handed air funnel
In the final I came in on the first run and figured I do the same as the day before, air funnel then burner. I went big on the air funnel and crashed it hard. Dieter and Julien both managed to get double air funnels so the pressure was on. Steven crashed and the only other move landed was a single clean funnel. The next run I managed to get this burner (click here) which wasn’t enough to beat the funnel!!!! Putting me in 5th place overall…Steven managed 3rd with a super clean burner and Julien and Dieter took 1st and 2nd!
Tomorrow is the last day for competition and the wind doesn’t look so good…