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…

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 …

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…

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…

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!

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!

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!

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

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…

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’