Nominated for UKWA Windsurfer of the year – WOOOOO

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YEHHHHHHHHHHHH

http://ukwindsurfing.com/woty/

So sick! Everything I wanted to happen by the end of 2012 has all happened this year! Please head over to the UKWA site (link above) to register your vote for UK Windsurfer of the year for who ever you feel deserves it…

Some highlights of my year below:

Videos:

Egypt Road Trip: http://video.mpora.com/watch/DSUJK6EoF/
Fuerteventura: http://video.mpora.com/watch/iFPoKQ2mg/
UKWA Freestyle Tour stop no.5: http://video.mpora.com/watch/vSSOxF3AN/
One fully epic power hour at West Witterings: http://video.mpora.com/watch/IN4IMz197/
SWA Aussie Kiss (epic event): http://video.mpora.com/watch/mHdik6HBz/

Photos:

http://video.mpora.com/watch/mHdik6HBz/

Night tow-in, AK XXX, Witterings coaching, Austriaaa

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With the competition season coming to a bit of a close and the student scene kicking off I figured now is a good time for a bit of an all round update.

So going back a bit now but Si Crowther just released these images from the night tow-in session at Hayling Island, some cool shots, thanks Si.
 Practice/qualifying during the day
Since then was obviously the Poole windfest where I was super happy to take the 2011 UK Freestyle title, something that I previously covered with pics but it really has only just sunk in! It’s one of those few achievements in my life that I can’t actually describe how happy I am about it, especially with the level UK Freestyle is at!
So moving on to the Student Windsurfing event – Aussie Kiss 10. The first in their series and something I am helping out with in terms of demo gear from RRD. It’s cool to go back as a demo guy and not to have to think about competing, but at the same time I miss that side a little bit. It’s such an awesome way into competition though. No pressure and you compete when the wind as it’s best. This year the event was pretty messy as per usual, a big party on Saturday night but with wind on Sunday it gave us a good chance to get out on the water and clear the hangovers a bit… pics below from Jay Haysey (www.globalshots.co.uk)

The following weekend whilst the UK’s wave fleet were scoring it at Gwithian, Jamie Drummond, Sam Ross and myself were doing a bit of a freestyle kids camp at West Witterings. It went really well, with alright wind on Saturday and Trevor and Julian from the UKWA turning up to do a bit of an intro to competing and judging on Sunday.

Now I’m out in Vienna, Austria, desperate for an ‘under-the-bridge’ session and with a good forecast on the way, it looks like a strong possibility! Then it’s home for a couple of weeks, hopefully to hook up with Josh Willmot to get some shots for some (top secret) video plans we have, then it’s the operation and a bit of time out!

More soon on the bridge session if it happens…

Operation operation

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Sooo the date is set, I’ll be going under the knife on the 21st November. It means I’m technically not allowed to windsurf for 6 weeks but who ever let that stop them…

To be honest considering the year I have had I feel like this is a small price to pay. With this kicking off in Egypt where I cut my head open and had 4 stitches in the local hospital, then started off the issues with the foot by crashing a ponch. Then Fuerte where I visited the doctor/hospital about 4 times in total; with a suspected broken leg (crashed clew first backloop), suspected ruptured appendix (crashed pushloop), a deep cut across my shin (fin across the shin after getting worked by a foot high wave…….) and further foot issues…then in the UK I had even more problems at events with my foot.

Soo the plan for Dec/Jan is to spend some time in Austria and hit up the ski slopes a bit, I figured a ski boot will be solid enough… then Cape Town is booked for all of February to train up for the following season. It’s a bit annoying though because the rate freestyle windsurfing is moving on it won’t take long to fall behind!

In the meantime I’ve got a few weeks before the Op so this weekend there is a kids freestyle camp at West Witterings which I will be demoing/working at… so come along and get involved if you want to learn a few moves… the forecast looks awesome….or head to BWA Cornwall for the epic forecast that the Wave sailors are heading to!

My massive foot issues!

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So I’m sure quite a few people know already that I have had ongoing problems with my foot. In particular my left big toe. Now although this is a small part of the body it’s become quite obvious that it is fairly useful when it comes to common day activities like standing/balancing/walking/etc… so when I’m trying to bust out the odd freestyle move here and there it doesn’t really help that I have no tendon holding my big toe to the rest of my body anymore. It also doesn’t help that the bone inside the joint has compressed so hard on a number of occasions that there are now floating bits of bone in the toe/foot…niiice!

So after 10 x-rays of the foot and a MRI scan the doctors have concluded that I will need an operation to clear the bits of bone and to part the joint a bit, they will also scrape inside the joint and drill holes in the bone (inside the joint) to promote growth and recovery. Should this fail, quite likely, then a second operation will be required to stop any movement in that toe forever, but that would be far off when I really can’t stand the pain anymore. I suppose I should be a bit disappointed about this as it will take me off the water for a bit and could affect my windsurfing, except I spoke to Steven VB at EFPT Sardinia and he had some issue which meant he cannot bend his big toe at the same joint I may not be able to, and for anyone who has been hiding in a small hole in a Scottish mountain in the last year or so, he just became World Champion.

So all is not lost, but there are the details for those who might want to know… yum yum! First operation will be mid-November.

That said, I had an epic sail last week and got some decent snaps, which I’ll throw up here as soon as I can convert these retarded .cr2 files that my mac is not liking…

Latest video

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So I made this video recently from that epic session we had at West Witterings a couple of weeks ago. It’s only a minute long but the session was so full power everyone just wanted to sail and also I think the camera battery ran out… so here it is.. 50 knots of full power freestyle windsurfing!

Thanks to Bubble for the camera and the others for filming:

http://www.youtube.com/get_player

Celebratory road trip!!

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So straight after winning the new title of UK Freestyle champion last weekend down in Poole I decided to chase the rest of the wind around the country a bit, meeting up with Oscar and Palmer along the way.

On the Monday we ended up sailing at Weymouth. The call to go there over West Witterings was tough as most of the guys I knew sailed at Witterings that day, but being more west was pretty much the main reason for Weymouth. It was pretty windy but really up and down all day, which resulted in changing sails about 4 times! Meeting up with Oscar there was a lot of fun though and we ended up having a good session.

After this we drove North to West Kirby for literally an afternoon/evening session. I’ve never been there before and that spot is truly incredible! I know ‘The Trench’ at West Witterings is also extremely good; super flat, consistant wind and sandy but Kirby has the advantage of working in any tide state. Really it was amazing, like sailing on a swimming pool. Sailing until sunset was the coolest thing as well as you could see the sun setting down the Estuary and the wind just stayed the whole time. If there ever was a place to hold a freestyle windsurfing event then this would be it.

Photos: Hanna Poschinger

Now the plan is to head North to Scotland this weekend for the Windfest and then maybe cruise down the East coast on the way home or stop at Kirby again…

2011 UK Freestyle Champion

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This weekend was the final stop of the UKWA Freestyle Tour in Poole and it was windy!!!

It was cool to see everyone there again, Poole always attracts most of the UK’s Freestylers. We had pretty awesome conditions on the Sunday with most people on 4.2/4.7. Saturday was a little less but more choppy. This allowed us to do 3 whole rounds of competition to decide the event winner. It was a super close event and this was even more clear by the fact that Max won the first round, Bubble won the second and I won the third. So it was down to who got the 2nd and 3rd places of each heat.
Anyway in the end I was super happy to be crowned the new UK Freestyle Champion and to have won the final round of the weekend. Congrats to Max for winning this event and also to all the other winners from the other classes; Ams, Juniors, Minims and the Girls. 
Here are a few pictures from an epic finale of the tour!

NWF and Full Power

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So NWF was an awesome weekend, as fun as ever and already looking forward to next year. A few of the highlights for me had to be rounding the first mark of the slalom in first place by quite a distance before my boom snapped…damn it, coming second in the night tow-in and 3rd in the freestyle. Hopefully better next year.. and the party was funny!

Apres NWF Max, Bubble, Muzza and myself meet up at West Witterings (yesterday) for a bit of a session…it turned out to be a bit windier than forecasted and full full power…if you haven’t seen it already then check the epic crash video from Max…
http://video.mpora.com/watch/lhCJBdeR7/

Here are a few snapshots from being pretty stacked in gusting 50 knots!

On another note my video from Fuerte is just around the corner…… so check back very soon… tomorrow infact!