The foot the foot

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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

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(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)

Update…

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So I’m off to Egypt tomorrow, really pleased with the forecast… Hopefully something will come through as we have a lot of plans for filming and photo shooting… 

It’s been very hit and miss lately with the wind. It seems the west coast is getting it all and over on the east coast we’ve been missing out big time. That said I had a great session at Marconi’s Sailing club the other day. Was great fun and very nearly stuck a backie off a bit of chop!! Really like sailing that spot. It’s not super easy but when you get it right, you really get it right, boosting of nice bits of chop or sliding on glassy flat spots.
Better get packing and will upload that crash video before I leave…keep your eyes peeled…oooh yeh!

Camber SUP!!

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So a slightly disappointing forecast. Can’t really say I didn’t expect it. I was really excited about it but the fact that it appeared really late and didn’t have much base to it left me hesitant. Despite that I made the call to just a few people about Camber possibly having the once a year conditions this weekend…unfortunately the wind just didn’t come through.

The good news…the swell did. So I got out for an amazing SUP session from 4.30-6.00 (awesome sunset), 2-3 foot peeling waves, I even spotted it barreling over at times. Pretty unheard of at Camber so I was pleased to make the effort and had a great time on the RRD Diamond Line 10’6″…

Next trip all booked up…off to Egypt on the 16th for two weeks before the easter comps! planning to go to Austria…bit more affordable than Vietnam!! Looks like the UK guys (Bubble and Max) are doing well out there. If you haven’t already seen it, then check the live stream out in the morning, Ben Proffitt and Max Rowe are giving some amusing commentary and its on when you wake up in the morning about 7-8 UK time, http://www.pwaworldtour.com!

Wind again!

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Another windy weekend!! Got out yesterday for 2 hours or so at Pirate Springs (a spot Sam Conroy has been raving about). Was side-on and well powered up on my 4.9 and 76 quad. Had a fun session, getting all the moves sorted but it was pretttty cold on the old hands. Despite gloves the sea temperature was absolutely freezing!

Anyway bit lighter today, off for an adventure SUP down a local river…ooooo

20 hours in 4 days!

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Had some awesome sessions since Friday. The wind has been incredible!

Friday: Sailed Camber, 4.1 and 76 Quad. Amazing session with some awesome ramps.

Saturday: Essexpression… Day one at Point Clear. Bit lighter than expected with the wind dropping a bit. Changed up a size and had a couple of good heats..well the final was definitely better. We had two semi final heats and a final. Max Rowe and Oscar Carmichael got through from heat 1 and myself and John Palmer from heat 2. The wind picked up in the final, which suited me as I was a bit under powered in the semi. I opened up my heat with a one handed air’ish’ Bob and a one handed air funnel. Then got a forward, a shaka, a planning flaka, a sw kono, an eslider, a mat (half a matador) and a pun (half a puneta) and a couple other moves I think… so all in all a pretty good heat, infact, probably one of my best i’ve ever sailed. I didn’t really watch what the others got, which probably helped, and I ended up taking 1st place. Pretty pleased with that result. Then went back to Max’s that evening and had a few drinks…

Sunday: Sailed Marconi’s sailing club, Steve Thorne’s local, with everyone. Was good fun but felt pretty worse for wear…

Monday: Sailed Camber with Max, Palmer and Whitey. Looked pretty budget when we arrived but decided to pick up as soon as we hit the water… had to change from 4.9 and 90l twinfin to 4.5 and 76l quad…still well powered up. Had a great session with Whitey taking some snaps…so hopefully see more soon…

Completely broken now, ready for a day or twos rest then…who knows…maybe another windsurf (judging by the forecast).

Kit for sale (for those interested):
ALL RRD boards and sails and reason for sale is to make room for the new gear.
Boards:
2010 74 Twinfin (wave) – Exceptional condition 
2010 90 Twinfin (wave) – Exceptional condition
2010 88 Twintip (freestyle/freeride/bump and jump) – Exceptional condition, single fin


Sails:
2010 Superstyle 3.7 – Barely used, Exceptional condition
2010 Superstyle 4.9 – Exceptional condition


Please email for info on prices (no damage to any of the gear, pics can be seen on the rrd website, here, and postage is £15.50 per item).
email: adam@silte.co.uk

Whitstable and tweet club

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Met up with Max Rowe to sample the delights of Whitstable today. Despite being super light, it was actually good fun. Could have done with my 100l TT instead of the 88 but other than that all was good.

Couple of snaps below (video stills):
 Really really light winds (kiters in the background on 13m…whatever that means…)
 Flat…no wind
Precious gust at the right time
Keep an eye out for a short webisode from the afternoons antics…don’t get your hopes up too high though…It really was light! Good practice though, many of the events are held in this much wind!
Also… finally turned to Twitter and signed up, so if your signed up and care at all about what I’m up to… feel free to see what I’m doing..think the username is something like adamsimsk669…tweet club…oh yeh!
Alsoooo it’s awesome to see freestyle on a bit of a come-back lately (posts all over the shop) and some recognition for it being radical from a self-confessed wave head, Graham from Surfmatic Blog. Legend!

Cape Town done and dusted

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So got back from Cape Town yesterday! Awesome flight, really empty so had a whole row of 8 seats to myself = 8 hours of solid sleep!!

To save a massive write up you’ll have to check my column in the Feb issue of boards. Anyway last few days were awesome, here are a few pics from the whole trip…couldn’t upload pics whilst out there?!?!

 Generally had a lake session in the morning (above) then to sunset around lunch (below) then big bay in the evening.

 Learning to push loop above, got that move sorted on Ben Proffitts birthday 🙂 rigged up and first run off the beach landed it bolt up right (shame we were in too much of a hurry to get the video camera out)…ahh well Ben, George and a couple other people saw it and the bigger one after!

Had a ‘slight’ bush fire about 50m from our house… only burnt for about 4-5 hours….only
 Did a few cliff jumps on a trip to the waterfalls, awesome fun!
 Saw some of the local wildlife Baboons (above), penguins (below)
 Still from a video….so a bit blurred….
Had a couple of pretty big days at Sunset (mast high sets), below!
All in all a good trip and learnt a lot. Will be working on a video over next couple of weeks! Wind tomorrow and it’s looking warm at 3 degrees…
More soon!

SOUTH AFRICAAA – Cape Town

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So have been in Cape Town for a week and a half now, with a week and a half to go! Time is flying by!
In a quick summary, the flight was good, the first few days were all about surfing as there was nothing in terms of wind, but the surf was good. Was nice to be eased into the shark fear then…wallowing around on a seal shaped board! Anyway all is good. We then had some light afternoons on the lake and finally the wind kicked in 4 days ago…full power everyday. We had a day off in between and visited the local waterfalls, which had some huuuuge jumps, good fun, profitt nearly killed himself though on the first jump!
Anyway the windsurfing has been really good the last few days we have had two sessions a day everyday, averaging probably like 5 hours on the water! Yesterday we went to Kraal bay, a freestyle spot for a bit of practice! Was an amazing spot, white sand beaches, wind was good, on 4.9’s and 88l boards! Then today we sailed sunset and big bay, full full power on 4.1! hopefully get some pics up soon but had some good bbq’s since I’ve been out here and living with a few of the UK wave tour guys is pretty motivating when it comes to moves!
More soon!