Tiree fun and games

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So tiree has been pretty quiet as you may be aware… But looks like we are meeting at the beach for first possible start at 3!

For a lot of no wind days we seem to have been getting up to quite a bit, I managed to lose my bumper the other night but it was swiftly repaired by mechanics bubble and bryony shaws boyfriend (what a guy), he’s called greg king!

Other highlights have to be the tow in freestyle most evenings, wakeboarding and tow in surfing minus the surfing waves part!

Now the community centre is open we’ve been doing some sweet table tennis practice and smashing some table football goals….

Oh can’t forget George and muzzas attemps at flight using two windsurf rigs! It was all filmed so I’m sure it’ll be up somewhere soon!

Just noticed a cheeky clip on coninentseven of a puneta during my heat, take a look!

Better head to beach soon, just incase we get rolling today (just said that mid de-bag from sam Neal…niiice)

so yeh more soon

The long road to Tiree and 88TTT test

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Could be my last post until after Tiree as I still don’t have my mac back…good work Apple….

Had an epic journey up here!! 13 hour drive, one stop at Tunbridge Wells and one at Boardwise in Cannock! Literally never had the van more rammed with kit..something like 15/16 boards in total and too many sails to count, all in a SWB low roof Transit!

Bubble got dropped off by Max at mine yesterday on their way back from Sylt…pretty sure he is a professional van passenger now?!
 
It’s pretty windy on the island by the sounds of it and the forecast looks good for the next couple of days but light after that… we’ve got video cameras, so I’m sure we will capture some stuff and get it up from a riders perspective.
 
Updates on other recent stuff, I’ve used the new RRD Twintip 88l Twinfin board. Absolutely awesome board, it gave me a lot of pop for my moves and you could really feel it for shakas. Yet in the earlier moves, spocks, flakas it just felt really slidy and controlable. I’ll get out on it this week and get some more up on it, but I’m certainly getting the 100l in the twinfin version as well!!!

Fat Face photo shoot

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Here is a quick snapshot of what was going on yesterday at the fat face photoshoot. It was a really fun day and the photographers were brilliant, if not a little crazy 😉 shouting at us to get closer and closer on each run until eventually I shot by about 4 inches from the lens and had to look back to double check nothing had actually glanced him.
To keep it short we got up pretty early and drove down to Portsmouth where Thomas Cawte and I were picked up in a rib and taken over to Cowes, where we met the boat (in the background of the pic). We rigged up pretty quick on a private beach. Then sailed about in front of the boat for a couple of hours pulling off a load of moves for the cameras.
The boat then pulled into Portsmouth harbour where I ended up baring my chicken legs for the camera as I was asked to be in the sock shot for the catalouge. So make sure you grab a copy of the spring summer catalouge next year and pop into the shop to see the pics and a video..loads more like the above.
Off to Whitstable for a cheeky windsurf now!!

blogging hell!!

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So a quick blog update!! My comp has been down for sometime now, so using oneof my brothers but to keep anyone who is interested in the loop I came thrid at the freestyle nationals, which I was really happy about as I made the podium, which I knew wasn’t going to be easy. I was second in the tow in freestyle which was cool. Third time I’ve ever done that and tried ducking the sail for some new skool moves….hmmm…

Aside from that I’ve just started to hit the road on the UK RRD road trip… turning up at a shop near you, and showing off all of the 2011 gear. Got out on the hardcore quad the other day… awesome board, I’ll be going with those for this year then. I have yet to try the twinfin freestyle board RRD are bringing out this year but as soon as I do I’m sure I’ll write something up on here. I hear they work suuuper well!!

Off for a fat face photo shoot tmrw in the middle of a secret location.. 😉 should be fun though as I think me and a kitesurfing friend of mine just have to do loads of moves behind the people who are modelling…or something like that!!

Anyway I’ll see if I can get more info up on here tmrw eve!

Surprise sessions are the best!!!

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Just got back from a power hour on the water at Camber and it was one of the best sessions I have had at home in a looong time. It was so quiet down there, maybe 5 windsurfers and 5 kites. Some good stunt rumps, pushing shoulder high every now and again. Fully powered on my 5.3 RRD superstyle and my RRD 88TT and busting out just about all the moves I can do and more…it was awesome!! Definitely a good confidence booster for this weekend:

http://ukwindsurfing.com/news/2010/0907_national-freestyle-championships-1112-september-2010/

It’s rare to get surprise sessions like that but when you do they are some of the best. The forecast for the past few days was for rain all day today but the sun was out from the word go, then the gentle breeze that was forecast got a kick from the sea breeze and I checked the weather update once and saw 18 knots, so went for it. After Monday’s disappointment of a drive around most of kent for the afternoon but no wind, I feel I deserved it.

Only bad note, a huge rain cloud killed the wind an hour in…probably a good thing though as it left me feeling fully buzzed!! Also the way that cloud rolled in, set an amazing backdrop, maybe I’ll take the video camera next time!

National Windsurfing Festival 2010

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Photos: Ed Texier from Oceansource.net

As per usual the National Windsurfing Festival was on top form this weekend. Loads of people competing, 300+ is what I heard. I had a good event myself, 8th overall in the racing which I’m pretty happy about as I have never done a proper weekend series of races before. It was actually really good fun as well and pretty exciting. The boards and sails that have been designed for slalom racing are really really fast and its very close racing at such high speeds.

It was great to see everyone who you don’t get to see much and to just be able to sail on the water with sooo many people.

It was good to see so many spectators as well, I swear more come along each year. This year the beach was lined from top to bottom with them all at the night windsurf and then still a huge amount of people during the day.

A freestyle comp was put together during the event and we were lucky to get about 20 knots of wind again. I managed to bust out a few of my latest moves and in the end it came down to a four man final; me, Ben Profitt, Al Bentley and Oscar Carmichael. It was a close one between me and Ben and he just got it with a solid backloop a planning forward and a very slick switch chachoo in the less than perfect conditions. A couple of pics above of myself styling it up…going for an air chachoo on the way in… :s !!

A bit of wind about this week so I’m off to practice for the freestyle nationals at Poole next week!!!

Fuerte Video

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So I just put my video up last night and its already gone a bit mental, almost 5000 hits in 12 hours… and that’s been over night…

Take a look. Basically it’s a whole load of footage caught from before this Summers PWA event that I entered in Fuerteventura, Canary Islands. First PWA event for me and I’m keen to do more (sponsorship anyone?! ha, well out of windsurfing industry stuff only, got the gear covered, cheeeeky)! Anyway check the link below!

http://video.mpora.com/watch/5mO9MKfbX/

Home and Worthing

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Finally home now from my summer travels and what a journey home it was. I was out in Greece for a few days with my family and girlfriend and it took us from 7am to 2am the next day to get home from Vass. Basically we did it the public transport way, taking the bus from Vass to Lefkada, then Lefkada to Athens, then Athens to the Airport, then the Plane and finally home. Anyway I got home and found myself waking up at 6.30 due to jetlag, then it was straight down to Worthing.

Worthing was good fun, it was good to catch up with a lot of people and see what everyone had been up to. The standard on the UK tour is definately on the increase with some pretty good young guys on the tour making their mark. Unfortunately I ended up coming second, if I’m honest I’m a bit disappointed by this as all the judges missed one of my moves in the final!! I don’t think it helped that I sailed my worst heat in the final either as I was landing double flakas in just about every other heat as well as shaka flakas, sw konos, funnels, no handed flakas. Ahh well sounding like a sore loser now making up excuses for it…
Will Rogers who won was certainly sailing very well and even if my move had been seen and scored it still would have been a close call as he was very consistent throughout the competition, not dropping many of his moves.
More comps coming up over the next couple of weeks, hopefully we will get some wind…

Oh yeh one of the highlights of the weekend had to be the sw kono into forward that I was seriously close to sailing away from… might just work on that one!

Home and Video…

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So back for a whole 48 hours before I head out to Greece for a few days then home on Friday to go to the Worthing freestyle competition! It will be interesting to see who turns up… after that its the legendary night windsurf event, probably the biggest UK event on the calendar in terms of participation and spectators, although I’m sure the SWA are near-about that mark at their Aussie Kiss event each year!!

As said in a previous post my video is going to be up soon, although had a few words with a friend of mine and looks like I’m going to hold back for an extra week or so and see if I can get some shots in Greece. More on that soon…

As it is, I’m heading down to Camber Sands tomorrow for a sneaky UK windsurf with a few of my friends. Really looking forward to getting out there with them and just enjoying it and having fun, then it’s on to a house party and a 3am departure for Gatwick airport…sleeps over-rated!

Turkish Press…the evidence

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As promised in my previous post here are some pics of the paper I managed to make it into:

Made it both front page and back page!! But what’s this about Slalom sailing in the first pic? Translations welcome if you can read it?
Funny thing is that the first shop we went into they pulled out the paper and asked if it was us… famous in Datca… ohhh yehhhh!!