So yesterday the owner of the Villa we are staying in organised for the local Turkish newspaper to Interview me for a small feature. It was quite amusing with the language barrier but they wanted my thoughts on what windsurfing in Datca was like and if it is a good place to hold events, etc… I’ll post a copy up once it has gone to print, maybe someone can translate it for me and see if they got everything I said right?!

Aside from that I managed to get a little windsurf in at the Datca Municipal Windsurf centre, it was actually good fun, the kit was a little dated, I was on a 105l (Unamed) Wave board with a 25cm Wave fin and a 6.5 Ezzy. Anyway I landed a few forward loops, spocks, shuv-its, nothing too special but was good fun  despite that.

Also a little pre warning for anyone interested, my next little vid project with BlackLab Films is in the editing phase and should be up in about a week. In the meantime BlackLab films have released a short video of UK wave sailor Sarah Bibby, which I have seen on her Facebook but will hopefully be online shortly.

So if you haven’t picked up a copy already I made it onto the double page spread of the contents page of Boards mag, not quite the cover but the next best thing so super happy with that. Go buy yourself a copy!!! Thanks to Josh Wilmott for taking the photo that windy evening, we were hoping to get more pics but we had been filming for an hour or so and then changed to photos and on the thrid run I stacked it, putting my foot down on the bottom at about 20knots and sliced my toe open really deep on a oyster shell. Still have the scar, it went all the way through my new booties as well it was that sharp. Still can’t complain when that was the first of the three pics 🙂

In other news, out here in Turkey at the mo having a two week break with my girlfriend and her family, nice to have a non-windsurfing holiday for the first time in two and a half years other than the week skiing I do every year. This is giving me some time to work on my next video, having got all the clips from Fuerte together. A bit of help from my mate Josh and we should have something I reckon.

After this trip its home for two days and then Greece for just under a week with my family. I’m taking kit and the camera so hopefully stop at Vass and get some action as well, then it’s back for the UK comps, Worthing Freestyle, Night windsurf, Poole Windfest…etc…

What an amazing day of action here,the level always seems to be going up at each event and this certainly didn’t fail to meet expectations. I will leave the surprises to the likes of the boardseeker vids that will be up shortly!

As for my expectations I definately exceeded them,coming 25th overall has been a great acheivment for me at my first event, my aim this year was to get some experience from the events and I really have learnt a huge amount about competition freestyle sailing and I know what I need to do to help me next time and also what to learn!

I will update this again soon with more details as I’m doing it via my phone but i’m happy about my result and now looking forward to a little bit of rest back home in the uk! I’ve got a small amount of footage from out here so will try to put together a vid of the trip over the couple of weeks!

So being my first event I’m really enjoying it actually, not as nervous as I thought I might be and I’ve managed to get through a couple heats which is good. I’m getting some good experience from it all.

So the Double took place and I won my first heat against Sanllehy, getting a culo a shuv-it vulcan and a whole load of other moves and only falling once. Then I had Edvan, I knew I had to up my game a bit but I should have just sailed a safe heat as getting the full quota of moves can get you a long way. I did get probably my biggest shaka of the competition so far though.

The second single started and I got a lucky draw against Antxon who was out due to injury, this meant I only had to sail, so I went out and just went for all the biggest moves I can do to see if I can get them in the event area and under pressure.

Tomorrow brings my heat against Leo Ray I belive which is not going to be easy at all as he is currently lying in 6th place overall!!!

Anyway it’s all good experience and now I’m off for Pizzzaaaa!!!

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…

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 …

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…

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…

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!

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!