Jeri done for another year!

Coming back to Jeri now for the third year in a row I knew exactly what to expect and once again it didn't let me down! Just 4.2 & 4.7 and I probably could of got planing everyday in the last 5 weeks. I've been a bit slack on updating on here as I haven't had internet in the house which to be honest has been a nice change. Also when its windy everyday there didn't seem to be much more to say other than ohh windy again! The level on the water has been ridiculous as well with 10 of the top 20 in the PWA all here at one point!

A few weeks ago we had an awesome trip to Camocim which is a river mouth two hours way. I don't think its possible to find a flatter spot! I visited there last year for two days and it was epic so decided to go back for four days, which is probably about as long as I'd like to spend there. The sailing is amazing but there's not much to do compared to Jeri, its a small city and I think we must of been the only gringos in town as we were getting lots of funny looks! It was nice to get some new combos on the super flat water. Some of the local kids from the spot are absolutely ripping as well which was great to see.

Apart from that and a day trip to Lagoa Azul the majority of the trips been in Jeri. This year we rented a house that was a bit further out of town but we got a great deal on it and I would recommend doing that to anyone who's considering going for more than a few weeks as you can save loads of money compared to staying in a pousada!

I've been working on a few video projects whilst I've been here so there should be some clips on the way soon!

Fortunately the trips not quite over yet as I've just arrived in Icaraizinho for the Club Ventos press trip. I'll spend the next four days here before heading home to sunny England. There's some exciting stuff planned with the potential of a Heli-shoot which could be entertaining!

Sorry for the lack of pictures but the Internets just too slow...

New video!

England

So since my last update from Sylt I didn’t really expect to report on that much windsurfing action until I got to Brazil. As it happens I’m writing this on the plane from Rio De Jeneiro to Fortaleza where im flying into before spending 6 weeks in Jericoacoara.

Surprisingly enough I’ve had loads of time on the water whilst I’ve been at home. I’ve even managed to compile a video with all my footage of sailing at home from September until now. This is a first for me, as I’ve never had enough clips from home to warrant making a video. Could be to do with the amount of time I’ve spent there over the last few years! But now with more events going on at home and having to travel from home to go to events I’ve definitely been spending a bit more time there.

The main spot featured in the video is Point Clear, St Oysth, Essex. It’s not a spot I sailed once whilst I was growing up but after getting to know Whitey ( Dave White ) he couldn’t understand why anyone would bother going anywhere else. So I checked it out a few years ago, I rarely sail anywhere else if I’m at home. It is amazing as far as flat-water freestyle spots go. The rest of the footage is from the south coast whilst I was down there for the competitions. Big thanks to everyone at West Wittering as they’ve been extremely accommodating in letting us sail there and helping out with photographers etc. Check out www.2xs.co.uk yet another amazing spot. The best day we had there I sailed on the waves at high tide with some epic jumping conditions before the tide dropped to reveal the freestyle “trench”. The other main spot is the Esso Garage on Hayling Island.

Anyway so I hope you enjoyed the video! There will be another one coming very soon after this trip.

Right so by the time I post this I will have hopefully of had my first session in Jeri. I’ve only packed my 4.2 & 4.7 as every time before I’ve never ended up using my 5.0. Board wise I’ve got the Skate 89 and Newave twin 72 so better hope its windy!!!

PWA Sylt 2011

No wind at all for the final PWA event of the year in Sylt! Not even enough to complete one round of waves, freestyle or Slalom. Definitely the contrast to the conditions we normally get on Sylt it as it was sunny all week. I made the road trip down together with Bubble and Bryan Metcalf Perez and we had fully loaded the van with three suitcases full of the warmest clothes we owned ready for the trip!

Even though there was no wind the event organiser put on a few tow in sessions to entertain the thousands of people watching on the beach. Unfortunately for me its pretty difficult to get your name on the list to compete in these and I just missed out on the first one. Lucky enough for me on the second one they let a few more people get involved. I have been training the tow in a fair bit over the last few weeks so was stoked to get a chance to do it. I didn't get through to the final but still had a good go at a Burner but forgot that you cant turn out 540 if you haven't got any wind in the sail!!!


Unfortunately the conditions got harder as the tow in went on and the PWA decided to reduce the fleet back down to 12 people as it made the show faster!!! There was a great buzz about the tow in because of the weather maybe the beaches were even more crowded than normal it put on a great show for everyone! There were definitely more people watching than if it had been 5.7 weather onshore and raining and the moves were probably more spectacular!!

The rest of the week was mainly filled with a lot of waiting around and a fair bit of partying! Back in England now and the forecast looks pretty good. Hopefully going to the south coast for the next few days then back to Essex for the weekend!!!

This means I finish the year in 19th overall which is ok but not as good as I was hoping! Would have been great even to finish a single elimination as I would of been able to discard my 25th place from Aruba! Pretty happy still considering the level on the tour at the moment. Just booked my flights to Brazil for 6 weeks at the end of October so hopefully with a bit more training I can get in the top 16 overall next year.

My results for the PWA season were.

15th Vietnam
9th Austria
13th Bonnaire
25th Aruba
17th Fuerteventura




Pics by JC/PWA

1st place UK freestyle championships, Poole

Managed my first ever event win this weekend at the Poole windfest. It was great to finally have wind at the event as the name has plagued it for the last several years! We got in three full rounds of competition in 20-25 knot winds. I took the win in the first round and then 2nd in the following two rounds which was enough to take the event. I was neck and neck with Bubble before the third round as we both had a 1st and a 2nd, fair play to Sims who was sailing well and beat me on a split decision to get the win in that round.
I think the week of wind before definitely helped me get into the groove of the UK conditions. The first day I was sailing on my 5.0 & 5.4 ID's on the skate 99 which was a great set up even in the gusty choppy conditions. On the second day it was a bit windier with some more swell about. Nik Baker was out in the morning doing some wave 360's!!!! I was using the Skate 89 and my 4.7 ID all day which has to be my favourite set up at the moment.

Unfortunately I couldnt make it to all the events this year which meant I finished in 3rd in the overalls. Well Done to Sims for taking 1st and Bubble in 2nd. Hopefully next year I will be able to get to a few more!
The wind has still been relentless in England and I've been out the last few days full powered on 4.2. Ive started getting into the starboard tack jumping a bit more now so thats been fun. Also I had the best freestyle session ever at West Wittering the other day in the trench with loads of guys there that stayed down after the competition. I think the only spot that rivals how good it was is Camocim in Brazil and that's only cause you dont need a wetsuit!!!!! Lots of it is on Camera as well so hopefully the video will be coming soon.
Thanks to
Josh Wilmott
Gary Mercer
Bethany Mercer
Trevor & Carole Hibdige

For the pictures!

Check out Josh Wilmotts Video of the weekend!

More Windsurfing Videos

Windy England!

Last weekend was the National Windsurfing Festival on Hayling Island (NWF) It was the first time I've been to the event and it definitely wont be the last! It was amazing to see so many sails out on the water, there were over 400 people registered for the event and the majority were freeriders. www.nationalwindsurfingfestival.com For more info! I managed to win the night tow in session and come 2nd in the freestyle event which I was pretty pleased with!



Since the event finished the wind has been non stop! Check the videos at the bottom to see what I've been up to in more detail. After spotting the ridiculous forecast I consulted with Chris "Muzza" Murray and it was decided that I would stay with him on the south coast and not bother going back to Essex. On Monday we headed to Shoreham so I could collect a wave board and also make the most of the wind! Since Muzza was busy at home finishing of the video for the NWF we got to Shoreham a little bit late and the shorebreak was in full swing! Muzza paid the price for that one (Check the Pic!) Whilst packing up we were wondering it it would be possible to sail in the Widewater lagoon! I did a few runs but it was pretty shallow and the lagoon stunk once I stirred the mud up a bit. Check another Vid at the bottom of the page! I was pretty happy to stick a Skopu with only a 5 second run up!!!!

With the forecast looking even better for the Tuesday we decided a freestyle session would be in order, we gathered a big crew and headed off to West Wittering. It was absolutely howling and once we arrived it was hard enough to open the van doors let alone walk down to the water with our kit! It was gusting up to 50 knots and was easily one of the windier days I've attempted to freestyle in. Given the conditions we all landed some good moves but the crashes that went along with it were far more entertaining which is probably why the video got over 3,000 views in under 24 hours of being uploaded.
After the epic freestyle session I knew it was time to keep Muzza entertained and head on to a wave spot for the following day. Hayling Island was the most obvious option as when the tide drops a nice sand bar pops which the waves wrap round creating some nice straight on jumping. Now starboard tack jumping is most definitely not one of my strong points but one of my main aims for the year is to improve it. With Bubble and Muzza going for it I joined in; consequently my left but cheek is savagely bruised!!!! To make matters worse in the hunt for a flat spot I managed to sail over a sand bar that I hadnt spotted! I tried to resist the catapult which is always a massive error when your fins already in the sand and then went round the front so hard I snapped the head on my boom oooops! SO I had a lovely sail back with my boom wobbling around at the bottom of the cut out lashed on with my uphaul ( so glad I put that uphaul on for the tow in!! )
Not content we headed on to Witterings for another freestlye session! It was good but we were all feeling it a little bit. It looks windy again for tomorrow so check back for some more pics and videos!

Cheers to Dave White for the night tow in Pic & James Underwood for the Shaka at NWF pic.

Muzzas NWF video!


Muzza gets eaten at Shoreham!!!


Skopu at Widewater lagoon!!


Wipeouts at West Wittering!

More Windsurfing Videos >>

Advanced plus with Flying fish.

I've just arrived back in England after spending the last month out in Vassiliki. Sorry I haven't been very active on here but if you check out www.clubvass.com I've been doing some blogging on their site about what I've been up to.

The last week I was out in Vass I passed my RYA advanced plus course which brings me on to how I got in to this whole teaching thing..

How I got into this whole world of instructing which brought me on to competing was through a company called Flying Fish. After going on holiday with Club Vass when I was 17 I was certain that I was going to do one of their courses the previous year. Flying Fish run intensive instructor training courses in Vass, some of them take beginner windsurfers to start instructors in 6 weeks. I did a fast track course of 4 weeks when I was 18 out in Vass and it definitely helped me get a foot in the door and meet all the guys working there. It was also then that I got my first taste for freestyle windsurfing, I learnt to Vulcan that summer and have been hooked on it ever since.
After a brief stint working for Mark Warner in Kos I went to Dahab, Egypt for the first time to complete my Intermediate course. I knew it was going to be hard to get a job working for Club Vass without this qualification and lucky for me and a few close friends I had met in Vass we had the perfect opportunity to do it. The guys heading the operation up in Vass Andy Barnes and Becky Ellis were running the course and we all had an awesome week. So with my Intermediate planing course under my belt I approached Club Vass pretty much begging for a job.


Its been five years nearly since I passed my RYA Intermediate planing course and for the last 3 years I've been trying to fit in completing my Advanced plus course. Its been difficult as they normally only run one course a year and it always seemed to clash with an event. This year everything fell into place after a bit of help from Ollie and Barnsey. Its no secret that I've been teaching Advanced windsurfers on a few occasions before the course but I still felt it was completely necessary to get it done and after not doing a course for five years I was keen to see how much I could learn from it. It was a great opportunity to brainstorm with Barnsey and other experienced instructors about anything from kit to teaching techniques. Barnsey gets his nickname "The Oracle" for a reason as he really does know almost everything about anything. I had an amazing week! Learnt a lot and also thoroughly enjoyed myself. After the course I was pretty disappointed to be leaving as I was keen to inject my new found knowledge into some unassuming advanced group.

I wanted to write this update as a bit of a thank you to Barnsey and Becky as they have hooked me up over the years and they really do an amazing job. Make sure you check out www.flyingfishonline.com for info on all the courses they run. You will have the time of your life!!!

For me now its off to Hayling Island for the National Windsurfing Festival. Also stopping over in Hove this evening for a tow in session at the Ion cable park with Brawzinho, Bubble and Simmsy!!!
Big thanks to Jay Haysey from www.globalshots.co.uk for the pictures.

Also Laura Slater for the final picture.

PWA Fuerteventura

Sorry! I know Fuerteventura finished well over 2 weeks ago and I definitely should of got round to writing this update a lot sooner. However after getting blown off the water the last few days in Fuerte before returning to a very hectic Club Vass I havnt found the time.

I had high expectations going into the event after finishing in 11^th the previous year. There was already some un doubt over the forecast when I arrived so I was expecting I to be not a classic Fuerte event. Fortunately it was windy enough for my heats and I sailed every one on my 4.7 North ID and Skate 89. I had just received the fit the day before I got there and I was a little bit anxious about only having 3 days to get used to it but funnily enough it must of taken all of about 2 seconds to feel instantly better on my new gear. The weight of the ID had an instant impact and I was feeling on the top of my game.

I was knocked out in the second round of the single by Yarden Meir from Israel who was sailing seriously good! Yarden is one of my favourite guys to watch sail on the tour and a great guy so I wasn’t to disappointed as I knew it would be all about the double elimination. As soon as I saw the draw I knew It was going to be a tough one! Tonky Frans had been knocked out early on in the single and I was already feeling sorry for whoever would have to face him in the double!! And guess what this time it was me!! I had to win two heats before I would face Tonky and first was Max Mattisek a very talented sailor from Austria. I had a really good heat and was feeling confident going into the next one against a good friend of mine Marco Wedele. Marco had taught me a lot of my moves over the years whilst I was out in Dahab and he is an awesome sailor so it was a bit nerve racking going up against him. Fortunately I sailed a good heat and I felt like I was going to make it into the top 16 until I remembered I had Tonky in the next round!!

As fellow commentator of mine Phil Soltysiak put it on the live streaming “ I could probably sail in now “ after watching Tonky pull off a forward loop into double flaka on his first run!! In good spirit I stayed out and put together a solid performance but It wasn’t quite enough to take down Tonky. Leaving me in 17^th place!

The forecast went a bit rubbish after the first few days and it became ever likely that there wouldn’t be enough time to run another elimination which was very disappointing. In the mean time I got stuck into the commentating for PWA live tv which was great fun and I hope anyone watching enjoyed it.

For me now its back to work at Club Vass in Vassiliki and the wind has been amazing!! Got fully planing on a 2.7 kids sails!! I’ve been doing some blogging about my time out here over on www.clubvass.com so check that out for more information.

Big thanks to Danielle Lucas from getwindsurfing.com for the pictures!

Out with the old in with the new! Video from Egypt

Cheers to Josh Wilmott from Blacklab for producing this epic clip from Egypt this Spring this year.

OUT WITH THE OLD IN WITH THE NEW from Josh Willmot on Vimeo.

Check back soon for my update on Fuerteventura..

PWA Aruba

Aruba

So the Caribbean leg of the tour is now over and I’m currently on my way back to Vassiliki, Greece via Amsterdam and London. After finishing in 13^th in Bonaire I was keen to hold on to my spot in the top 16 of the event but unfortunately it wasn’t to be!!! The conditions were completely different to Bonaire and it was a bit of a shock at first. To add to the tricky conditions lots of the shit hot local guys from Bonaire joined the fleet again in Aruba, these last two events have definitely been the highest level right the way through the fleet that I’ve ever experienced.

The island is also completely contrasting to Bonaire! Its like a tropical Brighton. The far end of the beach is lined with High rise hotels and Americanised shopping malls etc… Fortunately the event site is a lot nicer and thankfully theres no high rise hotels yet as the wind is bolt off shore!

Like in Bonaire we were hoping to complete two double eliminations but unfortunately the first two days in Aruba didn’t deliver good enough conditions for us to compete! It was windy just from a slightly different angle which made it incredibly gusty! We were all quite glad at the time but looking back it would have been a lot better for me to get the chance in a second double.

I really felt like my level was a lot lower than in Bonaire and I was struggling with a lot of my bigger moves in the choppier conditions so this led to me crashing out into 25^th place! Moving me from 12th into 15^th in the current overalls. The good news is that after 7 events we get to discard out two worst results, this would be a massive relief if I was attending the Lanzarote event next week but due to financial issues I’m giving it a miss. So that will be another discard used up which puts a lot of pressure on for the final two events in Fuerteventura and Sylt.

It was good fun again to be involved with the live streaming which is getting 30,000 views a day. My throat is suffering now and I’m not sure how Proffit does it! He was already loosing his voice and there was still 3 days of slalom left.

Now I’m spending the next three weeks working for www.clubvass.com before heading to Fuerte for two weeks. Cant wait to get back to Greece!!!

PWA Bonaire!

Just finished the 3rd stop of the PWA Bonaire event. Definitely the best location of any competition I've ever been to! The high level was definitely reflected by the amazing conditions. As soon as I arrived and saw the locals sailing here I knew there were going to be some upsets in the draw. I felt like I upped my game a lot doing Culos, bobs and double spocks in most of my heats. We had wind everyday so it was great to finish two double eliminations which would normally split the results evenly but as there were so many similar results it ended with about 8 of us in joint 13th!!!!


I am pretty stoked though as it moves me into 12th in the overall rankings so far for the year. There is still four more events remaining so its going to be hard work to stay in that place, by this number of events last year we would of already been heading into the final one! Unfortunately I'm going to be missing the first stop in the Canaries for financial reasons so will have to use that as my discard and pray that I dont get any bad results in the remaining events!

Its been good to be involved with the live streaming commentary during the event. I have found it stops me from getting nervous hanging around on the beach thinking about my heat too much!! More of the same in Aruba so be sure to check it out at www.pwaworldtour.com
Speaking of Aruba I have just arrived! We got on the smallest plane I've ever seen yesterday to make our way over. Unfortunately the kit took up an entire plane, as in they had to take the seats out to fit it in!!! So we got delayed 5 hours while they sorted that out dropped the kit off and then came back for us!!


Big thanks to https://www.facebook.com/JanWachtmeesterPhotography check out the page and like it! Some awesome shots on there!

the rest by JC/PWA

Bonaire!

Arrived all good in Bonaire. In the end it was actually a pretty easy journey, spending about 12 hours at my house was a bit of a manic rush. To make things a bit more hectic I decided it would be the perfect time to collect my 5.4 Duke from Nik Baker so I ended up going via Gatwick again on the way to Heathrow!!

Feeling a little bit under prepared for the event kit wise, with the KLM weight restrictions it was only possible to bring 1 board, 3 sails, 3 masts, 3 extensions and a boom. Oh and 4 pairs of boardies and a few t-shirts! Should be ok though as long as it doesnt get below 5m weather which hardly looks likely at the moment.

The first day I arrived I went on a tour of the Island with Paul Zeper. Check out the clip from Globalshots here-
I got a quick session in yesterday pumping around on 5.9 but the forecast looks like its improving for the coming week. The spot is absolutely amazing! by far the hottest water I've ever experienced. Its easy to see why the local guys are so good!


The place I'm staying in is perfect as well, just a 30 second walk from the beach and we can keep all out kit rigged out the front. Currently living with Bubble and Laure but when they move into the free accommodation I'll be living with Yarden Meir & Andraz Zan just next door.

EFPT Milos beach

I’ve been out in Greece for the last two weeks setting up the Club Vass centre ready for the first arrivals. We normally open the centre a month earlier but this year the hotel has undergone a bit of a makeover. None the less it was still a massive rush to get the centre ready in time!!! But it is looking really pimp now!

Milos beach is on the north side of Lefkada just an hour from Vassiliki. The event normally takes place a month later but because the pwa calendar is so full they had to push it earlier. To be honest I’ve never been a fan of the conditions at Milos beach as even when the forecast is good its rubbish pumping 5.9 weather!!! It made it even more painful to return to Vass each evening there had been no wind at milos to find out it had been amazing 4.7 weather all day…….

I was pretty confident going into the even knowing a lot of the top guys weren’t there! I was seeded against an unknown Italian in the second round and unfortunately he was sailing amazingly in the gusty 5.7 weather. I had a good heat but kept it too simple. I crashed my shaka and twisted my ankle a minute before the end of the heat leaving me no time to get another attempt in!! All my other moves were fully planning and had plusses on the sheets but the other guy had done a sick ponch and a shaka so it was game over for me! Somehow I still finished in 9^th leaving me with a bit of prize money to drown my sorrows with that night in the Zeus bar!!!!

I have one more week left in Vass before going to Bonnaire for the next PWA event.

Big thanks to Jay Haysey from Globalshots for the pictures….

9th place in Austria!

PWA Austria


My best result so far and I'm stoked. I had an epic road trip driving down to the event which took 25 hours in a two van convoy. The wind was forecast to be light for the weekend so we all made the most out of the big party scene in Podersdorf but I made sure I was rested and ready for the wind forecast at the end of the week.


The normal conditions that the tour has become a custom to in Austria are gusty 5.7 weather. So it was a bit of a shock when it kicked in with around 30 knots on the penultimate day. It was absolute carnage in the tent with everyone rigging their smallest gear. I was in the first heat so it was a mad rush to get my 4.0 ready, when I was sailing upwind it was possibly some of the hardest conditions I've ever sailed with the horizontal rain coming down so hard I couldn't even see let alone look upwind.


I kept to my normal plan for competition sailing and kept it consistent and didnt go for my biggest moves until I already had the set number of moves landed. My port tack moves were mainly Air Flakas, Ponch's, Shakas which the conditions were perfect for. And on Starboard tack I quickly discovered that by Burners weren't consistent enough in this much chop so I stuck with Punetas, E-sliders, Switch flakas and funnels. This got me through two heats in the single elimination beating Chris Kalk and Mattia Pedrani before getting defeated by Taty Frans!

Double elimination- The last morning of the event was definitely the most challenging, not just because we had to be on the water a 6-am. It was bloody freezing!! After sailing my heat against Rossmeir I had the worst fire hands I've ever experienced and when they told my I had won the heat I couldn't even bring myself to smile at the thought of getting back out on the water. Luckily the pain died off and I was next up against the Brazilian Edvan de Souza, whilst I was out waiting for the green flag I couldn't see him anywhere and it wasn't until 1 minute into the heat that he made an appearance. The pressure was on as I knew I had an advantage after landing 2 moves before he was there and I went on to sail my best heat of the contest scoring 23 points out of 30 on one judges score sheet. Next was Tonky Frans who finished in 5th overall last year and he has been sailing amazingly so never feel too bad loosing against him! So I finished the event in 9th, which is my best result so far, hopefully I can keep it up for the rest of the year. This leaves me in 13th position currently in the overall PWA freestyle rankings
Thanks to Jay Haysey from Globalshots for the pictures!

Busy times!

I arrived back from Dahab a week a ago now and have been so busy I havnt even got round to writing this for a while! The last few weeks out in Dahab were relatively chilled with a bit of a dry spell of wind lasting for almost 10 days. However for my final week it did make a comeback and I had some decent sessions including an epic trip to the Blue Lagoon ( Ras aba Galoom ) We got dropped off at the Blue hole and walked for 1 1/2 hours before getting collected and taken to out Bedouin camp for the night. We had an awesome meal cooked for us, then camped out on the beach and awoke at 6am to this -
There was only 7 of us and we had it all to ourselves! It was full power 4.7 weather for about 3 hours until it dropped off when we just stopped for breakfast, meaning we had the rest of the day to chill out and enjoy some more amazing food including a freshly caught and cooked parrot fish that had green bones- very interesting but one of the divers didnt find it so exciting that we were eating it!!!!
After getting home from Dahab I only had a few days at home before heading up North to collect my newly pimped van thanks to www.exploria-online.co.uk More pictures and info coming soon courtesy of Globalshots.co.uk Once the van was packed I was off to Hayling Island for the first UKWA freestyle event of the year. Even though there was nearly no wind we still had an awesome time! I managed to win the lightwind freestyle category woop woop!!! I also come second in the tow-in which was an interesting show for the crowds on the beach as I launched into a no handed flaka and stopped dead still and got sent out the front at full speed!! Check out the gallery of pictures from Globalshots on the facebook page Globalshot pictures and the video can be seen here-
More Windsurfing Videos you can also see Dave Whites at this link- http://boards.mpora.com/news/bsa-slalom-ukwa-freestyle-1-photo-gallery.html

I also managed to sneak in a session on the new ION cable park practising tow in on our windsurf kit! check out www.lagoon.co.uk More pictures + video coming soon from that one!

Now for the epic road trip to Austria for the second PWA event of the year. Im off to Heathrow first thing to collect the boys from their Maui flight then away to Simmsys we go to pack the gear and head off. Stay tuned for some Globalshot updates of the road trip with Myself, Bubble, Jay Haysey, Adam Sims Bryan metcalf Perez and Jamie Drumond!! Should be pretty entertaining!!! Also we havnt quite figured how we are gonna make it from Austria to Rhosneigr in a day....