Lanzarote Day 1

Just got back from the first day of the event over here in Lanzarote! Registration started at 10:00 and it was interesting to see some of the nanes on the original entry list had not turned up. Mainly Philip Koster as everyone knows how sick he is in the waves it would of been interesting to see his freestyle ability. I think a few of the guys would of been pretty nervous up against him if the conditions were anything like last year ( 3.7 with 3metre swell ) !! Maybe he saw the forecast was going to be lighter and changed his mind!

Once I'd got my stickers on it was pretty consistent 5.4 weather and the first possible start wasnt another 3 hours at 2:00. It was low tide and the conditions were pretty difficult and I was struggling a lot at first but once the tide started to come in flatened of nicely. I have the German Adrian Beholz in the first round and if I advance that the I have Gollito!!!!!

Already yesterday we had seen Gollito practising what looked to be a new move and today an hour into the session he must must of done about 4 in a row! Its going to be pretty hard to describe!! He ducks the sail regular stance as if he was going to do a "bob" but then catches it back to sail and jumps holding it like that until its fully back winded then finishes it 540! Just after he did it we were already speculating what stupid name he was going to call it whilst saying soon he'll be doing a spock into that position and doing the new move from there and would you believe it 5 minutes later he did it!!! Hopefully get a clip of it up sometime this week!!

Around 1:00 the wind started to drop and by the time 2:00 came round it was really light. After eating my paella so quick I thought I might throw up I rigged my 5.7 incase they decided to start. I went out sailing with my watch ready to go waiting for the red flag but it never came, it was only really possible to do moves on the way in using the swell to get planning and with the wind getting lighter we stayed on standby! It was amazing what some of the top guys are doing in no wind! It doesnt even make sense that they can get that much height and whip when they are hardly moving! Has given me a better focus on what I need to be training for and for sure everyone looked pretty suprised. Apart from Gollito it was mainly the Bonnaire guys who rip in these sort of conditions, for me Bjorn Saragoza sailed the best today after never seeing him before I was pretty suprised and concerned!!

They did try and start an expression session later on but quickly sacked it off as the wind died completely! The rest of the afternoon was spent baking ourselves and our sails, now I can see why everyone at the hotel is so burnt. Some discussion went into what Gollito was going to call his new move and he came up with " Sapo " yet another ridiculous name for a move! It also turned out he had landed some double air flaka and wanted to call it "del toro" or something like that. Some guys tried to convince him otherwise and call it something everyone can understand like "corkscrew". I dont think theres any point coming up with these ridiculous names and what needs to happen is to take some snowboard/ skateboard names that more people are familiar with and use them for the new moves. We had a massive heated debate in Austria when Kiri named his new move a " Kabbikuchi " which me and Bubble have dubbed the " Scratchmygoochie " dont think they are even going to get the point though!

Right off out for Bubbles birthday dinner tonight in town! Tapas so should be good!

Vass EFPT and White church photoshoot

Just got back from Vass late last night with Bubble and home for day before heading to lanzarote. The Last few weeks in Vass have been pretty hectic, starting with the Vassiliki/ Milos beach efpt event a few weeks ago. As I mentioned in my last post I was pretty excited about having the home advantage in this competition, with hope of getting a good result. Unfortunately my seeding wasnt great and after advancing through my first heat I then had Nicolas Akgazcyan who won the event here two years ago! I wasnt that nervous before the heat mainly because I knew I had nothing to loose, It had started howling so I rigged my 4.8 Simmer Blacktip and was full power. I sailed a solid heat making an Air flaka, cana brava, Switch flaka, puneta, funnel, shaka, no handed flaka and a double spock!! I hadnt seen any of the other guys do a double spock in Vass so I was pretty happy about that. I lost the heat on diversity and was looking through the sheets and couldnt beleive how many moves Akgazcyan had done. There was a slight mess up as the judges had all marked me down for doing two punetas instead of a puneta and a funnel! I wasnt to bothered as I think I would of have to done a lot more to beat him. I think I need to work more on doing moves on both sides in my heats to help get some diversity points.

The next day would be the last day of the event in Vassiliki before we would move to the North of the Island to Milos Beach. The forecast was epic for Vass and I knew we would have time to run the full double elimination. Just my luck however I had Bubble in the the first round!! Bubble had been knocked out by our good friend Colin Dixon in the first round the day before and because of the number of competitors it didnt matter that I had advanced a round further than Bubble in the single. Again I sailed a solid heat making all my moves but Bubble was on fire and his ability to do everything both ways gave him the advantage. I was very jelous of Colins draw and he made it all the way through to 9th place! I was working this day so I made my way back down the beach to Club Vass for the day I did manage to catch a glimpse of Bubbles heats and he was showing the boys that this was his home spot and he wasnt going to be beaten easilly. He managed to pass through some big heats taking out Scheffers, Strahlen, and Oetagui before coming up against the Israli Yarden Meir in the battle for 4th position. Unfortunately by this point Bubble was knackered and Yarden was fresh after sitting and watching all morning whilst Bubble was sailing back to back heats. It was still a very close heat but Bubble had to settle for 5th.
After the two days in Vass the we spent the last two days sitting around waiting for the gusty 5.7 weather that we have become a custom to on the north side of the island at Milos Beach however it never came...


Last week however we did score some epic conditions on the north side of the islnd one evening after work at a spot called the White church. Jay Haysey from Globalshots and I had been planning this trip for a few weeks now and knew the potential this spot had with the sun setting behind this stranded church that you can only access via the sea. The first day we sailed further up than the church pumping on my 5.4 but the next day we scored it perfect and I rigged my 5.1 and together with the other Globalshots team riders we made the downwinder towards the White Church. Jay got some amazing shots with the bright orange sky behind the church and also some good ones of me sailing right in front of the church trying to dodge the old remains of wall that had eroded around the church. Check out the Globalshots facebook page to see all the action.

Vass is going off!!

Had another awesome week out here in Vass. Been sailing on 4.8 or 5.1 nearly every afternoon! Yesterday we ran the first Club Vass weekly slalom event and it was absolutely howling. I rigged 5.8 and did one run then came in to change down to a 5.4. Check out the report on Boards- http://boards.mpora.com/news/club-vass-slalom-series.html

Just sent off for my wild card to the event in Lanzarote so just waiting to hear back on that one. Me and Bubble booked our flights the other day so would be a bit of a shame otherwise. ALso we have the EFPT Vassiliki/Milos beach event in a few weeks which should be good fun. Quite excited at the though of competing in my home spot.

Vassiliki update!

Arrived in Vassiliki with Bubble last week. Unfortunately we had to come out a week earlier than planned as there was a mix up with flights. It wasnt the end of the world it just ment that we would miss the freestyle event in Branksome and also the wave event in Rhosneigr the weekend just gone. A little bit of peace of mind is that there wasnt any wind!!! In Vass we arrived to full power 4.2 which was sick. At the weekend we had a bit of a shock to wake up to full power 4.8 weather with waves coming in which is extremely rare for Vass! the starboard tack jumping was fun and spent a lot of time nailing myself then pulled my first planing forward of the back of a wave back into the beach. Then Jay Haysey aka Global shots came out with his camera so we started a photo sesh, unfortunately I managed to end myself on my second move infront of the camera; a massive air flaka and when I landed my knee gave way. I had to miss a day on the water but now its feeling good again.

Austria Day 3 & Pictures

Really long day yesterday and the event seems to be winding down. Most of the people are beginning to leave as the weekend is now over! The wind was blowing North westerly in the morning and was looking promising for a while however nothing materialised. The weather was still nice so me and Bubble decided to go for a Stand up paddle further up the the lake. The most exciting point in the day was a really close encounter with a swan after we went to close to its babies.
In the afternoon the freestyle tow in started, unfortunately you were only allowed to enter if you had competed in the jump ramp the day before. We took our position on the Bacardi Island to watch the action and witnessed a ridiculous culo from Steven Van Broekhoven. How he can even duck the sail with just apparent wind created from the tow in is cray. The rest of the afternoon we spent at the Red Bull tent where we got a free bbq. In the evening we went for pizza with some of the other competitors. Followed by a few small games of Beer pong on the official Zipfer tables in the Royal Captains bar. We are now sitting around in the rain waiting for some very light southerly winds that are supposed to be coming. Which will mean wobbling out in to the middle of the lake and the judging taking place from a boat! Will keep you updated tomorrow with how it all goes.

Austria Day 2!

Day 3 alread but didnt get a chance to update yesterday. We had a really good night on the first day of the event the place was absolutely rammed with thousands of people just coming for the party. There was some wind around 6am but everyone missed it as it wasnt forecast thats why today I am currently sitting and very cold next to the lake waiting just incase. Yesterday They did run the ramp contest in the afternoon, not many people competed just because of the risk of nailing yourself or the equipment. Steven Van Broekhoven also did some towing behind a jet ski and did an unbeleivable air flaka on the glassy flat water followed by a one handed ponch and a shaka!!!!
It could be a long day and we will probably be on hold untill this evening as the wind is forecast to switch and blow from the south.

Austria Day 1!

Me and Bubble arrived yesterday afternoon to 25 degrees sunshine! Really glad I packed lots of warm clothes. Podersdorf is a really nice town, it seems the normal tourists are old Austrian / German people coming away for a quiet weekend by the lake but for a few weekends a year it goes party mad. Our accomodation is awesome just a little old Austrian lady is running who doesnt speak one word of English lucky my G in GCSE German is coming in handy not!!! WIll put some pics up soon, it looks like it hasnt been decorated since the 60's.
We registered this morning and soon realised my giant 2 metre Colgate stickers are required to go right over where my sail numbers are, which looks really good... Its sunny again today and the forecast doesnt look to promising but theres loads else to do so should be fun!!