9th place at PWA Holland DAM7!

So after being pretty slack on here for the past 6 months I thought it was about time to get back into keeping this page a bit more updated. After feeling pretty excited about my result from the last event in Holland this finally gave me some motivation to start writing again.

Being the first PWA event in Holland for a long time it was great to go somewhere and have no pre conceptions about the event or conditions etc. I drove over there together with Gollito and Josh Willmot from Blacklab. It only took us three hours to get to Brouwersdam from Calais so its pretty feasible to head there from the UK on a good forecast. The forecast for the event was a bit all over the place at the start of the week but it help up and gave us some pretty epic conditions, I was praying for it to be mega windy 4.0 weather as thats when i felt I could do my best. I ended up sailing all my heats on the new 4.4 North Idol ltd which after seeing the full power conditions that some of the guys had to sail in wasn't a bad compromise at all....  For the finals of the single elimination it must of already been around 40kts and once they were done with that they decided to run the first round of the double elimination and by this time it was much nearer 50kts!! Luckily enough for me I'd advanced far enough in the single to be waiting in the third round of the double for my heat. I was sat in the van watching together with Bubble and all though we had both been praying for full power conditions we were pretty happy to be sat in the van as some of the guys were struggling to land more than a couple of moves!!

The following day the conditions were a lot more bearable and I was back out on my 4.4! After beating Yarden Meir who's one of my favourite guys on tour to watch sail as you never know whats coming next I then went on to face Niko Agkazicyan in the battle for 9th place. I'd never beaten Niko before so I knew I was going to have to sail my best to stand a chance! I was reading all the messages of encouragement from the boys in Vass in between my heats and this got me feeling more focused and relaxed than I've ever felt in a heat before. Feeling that relaxed meant that I went on to sail one of my best heats of the contest and it was a very close decision but I just managed to edge past him. After that I was up against Youp Schmit again another top sailor! This time I think I should of gone into the heat with a bit more belief that I could go further, the excitement of already being 9th distracted me from what I needed to do to beat Youp. He sailed unbelievably and went on to finish the event in 5th.

Overall I'm really happy with the result, especially as it almost guarantees me a spot in the top 16 for this year. The top 16 is so tight this year that it wasnt quite enough to move me up any further but fingers crossed if I get another good result in the next event in Sylt I will be able to discard my 16th place from Fuerteventura! For the moment its actually nice to be spending a week at home so I can chill out a bit before the next contest. We've even had some sick conditions here! Check out this Skopu clip from the other day at The Ray in Southend!

Single Elimination

Double Elimination

NEW Brazil video.

Check out my latest clip from a trip I did to Brazil in October/November. Really pleased with the reaction to the clip so far and its great to finally have a new video which I didn't have to scrape around looking for the best clips. Luckily it was windy everyday and we did plenty of filming so there was more than enough footage. Massive thanks to Josh Wilmot from Blacklab who did an amazing job with the editing and also to everyone that helped film especially Bethany Mercer. More news from my current trip to Cape Town on here soon.

NEW video.

Make sure you click on 1080p HD in the settings bar!!

Back home...

Jay Haysey/ www.globalshots.co.uk

Not exactly at home but I've been in England now for the past couple of weeks after yet another awesome summer out in Vass. After a tough draw in the PWA event in Fuerteventura I ended in 17th place and then quickly headed back to Vass for August. Once again I really had a great time out there and this year the wind has been even better which obviously helps a bit but really the team we had working out there this summer made the biggest difference. Check out the Vass edition of my monthly feature I write for Boardseeker- http://www.boardseekermag.com/features/windsurfing-action/the-ultimate-year-august.html

Jay Haysey / www.globalshots.co.uk

At first I wasn't exactly excited by the prospect of heading home but when I started writing my following months feature for Boardseeker based on the UK I started to remember what it was all about. So far it hasn't disappointed either; OK so maybe its not been quite as windy in September as the last two years but still its been pretty good. The first stop after Vass was the National Windsurfing Festival (NWF) Together with Colin "Whippy" Dixon we had a quick stop over at my house before rushing down there the following morning. It truly was another EPIC event, it was great to see so many windsurfers around and on the water. Its events like this we need to keep our sport going/growing and a massive thanks has to go out to the man behind it all Allan Cross.

www.2xs.co.uk

Unfortunately I couldn't retain my title of the night tow-in champion at NWF and was pipped to a close 2nd by good friend Adam Sims. As for the main event we didn't quite get enough wind in our allocated time slot to get a planing competition finished. It was a hectic weekend for me as along with the competing I was also commentating/ Interviewing for the Live Streaming side of the event. Again I was paired up with Colin "Whippy" Dixon for this one and we really had a great time doing it.

Pic by Dave White.

Check out my top UK spots in this Months Boardseeker feature- http://www.boardseekermag.com/features/windsurfing-action/the-ultimate-year-september.html  

Jay Haysey / www.globalshots.co.uk

I've been sailing at West Wittering four times in the last week in preparation for the 5th stop of the UKWA freestyle tour that will head there next weekend. After that I'm off to Sylt for the final PWA event of the season, fingers crossed for some wind this year. I worked out a funny statistic the other day that out the 21 days I've spent there in the last two years I've only sailed 1 heat with a total time on the water of 12 minutes!!!

www.2xs.co.uk

Not often you get the conditions to go for Backies in Vass!!! Cheers to Scott Perry for this shot.

Spring 2012!

JC/PWA

 After being pretty on it with updating my blog I’ve fell into a bit of a dry spell over the last few months. Since my last update in March time I’ve been to a PWA event, my first ever international photo shoot, driven round France, Spain and Portugal for a month and am now sat back in Vassiliki! 

The tow in event for me consisted of two massive wipeouts!! JC/PWA

 The first PWA event in Austria was a frustrating one for me this year, we only had enough to wind to run a single elimination in very tricky conditions leaving me in 17^th place to start the year off.

 Straight from Austria I travelled to Egypt for the Fanatic/ North 2013 photo shoot. It was an amazing experience and is best summarised in this article I did for Boards about my time there. http://boards.mpora.com/features/high-rollers-and-new-shapes.html

Now the reason I haven’t updated about my recent trip around Europe is because I’m saving the story + pics for the printed press so didn’t want to risk giving too much away.  Within the next couple of weeks I’ll try to get the video online! Also most of the pics I've got I'm using the 2013 board which wont be released until July 15th!

Burner in Sagres, Portugal

Ok so back to the present and I’ve been out in Vassiliki now for the last two weeks working again for Club Vass. It’s been great to come back out here for what will be my sixth summer. The wind has been awesome as well and it’s been great to catch up with all my mates. Jay Haysey from Globalshots fame is back out here again this summer and he took this shot of me doing a Burner the other day.

Jay Haysey- Globalshots.co.uk

I also competed in the Vassiliki watersweets festival slalom event out here the other week and managed to finish in 3rd. Was great fun to do some racing as I rarely get the chance, might have to order some slalom gear for next summer!

Hopefully getting back in the swing of updating and keep an eye out for more regular updates to follow as I’m off to the PWA event in Fuerteventura  in the next few weeks.

Cape Town- Video+pics

CAPE TOWN!

Just got back from an amazing first time trip to Cape Town!! Honestly in the past when considering winter wave trips I've always been more drawn to the Idyllic perceptions of places such as Maui or Oz, however when the news came out that the PWA Vietnam event had been pushed back to December and the realisation that a lot of my friends and top freestylers would be out there it seemed like a no brainer to just head straight out to Cape Town! After hardly any planning, no car booked, no idea where I was staying and a very relaxing 12 hour flight there I was! Luckily my 3.7 had arrived hours before I was due to fly and just a few hours after landing I was already out sailing on it.

First thing you'll probably notice when looking through some of the video + pics is the massive lack of any waves!! Don't worry I didn't go all the way there to sail on the lake everyday its just not very often I get the chance to sail any waves so the thought of wasting time videoing seemed a bit dull! Plus the actions probably not quite the same level as the freestyle stuff....
Thanks to Debbie Kennedy for the shots I did get in the waves.

The month went so fast but I feel like I got the most out of it! Ticked most the boxes for all the normal tourist attractions such a climbing the mountain, wine tasting, penguins, monkeys etc!

One of things I was most excited about was getting the chance to surf again! Since buying my board seven years ago I've very rarely had the chance to get out on it. Found myself waking up most mornings more excited about the thought of getting for a surf rather than heading to the lake. Unfortunately again no action shots from the surfing as just after Andraz took this shot it started pissing with rain!! Probably for the best during this session as it would probably be better described as a "swim with a board attached to my leg" rather than a "surf"..

I definitely felt my level in sailing both freestyle and wave improved a lot! With the freestyle it helped a lot having all the top guys around. With the freestyle the main things I've been focusing on this winter is getting more consistent at the switch power moves such as Air funnels and Burners! Feeling pretty confident now after doing almost nothing else!!



All in all an amazing trip and I'm pretty certain that I'll be heading back out next year.
Massive thanks to Andraz Zan for sorting the accommodation, car etc and for the Pictures. Also Ollie Stau (the flash master) and Ricart for the other shots! Should mention Bubble, Rob P and Sam Neal for driving me around the first week. Cheers guys!

Brazil video!

Had an amazing first week in Cape Town! But mack to the previous trip- Brazil! The Fanatic/North/ION video fro the trip is now out. Filmed mainly by me and then edited by Josh Wilmott who has done an amazing job! Check it out.....

Team Fanatic & North in Brazil from Josh Willmot on Vimeo.

More news from Cape Town coming soon!