Adam Sims - Professional Windsurfer

Foot Op

2011-11-25T11:05:00.000Z

So I had the operation on Monday at the start of this week and have just been recovering. It seems like everything went to plan, except that I forgot to tell the surgeon that I'm flying today. This apparently is ok, except for the fact that I have a two week course of blood thinning injections which I have to inject into my stomach everyday! Not particularly enjoyable.

Went and had the follow up appointment last night and I got to see the damage for the first time. It actually looks pretty clean which is cool and my doctor told me exactly what he had done. For anyone who doesn;t want to know the minor details then I wouldn't read on.

The picture below shows the surface scar I will have. The work below the surface consists of clipping off the bumpy bits on top of the joint and then smoothing it down, then the joint was pulled apart and all the debris was cleaned out, following that some of the ligaments under the toe were snipped so I could increase my range of motion and then all stitched up....niiiiice!

So it's 4 weeks out of any impact sports, and really it won't be until Cape Town (all of Feb) that I'll be back on it again. Good time to get it done and I'll be sure to get some skiing in, in Jan, I hope.

A particular favourite snap of mine below... the colouring makes it look just that little bit more horrific... yum yum!

Nominated for UKWA Windsurfer of the year - WOOOOO

2011-11-15T11:31:00.000Z

YEHHHHHHHHHHHH

http://ukwindsurfing.com/woty/

So sick! Everything I wanted to happen by the end of 2012 has all happened this year! Please head over to the UKWA site (link above) to register your vote for UK Windsurfer of the year for who ever you feel deserves it...

Some highlights of my year below:

Videos:

Egypt Road Trip: http://video.mpora.com/watch/DSUJK6EoF/
Fuerteventura: http://video.mpora.com/watch/iFPoKQ2mg/
UKWA Freestyle Tour stop no.5: http://video.mpora.com/watch/vSSOxF3AN/
One fully epic power hour at West Witterings: http://video.mpora.com/watch/IN4IMz197/
SWA Aussie Kiss (epic event): http://video.mpora.com/watch/mHdik6HBz/

Photos:

http://video.mpora.com/watch/mHdik6HBz/

Night tow-in, AK XXX, Witterings coaching, Austriaaa

2011-11-03T10:15:00.001Z

With the competition season coming to a bit of a close and the student scene kicking off I figured now is a good time for a bit of an all round update.

So going back a bit now but Si Crowther just released these images from the night tow-in session at Hayling Island, some cool shots, thanks Si.

Practice/qualifying during the day

Since then was obviously the Poole windfest where I was super happy to take the 2011 UK Freestyle title, something that I previously covered with pics but it really has only just sunk in! It's one of those few achievements in my life that I can't actually describe how happy I am about it, especially with the level UK Freestyle is at!

So moving on to the Student Windsurfing event - Aussie Kiss 10. The first in their series and something I am helping out with in terms of demo gear from RRD. It's cool to go back as a demo guy and not to have to think about competing, but at the same time I miss that side a little bit. It's such an awesome way into competition though. No pressure and you compete when the wind as it's best. This year the event was pretty messy as per usual, a big party on Saturday night but with wind on Sunday it gave us a good chance to get out on the water and clear the hangovers a bit... pics below from Jay Haysey (www.globalshots.co.uk)

The following weekend whilst the UK's wave fleet were scoring it at Gwithian, Jamie Drummond, Sam Ross and myself were doing a bit of a freestyle kids camp at West Witterings. It went really well, with alright wind on Saturday and Trevor and Julian from the UKWA turning up to do a bit of an intro to competing and judging on Sunday.

Now I'm out in Vienna, Austria, desperate for an 'under-the-bridge' session and with a good forecast on the way, it looks like a strong possibility! Then it's home for a couple of weeks, hopefully to hook up with Josh Willmot to get some shots for some (top secret) video plans we have, then it's the operation and a bit of time out!

More soon on the bridge session if it happens...

Operation operation

2011-10-27T17:17:00.000+01:00

Sooo the date is set, I'll be going under the knife on the 21st November. It means I'm technically not allowed to windsurf for 6 weeks but who ever let that stop them...

To be honest considering the year I have had I feel like this is a small price to pay. With this kicking off in Egypt where I cut my head open and had 4 stitches in the local hospital, then started off the issues with the foot by crashing a ponch. Then Fuerte where I visited the doctor/hospital about 4 times in total; with a suspected broken leg (crashed clew first backloop), suspected ruptured appendix (crashed pushloop), a deep cut across my shin (fin across the shin after getting worked by a foot high wave.......) and further foot issues...then in the UK I had even more problems at events with my foot.

Soo the plan for Dec/Jan is to spend some time in Austria and hit up the ski slopes a bit, I figured a ski boot will be solid enough... then Cape Town is booked for all of February to train up for the following season. It's a bit annoying though because the rate freestyle windsurfing is moving on it won't take long to fall behind!

In the meantime I've got a few weeks before the Op so this weekend there is a kids freestyle camp at West Witterings which I will be demoing/working at... so come along and get involved if you want to learn a few moves... the forecast looks awesome....or head to BWA Cornwall for the epic forecast that the Wave sailors are heading to!

EFPT Interview

2011-10-17T16:26:00.000+01:00

Dominque from the EFPT put this unique interview together when I met up with him Vienna a week or so ago.

Pretty different style to the traditional interview format, cool though. Have a read here....

http://www.efpt.net/newsdetails.php?n_id=451

Pics:
- Hanna Poschinger
- getwindsurfing.com

My massive foot issues!

2011-10-13T16:44:00.000+01:00

So I'm sure quite a few people know already that I have had ongoing problems with my foot. In particular my left big toe. Now although this is a small part of the body it's become quite obvious that it is fairly useful when it comes to common day activities like standing/balancing/walking/etc... so when I'm trying to bust out the odd freestyle move here and there it doesn't really help that I have no tendon holding my big toe to the rest of my body anymore. It also doesn't help that the bone inside the joint has compressed so hard on a number of occasions that there are now floating bits of bone in the toe/foot...niiice!

So after 10 x-rays of the foot and a MRI scan the doctors have concluded that I will need an operation to clear the bits of bone and to part the joint a bit, they will also scrape inside the joint and drill holes in the bone (inside the joint) to promote growth and recovery. Should this fail, quite likely, then a second operation will be required to stop any movement in that toe forever, but that would be far off when I really can't stand the pain anymore. I suppose I should be a bit disappointed about this as it will take me off the water for a bit and could affect my windsurfing, except I spoke to Steven VB at EFPT Sardinia and he had some issue which meant he cannot bend his big toe at the same joint I may not be able to, and for anyone who has been hiding in a small hole in a Scottish mountain in the last year or so, he just became World Champion.

So all is not lost, but there are the details for those who might want to know... yum yum! First operation will be mid-November.

That said, I had an epic sail last week and got some decent snaps, which I'll throw up here as soon as I can convert these retarded .cr2 files that my mac is not liking...

Latest video

2011-10-01T11:32:00.000+01:00

So I made this video recently from that epic session we had at West Witterings a couple of weeks ago. It's only a minute long but the session was so full power everyone just wanted to sail and also I think the camera battery ran out... so here it is.. 50 knots of full power freestyle windsurfing!

Thanks to Bubble for the camera and the others for filming:

Celebratory road trip!!

2011-09-15T11:27:00.001+01:00

So straight after winning the new title of UK Freestyle champion last weekend down in Poole I decided to chase the rest of the wind around the country a bit, meeting up with Oscar and Palmer along the way.

On the Monday we ended up sailing at Weymouth. The call to go there over West Witterings was tough as most of the guys I knew sailed at Witterings that day, but being more west was pretty much the main reason for Weymouth. It was pretty windy but really up and down all day, which resulted in changing sails about 4 times! Meeting up with Oscar there was a lot of fun though and we ended up having a good session.

After this we drove North to West Kirby for literally an afternoon/evening session. I've never been there before and that spot is truly incredible! I know 'The Trench' at West Witterings is also extremely good; super flat, consistant wind and sandy but Kirby has the advantage of working in any tide state. Really it was amazing, like sailing on a swimming pool. Sailing until sunset was the coolest thing as well as you could see the sun setting down the Estuary and the wind just stayed the whole time. If there ever was a place to hold a freestyle windsurfing event then this would be it.

Photos: Hanna Poschinger

Now the plan is to head North to Scotland this weekend for the Windfest and then maybe cruise down the East coast on the way home or stop at Kirby again...

2011 UK Freestyle Champion

2011-09-12T09:37:00.000+01:00

This weekend was the final stop of the UKWA Freestyle Tour in Poole and it was windy!!!

It was cool to see everyone there again, Poole always attracts most of the UK's Freestylers. We had pretty awesome conditions on the Sunday with most people on 4.2/4.7. Saturday was a little less but more choppy. This allowed us to do 3 whole rounds of competition to decide the event winner. It was a super close event and this was even more clear by the fact that Max won the first round, Bubble won the second and I won the third. So it was down to who got the 2nd and 3rd places of each heat.

Anyway in the end I was super happy to be crowned the new UK Freestyle Champion and to have won the final round of the weekend. Congrats to Max for winning this event and also to all the other winners from the other classes; Ams, Juniors, Minims and the Girls.

Here are a few pictures from an epic finale of the tour!

New Video!

2011-09-09T15:20:00.000+01:00

Check out my new video from 6 weeks in Fuerte.

http://video.mpora.com/watch/iFPoKQ2mg/

Thanks to everyone that helped to film it.

If you are intereted then there is also a little interview on Boardseeker.com, here:

http://www.boardseekermag.com/features/windsurfers/adam-sims-in-fuerteventura.html

NWF and Full Power

2011-09-07T14:56:00.001+01:00

So NWF was an awesome weekend, as fun as ever and already looking forward to next year. A few of the highlights for me had to be rounding the first mark of the slalom in first place by quite a distance before my boom snapped...damn it, coming second in the night tow-in and 3rd in the freestyle. Hopefully better next year.. and the party was funny!

Apres NWF Max, Bubble, Muzza and myself meet up at West Witterings (yesterday) for a bit of a session...it turned out to be a bit windier than forecasted and full full power...if you haven't seen it already then check the epic crash video from Max...
http://video.mpora.com/watch/lhCJBdeR7/

Here are a few snapshots from being pretty stacked in gusting 50 knots!

On another note my video from Fuerte is just around the corner...... so check back very soon... tomorrow infact!

UKWA Worthing Freestyle Round 4 - 1st place

2011-08-23T16:25:00.000+01:00

Ok so it wasn't exactly epic conditions but we did get some good heats in 20 knots of wind on the Sunday afternoon.

It wasn't easy though, the classic high tide south coast death chop isn't exactly ideal for freestylin' it up but when timed well you could bust out some big moves... using the 5.8 was also hard after 6 weeks on 4.2/4.7 but keeping the moves fairly simple meant I managed to successfully take the overall 1st place. Super happy with that and outside of the heats I could practice the bigger moves on a massive sail for what is bound to be an even harder comp at Poole Windfest with the return of some of the Vass crew, Bubble, Max, Jamie, etc....

Looking forward to the next few weeks with National Windsurf Festival, Poole Windfest and Scottish Windfest all coming up, an awesome chance to catch up with a lot of friends, do some road trippin' and windsurf windsurf windsurf!

PWA Freestyle

2011-07-27T12:45:00.000+01:00

So it's been a busy week here in Fuerte with the PWA in town. It's been incredible to watch some of the action live but also a bit disappointing as I'm stiull struggling with this hip injury. I've been told it's something to do with tearing the skin on the bone?! Not too sure what this means, but one to two weeks to recover. It's been over a week now and I sailed the last two days, only managing sliding moves as it causes too much pain to try anything else. Fortunately the wind has been a little light and the forecast is epic, so a few more days rest and then back on it full power.

Tonight is the closing ceremony of the freestyle so I think we make party...

Hope to release a video shortly, when I can find somewhere with decent enough internet to upload it in under 24 hours.....

Triple dose of Valium!

2011-07-16T21:10:00.000+01:00

So had a sick session today, pushloops of knee high waves until about half an hour in when I went for a planning pushie in front of Nick Bentley but too far off the wind and the rotation stopped about three quarters of the way around, where I went full power into the boom. Unfortunately we were about a kilometer downwind of the centre, so some help from my regular rescue team who have now de-rigged for me three times and carried me off the water twice, and an off road drive later and I was on my way to hospital.

Arriving there they recognised me and got my file out... then decided a triple shot of Valium would help ease the pain. No I just have to wait to see if I'm going to be sick or not, as this decides whether I've ruptured my appendix or if its just muscular bruising, etc.... either way it's not ideal and another few days off the water.

Here are some pics from a session a few days ago... thanks to Steffi Hoffmann for the pics.

Fuerte...two full power weeks!

2011-07-14T11:10:00.001+01:00

So we are two weeks in, the first of the weekly videos will be up by the weekend, here are a couple of stills from it:

It's really been full power here, we even took a day off just because it was too windy and we had been sailing fully maxed out for the whole previous week. On a personal note I'm happy that i've learnt quite a lot already, more getting moves consistent then new moves but a couple new ones for me.

Will update again soon with the video and more pictures. The idea behind the video is to push the younger guys as well, so expect to see a lot from the 'groms' who are all out here over the next few weeks! Now time to go sail again in the Lagoon... 4.2 again... love to!

One other thing, thanks to the Rene Egli VW Transporter that drove over my 2012 RRD 100 Twintip yesterday, I now have a board that is in exactly the same condition but with the knowledge that it can take the weight of a loaded VW Transporter... sick!!!

BlackLab video

2011-07-14T11:02:00.000+01:00

Check out the new video of our trip around Egypt, some sick editing and filming from Josh at BlackLab...

http://www.continentseven.com/2011/07/12/out-with-the-old-in-with-the-new-video/

Thanks to everyone involved and bring on the next video update from here in Fuerte in a few days.

Fuerte..first two days - FULLL POWER!

2011-06-30T22:49:00.000+01:00

First two days in fuerte and have already had 8 hours on the water.

We arrived at 4pm yesterday and sailed for a couple hours then had a massive session today. On the 4.2 vogue at the moment, just trying it out to see how it ducks in the new skool moves. Also the 2012 (V2) RRD Twintip. Initial thoughts on this board is it has incredible speed! So so fast!

A better update soon with pictures...

1st place @ UKWA Mumbles Freestyle - Round 3

2011-06-27T12:45:00.002+01:00

So had a good weekend up at Mumbles in south Wales these last couple of days. (Pictures below)

The wind was light but we managed to run two rounds of competition. I used 5.8 for both heats and on the 100l Twinzer Twintip. The combo actually worked really well and in the second heat I racked up something like 13/14 moves. Including a couple fairly decent new skool moves. The only problem was the fact that we were about a mile out to sea as the wind was soooo light and sooo gusty and the visibility was rubbish on the first day. We literally had to pump in to every move and then spend 20 minutes sailing upwind back to the beach. Probably something to do with the cliff that was in the way...

Some pics below of the event, thanks to Phil and Danielle from getwindsurfing.com Phil also helped out a bit with the judging as spotting the moves from so far away wasn't easy. Fortunately Danielle's lens was pretty big otherwise we would literally be specks in the distance.

Cold Saturday

Zoomed in to the max!

One of the best things had to be the pier jumping... at high tide each day the water was deep enough for us all to just bust out our best pier jumping freestyle. Phil and I kind of synchronizing with him doing a back flip and me doing front flip.

Hot Saturday

Team Spartan Pier Jumping

All in all another successful event and good to see yet even more new faces and a healthy turnout despite the forecast.

Results:

1st Myself

2nd John Palmer

3rd/1st Am, James Wheeldon

1st Youth - Alex Mitchell

1st Junior - Oscar Carmichael

Now bring on 6 weeks of training in Fuerte!

1st Place @ 2011 Freestyle Xpression Round 2 - Weymouth

2011-06-20T11:09:00.003+01:00

So had an epic weekend windsurfing in Weymouth, the wind really came in on Saturday and it was full power 4.5/4.9 weather. There was a decent turn out considering many of the top guys were either on the PWA competing, in Vass (or similar) or injured. 10 people competed for a shot at Xpression round 2 and going for the PWA style single elimination, the heats were drawn up. Two other stylers decided to opt for the chilled out approach and just freesail, gaining a few move tips of the guys between heats. Included in the competition was Julia Slack, our numero uno female representation! She sailed well with the more old skool maneuvers but keeping them clean and consistent. It was cool to see and I'm sure she and many of the guys... haha...would love to see some more lady'stylers rocking up...

My first heat was up against Dan Hollman, I feel I sailed a strong heat with a mix of new skool and old skool moves and progressed to the next round. Further down the draw, Oscar Carmichael also advanced and one heat later we met in the final. A bit of a sketchy open to the heat for myself, with a badly crashed move causing a lot of pain in my foot where I recently ruptured the ligament supporting the big toe... this affected me for the rest of the heat and initially Oscar clearly took the lead with his powerful double bouncing flaka, funnel and spocks. However I managed to pull it back in the second half with a nice one handed bob, a shuv-it spock 540 and a couple power moves as well as a couple slidy moves.

Winners pic at the top, also some good sailing from Alex Mitchell and Nick Bentley who fought hard for 3rd place. Note Angus Patrik Webb lying on the floor, who won a pair of the RRD Speedos for best wipeout.

Results:
1st - Myself
2nd - Oscar Carmichael
3rd - Nick Bentley

Pimp my shed.com

2011-06-09T19:46:00.000+01:00

Had a bit of clean up the other day, finding out what boards I have under the cobwebs and Bubble was about, getting ready for Bonaire. Everything was in a bit of a mess so we decided to convert this empty garage/shed thing I have at home. It may not be in Hawaii but it is a garage of toys and that's definitely a start.

Check it out...

EFPT Sardinia - Tow In

2011-06-04T16:46:00.000+01:00

So the tow in just finished here in Sardinia and it was pretty choppy, which I kind of prefer anyway as it gives you a ramp to aim for. We had a training session yesterday and then the qualifying heats. 22 guys entered and the top 8 went through to the final session today.

In the qualifying I managed to get a decent air funnel and a burner, which put me through in 3rd place for the final.

One handed air funnel

In the final I came in on the first run and figured I do the same as the day before, air funnel then burner. I went big on the air funnel and crashed it hard. Dieter and Julien both managed to get double air funnels so the pressure was on. Steven crashed and the only other move landed was a single clean funnel. The next run I managed to get this burner (click here) which wasn't enough to beat the funnel!!!! Putting me in 5th place overall...Steven managed 3rd with a super clean burner and Julien and Dieter took 1st and 2nd!

Tomorrow is the last day for competition and the wind doesn't look so good...

EFPT Sardinia

2011-06-02T09:38:00.000+01:00

Ok so no pictures yet so will keep it short.

Just arrived in Sardinia for the EFPT event, it was super last minute and kind of regretting not checking the forecast now... anyway I'll post a bit of a report of what's going on here a bit later with whatever pics I can get hold of from yesterdays fully powered 4.5 session!

UKWA Freestyle Round 2 - Minnis Bay

2011-05-30T13:23:00.001+01:00

So a bit of a 'home spot' for me. Well haven't actually sailed there before but it's as close as it will get I imagine. Just an hours drive!

It was a great weekend and thanks to Pip/Nick Pardoe for putting us up on the Saturday night with an awesome BBQ with the 'Whitstable massive'.

The conditions for the event were really good, 4.5/4.9 weather and on low tide in the afternoon brought really flat water. In the morning it was quite choppy but allowed for some bigger moves. Big shakas, air flakas, forwards, etc...

Overall I managed 2nd to Bubble, with John Palmer 3rd and (UK RRD team rider) Will Rogers taking 4th, I'm pretty pleased with this result, however the judging format certainly favoured Bubbles experience and diverstiy of moves, using the old overall impression format. We did run a super session heat with the best move format, similar to that of the PWA except it was literally the best move to count. This I managed to win with quite a high matador in fin deep water as well as a culo and kono in the same depth... So yeh a good event and I'm off to practice my moves the other way now... pics below...

Photos: Julia Slack/Will Rogers

It really was a good event and a lot of fun. I really would encourage anybody who can make it to come along to the next ones.

UK comp...

2011-05-27T06:52:00.001+01:00

So heading back to the UK for the second round of the UKWA Freestyle tour, looks like we are going to get wind!

Had a really good week here out at the RRD Meeting, with some wind for the bigger kit and a bit of wind on the first day to try out the new twintip....more on that soon... also managed to do a bit of tow-in yesterday and the day before, was a lot of fun and as always, good practice!

There was an awesome fashion show last night, all the distributors went down to the beach and just sat on the sand whilst all the new clothing walked by on this flame lit cat walk right on the edge of the beach.

An awesome socks in sandals look from the Czech dealer....

More snaps of the week soon...

RRD International meeting

2011-05-21T06:47:00.000+01:00

Riiight so currently sitting on the plane about to leave gatwick for Italy where the rrd international meeting is kicking off this week! Looks as though it should be a great week testing and trying out lots of the new gear!

If you haven't checked yet, then the trailer for an upcoming blacklab video featuring myself and max Rowe is linked below! Worth a look!

The BlackLab project

2011-05-20T15:18:00.000+01:00

Check the trailer for my recent trip to Egypt with Max Rowe that has just been posted by BlackLab. Josh Willmot has done a sick job of editing it and I can't wait to see the final video which will be released early June.

CLICK HERE

and a still....

Update...

2011-05-20T15:09:00.000+01:00

So I know I've been fairly quiet the last couple of weeks but I've had my reasons... anyway back to the blogging full poweeerrrr!

A quick update then, I came 25th in Austria which was ok but I wasn't entirely happy with. The last heat I sailed, which happened to be the last one of the day when they got into the double, was practically night time...this pic from JC shows what it was like less than 5 minutes after my heat finished, ok he has a flash on the camera but it's still pretty dark.

Photo: JC

It was a fun trip to Austria and good to go with a group of UK guys, especially Bubble who had been 50 times before and knew the place better than the organisers... shame he forgot his gloves for the last day...

Photo: JC

So after Austria was the Wales event. I managed to come 7th in the pros which I was actually really happy about as I got a pushie in each of my heats, something I had been practicing in Cape Town a bit. Aside from that I haven't really done much wave sailing so it was nice to get that sort of result.

Photo: globalshots.co.uk

Since Wales I've had a couple of nice sessions back near home and have been practicing the power moves in the choppiest conditions i can find!

Anyway more in my Boards column and more on here soon...

Wind Jinx!!!

2011-04-27T10:36:00.000+01:00

I'm not really a massive complainer or do I think I'm much of a wind jinx, but after checking the forecast I feel I may become both...

We leave to Austria today to a landlocked windless lake (well maybe a bit of wind on monday) for my first PWA event of the year. We are also leaving behind the best forecast of the year, for me, in terms of freestyle and port tack jumping. With the forecast as it is Whitstable will be firing for glassy flat freestyle for as long as the forecast can reach and St Marys Bay and Greatstone will be awesome for port tack jumping... I've been at home for a while now and had pretty much nothing in the way of wind! So heading to Austria with only tow-in freestyle as practice since Egypt (3 and a half weeks ago!!!!!)!

Aside from that the tow in the other night was good fun, we got some decent pics so keep an eye on the mags for a write up of that from Sam Ross!

Let the journey begin!

Hayling Freestyle - Round 1

2011-04-25T15:36:00.000+01:00

So the weekend didn't really turn out very windy at all... infact I think it must have been 5 knots or less 99% of the time. We had a couple light wind freestyle contests which was great for my dodgey foot. Then to cap it off we had a bit of a tow in freestyle comp, which went well as I couldn't sail back in and then got some help to de-rig my kit! I just over-used my busted foot I think and it was giving me a lot of grief, it's back to how it was before the event now but still at that stage where I'm sure it's more than just a chipped bone. Anyway I managed to win the tow in comp but we didn't have too much of a shot at it as time was running out. Soooo... we've somehow managed to arrange some practice (well some sort of interview thing!?) on the Hove Lagoon 2.0 cable tow, this afternoon. A few of us are heading down there for 5pm, so if your about, come and watch... as I'm sure it'll be entertaining.

Better get off, I'll see if I can upload a few sneaky pics of it this eve...

Link to freestyle round one (Hayling) video, thanks to globalshots:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZrSHwrOn8UE&feature=player_embedded

ROAD TRIP!!!!

2011-04-20T15:54:00.000+01:00

So with 3 events coming up in such a short amount of time it looks like we are on for a bit of a road trip... Good job we've got a double bank holiday weekend to prepare for it. The plan begins with the Hayling event, then we (Max, Bubble, Bry, Drume'd, Global and myself) meet at mine before driving to Austria for the PWA, then the short hop to Wales for the UK wave event and then finally home. Cool thing is I've managed to get us a bit support from Red Bull for the journey, a few crates to keep us awake as we drive several thousand kilometers in the next two weeks. So thanks in advanced for that. Any other offers welcome... ;) There's plenty of video and mag coverage to come of it... haha

Also looks like this weekends wind for the Hayling Island event is desperately trying to show it's face... could be a light winder though, good to put all that practice on my 4.5 to the test then. Actually joking aside at least it will be good warm up for Austria, I feel I haven't sailed in ages!

From the National Windsurf Festival @ Hayling last year

Have a look at Max's twitter/blog, think he worked out somewhere the exact mileage, I made a rough guess on an earlier post. Bring it on...

Val Thorens skiing and what's in store...

2011-04-16T15:57:00.003+01:00

So just got back from a week's skiing with Emily and her Uni friends. Absolutely awesome week. The snow wasn't too bad, the apres ski was pretty intense and the fancy dress was brilliant. Still having issues with the foot though...not good :s A few pictures below of the apres ski and the actual skiing. I've never been over easter before and we got quite lucky most of the time. A couple days I didn't even need my jacket!

The plan from here for the next few weeks is first off to get out on the water before the Hayling freestyle event next weekend. Then drive down to Austria for the PWA event in two weeks time. Just checked and that's a 1600 km's there..... I think the plan is for 6 of us to all go together in two vans, so should be a funny little road trip. Then it's straight back for BWA Rhossi! We have one day to drive from Podersoft to Rhosneiger.....2020 km's in...one...day!!!!!

The foot the foot

2011-04-06T10:47:00.001+01:00

Went on an adventure to A'n'E last night to get my foot checked up by someone that wasn't going to tell me it will be 'ready in six days'...ready for what?

Anyway, sat around for almost two hours and had a couple more x-rays. The verdict...well originally I was told nothing was broken by the doctor in Egypt, however it doesn't quite seem that that is the case. Having had a good look at the inside of my foot, the UK doctors managed to find that I've chipped the bone on the inside of the 'big knuckle' part of my big toe. The joint where the toe becomes the foot. It's not too major and there isn't really much they can do about it as it is now just floating bone. There is some ligament damage but they can't tell how bad it is really without an MRI scan. Anyway as it is I left the hospital knowing that I can put weight on it but I should keep it strapped to the other toe for a couple of weeks. I was told moving it will help the repair process...so off skiing on Friday, to Val Thorens!

Egypt

2011-04-01T09:19:00.000+01:00

(Pictures below)

Just arrived home late last night after a bit of a hectic last day, I somehow managed to smash my left foot in to my board one hour before our transfer was supposed to arrive. So I shot in to town and had a quick X-ray and got some 'fixation' as the doctor liked to call it. Initially I was convinced I had broken it as I have done it before and it felt exactly the same. Fortunately or unfortunately... I've yet to find out... the X-ray showed no broken bones, however each bone in my big toe and the next toe along has compressed into the other, which to be honest I don't really know what it means but it doesn't feel very comfortable. Alongside that I've been told of a load of potential ligament damage...we shall see. Hopefully its not as bad as it feels and should all go away soon enough. The upside of it is that I managed to get the special treatment with Easyjet, first on the plane, first off, got one of those airport buggy jobbies that you always see the injured riding on. Anyway a quick special thanks to Steve Thorne who I was travelling with for helping me out massively and also to Max and Steven Van 'Donk' for getting the safety boats attention and helping me pack up. Thanks guys!

Anyway aside from that excitement the whole trip was really successful, got loads of footage, a new combo move for myself and stepped up my power moves a little. The whole trip started off in El tur for one night (where I sliced my head open wakeboarding, 4 stitches... accident prone are we) and then on to Moon Beach, back to El Tur and finally Dahab. Josh Willmot was following us around with the BlackLab camera gear and we all took turns filming at various spots, using the crane etc... have to say, Moon Beach has some seriously good locations when its firing. Awesome stunt ramps on the way out and super flat on the way in. Anyway bit of a lame update but don't want to give away too much as we have a video coming out in a few weeks and some mag coverage coming up. But make sure you like the BlackLab facebook page to get all the latest info on it all:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Blacklab/210232355658449

Some snaps taken from the BlackLab page (link above)

Update...

2011-03-15T13:31:00.000Z

So I'm off to Egypt tomorrow, really pleased with the forecast... Hopefully something will come through as we have a lot of plans for filming and photo shooting...

It's been very hit and miss lately with the wind. It seems the west coast is getting it all and over on the east coast we've been missing out big time. That said I had a great session at Marconi's Sailing club the other day. Was great fun and very nearly stuck a backie off a bit of chop!! Really like sailing that spot. It's not super easy but when you get it right, you really get it right, boosting of nice bits of chop or sliding on glassy flat spots.

Better get packing and will upload that crash video before I leave...keep your eyes peeled...oooh yeh!

K72

2011-03-07T14:41:00.000Z

New sail number...keep an eye here for a change in blog/twitter/email usernames....

Here's a video whilst your waiting, from my trip to cape town, a quick edit but hopefully a good one:
http://video.mpora.com/watch/QMfO6KQJZ/

Keep the other eye out for the crash video coming soon....

Camber SUP!!

2011-02-26T19:40:00.000Z

So a slightly disappointing forecast. Can't really say I didn't expect it. I was really excited about it but the fact that it appeared really late and didn't have much base to it left me hesitant. Despite that I made the call to just a few people about Camber possibly having the once a year conditions this weekend...unfortunately the wind just didn't come through.

The good news...the swell did. So I got out for an amazing SUP session from 4.30-6.00 (awesome sunset), 2-3 foot peeling waves, I even spotted it barreling over at times. Pretty unheard of at Camber so I was pleased to make the effort and had a great time on the RRD Diamond Line 10'6"...

Next trip all booked up...off to Egypt on the 16th for two weeks before the easter comps! planning to go to Austria...bit more affordable than Vietnam!! Looks like the UK guys (Bubble and Max) are doing well out there. If you haven't already seen it, then check the live stream out in the morning, Ben Proffitt and Max Rowe are giving some amusing commentary and its on when you wake up in the morning about 7-8 UK time, www.pwaworldtour.com!

Wind again!

2011-02-14T12:03:00.000Z

Another windy weekend!! Got out yesterday for 2 hours or so at Pirate Springs (a spot Sam Conroy has been raving about). Was side-on and well powered up on my 4.9 and 76 quad. Had a fun session, getting all the moves sorted but it was pretttty cold on the old hands. Despite gloves the sea temperature was absolutely freezing!

Anyway bit lighter today, off for an adventure SUP down a local river...ooooo

20 hours in 4 days!

2011-02-07T17:18:00.000Z

Had some awesome sessions since Friday. The wind has been incredible!

Friday: Sailed Camber, 4.1 and 76 Quad. Amazing session with some awesome ramps.

Saturday: Essexpression... Day one at Point Clear. Bit lighter than expected with the wind dropping a bit. Changed up a size and had a couple of good heats..well the final was definitely better. We had two semi final heats and a final. Max Rowe and Oscar Carmichael got through from heat 1 and myself and John Palmer from heat 2. The wind picked up in the final, which suited me as I was a bit under powered in the semi. I opened up my heat with a one handed air'ish' Bob and a one handed air funnel. Then got a forward, a shaka, a planning flaka, a sw kono, an eslider, a mat (half a matador) and a pun (half a puneta) and a couple other moves I think... so all in all a pretty good heat, infact, probably one of my best i've ever sailed. I didn't really watch what the others got, which probably helped, and I ended up taking 1st place. Pretty pleased with that result. Then went back to Max's that evening and had a few drinks...

Sunday: Sailed Marconi's sailing club, Steve Thorne's local, with everyone. Was good fun but felt pretty worse for wear...

Monday: Sailed Camber with Max, Palmer and Whitey. Looked pretty budget when we arrived but decided to pick up as soon as we hit the water... had to change from 4.9 and 90l twinfin to 4.5 and 76l quad...still well powered up. Had a great session with Whitey taking some snaps...so hopefully see more soon...

Completely broken now, ready for a day or twos rest then...who knows...maybe another windsurf (judging by the forecast).

Kit for sale (for those interested):
ALL RRD boards and sails and reason for sale is to make room for the new gear.
Boards:
2010 74 Twinfin (wave) - Exceptional condition
2010 90 Twinfin (wave) - Exceptional condition
2010 88 Twintip (freestyle/freeride/bump and jump) - Exceptional condition, single fin

Sails:
2010 Superstyle 3.7 - Barely used, Exceptional condition
2010 Superstyle 4.9 - Exceptional condition

Please email for info on prices (no damage to any of the gear, pics can be seen on the rrd website, here, and postage is £15.50 per item).
email: adam@silte.co.uk

Whitstable and tweet club

2011-01-28T20:44:00.000Z

Met up with Max Rowe to sample the delights of Whitstable today. Despite being super light, it was actually good fun. Could have done with my 100l TT instead of the 88 but other than that all was good.

Couple of snaps below (video stills):

Really really light winds (kiters in the background on 13m...whatever that means...)

Flat...no wind

Precious gust at the right time

Keep an eye out for a short webisode from the afternoons antics...don't get your hopes up too high though...It really was light! Good practice though, many of the events are held in this much wind!

Also... finally turned to Twitter and signed up, so if your signed up and care at all about what I'm up to... feel free to see what I'm doing..think the username is something like adamsimsk669...tweet club...oh yeh!

Alsoooo it's awesome to see freestyle on a bit of a come-back lately (posts all over the shop) and some recognition for it being radical from a self-confessed wave head, Graham from Surfmatic Blog. Legend!

Cape Town done and dusted

2011-01-26T19:38:00.000Z

So got back from Cape Town yesterday! Awesome flight, really empty so had a whole row of 8 seats to myself = 8 hours of solid sleep!!

To save a massive write up you'll have to check my column in the Feb issue of boards. Anyway last few days were awesome, here are a few pics from the whole trip...couldn't upload pics whilst out there?!?!

Generally had a lake session in the morning (above) then to sunset around lunch (below) then big bay in the evening.

Learning to push loop above, got that move sorted on Ben Proffitts birthday :) rigged up and first run off the beach landed it bolt up right (shame we were in too much of a hurry to get the video camera out)...ahh well Ben, George and a couple other people saw it and the bigger one after!

Had a 'slight' bush fire about 50m from our house... only burnt for about 4-5 hours....only

Did a few cliff jumps on a trip to the waterfalls, awesome fun!

Saw some of the local wildlife Baboons (above), penguins (below)

Still from a video....so a bit blurred....

Had a couple of pretty big days at Sunset (mast high sets), below!

All in all a good trip and learnt a lot. Will be working on a video over next couple of weeks! Wind tomorrow and it's looking warm at 3 degrees...

More soon!

SOUTH AFRICAAA - Cape Town

2011-01-14T18:40:00.001Z

So have been in Cape Town for a week and a half now, with a week and a half to go! Time is flying by!

In a quick summary, the flight was good, the first few days were all about surfing as there was nothing in terms of wind, but the surf was good. Was nice to be eased into the shark fear then...wallowing around on a seal shaped board! Anyway all is good. We then had some light afternoons on the lake and finally the wind kicked in 4 days ago...full power everyday. We had a day off in between and visited the local waterfalls, which had some huuuuge jumps, good fun, profitt nearly killed himself though on the first jump!

Anyway the windsurfing has been really good the last few days we have had two sessions a day everyday, averaging probably like 5 hours on the water! Yesterday we went to Kraal bay, a freestyle spot for a bit of practice! Was an amazing spot, white sand beaches, wind was good, on 4.9's and 88l boards! Then today we sailed sunset and big bay, full full power on 4.1! hopefully get some pics up soon but had some good bbq's since I've been out here and living with a few of the UK wave tour guys is pretty motivating when it comes to moves!

More soon!

New year, new van and off to Cape Town

2011-01-02T17:05:00.000Z

First off happy new year everyone.

So with the new year I have a new van!!! Exciting I know...well actually I've had it for a couple of months but just haven't had the time to kit it out until the last few days. So what is it... well a 2005 Ford Transit SWB Low roof, so much like the old black one but newer and with 50,000 less miles on the clock. The best bit is... it's bright orange, so the ultimate ginger-mobile. It's a bit too dark now for pics, but I'll get some in the morning and then at the end of the day tomorrow. To show the work that I manage to get done.

Being an ex RAC van it took me two days to strip all the fittings, wiring, random other bits and pieces out. Then the last two days I've been kitting it out with a ply-lining set I got from ebay, much less hassle and I think it is actually cheaper than buying the wood from the local timber yard (except it doesn't fit that well, so I have to keep making alterations, still less hassle then measuring and cutting each piece to fit).

I was lucky enough to pick up a few really old masts from my sponsors at seasprite a month or so ago and am now the proud owner of probably the worlds lightest double bed! Oh yeh... Also the van is equipped with an internet cable...I've yet to try it out but hopefully I can hack into the RAC network... mmmmeeeeeeee! Or more likely not and I'll just attach a dongle jobby to the end of the internet cable jobby and have the same setup...or just use my iphone!

Finally I'm off to Cape Town in two days...good news for everyone at home as the wind looks like it is filling in here and disappearing out there!! Anyway its 30 degrees out there so I'll just take my red surf board out with me... der...der......der...der.....der..der..der.der..derderderderderderderrrr!!!

Anyway more tomorrow on the van and what I'm packing for Cape Town!

Went for a windsurf yesterday...

2010-12-24T21:09:00.001Z

...and this is what happened...

CLICK HERE

... thanks to my new sponsor SPARTAN wetsuits for keeping me warm on the water and of course the legendary RRD for making me look suuuuuper cool in those speedos (for Jai...inside joke) and of course www.silte.co.uk for making me look just as raaaad off the water!

Merry Christmas everyone!

Skiing/Time off

2010-12-20T16:00:00.000Z

So just got back from a weeks skiing in St Anton, well we stayed in Lech but it's all the same area.

Two highlights: the powder was over chest deep on the first day and sometimes I found it going over my head as I put in a turn. Never skied in anything quite that deep before, the rest of the week it was waist deep. Absolutely scored it on the snow front then. The other highlight was this toboggan run we went to, where you get the cable car up, have a meal then toboggan down on these tiny little sledges. I made a quick video of me and my brothers having a few crashes on the final bend of the run. Awesome fun and I massively recommend it to anyone who gets a week or two in this year.

http://vimeo.com/18011091 - Short Tobogganing vid with my brothers.

So at home now and ready for some serious christmas meals. Also just noticed the forecast has a couple of good days coming up. Will have a chance to try out my new spartan suits!! Awesome! If anyone is interested in any last minute Christmas presents then there are some awesome watches, tees and hoodies on this site:

www.silte.co.uk

more soon...

Cold sessions - oh yehhh

2010-12-10T21:18:00.001Z

Not much to say really just read/watch this - http://www.boardseekermag.com/features/windsurfing-action/sims-cold-session.html

Happy to make a boardseeker feature though. Outside of the cold sessions I do have some news of a new sponsorship deal and a job... I won't leave you in the dark too long, but check back soon for more!

Also heading off to Cape Town on 4th Jan for a bit - hmmmm human eating sharks...

A cold one...

2010-12-02T14:55:00.000Z

So went to Whitstable yesterday... still alive...!

Got a video coming soon! Was seriously cold and got the ice cream hands and feet every 2/3 runs, not even joking! Summer boots were probably a bad call!

Anyway I'll be staying in today...as I'm stuck here! I'll try out this snow windsurfing though and get some pics! I guess that means Bubble is stuck in his complimentary 5 star accommodation in Sharm for another night. Was supposed to be picking him up from the airport last night!

A few pics...

Rescuing a someone stuck on a hill

-5 recorded in the car before the snow began

Outside my window literally just now..still snowing!

Bubble back to nature..making a log fire (before he left to Egypt)!

A really cold shaka from yesterday (video frame)

Something in the pipeline

2010-11-12T18:08:00.001Z

So here is a little clip of a vision Josh and myself have had for some time.

http://video.mpora.com/watch/GQK5MZZ0W/

We plan to film a video that is almost completely unique, it is something that we don't know how long it will take and how big it will be but we really hope it will be something special. I'm not going to rant on about it, just post snippets from it from time to time. When we decide that we have collected enough footage to begin editing the final picture we will set a deadline...and let the www. know about it!!!

For now, this session was at Whitstable, last night from 8-11pm, 40 knots from the west sailing on my 4.1 Superstyle and 88l Twintip Twinzer. It was fairly warm, in-fact warmer than the session we had this morning at 10am... straaange!

Home ground!

2010-11-08T12:25:00.000Z

Sailed at Camber this morning, nothing unusual about that except it was sub 10 degrees and about 40 knots!!! Super windy, super stacked, super cold and double ice cream hands! Perfect, winter is here then!

Bubble met me down at Rye station, he even decided to get the train for this 'epic' session, getting up at about 6.15 this morning for it! It was good fun..generally... but not quite what we had in mind. We preped the video cameras and waterproof housing the night before, thinking we could do a bit of filming as well but our power hour finished when the tide got a bit on the high side and the wind picked up even more! I think even holding a video camera, let alone trying to press filming buttons in those conditions would have been almost impossible!

It's sessions like that where you think if I can land this move in these conditions or even learn something new then that's one ticked off the list of being able to do it in all conditions. Shame it was the puneta show and I didn't land anything new but did get close to a new combo for me...so learnt something! Time to crack out the gloves and hoods...

Weymouth power hour!!

2010-11-03T11:02:00.000Z

On my way home yesterday and thought I would stop off at Weymouth for a quick power hour of glassy flat freestyle.

Feels like ages since I've actually had a fully dedicated freestyle session, aside from the 5 gusts I caught at the lake at Aussie Kiss! Turned out to be an amazing session on the 4.9 Superstyle and 88 Twinfin Twintip. Busting out all the old moves and even a couple new ones helped me keep up to date with a lot of the new moves/combination moves that are coming out at the moment.

It was pretty gusty but that freestyle board was unreal, so spinny, still fast and with loads of pop!! Off for more practice now and even more tmrw! 14/15 degrees and we are in Nov!! 25 knots+ wind forecast for almost everyday this next week and 25 knots+ wind pretty much everyday for the last week!!! Happy days!!

Also noticed someone taking photos at Weymouth yesterday... would love to get hold of them if anyone knows who it was?!

BWA Cornwall Classic and series title!!!

2010-11-01T11:26:00.002Z

So a quick write up on the event...

photo: JC

Seeing the forecast I decided to head down a couple days early via Exmouth and thanks to google maps for taking me the slowest route possible. The conditions were amazing, fully down the line, with head to logo high sets, probably the best I've ever seen anywhere (in real life). It was certainly a good days practice considering as all my wave sailing I do at the moment only seems to happen during competitions.

photo: JC

Competition day (92l RRD Twinfin/84l RRD Hardcore Quad and 5.3/4.9 RRD Superstyle) - the wind pretty much did as forecast and picked up all day...until the final... but with the dropping tide this meant we had some pretty decent conditions for most of the comp. I was pretty careless in my first heat, just going for broke and trying to hit the latest possible aerial I could at the end of every wave, resulting in a lot of crashes. This left it pretty close to the mark and put me a bit on edge. Playing it safer in the second heat saw me score a reasonable early wave but then I couldn't pull it together for the next wave. So for the rest of the heat up until about 20 seconds to go I was struggling with the one good wave and nothing else particularly special. Getting worked for about 4 minutes with no wind to water-start didn't help matters. This was after they had already abandoned our heat once already. Anyway with about 20 seconds to go I tacked onto a wave, nothing too big but made the most of it, scoring a small aerial right at the end.

I came in from this heat to hear Scotty had been pretty unlucky in his last heat with not much wind to help him get out and some close out waves. This meant I went into the final already having taken the series title!!! It was good in a sense that I could sail the final just for the fun of it, but I would have liked to see Scotty in the final. As it was I still wanted to win the event and with the Sheridon brothers in the final with myself and Emile Kott (not Lewis... ;) ) it wasn't going to be easy. With the wind completely backing off as some rain began to kick in they got the final underway in the lightest of conditions. The waves were still holding up, head high at best, but getting out was a nightmare, and I found myself getting worked for a lot of the heat, having to uphaul to get going and only catching 3/4 waves in 14 minutes. My second wave was quite nice, with a couple of turns and an aerial and then all I could grasp from the other waves was a single nice turn on the shoulder of one wave... So when I came in I had no idea who had got it. It was only when someone mentioned that the only other person to get out was Emile and he had only got one wave that I realised I had clenched the event title as well!!

So overall, super happy with my results this year and really happy with choosing to go for the amateur fleet as waves aren't really what I practice and this gave me the chance to practice and sail more heats at each event. It certainly wasn't easy with the battle against Scotty but it was good fun and never too serious.

photo: Globalshots, Jay Haysey

Thanks to everyone that has helped this year, particularly my sponsors providing me with all my RRD needs, Jai and Wouter at SeaSpriteSports and also Mike at TurfDog. Also Jem Hall for some acceptable abuse and good pointers/coaching tips. The support from my parents and girlfriend and all the good work from the guys behind the BWA. Last but not least, good work to Big Davey (fellow RRD team rider) for winning the masters at this event and overall 2nd!

Pics, Tiree and more

2010-10-22T08:23:00.001+01:00

Having received a few really nice shots from JC yesterday has kind of inspired me to write up how Tiree panned out for me.

We had a pretty epic drive up, stopping at Boardwise on the way for Bubble to pick up some gear and for Greg to grab some much needed fast food. It was cool to see the Boardwise shop, sooo much gear there!!! Arriving in Oban we stayed at John Bainbridges house the night, which we all massively appreciate as it meant sleeping in beds instead of upright in the van!!! Up early and on to the ferry then as soon as we arrived we drove straight to the Maze, where we scored some pretty decent conditions, head high 4.9 conditions on the 84l hardcore quad. The next day, we were hoping for the same before the start of the competition, but the wind failed to come through and the swell was not really happening, so sacking in the down the line mast foot high Maze we went for some shoulder high side on jumping at Crossapol, it was good fun on the 5.3 and my 88l freestyle twinfin as the ramps were very few and far between so I managed to make the most of them being on the plane the whole time.

Then the competition began... a serious amount of mincing was undertaken, especially with virtually no phone signal and limited internet access, as we were all trying to use it at the same time! That said the organisers arranged some form of entertainment after lunch each day; volleyball, rounders, football and of course the tow in windsurfing. JC got to warm his camera gear up with some incredible photos from all over the island which we got to see on the last day.

The tow in was a lot of fun and certainly took the edge of being stuck on a windless waveless island, it was also a good chance to get a grip at it as some events seem to be giving prize money for tow in windsurfing... the first session we did was pretty funnel-tastic, i tried a couple of burners/ponches, whatever you wanted to call them in the zero wind conditions, but kept flying out the straps. the next session we had I tried some different moves and landed a couple of shakas and got some switch konos with a landing that would have been nice if there was some wind...

Mincing over and we got some surf before the final day, just enough to get the SUP out then the short boards.

Everything was down to the final days forecast, we had a lot of expectations and the chat in the bar and at the house the night before was getting a little out of hand, talk of half mast to logo high waves and planning conditions didn't quite appear but we did get some nice head high down the line starboard tack conditions, which meant I had a chance to practice my goiters, after nailing a few in my first heat...off the back of the wave... I thought I would try one last one, and although I didn't land on the wave I got super close and found myself mushing around in white water before slipping off the back...

The heats went well, and although quite a few people said I had won we I came into the beach, I was pretty unsure as I knew what Scotty's turns were like from Ireland and that he was not easy to beat. My choice to use a freestyle board meant I sacrificed those rail to rail turns to catch more waves, my tactic worked as I racked up my number of waves with about 5 minutes to go I realised I still hadn't scored that really nice wave that makes you think 'yes that's one in the bag'. I got one not a minute later and then a one that was close on the next wave, which left me feeling pretty unsure when I came into the beach. I knew my previous heat had been better so I just had to wait and see...

In the end Scotty got a well deserved first and I came second. This does mean he is having to make the trip to Cornwall in a weeks time for the final 'showdown' as we both hold the same results, a first and second each...

Nice pic from JC during the semi final heat

Thanks to JC for all the pics.

Right off to Aussie Kiss now for the next stage of the RRD Road trip, a student style demo weekend. My van is literally rammed with more kit than you can shake a stick at. In fact more gear than I've ever had in my van.

Tiree fun and games

2010-10-14T14:00:00.000+01:00

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

2010-10-06T23:29:00.002+01:00

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

2010-09-25T12:33:00.000+01:00

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!!

2010-09-23T17:46:00.000+01:00

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!!!

2010-09-09T19:05:00.000+01:00

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

2010-09-06T10:34:00.000+01:00

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

2010-09-03T07:49:00.000+01:00

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

2010-08-30T09:54:00.001+01:00

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...

2010-08-20T20:02:00.000+01:00

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

2010-08-17T17:51:00.000+01:00

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!!

Turkish press

2010-08-17T11:25:00.000+01:00

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.

Boards Contents Page!!!

2010-08-13T15:36:00.000+01:00

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...

Ponch in Fuerte at Centre 2

PWA Fuerte all done

2010-08-02T17:50:00.000+01:00

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!

The double and the second single at PWA Fuerte!!

2010-07-31T20:37:00.000+01:00

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!!!

single and going into double tomorrow!

2010-07-30T21:25:00.001+01:00

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...

Day 1 PWA Fuerte

2010-07-29T14:04:00.000+01:00

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 ...

The world cup kicks off...

2010-07-24T12:03:00.001+01:00

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...

Quiet couple of days

2010-07-15T12:15:00.000+01:00

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...

FIRST WEEK IN FUERTE!!

2010-07-11T14:48:00.000+01:00

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!

The set up for the PWA Fuerte event is a little more progressive than the last minute Pozo event, the massive kit marquee is almost setup on the beach already and a few of the PWA boxes are in place. Also people like Phil Soltysiak, Edvan Souza and Quincy Offringa have already been on the training mission out here!

I've really had a good test of my new RRD sails and well they are working an absolute treat!!! I'll see if I can get a couple of clips up fairly soon, or some pics!!

One last thing to note is the strong UK scene out here. Quite a few of the UK guys from the ex-student scene have been busting out some serious moves...

That's all for now as the wind has kicked in, bit later than usual today!

Days 3 and 4 in Pozo

2010-07-03T10:42:00.000+01:00

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!

Pozo day 1/2 and move to RRD sails

2010-06-30T12:30:00.000+01:00

It's not really going off here in Pozo at the moment, the wind is there (stacked on 4.5 yesterday afternoon) and all the pros are out still busting the usual tricks but off waves that are no more than two foot at best! Didn't stop Koster, Campello and Fernandez busting out doubles and tweaked pushies all over the place!

It was a good intro to the place for me though but now keen to see it really go off!

If you didn't catch my video up on boards and/or boardseeker, then here is the link:
http://video.mpora.com/watch/m25Na7jyH/

It's a short video clip filmed and edited mainly by Josh Willmot at Whitstable on Kents 'North Shore'.

Few more days left in Pozo before heading over to Sotavento...

More updates soon!

3...2...1...outta here

2010-06-27T12:37:00.000+01:00

Off to the canaries tomorrow for 6 weeks. First stop Pozo for one week then we are staying in Costa Calma right by Sotavento. I've got a few hours to pack now, I'll see if I can't get some pics/a list of it all and get it up on here just before I leave tomorrow.

Did something completely different yesterday, my girlfriend took me to go-ape, some sort of high wires course thingy, which was awesome fun. Going down these massive 100m+ zip wires and throwing yourself off platforms into a free-fall and then into a cargo net! Think I'm making it sound a bit lame really but was really good fun, definitely recommend it for a day out/light wind day!

Anyway forecast for Pozo doesn't look too bad, now bring on 3.7 port tack jumping....hahaha.. :s

Sunset sessions

2010-06-20T16:23:00.000+01:00

So this week we have had wind basically everyday from the north east! I decided to venture north to Whitstable to sneak in some evening sessions as I heard it was going to be good at the Street.

It well and truly fired. Tuesday, I arrived about 6.00ish and met up with my friend Josh Wilmott who was as keen as I was to get some footage as the sun went down. We couldn't have asked for better conditions, it was sunny, I was in my summer suit and rigged a 4.5! Josh and a few of the locals went out on 4.0's and were planing happily. I got out for about 3 hours that evening, wasn't home till 11pm!!

The next day it looked to be a tiny bit windier but all the same with the tides running that bit later. I got rigged (4.5 again) and out on the water by about 8ish and again there was an amazing sunset as the tide dropped and at about 9.15 the sky turned pinky-red and there was me and one kitesurfer out. I had about 45 minutes before the end of my session. It was absolutely awesome and we got some wikid pics and vid clips which I've almost finished putting together and will put out soon.

I did unfortunately finish the Wed session on a downer though as I put a nice deep slice in the bottom of my big toe running all the way across the crease, so here I am sitting with my toe curled and steri stripped up..since Wednesday, in the hope that it will be healed by the 28th (when I leave for the Canaries)!! I was wearing boots as well with about 8mm of rubber on the sole, just a clean slice straight through, from an oyster or something!

Anyway so much for no wind...

Wind!!

2010-06-13T10:47:00.000+01:00

Having looked around the forums lately there are a lot of depressed and negative people at the moment... a lot of complaints about a lack of wind... Don't really understand why, well maybe I do a little bit but there is still some about, I've got out pretty much every week even if it's just for an hour.

Anyway good forecast ahead, even if it's not 30-40 knots every day, still a good week ahead so hopefully see you all on the water instead of reading about complaints on the forums!! Bit drastic, talking about selling up all your kit and packing it in isn't it? How about getting a new (bigger) sail or board and getting out more often than you ever would have? Anyway off windsurfing, see ya all on the water hopefully... 'keep positive'

Update...

2010-06-12T12:57:00.001+01:00

It's been pretty light here in the UK so have been getting down to some hardcore work which isn't all that bad. Despite the lack of wind I have actually managed to get out quite a bit, keeping the moves up but not really learning anything new. Anyway I'm off to Pozo and Fuerte for that in two weeks..
Something completely different, went out last night with my family to seen Keane at an open air concert in the middle of a forest. Despite not listening to his music that much it was actually really good fun and to top it off I got his plectrum which he threw into the crowd right at the end.
Watched a bit of the EFPT Vass event live yesterday and hoping to catch it today, what an awesome idea that is. Maybe I'll go compete next year?!

BWA Ireland Amateur wave champion

2010-06-12T12:31:00.000+01:00

Got back from Ireland a couple weeks ago and had an amusing trip... check the boards mag for a full write up on that by George and Muzza from team tushingham. In short, a lot of emptying eachothers vans, turning things upside down, putting wheelie bins in vans, playing golf, windsurfing, windsurfing, windsurfing, surfing, pub, pub, egging and prizes!

Yeh so I won the event, I think it was a good call to go in the Amateurs although having previously competed in the pros as I got a lot of heats and more importantly I got to experience my first double elimination come back, finally beating Scotty McDowell twice.

Check pic below taken by Mike Archer, one of the bigger waves of the week...

1st UKWA Freestyle Round 1, Poole!

2010-05-10T19:17:00.000+01:00

So the event had about 15 knots maximum of wind and that was for about 2 minutes once we had all packed up and finished for the weekend... either way it was good to catch up with people and see how things are going to be for the up coming year.

So Saturday we did a bit of professional mincing which was pretty ideal after sending it hard the night before, then we sacked it in and did some turfdogging for a while, shredding up the concrete down at sandbanks! Then crashed at Al and Nick Bentley's place, had a goooooood meal and a late start the next morning thanks to a few bottles of wine! Got down to the beach to some light winds on Sunday but we gave it a shot and they ran some heats. Al and I were drawing after the first two heats so it was down to the final round, somehow I managed to get planning a couple of times and put in a semi e-slider...if you can call it that.... and a radical duck tack, then a few geckos, upwind 360's and clew first upwind 360's later and I managed to nab it! Unfortunately Sam Neal got stuck in a bit of a tacking trance and came consistently third, good consistency though.

Anyway a fun weekend and still really enjoy going to events even when there is no wind, always something to do. Thanks to Trevor Funnel and the team for organising it all and Duncan and Hugo for judging.

Wales next weekend, then Ireland! Hopefully get some pics for then and maybe some video if I can get a new camcorder in time (left my other one in Funny Mummy's Restaurant in Dahab...)!

Pimp my ride anyone....

2010-04-27T20:01:00.001+01:00

So just before I went away I got my van wrapped in a Matt black vinyl, its a very quick way of getting your van colour changed and cheaper than anything else, unless of course you spray it yourself. Anyway at first I was pretty unsure when I first saw it, but then it only took a day or so for it to sink in and I reckon anything beats a white van, although I guess I no longer have an excuse for driving like a absolute pen15!!

Anyway I took them less than a day to do and cost a good part under a grand. If anyone is thinking about getting it done though, book your van/car in for the sunniest hottest day you can, as the vinyl shrinks when it gets hot, causing it to grip tighter to the panels, but it does pull the edges in. It's not been too much of a problem except for one corner which has pulled itself in to show some of the white underneath.

Got a few extra bits for the outside coming, but one thing it seriously needs is some alloys... any ideas/donations...

El Tur 2010

2010-04-12T17:49:00.000+01:00

Been in Egypt for something like a month now, had some massively windy days and not many days of now windsurfing, we made a tactical trip to Dahab for a few days a week ago which paid off with some nice 5.2 conditions! Then a couple days off just after I sliced my toe open on my footstrap screw which exploded out as I landed a burner dead flat...always favourite!

Had a brilliant time so far with my girlfriend being out here for two weeks for the last two weeks, but she has left just now! Two weeks of intense practice now and then home for a bit before heading out to Fuerteventura!

All in all having a good time and learning some new moves, watch out for vid soon!

Xpression - DVD Trailer and news!

2010-03-14T15:14:00.000Z

So here is a link to the first Xpression DVD, named the imaginative Project ONE...(leaving it open a bit for possible future plans) and this is an Xpressions

CLICK HERE TO GO TO THE TRAILER

It's nothing to rave about, none of this four dimensions malarky but it is a lot of good moves by a lot of good sailors who you may hear about in the mags and online and not really get to see very much. A few of these vids have gone up online already but this is a collaboration of all the UK Freestyle windsurfers on one disc, in one place and some bonus footage, including unseen rider videos, move clips and a short movie dedicated to the UK freestylers who trained hard in Brazil this winter.

This is just the trailer...the DVD is available as of Friday 19th March. So to pre-order please get in touch with myself or willy@freestylexpression.co.uk

The final cost is £6.75 for the DVD all proceeds go to covering costs of the manufacturing of the DVD and if there are any profits then these will be put into the running of the freestylexpression.co.uk site and their meet ups!

Enjoy...

Reality

2010-03-06T15:37:00.000Z

Been getting down to a bit of hardcore work action at the moment...real fun!

Outside of that I went down to Portsmouth a couple weekends ago for their wave event....shame the wind didn't really show up except for a twenty minute squall... Did some intense turfdogging though, couple of pics below!

Been out windsurfing 3 times in 3 months now... keep telling myself the break is doing me good. Tried to go out again today but wind wasn't quite there, it was stupdily cold and shore dumpy! Also kept telling myself I'm going to be in Egypt in two weeks, out there for 5 weeks. Also booked up some of my summer with a week in Pozo and a month in Sotavento, Fuerteventura.

Not much windsurfing then but I have been pimping my van instead. Got it wrapped in a Matt Black vinyl and changed the interior a lot, no bed anymore. Wasn't convinced with the new colour at first, but love it now, I'll throw up some pics soon.

Working on a movie for Uk freestylers, had issues as my mac broke down on me and I only just got it back. Also a Student Surfari I am organising through Centaur Travel for anyone who wants to be a student, is a student or feels the have a right to hang out with the young windsurf folk (most people who windsurf then...) CLICK HERE to be taken to the facebook group for it!!!

Can't wait to get to Egypt now!!!!!!!

KIT FOR SALE, get in touch if interested, email: adam.k669@live.co.uk!!

Home and not a whole lot of wind..

2010-01-04T18:58:00.000Z

Been home for a while now, celebrated New Years pretty well with a 48 hour party and had a nice Christmas with the family and girlfriend, Emily.

With not too much going on I've decided to set myself a classic New Years resolution...get fit! I'm going to make sure I go out for a run or to the gym at least 4 times a week with the aim to be 5 times a week. Surprisingly the amount of fitness I've done in the last year and a half has consisted of nothing but windsurfing... and anyway I hear from the mighty Jem Hall that fitness is good for your windsurfing, so here we go!

As for windsurfing, well that will happen as often as possible when it's windy.

Hopefully get some more clips up from Jeri on here soon, some crashes and random lifestyling...

Next trip Egypt early easter...

Jeri Video Up online

2009-12-25T13:36:00.000Z

Hi everyone, I've just finished making my short movie from my time in Jeri (the link is below). I hope you like it, I've had some awesome feedback from a few people who have seen it already, take a look and see for yourself.

Also a bit sneaky but thought I would take this chance to sell some 2009 kit as I'm going onto 2010 sails, here is the list;

4.2, 4.7, 5.2, 5.8 Ezzy Freewaves: All in good condition, £235 each for the 4.2 and 5.2 and £245 each for the 4.7 and 5.8. Open to offers.

3.7 Ezzy Wave Panther: Used maybe 10 times so excellent condition £265. Open to offers.

RRD Wave Twin 82l: Very good condition. £750. Open to offers.

Or take them as a package: - All sails together for £1,075 (save £150) or the whole lot (including board) for £1,775 (save £200)

CLICK HERE FOR THE VIDEO

Keep and eye out soon for further video clips and also a new blog I'm working on....

Happy Christmas...hope it's a merry one

ps email about kit to: adam.k669@live.co.uk

Skiing and video

2009-12-22T19:03:00.001Z

Back from a weeks skiing in Austria, was awesome and made for a nice little break from windsurfing after doing it everyday for 5 weeks and then all summer. Feeling very christmasy at home at the moment, the trees up, lights on and did the old christmas shopping today, not as bad as i thought it was going to be. Looks like there is some good wind on christmas day, so may sneak out for an afternoon session with a belly full of christmas food and chocolate!

Whilst I was away skiing I managed to get most of my footage together and make a short movie, I've just got to add titles and do a couple final bits then I'll have it up on here (by christmas day, hopefully before)!! I learnt absolutely heaps out there and had an amazing trip, the last week in particular was the best, everything started to come together. It seemed pretty crowded out there, but we hit up the lagoons a lot which normally only had a few other people in.

A light day or two

2009-12-03T17:49:00.000Z

Yesterday was pretty light and in the end i decided to take a day off after a full power 4 weeks, its been pretty intense windsurfing everyday. We are off to the lagoon tomorrow and maybe the day after for some filming, then hopefully to Camosine on Sunday. It's supposed to be super flat which will be a nice break from going out in switch in the waves here and hopefully we can get some nice footage as well. More on that soon, here are a couple 'lifestyle' pics!

Jeri 2009 Week 3

2009-11-25T21:05:00.000Z

Week 3 and its been an up and down one.

Had some dodgy conditions at the start of the week, so sailed the lagoon the past two days, and got some nice clips for movie. got my first Burner today which was awesome, literally on a mission to land it, and everyone was packing almost ready to leave and I was like I'm not leaving till I land this, just as everyone was almost ready to go, I was like one more run...crashed it...tried again...crashed it then when I was like, I really have to call this the last one I managed to get it...awesome feeling getting a move I've been wanting for a while.

I know I said more video soon but, I'm saving the clips for my movie, I have a few I may put together over the next couple of days so keep an eye out.

More soon..

Jeri 2009 Week 2

2009-11-21T12:50:00.000Z

Just come up to the end of the second week and we have been getting some nice conditions, 4.2 with some nice waves. I've done a few evening sessions in a row now, and it's been brilliant, like 3 or 4 people downwind and then sailing back just after the sun has set.

We are hoping to get some footage today so I'll try and get a couple clips up this eve or tomorrow.

That's all for now, more soon

2009-11-12T16:19:00.000Z

So I've been out in Jeri for a few days now and it's like paradise!!! It's amazing, the wind is 4.2 every day, the locals are really friendly and the cocktails are good.

Anyway I've learnt a load of moves in the 3 and a half days I've had on the water which is cool and we have been getting some awesome footage with this new camera I got just before I came out here. The footage is filmed at 300 fps slowed down to 30 fps and the quality is ok, just don't blow it up full screen, it also shots full HD at 60 fps so at the end I should have a whole load of decent clips for a movie...slow mo makes the crashes look good to..see for yourself

Anyway the standard is super high out here, so I'm off to practice some more...

more soon..

14th Overall Pro on BWA

2009-11-04T10:02:00.001Z

So it's my first year competing/finishing the UK wave series (now the BWA series) and I'm really happy with not just my overall result but also my individual results for each event as I have managed to improve each time on the previous event also beating slightly better people each time. I've learnt heaps this year when it comes to wave sailing and although I considered myself more a freestyler at Uni I'm now really enjoying the waves as well. That said I'm off to Jeri in a few hours for 5 weeks which will be mainly freestyle, although I hear the waves are big enough for backies/pushies so I'll get them sorted and a whole load of other tricks hopefully.

Anyway keep an eye on this blog as I'm planning to upload a little video update each week, maybe with a move in and a few tips on how to do it.

Bring on Jeri and next years BWA....

Gwithian BWA final event

2009-11-02T10:17:00.000Z

I almost didn't make this event as I had already decided not to go because the cost of getting all the way down there and entering, etc. was close to making me bust before Jeri (leave on Wed...siiiick).

So I was sitting in the office earning precious pennies on the Thursday, looking at the forecast a lot, and after a number of phone calls I managed to arrange a place to stay with my Uni flat mate and his girlfriend (Ed and Anna) as Ed was entering the Amateurs. With that i left straight after work in my suit... not fully prepared but with most of my stuff from Tiree in there still, I got down pretty late and straight to bed. I was lucky enough to enter late and although I missed the single elimination I managed to make it out for the double.

First heat..Chris Murray, Nick Moffat were in it..not an easy one as I knew Murray had spent the previous winter in cape town and Nick was ripping at the moment and I'd been at Camber all summer...starboard tack cross-on...the only practice I had was in Tiree when we had one port tack day. Anyway, first wave in was a 6 so pretty happy with that one and then a 4.5 later, not so great but not bad either. The judges put me 1st, 2nd and 2nd which apparently put me on a draw with Moffat so I won it on highest wave score.

Second heat...couldn't water start for half the heat, caught one wave and it closed out on me, the second wave didn't happen either...literally the worst heat of my life so that's one to leran from and put behind me.

Packing for Jeri now.......

Sweet bit of coverage

2009-10-21T16:57:00.000+01:00

Got a wikid little article into x-sport mag the online free extreme sports mag.

Click Here to see it got a nice shot on the inside cover and then an article from page 14, with a double spread photo on the first two pages....siiiick!

Tiree

2009-10-15T09:58:00.000+01:00

Just returned early from the Tiree Wave Classic. Pretty epic 1500 mile round trip!!! It's a shame the forecast died right off and it doesn't look like there will be much to hold the rest of this double let alone try and start another single elimination. I'm hoping for my result they at least finish the first double.

On another note the first day we sailed in competition was absolutely awesome (check pics - courtesy of Pete Darkin), cross off down the line, bit float and rideish but the waves were so clean and if you got it right there were some nice ones to be had!

The day before the event was 3.7 weather which meant either smaller waves at Gott bay but more side shore or bigger waves but more on shore at Ballaphueil, we went for Gott bay to practice our riding a bit but also got some nice jumps as the waves jacked up to over head high.

Going up a week early was a good call as we got some nice conditions, some head high waves and side shore to side on conditions.

Check the SWA website soon for more updates

England No Wind

2009-10-02T14:44:00.001+01:00

Not been much wind about lately so have been working in an office for three weeks, only missed one day of wind and managed to escape early on the other good day so not missed a whole lot really. Heading up to Tiree this weekend with SJ, forecast looks good for first three days, so hopefully some nice practice before the wave classic begins the week after.

Good forecast tomorrow so off for a cheeky one at Camber with Bubble, try and get a little bit of footage or some photos if we can, so check back before the end of the weekend.

Well done to John Skye as well out in Sylt, guess he must be pretty happy considering how hard the conditions are... obviously shows how good the RRD twinfins are...and him of course!

brightair goes off....

2009-09-23T20:25:00.000+01:00

No wind as expected but as I said before the event there was certainly loads to do which was cool. Climbing walls, simulators, zorbes, wakeboarding, high divers, bands, parties, freestyle jet skiers doing barrel rolls in the air off flat water and the list goes on and on and on, wish they had that stuff at every event, wouldn't that be cool.

Despite the lack of wind some little people + Max Rowe went out for some crazy light wind freestyle spinning tricks, whilst Al Bentley, Joe O'Callaghan and myself hunted down a jet skiier to tow us. We managed to get out for a couple of runs but there was so much going on that only Joe and I got a go. It's not the easiest thing in the world but more fun than light wind freestyle.

Jeri plans are coming together, finalising when I'm leaving/who I'm going and staying with, anybody know of a cheap way to get from the airport to Jeri that isn't the bus?

Mini Pozo

2009-09-16T18:08:00.000+01:00

Got out today for a few hours at Mini Pozo (Greatstone), was on 4.7 but could have been on 4.2 easy. Was awesome fun, big shakas on the way out as well as backies, pushies and practiced those port tack forwards... being a south coast boy we don't get this port tack stuff very often which makes it a bit harder when I go to these comps which are more often port tack than starboard...

We had some nice ramps though, head high out back and some good sections to hit on the way in!

Next up is the White'Bright'Air event, seems there is going to be no wind so probably no competition this year but looks like there will be heaps to watch and do though.

2010 RRD Twintip 100l first thoughts

2009-09-15T23:08:00.000+01:00

Picked up my new 2010 Twintip last week on the day the first shipment arrived into the UK and you can see what I thought of it on the sSs site, click HERE.

The main points were that it somehow allows you to pull off the bigger moves, air funnels, shakas, Konos, etc... when your not even fully powered, which is a massive bonus. I mentioned I would test its sliding ability in it, I got out the next day and well it certainly slides well, got my first one handed eslider 540 and a wet but claimable one handed 'air' bob (was the right technique just not high enough to claim the whole air rotation).

Click here for some boardseeker coverage just put up. Thanks guys.

Also thanks to Guy Peters for the pic.

Lastly check out another friend of mine from Uni who has been recording a few songs. Not bad Tim.

See some of you at White(Bright)air

Lazy Daze Vid online and working fine!!

2009-09-09T19:46:00.000+01:00

Link to my new freestyle video from the early summer up now on youtube (be sure to watch it in HD) (click here).

It's been a long time coming but it's finally there, I started making it as soon as I got back a couple months ago but then got a new program (Final cut express) and had to learn how to use it all. It's pretty awesome though.

Also check out these new hoodies/clothing brand from a Uni friend of mine, pretty simple but catchy.

Photos: Danielle Lucas

National Windsurfing Festival 2009

2009-09-08T17:34:00.000+01:00

What an awesome event.

Each year this event seems to work so well, even if there is hardly any wind or if it's howling and despite the presence of a main sponsor Alan Cross did and awesome job at getting it all organised, a massive thanks to him.

I decided to enter the night windsurf 'super-x' and had to qualify during the day. Then there was also the tag team event, representing RRD on an x-fire and 7.5 ezzy freeride with 2 other sponsored riders and a randomly selected freeride fleet sailor we managed to get off to a good start (3rd place) and by the end we had gained the two places, finishing with a first overall. Just to top it off team Ezzy managed to come in second. the night 'super-x' also went pretty well with a 5th overall, especially as it was more of a slalom race and that's not really my discipline. The straight line speed wasn't so much an issue, just the gybing, I prefer to jump around. Then there was an awesome party hosted by Boardseeker and just to top it all off there was a freestyle comp on the Sunday, which I managed to win the £100 cash prize for, which pretty much paid for the event for me!

Still new to this blog thing but the pic above is of the Friday when it was 4.2 weather all afternoon (landing a one handed air funnel), I managed to land my first air chachoo one handed and one footed...probably a little bit by accident but I sailed away from it and someone was filming and got it on their helmet cam... Couple more pics up soon.

New 2010 Twintip arrives on Thursday, I'll test it as soon as I get it and give you my thoughts.

Busted UJ...

2009-09-02T18:39:00.000+01:00

Got out at Camber early last week and was on 4.2 for about half an hour when my UJ snapped right out back. Was about a kilometer out and I managed to wave a friend over for some help. As we tried to tie the rig onto the back of his board for him to tow it in a wave broke over us and swept my board away... I had no chance of getting to it as in about 5 seconds it was about 30 meters away. Alex said he would sail in and call the coastguard, he tried to assure me it would be fine but I decided that leaving me on my own was probably not the best call as there was a strong rip and it was a pretty lumpy sea.

20 minutes later I found my board about 100 meters downwind of where I managed to swim into. Thanks to Alex for staying near me whilst I swam in and stopping to let me rest on his board.

The lesson learnt: get a better UJ!