Summer Kick off

Yep, it's officially arrived, summer is here! well, the second summer of my year anyway..
After a couple of stormy days and funky winds the south easter kicked in strong and Melkboss was cooking yesterday.  
I got my Quad 68 out and it was totally sic, i've never had a board hook a top turn and have it thrust you back 180 degrees with so much speed and pure power, that comes from bags of grip, even hitting the lip vert, sliding the tail out and along the lip, just when you think the tails gone and you'll slide out the back the fins pull back in and send you down the face of the wave again, it's going to be so much fun out there this summer!!
For those of you that know Melkboss the question you'll all want answering is how are the sandbanks upwind? and the answer is..... undecided, the tide was really far out and not that much swell so it was hard to tell, but, there were a few decent sets coming through over head high and some were really tasty.. i think it's going to be a good start to the season :)
It does even look like it could be a gangbusters start to the season with swell too.. four out of the next 7 days not below 3 metres is a pretty positive sign and there's always wind around somewhere!
bring it on...

Blouberg's got a new artificial reef!

Now that's not very good parking is it? and i'm not talking about the cars!  yep, that ship is on the beach... doh!
Just arrived in Cape Town and i'm just sorting things out as usual on arrival, car, house, phone, life! the usual...
Noticed a few things already though, big bay's beach developments been completed pretty much, restaurants on the front, bars and cafes for the posers to hang out in, all very good except one thing, the beers too expensive! 19 bucks a beer, it's 12 or 13 around the corner at the blue peter, i know where i'll still go for my post sailing refreshments..
The traffics terrible, they're building a bunch of roads and flyovers, and bus lanes but not sure if they'll all connect up though, guaranteed they end up with a spare bit of road and nothing to join it too...
Bags of wind, too much, and not of the right kind really, easterly wind filled with rain and thunderstorms that blew up 40 foot swells, sank a few fishing boats killing half a dozen people, blew down trees, destroyed some housing, flooded some roads and generally caused chaos in the town..

Normal wind's back tomorrow so hopefully i'll be hitting the water, just need to watch out for bloubergs new reef! 300,000 tons of coal and a whole lot of scrap metal there if anyone wants it?  it got beached in a storm and the owners have abandoned it, insurers don't want it, salvage company don't fancy it and the city council can't afford to budge it... hello new water feature... real shame it's in the middle of kite beach ;)

Where did my autumn go?

Has anybody seen my autumn?  it was quite sunny start to the autumn and not much wind about, then we had Sylt and Tiree, i've been home a week and sailed once, far from classic, i did manage to smack a rock at broad beach and loose a couple of fins in the process! shows these boards are quite strong though.. not a mark on the board, destroyed the fins, lucky they were twin fins, if i'd smacked it with a big single fin i'd have over the handle bars onto it!
Now i'm busy sorting a few things out and preparing for the winter and the new season beyond that, i'm off to South Africa on Sunday to join Werner on the JP development programme again, really looking forward to getting stuck into some quality sailing and pushing these production boards further and further.  This years boards are unbelievable, we're gonna have to work extra hard this year to better them, having said that, all the team have had their input and there's some exciting ideas and concepts in the pipeline, so things are just getting better and better...
I'm a bit sad to be off on the other hand as it means leaving home again and i've not really got to sail Rhossy nearly as much as i wanted to, thank god august was good is all i can say...  I was really looking forward to one of those dartboard low pressures that cranks the southerly up the irish sea and we're all out there in mast high, side shore port tack heaven!  I'm sure i'll get my fair share the next few months though... and it'll still be there when i get back in February, all be it a bit colder!!!

TV Schedule

Here's a date for your diary.....
Discovery channel - Sea Storm - 9pm - 21st October

Having not seen the program i don't know exactly, but, it's all about extreme weather and then it goes on to say that not all extreme weather is bad and some people actually go out in search of it! 'Q' Me and Ben....  I was told we have an 8 minute section towards the end of the program that profiles us and follows us as we chase a big storm, well, it's actually Tiree last year but it was pretty wild!!
You'll have to check it out to see what it's all about!

Tiree Wave Classic

An early day yesterday at the beach again, an 8 am start at Balephuil here on Tiree.
It started off with pretty light winds an some smallish waves but the conditions seemed to improve as the tide came in.  That is until the tide went really far out again about 8hrs later and the waves became too small to continue.  In that time though we managed to bang out a single elimination, i had a terrible heat, found it hard to get the waves and everything i did catch just seemed to close out or not break with any punch or power? not what you need when you have skyeboy in your first heat!
Timo sailed well and eventually won the single, nice work! he was pretty happy with his performance.
http://www.boardseekermag.com/wnews/show-story/1/2078
We even managed to get most of the way through a double elimination, i pulled my socks up and got through some heats but came up against ben in the battle for 5th, this one didn't go my way this time, despite a pretty good heat in some tough conditions, the wind was swinging more offshore, getting lighter and the waves were getting smaller. After the heat the contest was put on hold and we're waiting for wind to try and finish this elimination before starting another one.

Tiree Superstars woooo!

Last year we came to Tiree a few days early, direct from the Sylt world cup, not to train exactly although it was that as well but, mostly because we were filming a TV program, it was for a series called Storms at Sea, part of the raging planet programs on Discovery channel.
And we scored it Epic!!

To find out more about it you'll have to check it out for yourselves.
It was aired on the 4th October on the US discovery channel and will be coming to the UK airwaves soon, i don't know exactly when, I'm trying to find out!

It was really cool to be involved with and i look forward to seeing the show!

PwA Sylt Live Report!! 14

That's all folks!

It's over for another year.

The double elimination took place on a very wet and windy final weekend, it was packed on the beaches, it was really cool to see actually, there were so many people, all stood at the waters edge whether it was sunny or raining! they were loving it!!
Most of them where loving Klaas actually, he's their big favourite! Spurred on by the commentators cheers and support he was making the most of the home advantage, and fair play, he ripped, he did everything asked of him, every heat he busted out the same stuff, big backloops and big pushloops right on the inside, some nice riding too. It was really good to see the public cheering so much, it was like watching a fireworks display, all the ooohs and aaaahs!

As for me it ended pretty badly, my opponent had the heat of his life and i had a pretty poor one to tell the truth, i struggled to find waves to jump on my runs out and it just wasn't quite clicking together at all, really not the end to the PWA season i wanted!
The conditions themselves looked really amazing from the beach but when you were out there it was really hard perform, so much chop, massive current, unpredictable waves and gusty conditions on the inside, really tough but still no excuse, i've sailed here enough to know what it's about. It's a strange thing to think how a bit of momentum and form can make the difference in a contest, i've beaten Klaas on Sylt, winning at the german championships, i've beaten him this year in the Big Bay Classic in Cape Town, he on the other hand really turned it on here and stormed through to 2nd, it's things like this though that help me believe that if and when it all comes together for me the same could happen.  Would be nice!

Nice Work by PLASMA team mate Alex Mussolini! Winner!! You da Man!

Well done to Josh Angulo too, Overall wave champ and retiring with a bang, good stuff.....

Swifty, Great stuff with a third overall and i'm sure you can improve more.
Albeau, legend, in Racing and Waves!!

PWA Sylt Live Report!! 14

OK, the last couple of days have been a bit on the hectic side and unlike Pozo it's not as easy to sit, watch the action and update, so the blogging took a hit.
We did manage to complete the single elimination though and it was a pretty wild affair. 7am starts, 4.7 weather, onshore, really nasty! It is so hard to do anything in conditions like this that it makes me take my hat off to those who made it look good!

A big well done to PLASMA team mate Alex Mussolini, he dominated and worked his way through to take victory in the Single elimination, his riding was excellent and he was really making the best of the opportunities to show of his jumping skills by racking up the points jumping on starboard tack and port tack! Josh proved that you don't need to be all new school to do well by making the most of the riding in the shorebreak with some nice powerful riding.



Biggest upset was JP/Neilpryde teammate Antoine Albeau tearing through the fleet. He's not only pretty well won the racing world title but has guaranteed himself at least a top 4 finish here by securing 3rd in the single elimination. How did he do it? well, he was solid, rock solid, his riding was fast, powerful and his strength in riding onshore must have really helped too. I think having zero pressure and really enjoying his run of form really helped him, he looked really relaxed and just nailed everything he could do!
Well done to skyeboy too, he beat me in the second round although i didn't make it very hard for him, technical failure stopped my hopes! the shore break does get quite big! He then pushed all the way to 4th and he must be really happy to be on a wave podium here.