Wednesday 29 August 2012

Uh oh...I have signed up to a Triathlon!

Hellooo!! Just a quick one this time. Since my last blog, I have signed up to a Triathlon! I have wanted to do one for a long time at some point in my life and the Perranporth one seemed to pop up as a few friends are doing it too. After lots of indecision and hoping I wouldn't miss a good forecast in September, I finally put my money where my mouth is and paid to enter! Its Sunday the 2nd September-yes next Sunday!! I am a little worried I haven't trained hard enough as its been windy and there has been a bit of swell-and I am not going running if I could be on the water instead! I figured it would be super hard, but you only live once and it will get me in shape for the season! So if you are in Perranporth area next Sunday come and cheer me on from 10am, I will be beasting myself round a 800-1000m surf sea swim, 38km hilly bike and 7.5km dune run urggghhhh!! Any tips let me know-I will need them! :)

In terms of sailing-we had a really good surf at Whitsands on Friday and three windsurf's over the bank holiday at Marazion and Gwithian. Not amazing really, much less windy than forecast for the Saturday and pretty small waves but we had loads of fun with friends! Looking forward to some proper swell coming...

A sequence from Gwithian:

Sunday 5 August 2012

Vans, fishing and finally the odd bit of windsurfing!

Firstly, sorry it has been so long since I last blogged! This has been due to two reasons: 1. Not much wind so not many sessions, 2. I have been super busy as we have a new van! Amazing news!

So, below are some pictures of our new van through its conversion. Loads still to do and it seems to be absorbing our money but it is a lot faster, cheaper and more efficient than our last van so it should mean many more trips to the beach!! I could give loads of advice on building vans but I think the most important bit this time has been good insulation-this time the temperature is so stable inside we don't have to get up at 7 in the morning on a hot day like in our last van! Should be loads better for the kit too....

Here is a video we recorded while testing the bed as we are putting a timelapse together of the whole build. As the bed is adjustable, the pin didn't locate properly the first time we tested it, have a look at the result!

Windsurfing hasn't been too brilliant over Summer-we have had lots of frustrating conditions of about 12-15 knots, not quite enough for small wave gear but too much to spoil any surf. Very frustrating whilst watching the World cup! It has been perfect for slalom if I had the kit! We have grabbed sessions where possible, a few flat water ones, a session at Fistral which was interesting with the 200 odd beginners! (We weren't hated on too much and stayed out their way!) Yesterday we had a really fun session at Gwithian on 5m, unexpected and really fun despite small shoulderish waves. We also had the wettest session ever at Whitsands during the rainy period, where if you know the beach you will know the mission of a walk down and back up the cliff for 15-20 mins, with a river running down it at the time due to the rain!

This is Whitsands cliff, bit of a shoulder mission carrying windsurf kit down here!

Classic small summer waves, fun in the sun!

We have also been doing some spear fishing (or I just snorkel really as I am not sure I could stab a fish...the boys do the spearing!), but that has been brilliant for breath holds -getting some practise for the Autumn storms when they come! I wear about 8kg of weights with my winter suit making me neutrally buoyant so it is so easy to get to the bottom and sit/swim!

Perfect spearfishing weather, calm and clear

Anyway enough from me, I will update with more van pics and hopefully get some windy sessions in-hurry up storms!!