I have a 2009 82 litre Fanatic Allwave in almost brand new condition sat in my sponsors shop in Cardiff being sold for £490 ono. This is last year's board with no damage (just a few scratches on the rails), so is an absolute steal for this price! (It is being sold for £940 at surfstore). Great board, I got on with it really well. Single fin so quick at planing and great for jumping. Its riding is also really good and is great for not so perfect waves as well as down the line! If you are interested message me (sarahk349@gmail.com) or comment. It can be posted for £15-20.
Me graduating, with sensible flat shoes for the bad foot!!
So I am a graduate in Aerospace engineering! What now?! Well, this seems to be my plan: I have a job with Babcock Marine in Plymouth, not for this year, but deferred until September 2011, which is great because I can do a whole year focusing on windsurfing! I am really looking forward to starting the job, and it will also be great to live in Plymouth and be near good waves when its going off rather than in Guildford like I am now. Lots of surfing and windsurfing after work and weekends I think!
So for this year, I have already booked flights to Brazil for October 3rd to December 14th. We are going to Ibiraquera, South of Florianopolis, for hopefully some great wavesailing and surfing! After that, the plan is Maui March/April time, then the Canaries for Summer and hopefully PWA Pozo. Inbetween trips I'll be working as hard as I can to afford all this and also doing the BWA events. So a busy year! But I am sooo excited...
VIDEO!! Now this isn't the full video, I have two friends helping me out with my Pozo video as my computer is way too slow! So that will be coming soon. But here is a compilation of me learning to port tack forward, with lots of crashes so I hope you enjoy it!
I had 4 days on crutches; 2 of which was my cousin's wedding and I had a lot of champagne and enjoyed dancing on crutches and needless to say my foot was sore the next day! Anyway, I have my graduation tomorrow and really didn't want to be hopping along the stage and it seems I don't have to, (though I will be limping). I have full movement in my ankle now and though still swollen, my foot has gone down, but I still can't bend it. This makes for an interesting limp but at least I can carry a cup of tea now!
I didn't think 2 days after Pozo would be 3.4 weather again, but the forecast couldn't be missed so I got up pretty early to drive to Shoreham to meet Sam Darkin for a sail. I arrived a bit late after my car wouldn't start and most people were packing up to go to Sea Lane Cafe Worthing, so I followed. It looked pretty good, cross on, some nice waist to head ramps and I was stacked on my 3.4! Trouble was, my chest was causing me grief from the mast slam in Pozo; I thought it was better but obviously not and I was getting sharp pains holding on. Maybe I cracked a rib or something? So I couldn't make the most of the session, but decided 'one last run', its always the case. Crashed a backloop, think I overrotated? Felt a bit like a push loop, but not sure what happened it was so fast, then I was in the water screaming. A kitesurfer called an ambulance and I drifted/swam in and some windsurfers caught my kit. I couldn't stand on it so was carried to a bench. I took a trip in the ambulance to hospital in my wetsuit and stayed there being moved about and having xrays. First they decided my metatarsel was fractured and was about to put a cast on up to my knee, then decided after another xray that it wasn't, and I had bad tissue damage. Taking my wetsuit off was an effort, and of course I had no clothes! So I got in a taxi with a hospital gown and a blanket and some crutches, back to my car to get a wallet, then hopped to a cashpoint, and back to the car again. I must have looked a sight! At Worthing I waited a couple of hours for my parents to come and drive me and my car home. Now my foot is pretty swollen and I can't really move it much. Hopefully the swelling will go down soon and it will get better really quickly, fingers crossed! Thanks to Lewis and Geoff for helping me!
I think sailing every day for 3 weeks with only 2 days rest has taken its toll on my body, and no matter how much sleep I get I always feel tired. We went for a coffee to wake up and then I was really psyched for my last session at Pozo. 3.4 weather, head high waves. It looked good, and it wasn't busy! The trouble was, the evening before I had the fastest catapult of my life and was swung full pelt into the mast, badly bruising my elbow and my ribs, so I wasn't really going for it on my last session. Maybe it was the coffee or maybe I was just exhausted but I felt all wobbly sailing and basically didn't have much strength! So my last session was short and frankly pretty rubbish. Oh well, I am home now and sort of glad for the rest! I think Pozo has taught me a lot and hopefully if I come back to do the PWA next year, I will be sailing a lot better! Now for finding a job which will pay for Brazil, leaving the 3rd of October.
The past couple of days have been really inspiring watching all the guys competing in the PWA. We sat on the beach with music and commentary and watched the double elimination as Koster and Fernandez met in the final and the Moreno's for the womens. Sick jumping, it was so good to watch! We had a session at Pozo after the finals were finished but unfortunately its still really busy and this weekend there is another competition so we will sail Vargas again. Here is a sequence from Vargas:
Today is the second day of the PWA competition at Pozo. Yesterday (and the day before), there was no wind at all! We went for a drive up to the North Coast of Gran Canaria to find pretty good glassy waves, and frustratingly no surf boards and the only hire shop we found seemed to be on a long siesta?! Though only 13 girls entered the PWA and I guess I could have entered (if I had had about 140 euros), I decided to wait until I am better at port tack, so I can guarantee getting through the first heats and maybe win some prize money! Hopefully next year I will enter? I would like to see the standard of the bottom fleet girls... So today the four of us decided to sail Vargas as Pozo would be closed for competition. There wasn't too much wind at Pozo today, everyone was on 4.7 pretty much and we were expecting less at Vargas. However, I was powered up on 3.4 all day!! It turned into a bit of a looping day, I think I did about 20, with Mike yelling at me with his GoPro on his head following. It makes you go for them!! When you don't land them all the time it is pretty tiring, and my body is feeling it! I will sleep well tonight...
The wind has been up and down a fair bit, blowing its socks off then dissappearing mid day to come back later! I have been on 4.2 mainly. Today the waves came back, about head high/overhead for me! But it was the busiest its ever been, really hard to do a move you want to as you are constantly trying to get out the way of everyone! We have a car from tomorrow so will hopefully sail Vargas or something. Today I tried some backloops but its pretty obvious I need to work on being alot higher! Here are some photos including one of my eye, which luckily didn't go too dark! But still a little sore.
So today started with hardly any wind at all, and swinging directions. Then at about 12 it built up and then by about 2 when i went out, it was full on 3.4 weather and some waves for once! I was so stacked and did alot of crashed high jumps! My session ended abruptly when some guy on the inside hit my eyebrow (thankfully not my eye!) full on with the tip of his mast. I was waterstarting to go out again and I guess he tacked or something and fell in. Well I went in and my eyebrow got a nice shaped egg on it!! Its gone down now but is slowly turning grey-oh dear!! I got some ice on it and couldn't miss going for another session this evening. Even more windy, absolutely stacked on a 3.4 but managed 5 forward attempts, 2 of which I water started out of. Not bad for 40-50 knots!
The last few days have had strangely little wind (for Pozo anyway!) and tiny waves. The wind is really gusty so one minute really powered on 4.2 then the next wobbling on my 68l! The wind is coming and going all day. Today I went out on 4.7, not very powered but was a fun session anyway! I am trying shove its on the way in and managed to get a photo today from Adam Sims. The lack of wind led to a few beers and then going out in Maspalomas last night, a very tacky touristy place full of bars but a pretty funny night out!
