In the water again at Whitsands!

I was so keen to get in the water again this weekend! 5 weeks out of the water and I couldn't wait for a session no matter the weather! Though it felt cold with NW winds I was pretty surprised how warm it was (with suit, boots and hood!). Whitsands has real potential for an amzing down the line place, but it needs a good wind due to the rip and some south swell. It is a mission walking down and up the cliff though, I still have a badly pulled shoulder from the walk carrying my rig up the cliff! Its like Highcliff on steroids! Anyway the session wasn't great due to the complete lack of wind (it was coming and going), and the rip taking away any wind there was! But it was nice to be out with the sun setting. Here are some go pro shots from the headcam:







Finally, a bit late coming, but a pic of the new Simmer Icons, they are awesome and light!


Next week I am off skiing to Andorra, I can't wait! Merry Christmas everyone!

Bigbury photos

More photos of other people! It seems this past month the wind and the waves have not stopped coming while I sacrificed, though everyone knows someone has to for a good forecast! So I took photos at Whitsands one weekend, then the following weekend I ran up and down the cliffs at Bigbury while everyone surfed, and this weekend took pictures of a pretty fun looking cross on session at Bigbury! Jealous! I also went to the student windsurf event party in Exeter, which was epic! So here are some photos of Stef and Will Rodgers at Bigbury on Saturday. There was about 20 guys and girls out, nice to see! Looking forward to getting back on the water soon!







Also, here is the official Franklin and Marshall and Puravida BWA Wave competition video in Cornwall from Boardseeker.com!

New Eyes!

Wow-I can see amazingly! I've had my surgery, and my eyes are now 20:20 in my right and better in my left! Absolutely incredible! I had it done at Centre for Sight in Kent, so a bit of a trek from Plymouth. They gave me a sedative before to calm me down and some anaesthetic eye drops, and luckily some happy squeezy balls to squeeze while I was having it done! The worst part was the rings they push into your eyes to hold them open while they are lasered-there is quite a lot of pressure and its pretty uncomfortable. I couldn't feel the laser at all though, just a faint smell of burning eye, nice! It also worryingly sounded like a tattoo pen! The process was over in 5-10 minutes though and then I got given some funky goggles which I have to wear for a month in bed and for the first 24 hours to stop me rubbing my eyes and disloging the flap they had cut. I have lots of drops to put in and can't go in the water for a month, so this weekend I took photos of Stef and Doug surfing at Whitsands:

Stef:

Doug:


A bodyboarder:


My sisters came and visited for the weekend too which was really good, so we ended up playing around with funny photos on the beach!

News, Polzeath and Laser eye surgery...

After the Gwithian event, a guy called Sam Fleet has made it his personal mission to get me as much publicity as possible! Its good for me but even better for the sport-windsurfing is not very well known, so the more it is put out there the more people will find out what its all about! So I had my radio interview, have been in a couple of local papers, and also had my first ever BBC news article on their site! Thanks Sam!



I also went to an XSWA event at Polzeath, where about 50 x-students gathered to do our own Aussie Kiss and celebrate the SWA. Awesome party and some nice clean but small surfing at Polzeath. Rob Nunan's photo of me catching a small wave:



Finally-I am having my eyes lasered on Friday! So things will be a bit quiet as I have to have 4 weeks off the water, after which I think it is time to go skiing! yay!

Oh, and another thing-I'm on the Radio!!

Quick one: I am on BBC radio Devon tomorrow morning at 0630, early I know but I start work at 0730! Its with Gordon Sparks. Tune into 103.4 FM or 95.7 FM if you want to listen to me chat about windsurfing!

UK Wave Champion 2011!

Lots to report! So having not windsurfed for a while due to wind not coinciding with time of work, and getting a black eye from hitting my cheekbone with my surfboard pretty hard, I finally got a couple of really good windsurf sessions in!

First, at Aussie Kiss last weekend, a massive 500+ strong student crowd that gathers every year in Bude Holiday park and Roadford Reservoir. I spent Saturday at the lake holding a girls windsurf chat for FLOW with Jo Wright and Kirsty OCallaghan. There were about 25 girls, and I managed to convince one girl (Katarina) to do her first BWA comp at Gwithian last weekend! Success! We partied hard at the X-rated party then headed to Widemouth on Sunday in the SE winds and got 5 hours of gusty cross-off sailing and surfing in, it was pretty fun! We were exhausted afterwards!



Second windsurf: BWA Cornwall. There were a record amount of entrants, especially girls! 13 entered, with some convincing from Amy Carter in the pub on Friday! This is the most I have ever seen at a competition-in fact this is the same amount as was in PWA Gran Canaria this year! Conditions were good-cross off 4.2 weather with head to mast high waves at the end of the day. Unfortunately low tide brought some dumpy waves midday, but either side the riding was great. I had a bi on my first heat so only had two more heats and ended up coming 2nd to Lucy Robson-well done Lucy! I did well in my first heat but the second got windier and I was a bit overpowered on the wave, but it was fun all the same and great to see so many women into wavesailing! We went to the monsters ball on Saturday night then Sunday brought big waves but no wind. Thanks to Puravida, Franklin and Marshall and all the other sponsors and organisers!

All pics from Globalshots' Jay Haysey:
Gwithian BWA event:


The only windsurf shot of me I can find!


1st Lucy Robson, 2nd myself and 3rd Jo Wright:


Globalshots pics of a Franklin and Marshall sponsor shot! Pretty funny!


Firefly Energy Drinks sponsor:


The Chocolate Brownie Company sponsor, YUMMY!


So with a second in this event and first place in Ireland and Wales, it makes me Female UK Wave Champion 2011! I am very happy as I have trained hard this year!

More sunset surfs!

These photos are from Gordon Allison taken at Crantock on a beautiful sunny evening a few weeks ago. Thanks Gordon!

Sunset Surfs

So far, this autumn has been pretty good for surfing, I am getting out about twice during the week and most weekends surfing or windsurfing. The wind forecasts haven't really come through, hence I have done far more surfing than windsurfing. I have improved a fair bit over the past month and I'm really loving surfing at the moment! Mainly we have surfed Crantock/Newquay/Watergate after work until last week when a good SW swell came in and Whitsands worked pretty well with overhead waves rolling in. I have just bought a new 5'10 board off ebay so really looking forward to trying that when it next pumps!

Here are some photos from a guy called Nick Turley at Whitsands. His flickr site is here if you want to see his other shots. Thanks Nick!

Moved to Plymouth!

Well its been a month since I got back from Fuerte, and I have been so busy travelling around the UK seeing family, going to weddings, moving to Plymouth and going to Cornwall! I am really happy to be living in Plymouth now, only an hour and a bit from some of the best waves in the UK. I have been making the most of the conditions before I start work as an engineer for Babcock on Wednesday, spending 5 days last week and this weekend at Mexico's and Godrevy.

Last weekend I surfed 3 days, nice head high offshore and mostly sunny. My foot is still sore as I can't put loads of pressure on the toes so I sat out on the windsurfing taking pictures of Stef and Ed, (see below).

Saturday we surfed Mexico's for about 4 hours-I came off the water dizzy as I had a cold and think it took it out of me! The waves were good though, a nice head and a half and clean. The others windsurfed but the wind was super up and down and it was hard work getting out! Yesterday was winder so me, Stef, Ed, SJ and Andy King (and another) had most of the beach to ourselves riding head high waves. The wind was gusty from nothing to planing but a really fun session! I had to make my straps really big so as not to press on the top of my foot as its pretty bruised still but it was fine otherwise!

Looks like the winter swells are coming in from the hurricanes so hopefully it should be a good autumn! I will surf and windsurf most weekends and after work when it looks good, as I finish at 3.45 every day, woop!!







Finally, a couple of pictures of our van, which thanks to Trago Mills (a massive shop down here that everyone raves about and seems to sell everything), we have made a second double bed/bench seat/table-so we can spend longer at the beach in comfort!!

Pozo and Fuerte video

Here it is! We didn't quite get the jumping conditions in Fuerte we hoped for, in fact a lack of powered up sessions, hence less footage and more Go Pro stuff. Anyway I hope you enjoy it!


MPORA Action Sports >>

Back home and a damaged foot...

So I am back home now after finally an amazing day sailing Lajas. Our last day we managed to sail about 3 hours in the morning with logo to mast sets rolling in and 4.2 to 3.4 weather cross offshore. Finally Lajas worked so that some of the waves came into the bay and you could get up to 8 or 9 turns on the wave! Unfortunately we had to leave early to get to the airport, but not before a keen few photos being taken-where I managed to crash an aerial and twist my right foot in the footstrap pretty bad. Its not as bad as I did my left foot a year ago but has still swollen up pretty bad-I hope it doesn't take ages to heal!
Anyway after a rather marginal Fuerte trip with not that many waves, and hardly any jumping as we wanted, this day made our trip and we went home happy (and limping..!). Here are the last of the photos, I will be getting a video out soon of Pozo and Fuerte combined.




Photos taken on the smaller waves in the bay as the break was too far away:




Elephant foot!

Stef playing on the inside: