BWA Cornwall, 3rd Place!

This weekend was the final event of the BWA tour in Cornwall. Even though I couldn't make the other events this year I was looking forward to this one at my local spot, especially with the biggest storm in 26 years coming!

Saturday was a little small, but it was windy. There were 8 girls entering in two heats of 4 for the single elimination. Unfortunately I didn't really get a set wave in my heat and came 3rd, therefore 6th overall. I think every run out I had there was a small set coming in!

Day two was epic! It was the biggest I had ever seen the Bluff, from normally waist to head high it was already breaking logo high in the morning, before the 20 second period swell kicked in. My first heat was against Ping, Katie and Emma Ray for the double elimination, but unfortunately Emma was feeling ill and Ping didn't have time to get ready. The next heat was versus Katie, and it was probably the best heat I sailed in ages. I had 2 good waves, one better than the other at about logo high. With the short 10 minute heat I avoided waiting for a huge set wave in case I mucked it up. The tactic worked! I didn't mind whether I went through at this point as I knew I did my best, but I got through! It was pretty close with Katie and she got a big wave!

My next heat was versus Jody, then against Sara Kellet which was really close but I got through, then I met Justyna. By this point the tide was low and the set waves were closing out a lot, so the girls focused on getting reform waves on the inside. The wind got lighter and lighter and by the time my heat with Justyna came, my arms were falling off and I was sinking on my 69l! Justyna made it through against me to meet Debbie in the final. They sailed well, with Debbie taking the win!

Thanks for the photos above from Splashography, Tim Baker and Dave White. The judges and organisers did a spectacular job too so thanks to them too!

New Simmer Gear!

Our new Simmer Halos and Blacktip have arrived and my 69l Flywave! The sails look great and feel really light! Shame we are still waiting for some wind in Cornwall to try them.

I had a good surf last week at Fistral, a nice offshore and a bit of decent swell, hoping for more to come!

I mentioned Tribal Clash a few posts ago, here is the official video, it was amazing!

In other news, we went fishing last night, catching a few tasty mackerel and amazingly two squid! As we caught one of them I was looking over the side and it squirted me full power in the face with ink! Luckily I was wearing sunglasses but I was covered head to toe in black ink! It was washable ;) ha ha

The DREAM Sabbatical, Great Sessions and A Close Call...

6 weeks to go! And it should be the best 6 weeks of the season. I love Autumn, the weather, fresh but sunny with a chill, Autumn red leaves and best of all wind and swell. Its time for hats and slippers, and I kind of like the fact we have distinguished seasons in the UK, even though it is frustrating that when the good conditions come the light fades. I am not sure Autumn has kicked in properly yet, we haven't had a proper low pressure in the South West yet bringing good swell with over a 11 or 12 second period. With a rather lame Summer for windsurfing, but nice weather I might add, there was more wakeboarding, spearfishing and Crossfit than windsurfing and surfing unfortunately.

So the big trip is coming...Boards published an interview with Stef and I here: Planning the Dream Sabbatical check it out! We still have lots to do, I haven't booked a car for Chile yet and there are things such as cancelling car insurance and phone contracts etc to do too, the more boring side but important if I am not earning any money!

Luckily, there has been more wind recently, and I have had a few sessions. A couple were at Whitsands, one really unexpected quite light wind and small wave session which was fun as we didn't expect much at all. Another was Gwithian last weekend with SW winds, slightly onshore but I really enjoyed it, (see pictures below), and the last at Bigbury which ended badly...

Here are the pictures from Gwithian, taken kindly by Paul Monnington -thank you! I was using Stef's 78l Goya here as I am currently waiting for my new Simmer 69l. It took a while to get used to the bigger board, but once I had I really enjoyed using it. I still prefer my 69l for riding and jumping but it makes it easier sometimes to use a bigger board, especially in mushy waves!

Bigbury is a funny place to sail, I would say it is the most frequently disappointing place I sail unfortunately, but we keep going back! The wind is often flukey, not helped by the big island, and the waves very soft, especially with little swell. But it can occasionally be awesome. Below are some pictures taken by Julia Slack on a really good day last Winter. These aren't me, I missed this day unfortunately but did have an amazing session at Pendower in Cornwall instead.

Anyway, Tuesday wasn't so awesome, it was cross shore wind with good potential for jumping, but it wasn't windy enough. It was fun for a while until the wind died. We were all down wind at Bantham so had a long sail back up. If you know Bigbury it has a river, which on this session was ripping out, but luckily on neaps. Most of the windsurfers made it in time before the wind completely turned off, but I didn't. I was in the middle still trying to get in. I spent quite a while trying to water start, up haul, paddle on my front and swim, but wasn't going anywhere. I wasn't too worried, I was fit and wasn't cold or tired, but I wasn't getting any nearer to the beach and I was about 500m off Bigbury, maybe more.

I decided not to go straight back into the river to head down wind to Bantham as that would be directly against the rip, instead trying to go more across to the island to Bigbury. After maybe half an hour, Stef swam out to me to help me swim in, but as he did a gust came and he told me to sail back in, which I did. I got back to the beach eventually, but then got pretty worried that I had left Stef swimming, who wasn't visible at all! While all this was happening, someone had called the Coastguard as there was a kiter in trouble too, his kite had gone down and he seemed to be ripping out the bay and round the corner. Stef swam all the way in eventually, he knew the risks and his abilities, but it didn't come without a lot of worry from me! I assume and hope the Coastguard found the kiter too. It was a stark reminder of how dangerous Bigbury can be, even in tiny conditions (which I guess probably didn't help as there was no swell to surf in on). It also reminded me how lucky we are to have a Coastguard and the importance of sailing with friends, its certainly something I will consider whilst sailing away from the UK. With hindsight and advice I now know to sail directly downwind into Bantham to get to land and then have to walk up and around the rocks and swim the river, rather than trying to travel the very tempting short looking distance to Bigbury!

Tribal Clash Crossfit Competition 2013

THE BIGGEST TEAM FITNESS EVENT IN EUROPE! (According to This is South Devon!) (see here) It was Tribal Clash 2013 on the beach, masterminded by 3 amazing guys, 2 of which were from Crossfit Plymouth. I can't begin to explain how amazing it was to be part of and what it felt like to be 1 of 100 four-man teams, there was such a good atmosphere and camaraderie. I have also never seen so many fit people in one place, it was amazing to watch. The atmosphere was amazing with drums, music, tepees and screaming supporters. The opening ceremony on Friday night had all 100 teams doing sychronised burpees to the drum beat on the sand in order to tempt 'Kratos' the God out to lift his mask, the one which the winning team would hold in awe-epic! Anyway, I'll let some pictures do the talking:

The breathtaking Arena at Blackpool Sands, South Devon:

Taiko Drum team providing the booming soundtrack and the opening ceremony. They had some stamina!

Our team, Plymouth House Mafia, keen for everything and very clean pre workouts!

Workout (WOD) 1, involving log flipping and log lifting. Unfortunately we weren't so quick on this and came 80th:

WOD 2, 20 gruelling minutes of sychronised log front squats rotating the team round a sea swim. This hurt! Alot! It was killer! Our team did amazingly though and came 17th, with 300 odd squats and 7 swim laps.

WOD 3, lots of 70kg tyre lifting, flipping, running and filling with sandbags, and lots of tyre deadlifts (130kg for the men):

WOD 4, an undisclosed length trail run in four mass heats, with the first km to count and the final placing to count. The first km was a run along the shingle beach, up and down the bank and in the water-absolute killer! The run was a hilly one, approximately 5-7km, who knows?! up and down and through a river! I came in the 20's in my heat, and our combined team result gave us 10th/100, awesome result, especially as our team member Rose had never run more than a mile!

WOD 5, lots of up and over the bars, medicine ball throw overs and burpees with a run into the sea between each one (and back up the shingle slope), with the remaining time getting as many reps of kettle bell swings. This one came together for our team, we led the whole way through and it was amazing to come out of our third and final sea dip to see no team on the horizon following us! 227 reps of kettle bell swings, which gave us 7th /100. We finished on a high!

WOD 5

Team start

Up and overs

Med ball overs

Burpee ladder

Sea dip

Kettle bells

Finishing on a high, absolutely stoked!

Supporting our Crossfit Plymouth buddies

So the top 20 teams got in to the final, and with our final two results (10th and 7th), we picked up our previous days 60 something to 32nd, so it wouldn't have taken too much more to get into the final! Still, we were stoked with our result and especially happy with our last finish, the team just clicked together. The final looked absolutely horrible. It started with a 10 tug of wars best of 3, which eliminated half the finalists. Then there was log relay running, lifting and running, wheelbarrow races, partner lifts, more log running and swimming and finally tyre dragging up the beach to find Crossfit Cheltnam the final victors, and well deserved! The atmosphere was incredible, some 600 people cheering them on with drumming and music, just incredible! Here is their final picture and the mask:

I am so glad to have discovered Crossfit and I think can proudly call myself a windsurfer, surfer and Crossfit athlete. It will certainly be something I continue with, helping me next year in my windsurf competitions and later when I return to compete more in it too. I have two more months here in Plymouth to continue training in all 3 sports, (hopefully with more wind and waves than the flat windless Summer we have had!) then I am off to Chile, I cannot wait!