SWA K3d Wave Champion 2011

The SWA winter wave series is now over, and after plenty of waves and beers I was crowned the SWA wave champion for 2011. I'm super chuffed to Win this against some tough competition.

Below are links to articles written by Sam Burnett for each event

Round 1: Exeter --- Teinmouth

Round 2: Rhosneiger K3d

Round 3: Cardiff

K3d Cardiff Wave 2011 --- 1st place!! 3 out of 3

Just got some time to update my blog (Uni 4th year sucks)!!



Had the third and final SWA wave event last weekend, I was super happy to win against Seb Willis, Carlos and MC yeates, who were all sailing well. Wave selection was key as picking the right wave on the point at Trecco meant a head high 6-10 bottom turn ride with a nice ariel finish!!!



Come 7:30am Saturday morning and we all regretted agreeing at 3am (whilst pissed) that we should get up this early to get to Trecco early for the rising tide. We all did get there early as we were worried the waves would dissapear as the tide dropped, but as usual we were wrong.

Sarah, dodgey light morning session

Stef going late

I headed out at about 9:30am with Stef Hilder, Sarah Bibby and Mike Ellis, and found that it was side-side-on 5 knots with head high waves, and generally just a massive ballache, still we all managed to get a few nice turns. When it hit high tide at 12ish I went to get a drink (in an attempt to wash the previous nights Jagermeister from my tastebuds), however, as the tide started to drop the sets just looked better and better and the wind swung side off (massive WIN). Really excited, everyone headed out for the competition.. It got better and better and peaked in the 30 mins or so after the final, when I got some of the most fun waves I've ever had. Here's a bunch of photo's from the day, I might put some of the better ones up once i get them in full quality.

Thanks to Simon Hobbs, Josh Daly, Harry Clegg and Jav Choi for the sweet photos!!!

K3d Rhosneigr Wave 2011 --- 1st place!!

Just came back from a fun weekend at the second SWA competition of the season in Rhossneigr. After missing most of the wind recently I was just happy to get a sail in. Got a sweet session on my 5.6 Vandal Riot, and Fanatic Allwave 92!

When we first got to the beach on saturday after a particularly beered up Friday night, it didn't look so great, but it turned out that some of the sets that were coming through were a pretty descent size head+. Here's a smaller one!!

The wind was dodgy side on force 3, but as the day and competition progressed It ended up turning to sideshore DTL overhead waves. I had a great day a big thanks to Bangor and Birmingham uni for sorting everything out, and Funsport for their help throughout the event.

Enjoying a post windsurf pint!!!!!!!!!!!!

Photo's by Duncan Dumbreck and Sarah Arts

K3d Wave X 2010 --- 1st place!!

Just hit Cornwall for the Exeter wave X (1st part of the three part SWA wave series sponsored by K3d masts).

We sailed Teignmouth in a NNE... in some sketchy conditions with waist high waves. At the end of the day the wind picked up a little bit making it jumpable.

Sounds like they had an epic party on the Saturday night, the SWA wave trilogy events always get an awesome turnout even when the conditions don't play ball, with loads of people just turning up for the party alone!!

Gutted that I missed the Saturday night Rave, but really pleased with a 1st place considering the conditions and temperature (2°C)!!!

Next comp is Bangor in February!!!

(Thanks to Javier Choi and some random people from whom I stole photos through facebook!!!)

Highcliff...video...Siiick

Just had two great sessions at Highcliff

Day 1... Got there at 3ish (High tide, Side shore 25knots, logo high in the sets), so only had a couple of hours...We got some cool GoPro footage though.

Day 2... Went really early (Mid tide, Side onshore 18knots, Head high in the sets) to try and catch the rapidly disappearing wind and waves from the previous day... Managed to take turns and get a load of footage from the beach.

Mashed all the footage together and squeezed out the video below, didn't get to include all of the footage, I've saved some for another vid....

Anyhow enjoy!!!!

Highcliff ---- All Time --- Logo High

Here's a few screen shots from this morning (the small wave session) ---Video Soon

Just came back from a session at Highcliff with Mike Archer and Mike Ellis, It was pretty damn fun.

Waist to head high and side shore(ish), got some fun waves and even managed to land a backie!!

It was Thursday that really stole the show, Solid logo high Side-shore 4.7m weather, All time Highcliff!!!

We got plenty of footage, so I'm going to put together the footage from the last few days to make a Highcliff video!!!!! keep watching this space!!

Gwithian BWA event!!!!

Did the BWA event in Cornwall the other day. Placed 9th in the Pro's!!!

I was originally going to enter the amateurs, as port tack wave riding is not really my speciality, but it turned out I had to sail in the Pro's on Friday as I had to be back at UNI for Friday evening!!

It all went pretty wrong in the single. The format was 'Best two Waves to count'...

In my current state of unfittness i reckoned that I could probably just about function for the entire 20 minutes heat, I went out sailed caught one OK wave and One pretty descent (for me) wave, but wasn't expecting much as I had to come above either Jamie Hancock or Phil Horrocks. Nevertheless I came in happy to have filled my scorecard!!

When I hit the shallows on my way in, the rescue guy on the rescue ski (who was really good all weekend) just said to me 'The heats just restarted'... I had no idea why and was pretty pissed off, as I'd just managed to get two pretty good waves. In my second 'first' heat I got destroyed by my lack of fitness, failed to ride anything descent, and couldn't wait to come in.

I was pretty grumpy for the rest of the afternoon : - (

Then in the double I managed to sail a little better, despite some pretty poor sail choices and dodgy, side onshore logo high waves I managed to get back to 9th overall

Learnt some lessons

1. Get Fitter

2. Have 2 sails rigged

3. I no longer have Portackaphobia