It's been a while

Definitely been a little slack on these blogs over the past few months. But it’s been a busy summer, and the surf has been plentiful so sitting in-front of a computer didn’t really take priority.
To start off, it’s pretty a pretty decent summer this year, obviously the weather wasn’t as good as predicted but did anyone really expect a sunny summer in Cornwall? I definitely didn’t. However, we did have consistent swell, which for me is what it’s all about.
The start of the summer started off pretty good and then bad for me, when I got home from Indo I had a couple of comps straight away. First up was the English, I was feeling fresh as I had just had a month away in Perfect waves. The conditions were solid ranging in the 6ft range on the first day of competition, and the final day was around 3-4ft, with light onshore for the whole weekend. My ideal sort of waves. I ended up 3rd in this one. The next weekend was the Bude Surf Classic, again with solid conditions, although they had to cancel the first day because a little out of control. The Sunday produced slightly smaller waves in the 3-5ft range, again onshore, which was ideal as far as I was concerned. I managed to win this event, so not a bad start to the year.

However after these two events I slowed down a little. I was having a bit of trouble with equipment, and my motivation had gone a bit so I surfed about once or twice in the next 6 weeks. This is very unlike me. My next event was in late June which was the Champion of Champions in Sri Lanka. I took away bad boards and had no confidence for the event especially as I hadn’t surfed in 6 weeks. I made the quarters somehow, which frustrated me, as if I was on good boards, I know I would have got further.
Once home from Sri Lanka I decided I needed to get sorted, so I spoke to Tunnel Vision and got 3 new boards shaped up. Whilst waiting for the boards, again I hardly surfed at all, twice in a months I think.
Once they arrived though it was a different story. I couldn’t keep out of the water. The boards went sick; however, one of them was a little more magic than the others. It was a 6’0” x 19 ½” x 2 ¼” shaped by Phil Hodge. Slightly shorter and wider than I would normally ride, but it made surfing exciting again. Especially for doing airs. The extra surface area in the board makes sticking airs so much easier than a standard board, also especially when riding in mushy English waves, the speed generated is immense. I recommend a shorted wider board to anyone.
So over the past few months I’ve pretty much just been working and surfing. The surf school at Holywell went really well this year, with lots of bookings which meant I could earn a few quid, but only to pay off debts. Once September came I had time of work to surf even more, and then a few comps came up. First up was the British, waves were tiny on the first day, but managed to squeak through, and luckily a little bigger the following day. I woke up with a bad back, which is a reoccurring injury for me, so thought I wouldn’t be able to surf. It eased up just enough though and I managed to get to the final, that’s where it ended though with a 4th Place.
I then had a trip to Jersey as I had been selected for the English team to compete in the Europeans. This week was kind of frustrating. I managed to get through a couple of heats, then came unstuck in the round before the quarters. The waves were ridiculous though. About knee high on the set, and this isn’t an exaggeration. I literally couldn’t do a turn, which isn’t what surfing’s about, especially when you’re trying to represent your country.
The next event was the Volcom Qualifying Series, again nice waves in the 2-3ft range, and reached another final but still only a 3rd place, but can’t complain because I drove home after my second round without checking my results as I was certain I got knocked out. Luckily a friend contacted me to let me know I was through. And finally my latest event was the BUCS British Student Nationals. There were 260 entrants to this event, perfect waves and perfect weather. I’d been surfing the whole week before and was feeling pretty confident. Six heats later I had made the final, although I hadn’t had one heat I felt I surfed well in. This kind of annoyed me especially as the surf was so good. I ended up 2nd to a French guy. He ripped though, but definitely frustrating for me, knowing I could have surfed better.
So all in all not a bad year for me, with 5 finals, just need to work on a few things and hopefully get a few more wins next year!

Indo, last week :(

Finally a swell...For the past 3 and a bit weeks I’ve not had a single swell out here in Bali. I’ve had the odd ok surf at Blackstone and Canggu, but nothing with any size really and certainly not the sort of waves you come to Indo for. Fortunately though a few days before i head home the biggest swell in the past 6 months was predicted, and although I had a few doubts, everyone was talking about it so it seemed a little more certain then the past few swells. Yesterday i went up to Keramas for a surf, and had a few fun waves, but not quite lined up like it can be. The afternoon surf was again at Blackstone, but yet again nothing special.

The next day i went back to Keramas expecting it to be solid. Turned out to be smaller than the day before. Although it was down to swell direction I still thought the swell was nothing on what it was meant to be. I got a text off a photographer saying Padang was 6-8 foot which I couldn’t believe as Keramas was so small. We had a surf at a spot called Shindu and it looked amazing. Long right hand point, really hollow and no one out. Turned out to be a little faster than expected though. A bit of a slow closeout really, so two bad surfs on the best swell of the year. Would have been a good photo of the line up, although that’s not any conciliation. I spoke to the photographer again and he was adamant that Padang would be on so I headed down there. Turned out that it was a good size on that coast and Padang looked around 4 feet. After about 10 minutes a few bigger sets rolled through and it started to look all time. The sets were around 6 feet and firing, not too busy either, although the people who were in were mainly spongers bar one or two. It was a little inconsistent at first but after a 2 hour surf managed to get a few good ones, along with a broken board on the last wave. The board is still probably floating round out there somewhere and the swim in was ridiculous. But turned out to be a good day in the end, and hopefully the same again tomorrow.

Indo week 3

After a couple of days out of the water, a few of us decided to have a little break from Kuta and go over to Nusa Lembongan. After getting up super early and jumping in the taxi to Sanur to get the boat over, it turned out there was a ceremony on and no one was to arrive or leave Lembongan, so back to Kuta it was. The surf was kind of small anyway so not a big problem as we were still waiting for this new swell, which was due in a few days. For the swell I decided to try Lembongan again with a few friends as we thought that Lacerations could be all time. The trip didn’t go too well at all though.... First off I left my bag with my clothes in on the boat by accident, once i realised i rushed back, and of course with us being in Indo, they were never to be seen again. A little annoying, but not the end of the world, but we decided to go for a surf as it looked ok. We got in at Lacerations and it was small, but there were one or two sets. I managed to get one pretty good one amongst the crowd, but that was about it, however the next day was the day of the swell. Lembongan is probably the most boring island in Indo so we had absolutely nothing to do all afternoon and evening. We must have played about 50 games of Presidents and Arseholes to pass the time, but we got a pretty good feed, as one of the guys we travelled there with went spear fishing whilst we surfed so we had loads of fresh and veg, followed by an early night. During the night the surf sounded pretty big so was looking forward to the next day. It turned out to be smaller than the day before though...We went in for a wave anyway and was hoping it would pick up, as we had already paid for our accommodation and were leaving late the next day. The surf was so bad though we decided to call a boat in, we got back to the hotel and there was a fast boat back to Bali in ten mins, so we packed up chucked our stuff on the boat paid our bills and got of the Island. So it ended up costing me about 800,000 rupiah for one barrel, and to lose half my clothes....not quite the trip i was hoping for.

Week two Indo!

Swell still small even though there has been prediction of some solid waves. Turns out every swell predicted just fades away.I finally managed a small wave at Ulu's but was joined by about 70 other surfers. So we took a little road trip up to Balian, which is a couple of hours north of Kuta. We arrived to 3 foot clean waves, just a little on the fat side though. Only bad thing was there was no accommodation anywhere. We decided to get in the water anyway and deal with finding somewhere to stay afterwards. The surf was ok, and luckily we managed to find a couple of rooms. The next morning was again an early one. I was the first one out but it filled up to around 20 people within about 10 minutes. Good waves though so well worth the effort although i broke a fin out of a board. After the morning session we decided to go on a mission further north to find some secret spots. All we found though was about 10 close out beach breaks. By the time we got to Medawi the swell had dropped a fair bit and was about a foot and onshore. Slightly annoying but I guess that seems to be the background to the whole trip so far. Unable to accept defeat we headed back to Balian, and although it was onshore there weren’t too many people in so we had a play. It turned out to be the best surf of the trip so far, definitely starting to find my feat, and managed not to even think about my knee, so all was good. The next day again a swell was predicted but didn’t show, and I woke up to a really painful ear infection. Guess it was from Balian as the water was disgusting, and one of the other guys i went with picked up an ear infection too...so that’s going to leave me out of the water for a few days again now unfortunately, but it looks like there’s is definitely swell coming next week, so hopefully all will clear up by then.

Week one in Indo!

Surprisingly the trip started off smoothly, all be it that we left 2 hours later than planned. We stayed in Bournemouth for the first night to pick up Laura who was travelling with me and another mate. The next morning we headed to the airport, with about 8 miles to go our fuel was on empty so had to divert into a town to find some....this took a while longer than anticipated and we got to our flight only an hour before departure. It took ages to get through security and that and literraly got to the boarding gate with only minutes to spare... The flight went quick which might have had something to do with the 9 red wines and 3 nitol, and then we had a swim in the pool in Singapore, and later arrived in Bali. Unfortunately the waves weren’t too special the first day so had a night out with the boys. The second day was also flat so had another night out...Kuta rats so far!!! The third day we finally got a wave but it was pants....bout 2 ft Nusa Dua, definitely not worth the paddle across the lagoon. My knee felt a little injured still so decided a few more days out the water was a good idea, especially as the waves were so bad. Anyway a few more days passed and a very small swell started pushing through. I surfed Canggu with a few mates one morning which was only small, but good fun, and the following day had a surf at Blackstone on my own, which rarely happens out in Indo. Only a few feet but good fun! The knee is feeling a little better too so should be up to scratch within a few days. Also my new board off Tunnel Vision is feeling really good, so I’m getting excited to surf some proper waves now.

Still no surfing

Well, my injury carries on unfortunately, so i'm still out of the water. Hopefully not for too much longer though. The waves were good for a few days but nothing too special, so i guess it's not the worst time to be missing out.

On the upside though I have booked myself a flight to Indo for a month at the end of March....I was going to try and stick the whole winter out at home, which would have been the first since i was about 12, but the cold got enough of me, and my student loan came into a little bit of use... I leave end of March and can't bloody wait....

Still winter.....but the waves are fun!!!

Not too much been happening over the past few weeks. was looking to do a short trip to Morocco which fell through so been stuck in the cold for even longer than I wished. The waves have been pretty good still though, so its nice to keep getting in the water. Although I managed to twist my knee down Holywell which hopefully wont put me out of action for too long. i'm just looking forward to things warming up now.

Well hopefully over the next few weeks the surf will keep up, and think I'm going to try and get out the country for a little bit to work on my tan and get some warm waves again. I think I've been home in the UK for nearly 9 months straight now, which is the longest amount of time since i was about 15, so its starting to dawn on me a little......