A few days out of the shire

Ive just returned home to the lovely place that is Croyde, after gallavanting around Bristol and the land of the cornish!

Like i said previously, I went to see Annie Mac DJ in Brizzle, and might I say she was EPIC! Along with supporting DJ's she carried me along as I danced the night away!

The next day I fueled up on caffene and headed for Newquay for the awards night of the UKPST (UK Pro Surf Tour) A yummy three course meal was had with my fellow competitors, followed by the awards and party! My good friend Gwen Spurlock from Wales, won the womens tour for the second year running, stoked for her!! Tassy Swallow who won the womens division in the final leg of the tour, managed to take away the title of Under 16 girls tour winner, she was ripping and totally deserved it! Full results of the tour can be found at http://www.ukprosurftour.com/

After a brilliant night of partying, Tassy Swallow, Holly Donelly and I went on a little road trip to find some waves!

The day was filled with with lots of driving, google maps, laughing and dead crabs!

We were very indecicive and ended up at Godrevey! I was nominated camera man and got some footage for the other two. It didnt look like I missed much, but the girls were surfing well. The footage is on Holly's blog  http://hollydonnelly.blogspot.com/ 

Overall it was a very eventful few days



Ten weeks in paradise.....

So just a few hours after I posted my last blog, I looked out the window at the grey sky and bare trees, picked up the phone and booked myself a ticket to Indo for ten weeks! This will be the Twelth time ive travelled to indo, so im pretty familiar with it.

Ive got a few mates heading out there too so let the adventure begin.......

However, I have to get myself through to mid January before I hop on that plane. The winter suit came out a week ago and its gtting close to bootie time! Not too happy about this situation if im honest!

So this weekend Im heading to Bristol to see Annie Mac live, then home to say farewell to a friend that I will be hooking up with in Indo, then down to Newquay for the awards night for the UKPST! So its a busy few days for me! Looking forward to catching up with my mates from Cornwall :)

Terima kasih, selamat jalan........

Back in action!

Its been a while since my last post, and it'd also been a while since I had been in the water.
I was very lucky, that with help from my physio, and a lot of back excersises and swimming, I managed to get back in the water after only a month out. It could have been much worse and i'm stoked as I was starting to pull my hair out after the second week!

My first surf was at croyde, two foot, barely a rideable wave to be seen and howling onshore! Not a soul out. I managed to paddle out without being in too much pain (duckdiving is the worst part), I caught three very average waves and decided that was enough, I didnt want to push my luck. I was a very happy bunny after that, knowing that I was very much so, on the mend!

Since then i've been in a few times and i'm getting back into it, its quite difficult as the flexibility in my back is pretty poor at the moment!

To build the strength and flexibility up in my back and get my firness up, i've been attending a circuit class with ex military and personal trainer Marc Kent (http://www.marckent.com/) three times a week. Its so much fun and I feel fitter after just two weeks! Its great to do now that the evenings are getting so dark!

Last weekend was the end of season party for the Hotdoggers Longboard Surf Club. Due to work and my comitment to shortboard contests I only managed to attent two of the four comps they held throughout the summer, however as I won both, I ended up in third place overall in the womens league and went away with a trophy and goodie bag from Animal.

I travelled up to London last week for my grandmas funeral. It was a very sad time and she will be missed dearly by my whole family. She was a wonderful woman and was so proud of my surfing achievements and has been right behind me the whole way. R.I.P xx

I am now in the process of planning my winter trip..... ive got a few ideas but nothing set in stone as of yet.... will keep you posted!

Chow for now xx

Injured soldier......

Right, so on Saturday, I got myself into a bit of a pickle. I was working at the surf school and saw a lady  drifting out to sea and panicking. I swam out to pull her in but as I reached her and told her to jump up onto the board, she decided to use me to push herself onto it. She used my shoulder as a lever and my back crumpled under her weight and made it go into spasm. To cut a long story, about lifeguards, ambulance, morphine, spinal board, xrays bla bla bla, short, I left the hospital 8 hours later with strong pain killers and very little movement in my back and neck. I am now bed ridden and in a lot of pain! Not ideal when the waves have been fairly fun (so ive heard.) The next step is Physio, which will hopefully tell me the exact damage and recovery time. So fingers crossed ill be back in the water in no time as I have a new Watercooled board i'm itching to try out :)

4th in longboarding

So I'm new to this whole blogging thing but Ithought it would be a good way for me to get myself out there and share with everyone what I've been up to! I'm going to start with this weekend; Ive just been away at the final leg of the British Longboard Tour at Gwithian. I decided to compete in longboarding aswell as shortboarding this year as I really enjoy it and love the contest vibe! There had been three previous contests of which I had competed in two, and gained a fourth and third place. Unfortunatley I didnt surf to my full potential in one foot, onshore, slow, mushy waves and i got knocked out in third place in the semi finals. However i had done enough in the previous comps to bag myself fourth place overall, making me the fourth longboarder in Britain. A pretty good result I thought, seeing as I spend my time training for shortboarding! The full results of the contest and tour can be found at www.british-longboard-union.co.uk