Well I've been here a week now and we've had a real mix of conditions and weather. It's been a very interesting trip. The trials have been a real battle. Not only have we had to work out what the judges are looking for, but we've also had to contend with some pretty small waves along the way. Brit surfer Rob Small (big wave surfer now living in Lanzarote) has only been paddling for a few months so it was pretty impressive to see him throw around a small sub 9' board in his first SUP contest (you might regonise Rob as Ewan McGreggors surfing double in the brit surf film Blue Juice). Gareth Grant Aussie/Pom from Guildford was unlucky to be in the last heat before they cancelled running heats due to poor conditions. A sprited quest from Gareth still couldn't get the judges to re run the heat so he was knocked out first round as was Tito (Gower Kiteriders instructor) and Rob Small.
Chris "Guts" Gritffiths and myself managed to slip through to the second round. All we had to do was advance through 2 more heats and we would make the main event. The second round was run in windy onshore conditions, not too dissimilar to a day in Bournemouth! Guts styled his next heat, mixing cross stepping slickness with raw power cutbacks in the waist high surf. It was a very close run thing, but the Brit crew (with adpoted Aussies and South African's) all had him down as 2nd, which would have been enough to see him into the final round of the trials. The judges saw it differently and this was to be the end of the road for Guts, which is gutting as he is such a stylish surfer.
I slipped through one more heat in the onshore mush, turning on my "milking machine" tactics of making as many turns on the waves as possible.
This morning I was all fired up for the final showdown in the trials against some good French Stand up riders when it was realised that not all the trialists had shown up and therefore there were enough places in the main event to put all Trialist finalists into the main event...Saved me a job I thought, until I saw my main event draw, which had me up against former longboard world Champion Colin McPhillips and Hawaiian power house Ekolu Kalama.
I was approaching this heat with a feeling of just going out there and having fun. The conditions were clean waist to chest high surf with shifting peaks. Colin McPhillips was ripping straight off the bat, with two solid waves. I managed to hook a couple of nice head high lefts that formed up in the middle of the beach and stayed open long enough for me to get a couple of decent hits and cutbacks.
I didn't see what Ekolu had got and although the other paddler in the heat had bagged some waves he had fallen on all the ones I'd seen. I was pretty sure I was in third place (top 2 go through) and had already eyed up a few peaks outside of the contest area that I thought I'd go and ride. As I came out of the water the camera man came rushing up to me and asked me how I got on, which made me think that I might have got top 2, but I didn't want to believe that, until I saw Rob Small coming down the beach looking calm and holding up 2 fingers in front of his head and nodding. Holy & I'd just beaten Ekolu, wow, what a feeling. I respect Ekolu hugely and have been lucky enough to have travelled and surfed with him many times. Watching him pull into 10' Teahupoo is a memory that never fades. I guess though that 3ft beach breaks in the rain are more my thing than his and although he must be gutted I'm stoked to have made it through to the quarter finals in this the European leg of the SUP World Tour. I think it now qualifies me for a place in the Teahupoo event, later this month, but I don't think I can make it, which is gutting as I'd be keen to take another trip to Tahiti.
We now have to wait until tomorrow for the Quarter finals to run. I'm going to go into the heat with the same attitude as before and you never know! I'm happy though, to have made the trip down here and made some headway through the event.
I will update more as the week progresses. Time for a celebratory beer I think now! Thanks to ActionVan for getting me here in a pimp van, Starboard for giving me some great boards to ride and to Xcel Wetsuits for keeping me warm in some colder than expected conditions.
We have loads of pictures but they are stuck on the camera until we can find a USB lead!
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