JOHN AND FINN IN JAWS

Yesterday was an awesome day. John (Skye) and Finn (Mullen) had their first day at Jaws!!!!! They sailed upwind from the Maliko gauche (about over an hour sailing upwind!) and had a couple of nice rides. It was the perfect day to have a first day at Jaws. It wasnt too big for Jaws, but big enough!!! and every now and then a good proper set would come through. I borrowed a 600 mm lens with a sik camera from Whitye and it was awesome to look through that. You could see the speed they go down the face at, and how big and massive that wave is. It was an amazing day.

MAUIWATERSHOOT

As I woke up today, my thumb was pretty swollen, so we decided to have it checked out. Nothing broken, yuhu! it was just a sprain, but it is pretty swollen and I will be off the water for a few days. Photoshoot will start soon, so I hope I am fine for it!

Here you have some shots from the first day from Franky, from Mauiwatershoot. He does great pitures/watershots, and If you come on holidays to Maui, you can hire him and get nice looking pro shots.




Also, some pictures thanks to Leon Jaemer. In the first one you have the same action than before but from land, so you can see where Franck was.

...AND FIRST INCIDENTS TOO...

I always do this in Maui. I always have a good fun first day, where I feel I am sailing well and having a good time. And then, after that, it all changes and I just dont know where my right foot is. Today it was like that for me. I was pretty overpowered and I wasnt doing very good... so I came in and rested for a while. Then in the evening the wind seemed to go down a bit, so I went out again. Still I wasnt really doing that well, but a bit better. Every now and then a pretty solid set came and it was closing out the channel. Well, I got two big sets on the head and in one of the crashes somehow I hurt my thumb. Now it is pretty swollen and I dont know if I might have broken something? I will see how it is in the morning. It snaps me!

FIRST DAYS IN MAUI...

We arrived in Maui two days ago and yesterday we got some fun conditions in Hookipa. When I came off the water I took the camera a bit, this place is so nice to take pictures. Here is John ripping and some pictures from the garden of the place we are staying in. No pictures of me..

GOING TO MAUI AND PODCAST ABOUT THE FUERTE WAVE CLASSIC

Right now I am at Heathrow airport on my way to Maaaaaaaui. Like every year, it is photoshoot time. Cant wait to be there!! but the flight kills me... but hey, no way I am complaining!!

By the way, Boardseeker has released the video from the Fuerte Wave Classic. go to Their home page and at the top, after the advert it should start.

Next time I will update you guys from the Pacific Ocean!!

all the best!

TESTING FACEBOOK AND TWITTER LINKS

Hi there,

John just told about this system where we can update eeeeeeeevrything at the same time: Facebook, Twitter and Blog. I am pretty useless with all the facebook and twitter stuff, so hopefully, if this works, whenever we do an update in the blog it will go to all the others. Testing, testing....

FUN WEEKEND OF KART RACING AND WINDSURFING

Last Saturday we organized a day in the Karts in the south of GC. I had raced only once before in my life, but I loved it!!!! we were about 16 friends racing and it was super fun! I looked totally ridiculous!!!! with the protective thing for the hair coming out of the helmet, the helmet was too small and was too much to the back, plus the sunnies were always going higher and higher... what a look!we even had price giving and also price for the most friendly racer!!!!!

Then on sunday, the wind was a bit stronger, so we had day sailing in Vargas, nearlly like summer! not much waves at all, but some little chops here and there. I was on 3,7.. finally! and powered up!

no pictures from sailing... :-(

WOMEN WAVE CAMP IN EL TUR, EGYPT

Hi there,

This was something I wanted to do for a while and now I have the chance to do it thanks to Oceansource.net.

John Skye and myself are running a wave camp in El Tur, Egypt (form men and women) and straight after I will be running a Women Wave Camp (from the 29th of August until the 5th of September)

It will be for women who want to get more into wave sailing and the ones that already do wave sail but want to improve. so if your goal for the this year is to wave sail more, come and join us!

You have all the information here: in the Ocearsource.net website.

END OF THE FWC..BACK IN GC!

Yesterday the Fuerte Wave Classic 2010 finished after 13 days of good sessions in the North Shore of Fuerte. We sailed many spots: La Caleta, "Flag-Beach", La Entubadera, Punta Elena, Bristol and Cotillo (do I forget any other one??).. plus we also had a couple of fun surfing sessions and SUP sessions... so not bad at all!!

In the end my team ended up 3rd... but we were pretty happy anyways!

Here you have some more pictures, this time one from La Entubadera and the rest from the last session in Cotillo and everyone that took part in the event...

What now? now, some days at home, hopefully chilling, but I have so many things to sort out before we leave again!

TODAY, LA CALETA AGAIN.... AND SOME PICS FROM THE OTHER DAYS..

This is the way it always happens: when you think the forecast is good, it doesn’t happen and when the forecast says it will be a day off, it works! Today we sailed and competed again in La Caleta. It wasn’t as good as the other day, but still really good fun!!!

I think I sailed all right, but I f*cked up a few waves too...the wind wasn’t as good, and I was finiding it a bit weird, but I had a couple of all right ones. I got third (tight with Patrick) on my heat, so all right... The best was that Iballa won his heat beating 3 guys..yeah... Girl power, we are doing good!!

The the first position is equal 2 teams and my team in half a point behind!!! How close!

We also had the pleasure of meeting Javi Jimenez, the youngest member of the Animal Team. He is a kiter and he rips at only 8!!!! What a fun kid!

Here you have a few pics from the days before: Bristol, La Entubadera and La Caleta...

CLEANING COTILLO

Yesterday we joined Clean Ocean Project cleaning the beach of “Piedra Playa” in Cotillo. It is a beautifull beach, and looking from far, you cant tell how much we, men in general, have polluted it.

It was a good experience. Normally we just walk on the beach and enjoy the Ocean, but we don’t look a the little detail. At least me, I have to say. If you see something really big, ok, you can tell, but also, there is so much tiny contamination as well we don’t really realize until you actually have to pick it up!!!

We did a good job, but still miles away from having a full cleaned beach, but at least we did something. I was picking more of the little shitty stuff, and there were hundreds and hundreds of lollypop stick, bottle top, ice cream sticks and tiny plastic things that waking normally on the beach you wouldn’t even see!

After the cleaning we had a super nice BBQ and ice cream from Secreto....so nice! And following this.... A nice end of the day surfing session.... It was a good day!

Ok... I will make a resolution, and I will try to stick to it. Everyday I go to the beach, I will look and try to pick up something to put in the bin. Ask me in a few months how am I doing with it!

Today looks like there is not much wind, but hopefully tomorrow some wind will come to be able to sail Cotillo o el Puertito... We will see...

FWC: FREESAILING ON SATURDAY

Hello there,

We havent competed anymore after the session in La Caleta. But on Saturday we had a fun session in Bristol. It wasnt great, but it was fun. Some big chunky waves pretty difficult to read as it was always different.

FWC FIRST ROUND IN CALETA

We finally could compete yesterday in Fuerte. The conditions were pretty fun, with all right size waves (logo high??) and cross off shore wind for most of the competition. It was a pretty cool experience to be competing with the boys! It was the first time I sailed that spot and I enjoyed a lot. Maybe I hould have gone for it a bit more... Next time I will be more ready and know the place a bit better.

My team (Fabrice, Dario, Adam, Ilya and me) did good and although we are in 3rd, the 1st 2nd and 3rd teams we are all close withing 1,5 points!!!

Today, I dont really know what is going to happen. The swell is supossed to be a lot bigger, but maybe it is too west?? I dont know... We will see!

FWC FREESAILING DAY

So far we havent had good enough conditions to compete, but we had a fun session sailing in Punta Elena. This is the little video that Alfi, from Boardseeker.com has put together



.

FUERTE WAVE CLASSIC DAY 1

Yesterday was the first day of the FWC. The conditions weren't great, so we didnt compete, but we had an alright fun session in Punta Elena (Rocky point for the foreigners!). Today it is a lot bigger, but I am not sure about the wind, but you never know. We have the briefing in half an hour, so fingers crossed to have something fun!!! If you want to follow, if think they are broadcasting live, so here is the website where you could follow: fuertewaveclassic.com