Welcome Summer!

Well after a few miserable months weather wise with no wind and heaps of rain we are finally starting to see some glimpses of summer! Swell has been the only consolation lately with plenty of that around.
Had some pretty epic SUP sessions in the last month at both Gunnamatta and Philip island scoring some nice swell for SUP riding..

Still waiting on the Fanatic 9”6 but can’t wait to go surfing on that when it comes in!!

Cup Weekend – Vic titles R2

Well Cup Weekend always feels like the start of the season, and the start of summer to me! It seems as though we just get home from Cup Weekend, then we are in Merimbula for the Mambo Classic and then before you know it it’s X-mas; so plenty of excitement in the build up!!

Cup Weekend down at Sandy Pt provided us with some nice jumping conditions on the Sunday waking up to Cross shore wind about 30knots and logo high waves. The first few runs were sick for jumping!
Unfortunately by the time the comp started the wind had swung more onshore and dropped off!
I made it through the expression session, and the heats to the 3 x man final where I went up against Andrew Hocking and Andy Ackland.
The wind dropped off and I struggled in the light wind getting beaten by Hock..






Unfortunately I was working so I missed the first round of the Vic tittles so I am out of the points for the championship..

Off to NZ to work this weekend, then next Fri myself, Al Mcleaod & Phil Chalko are driving up to Gerroa for a NSW wave comp. Then we head south to Merimbula for the 30th anniversary Merimbula Wave Classic – sponsored by Corona this year!

Next we shoot over west to Gerro & Margies for some practice over the X-mas break..
Then Feb back up to Gerroa for the Aussie titles, then April back to Maui! It’s a packed 6 months with hopefully lots of time on the water!

Lots of photos and videos to come
Stay tuned!

2011

For 2011 some exciting news..
I have recently done a deal with North Sails & Fanatic boards for the 2011 season!
The new Fanatic Quad fin boards are so good, and I am really excited to try out the new North sails – they look so cool! You will not miss me on the water on this bright new gear!








On the same topic I was approached by Monster Energy drink to become a sponsored Monster Athlete – their only Windsurfer on the team! Should be some cool for some cross branding coverage and some good film opportunities. Over recent years Monster have been putting huge support into different sports so it’s great to welcome them to Windsurfing!

The crashes!!

Everyone loves watching people land moves - but most people prefer to watch the crashes trying!
Well I can assure you we had plenty of those in our 5 weeks in Maui, some hilarious, some super painful!!!

Anyone who has crashed water skiing will know that water isn’t always soft!!

here are just a few we caught on camera
Enjoy!

The movie!

Our trip to Maui in 7:54 min!!!

Some footage

A little bit of jumping footage from Sprecks in the last week

http://www.vimeo.com/11940933

Backloop

A cool sequence shot taken of a backloop from the water by Franck Berthouot - http://photos.mauiwatershoot.com

Swell OUT

Lots of wind – no swell
As is normal for this time of year as Maui heads into summer - the northerly swells disappear completely and the wind turns up a notch!
I know what everyone who is back at work is thinking right now, here we are sitting under a palm tree, its blowing 30knots, its 30degrees air temp, and 25degrees water temp, and I am winging because it’s flat... Yes I sound like a spoilt douche when you put it like that!
But sailing in chop is really not what we came here for and it gets very frustrating!

However the thought of returning to Melbourne, probably about 10degrees air temp, about the same in the water and maybe 10knots onshore? Mmmmm better make the most of the next 4 days!!

Conditions wise we have got really lucky, for the past month, we have had 4 days in total that we didn’t sail! We scored some great swell early on; we scored an awesome house and have no major injuries or incidents so far!

We have got a bit of good footage so far, and Al has started putting it into a quick video of the trip so keep a look out for that soon...

Speaking of Movies, before I left Melbourne I organized the movie premiere for ‘Wizards of OZ’ and ‘Quickly Go Mad’ two Australian windsurfing movies, the response has been amazing, tickets sold out so quickly, so we moved to the next size up cinema and that sold out again almost instantly again!!!
Should be a great night!

So while we have been here in Maui Jace, Levi and Johnny the people who brought us one of the best windsurfing films ever - ‘The Windsurf Movie’ have been working flat out putting the finishing touches and editing ‘The Windsurf Movie 2’ the follow up film which will be released soon…
I have been speaking with Jace and we just finalized a deal yesterday to have an official premiere in Melbourne!!!! So stay tuned for details on that!! Going by this last premiere get ready to buy tickets as soon as they go on sale!

Water shoot

Last week we were lucky to be in the right place at the right time with a small swell coming into Hookipa we scored a fun little session, Franck Berthuot swam out with his water housing to capture some awesome shots from the water.
http://photos.mauiwatershoot.com/c/mauiwatershoot/gallery-list

Cliffs and Pools

Yesterday morning before sailing some friends took us to some natural rock pools at the base of some big cliffs at Jaws. As you can see from the pics – Jaws wasn’t its normal gear crunching self!
For those who haven’t seen what Jaws looks like when it works check this out:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cnKu4UklaPQ&feature=channel

Blowing Glass

So James friends from Snowbird Seth and Erin recently moved here to Maui. They blow glass, and the other night they taught James and I to do it and we both made some glass pendants! Even better – neither of us burnt ourselves!