Professional Freestyle windsurfer

Sunday 16 September 2012

Back home...

Jay Haysey/ www.globalshots.co.uk
Not exactly at home but I've been in England now for the past couple of weeks after yet another awesome summer out in Vass. After a tough draw in the PWA event in Fuerteventura I ended in 17th place and then quickly headed back to Vass for August. Once again I really had a great time out there and this year the wind has been even better which obviously helps a bit but really the team we had working out there this summer made the biggest difference. Check out the Vass edition of my monthly feature I write for Boardseeker- http://www.boardseekermag.com/features/windsurfing-action/the-ultimate-year-august.html
Jay Haysey / www.globalshots.co.uk

At first I wasn't exactly excited by the prospect of heading home but when I started writing my following months feature for Boardseeker based on the UK I started to remember what it was all about. So far it hasn't disappointed either; OK so maybe its not been quite as windy in September as the last two years but still its been pretty good. The first stop after Vass was the National Windsurfing Festival (NWF) Together with Colin "Whippy" Dixon we had a quick stop over at my house before rushing down there the following morning. It truly was another EPIC event, it was great to see so many windsurfers around and on the water. Its events like this we need to keep our sport going/growing and a massive thanks has to go out to the man behind it all Allan Cross.
www.2xs.co.uk

Unfortunately I couldn't retain my title of the night tow-in champion at NWF and was pipped to a close 2nd by good friend Adam Sims. As for the main event we didn't quite get enough wind in our allocated time slot to get a planing competition finished. It was a hectic weekend for me as along with the competing I was also commentating/ Interviewing for the Live Streaming side of the event. Again I was paired up with Colin "Whippy" Dixon for this one and we really had a great time doing it.
Pic by Dave White.



Check out my top UK spots in this Months Boardseeker feature- http://www.boardseekermag.com/features/windsurfing-action/the-ultimate-year-september.html  

Jay Haysey / www.globalshots.co.uk


I've been sailing at West Wittering four times in the last week in preparation for the 5th stop of the UKWA freestyle tour that will head there next weekend. After that I'm off to Sylt for the final PWA event of the season, fingers crossed for some wind this year. I worked out a funny statistic the other day that out the 21 days I've spent there in the last two years I've only sailed 1 heat with a total time on the water of 12 minutes!!!



www.2xs.co.uk
Not often you get the conditions to go for Backies in Vass!!! Cheers to Scott Perry for this shot.



Sunday 8 July 2012

Spring 2012!


JC/PWA
 After being pretty on it with updating my blog I’ve fell into a bit of a dry spell over the last few months. Since my last update in March time I’ve been to a PWA event, my first ever international photo shoot, driven round France, Spain and Portugal for a month and am now sat back in Vassiliki! 
The tow in event for me consisted of two massive wipeouts!! JC/PWA


 The first PWA event in Austria was a frustrating one for me this year, we only had enough to wind to run a single elimination in very tricky conditions leaving me in 17th place to start the year off.

 Straight from Austria I travelled to Egypt for the Fanatic/ North 2013 photo shoot. It was an amazing experience and is best summarised in this article I did for Boards about my time there. http://boards.mpora.com/features/high-rollers-and-new-shapes.html

Now the reason I haven’t updated about my recent trip around Europe is because I’m saving the story + pics for the printed press so didn’t want to risk giving too much away.  Within the next couple of weeks I’ll try to get the video online! Also most of the pics I've got I'm using the 2013 board which wont be released until July 15th!
Burner in Sagres, Portugal

Ok so back to the present and I’ve been out in Vassiliki now for the last two weeks working again for Club Vass. It’s been great to come back out here for what will be my sixth summer. The wind has been awesome as well and it’s been great to catch up with all my mates. Jay Haysey from Globalshots fame is back out here again this summer and he took this shot of me doing a Burner the other day.

Jay Haysey- Globalshots.co.uk

I also competed in the Vassiliki watersweets festival slalom event out here the other week and managed to finish in 3rd. Was great fun to do some racing as I rarely get the chance, might have to order some slalom gear for next summer!


Hopefully getting back in the swing of updating and keep an eye out for more regular updates to follow as I’m off to the PWA event in Fuerteventura  in the next few weeks.

Monday 27 February 2012

Cape Town- Video+pics

CAPE TOWN!

Just got back from an amazing first time trip to Cape Town!! Honestly in the past when considering winter wave trips I've always been more drawn to the Idyllic perceptions of places such as Maui or Oz, however when the news came out that the PWA Vietnam event had been pushed back to December and the realisation that a lot of my friends and top freestylers would be out there it seemed like a no brainer to just head straight out to Cape Town! After hardly any planning, no car booked, no idea where I was staying and a very relaxing 12 hour flight there I was! Luckily my 3.7 had arrived hours before I was due to fly and just a few hours after landing I was already out sailing on it.

First thing you'll probably notice when looking through some of the video + pics is the massive lack of any waves!! Don't worry I didn't go all the way there to sail on the lake everyday its just not very often I get the chance to sail any waves so the thought of wasting time videoing seemed a bit dull! Plus the actions probably not quite the same level as the freestyle stuff....
Thanks to Debbie Kennedy for the shots I did get in the waves.

The month went so fast but I feel like I got the most out of it! Ticked most the boxes for all the normal tourist attractions such a climbing the mountain, wine tasting, penguins, monkeys etc!

One of things I was most excited about was getting the chance to surf again! Since buying my board seven years ago I've very rarely had the chance to get out on it. Found myself waking up most mornings more excited about the thought of getting for a surf rather than heading to the lake. Unfortunately again no action shots from the surfing as just after Andraz took this shot it started pissing with rain!! Probably for the best during this session as it would probably be better described as a "swim with a board attached to my leg" rather than a "surf"..

I definitely felt my level in sailing both freestyle and wave improved a lot! With the freestyle it helped a lot having all the top guys around. With the freestyle the main things I've been focusing on this winter is getting more consistent at the switch power moves such as Air funnels and Burners! Feeling pretty confident now after doing almost nothing else!!



All in all an amazing trip and I'm pretty certain that I'll be heading back out next year.
Massive thanks to Andraz Zan for sorting the accommodation, car etc and for the Pictures. Also Ollie Stau (the flash master) and Ricart for the other shots! Should mention Bubble, Rob P and Sam Neal for driving me around the first week. Cheers guys!

Friday 3 February 2012

Brazil video!

Had an amazing first week in Cape Town! But mack to the previous trip- Brazil! The Fanatic/North/ION video fro the trip is now out. Filmed mainly by me and then edited by Josh Wilmott who has done an amazing job! Check it out.....

Team Fanatic & North in Brazil from Josh Willmot on Vimeo.




More news from Cape Town coming soon!

Friday 13 January 2012

Happy New Year!!!


So since my last update after leaving Jeri I headed to Icaraizinho for the Club Ventos press trip. We had an awesome week and got to do loads of cool stuff including suping through the mangroves and some bull cart racing! Luckily we were just spectating the racing as it looked pretty dangerous. I had visited Icarai last year and had forgotten how amazing it was, I was definitely regretting not spending more of the trip there! We also got the chance to do a Heli-shoot which was pretty exciting! I had no idea how close the chopper was going to be and on one occasion had to bail from a ponch attempt because I thought I was going to hit it!! Unfortunately I cant reveal all the pictures yet as the magazines containing the shots are yet to go to print. Try not to laugh watching this poor dog get mowed down by one of the carts! Luckilly he was alright!!


I'm lucky enough when I get home that I can jump straight into some restaurant work over the Christmas period. The 60+ hours a week has kept me busy enough but I have still managed to get out on the water a couple of times! My new ION winter gear was waiting for me at home and its been relatively mild so no excuses. The most interesting session were the two absolutely howling days last week, possibly the windiest two days I've ever sailed. The first was at the Ray, Southend with Reece and Whitey. I was ridiculously over powered on 4.2 but I wasnt the only one as Whitey was attempting to sail a 6.2 with his 63ltr speed needle, he gave up in the end and settled for sharing Reece's 4.2 and 95 freewave and he still got 37kts on that!!!!

The next session which is where the pictures were taken was from a few days later at our local spot Point Clear. I'd woken up late and Whitey was there already waiting to get a few shots so I rushed out on 4.2 as it felt windy. You cant see the water from where you rig so I got a massive shock as I was nearly blown over attempting to walk down into the water. I did two runs max. before deciding that an 89ltr was far too big and quickly ran in to get my wave board. To be honest in the gusts I was still struggling to even go along in a straight line comfortably. It all made a bit more sense when Whitey jumped on my 72 twin and flew off the beach!! All in all a few interesting sessions to keep me entertained before the next trip!
Talking about the next trip I had a bit of a last minute change of plans. We were expecting the first event to be Vietnam in March, however once the PWA calendar arrived Narm had been re scheduled for December!! Happy days this meant I had enough time + money for the moment to justify a trip to Cape Town. So without hesitating the next day I was already booked up for a month from the 23rd Jan. Very excited as I've never been on a proper wave trip before so it should be interesting!! So my next update will be from there!
Cheers to the Whites and Bethany for the pictures!