Watergate Bay, Airhead Surf Diary
Nothing happening on the eastern front but in the deepest west at Watergate bay the first round of the BKSA competitions is underway.
First thing Saturday saw the wind cross off shore which was not good for anything, this prompted Airhead rider Paul and a couple of others to wonder off to a secret spot where the wind direction was working better, but as the morning progressed the wind came round and the competition got under way. Annalisa informed me the conditions were gusty, but at least it was ride-able.
From the information that has come back to base camp Airhead the Pro’s got underway and after thrashing his way through the heats the winner of the pro men’s was Lewis.
Lewis has just returned from three months training with Neil Hilder and others in South Africa but he returned to the UK with injuries which makes his win in this comp outstanding. You may think that he’s been training and it should have been a walk in the park for a rider of Lewis’s level, but I have been told that a week ago he was finding it hard to walk after a trick went wrong while practicing his tricks on a cable tow.
Top marks to Lewis and good luck to everyone else who is taking part over the weekend.
I hope to have more to tell you on Sunday …… The Airhead
April 1st, 2007 at 1:49 pm
Up Date from Pete Shiplee ::::
The day’s event went well but only the Pro fleet managed to get completed on Saturday. This gave Pete and the team the chance to have a bit of time away from the pressure of competing and get out on the water for some fun free riding also to take a look at the other riders in their rounds to see what they are up against.
Oli, Dan & Toby have entered the junior event, we wish the whole team good luck for the rest of the comp
April 4th, 2007 at 8:36 am
Got back last night. Well the event was a mixed bag, the comp was put on hold just before our heats on Saturday for saftey reasons. So we all went free riding and what a blat we had with some awsome sets coming in with classic down the wave riding and practising those tricks. This year has started well for me in the fact that I’m well focused and relaxed, first to put kites on the beach on Saturday and Sunday!!! Is also nice to be putting pressure on other people now, the worm has turned!
My wife Mel enjoyed her time down there to with a body board lesson from a world champ which she loved. Only downside is that it cost me a bomb to get her the gear!
Sunday was terrible in the way of wind, when you launched it was a case of trying to keep the kite in the sky and then stop from being hauled around, worst conditions I’ve ever put a kite up in. My heat came and I managed to get on the water only to get lofted unhooked and then the kite fell out of the sky. Got it back up quickly and went out to do battle with Kevin Maguire, I think I made a better kite choice as I was on my Torch 3 14m and Kev was on a 10.5 Ion. I was able to put about 9 reasonable tricks in and had it in the bag, straight through to the final I thought. But no, Kev managed a couple of tricks but ended down wind out of the zone but he was realy struggling with being under powered, on return to the Judges area I found that the heat was black flagged (damn, but poor old Marizue did’nt even make it to the water as his kite fell out of the sky on the beach as the heat started,so in the end it was fair to black flag it) and we were going to do a slope session were you go out and do your best trick and then come in and do it agian another 2 times. Olie and I gave it a go just to try and get some points. Olie managed to do a slim chance which he got best trick award for (well done dude) and I managed an unhooked Tantrum.Only a few of us tried but in the end it was canceled and the event closed. We then went to Devon to surf but the surf had all disapeared!
The next comp is in Barrow in Furness in May. So it gives me a chance to get a couple of heat winning tricks in the bag as my main threat is ex British champ and pro rider Neil Gray.
Just like to thank Andy for lending me a 9m T3 and board and also to Justin,Olie,Dan, Toby and Dad for sticking together and forming a team. Team Airhead is going to be doing great things this season so watch this space. Training sessions were we judge each other and practise heats with the horrid horn sounding, all to prepare us for comps, riding in comps is nothing like riding at your local so it needs preperation.
Now all we need is some wind.
GO TEAM AIRHEAD!
Pete Shiplee
April 10th, 2007 at 9:39 am
Friday
After the long trek to Watergate me Dan, Ollie and my dad were greeted with gusty cross offshore winds!
Nothing happened for most of the day because of the poor conditions so the competition was put on hold until Saturday.
(As for the party Pete air-head team rider done very well not to get drunk, Toby another team rider, well god knows where he was!)
Saturday
Saturday kicked of to more gusty winds but slightly more onshore to Friday, the pro’s were out doing there stuff coping with the conditions and as the day went on the wind got better and better and once the pros and half the amateurs were done the wind was perfect BUT it was called of because the tide came up to a few rocks and it was said to be to dangerous but still half the riders on the beach went of and had an amazing session freeriding!
Sunday
Well once again the wind was very disappointing as it was even more offshore and they wanted to get the juniors kicked of as soon as possible but there was no wind and the cliffs didn’t help as it made the wind even less stable so me Ollie and Toby went for a walk to the next bay to see the huge cave and by the time we got back there was just about enough wind!
So with out hesitation the juniors were out but as they got to the second heat the wind completely dropped and it was black flagged but in this time my brother Ollie managed to pull off a slim chance in front on the judges van! And Pete in his heat defiantly stood out pulling off his crazy moves but that wasn’t counted because of the wind but if they carried on Pete would have defiantly won!!!!
A riders meeting was then called and because of the poor conditions they decided to run the slope style where each rider had three runs to pull off there best trick but even that didn’t happen because of the lack of wind. Well done to all the air-head team!
And thank you to my dad Justin for getting Ollie and me to the comp plus Andy for lending us demo kit to get us out there whatever the wind much appreciated!
Results:
Ollie Sweeney won the best trick with a slim chance.
pro men’s
1) Lewis
2) Ali Barrett
3) Mark Conolly
pro womens
1) Andreya Wharry
2) Steph Bridge
3) Helen Thompson
By Dan Sweeney-team rider