Posts Tagged ‘SUP’

SUP and Whales in Auz: Times News Paper

Wednesday, September 23rd, 2009

The Airhead found this in The Times News Paper The Times News Paper

Standing on his18ft-long surf board, eight-time world paddleboard champion Jamie Mitchell was being filmed for a documentary off the east coast of Australia on Monday when he had an unexpected surprise.

Paddle Board and Whales
Liam O’Brien / Jason Muir

A playful humpback whale breached (leaped clear of the surface) just a few feet in front of the 32-year-old Australian, dwarfing him on the water, but giving Mitchell — who was about 1 mile off the coast of Tweed Heads on the border of NSW and Queensland — an experience he will never forget.

“We were just out there doing our own stuff and mother nature was on our side,” Mr Mitchell told The Times.

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AquaPac for the iPhone

Wednesday, September 9th, 2009

Let’s face it, there are times when having a phone with you on the water can pay dividends. Of course, with the advent of the iPhone 3G and its plethora of GPS tracking apps there’re now even more reasons to take your phone out with you: “Look, honest, I SUPed 40 miles in a day. No really, check out the Google Maps track!”.

Aquapc for the iPhone
AquaPac UK

Whether you’re planning an epic down-winder or just like to multi-task while waiting your turn in the lineup, a waterproof phone case can be a handy accessory for the connected water sports fanatic. Current offerings can be pretty costly, so it was a treat to find a solution promising a reasonable level of access to the iPhone’s functionality at a £20 price point.

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Standup Paddle Board Endurance

Saturday, July 18th, 2009

Stand Up Paddle Boarding comes in many forms… Recreational, surf, flat water and river but one of the big emerging trends in the world of SUP is the endurance or marathon paddle board event and for those of you who follow the Airhead Blog you will know that we were involved in the Paddle Round the Pier 20 mile Endurance race, the event was a first for the UK and it proved a huge success with all the competitors.

The next event on some of the riders calendar was the Jever World Cup in Hamburg Germany, with some 143 participants including world surfing legend Robby Naish in the different races and with over 27,000 spectators throughout the weekend you could say that Germany is embracing the sport of Paddle Boarding.

Jever SUP World Cup Hamberg Germany
Jever SUP World Cup in Hamburg

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Paddle Board 20 Mile Endurance

Monday, July 6th, 2009

This years Paddle Round The Pier was the biggest it has ever been… With fantastic weather all weekend and record crowds in the region of 20 thousand to see all the action and soak up the atmosphere, Brighton beach was set for one of the UK’s biggest surf festivals… it was like Hawaii had landed on the South Coast of England for the weekend.

There where surfers there just for the fun of the events and others who where the to compete in the UK’s first ever 20 mile stand up paddle board endurance race from Brighton’s West Pier to Worthing Pier and back again which is no small venture..

Endurance SUP Race
Endurance Race Line Up

All the competitors of the Enduro Race would need a game plan to negotiate the tidal currents, the warm weather along with the potential for a head on seabreaze for the first leg of the race… This was no ordinary race with dedicated amatures racing next to seasoned professionals but the one thing that put them together was the fact none of them had raced this distance before.

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Paddle Round the Pier 2009

Friday, July 3rd, 2009

Paddle Round The Peir

This year’s Paddle Round The Pier, sponsored by Feelfit, sees many surf paddle races for those who really want to push themselves and raise money for three great charities, plus two very different surf comps.

The Errant Surf Holiday Pier to Pier race will see competitors paddle boards over 9’ from the Brighton Pier to the West Pier – a distance of over two miles and against the current.

There are two categories for the race – ‘Pros’ which takes place on Saturday and ‘Amateurs’ which takes place on the Sunday.

The winners of each category will receive a week’s holiday to northern Spain, courtesy of Errant Surf Holidays. Previous winners of this race include Elliot Dudley, Nick Thorne and Richard Balding.

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Tangle Free Leash from Surf More XM

Thursday, June 18th, 2009

Surf More XM has a reputation for making great quality products that are designed to help the surfer and make life safer on the water from the Power Clip to the SUP Big Wave Coil Leash or the deck grip… XM have a tried and tested range of products but the latest offering is a real gem the “Tangle Free Leash”.

Surf More XM tangle free leash
Image from SurfLine.com

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Curve Surf Accessories from Thain Leisure

Saturday, June 13th, 2009

Have you ever thought there has to be a better way of getting your surf board and all the gear you will need for the day from the car park to the beach ?… well it would seem that at last your prayers may have been answered in the form of Curve Surf Accessories

Curve is a surf accessories brand that has innovation at it’s heart… cool ideas out of function making your life easy.

Curve surf accessories
Curve Surfboard Sling

Chris Thain of Thain Leisure has in the past lived and worked in California Huntington Beach, which is where he first got interested in surfing and other board sports, then having relocated to the UK, he found himself in North Devon, home of some of the best surfing in the country where his kids got into surfing and one day on a trip to Croyde he found himself having to carry two boards over the dunes and down to the sea, he said to himself “there must be an easier way to do this” on returning home and with much searching on the internet and came across the Curve sling, perfect for the job of carrying boards and kit to the beach, so one thing led to another and in April this year Thain Leisure received it’s first stock of Curve products.

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Big Salty.. Weather for you

Friday, May 29th, 2009

Big Salty

With the sports we all do the one thing to keep an eye on is the weather… will it be windy? will the sun shine? what’s the surf like? well you know what I’m talking about.

The latest weather site to get Airhead’s attention is BigSalty.co.uk. This site has some great features like where is “going off” near you… in their words “Big Salty is a hybrid weather service that aims to identify which locations will provide the best conditions for a given forecast”… I can hear you all saying… at last just what I have been waiting for…

Big Salty Windsurf

Here is the low down on the the Big Salty story

Big Salty is a new weather service dedicated to watersports enthusiasts in the UK and Ireland. It has been created with the aim of trying to get you on the water as much as possible and at the right location. The reason for this is simple. The team behind Big Salty are heavily immersed in the watersports scene and are keen windsurfers and surfers. Reading forecasts and weather conditions right is something that is key to heading to the beach at the right time and Big Salty is designed to make this as easy as possible.

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Adam Zervas

Wednesday, May 20th, 2009

Airhead has had the pleasure of catching up with Adam Zervas.. Surfer, Longboarder and one of the forefathers of SUP in the UK… between his work with Reef in the UK and his family Adam has been finding the time to hit the water and compete, to be honest the results speak for themselves…

English Nationals
The surf on the day was a stormy 4ft plus during the finals with 25mph onshore winds, Adam was riding the Basic BK 10 ft. Squash C4 Waterman which of course did the job for him.

Adam Zervas C4 waterman
Photo: Splashography.com

1st ADAM ZERVAS
2ND ALEX MURRAY
3RD NICK HEALEY
4TH TIM MELLORRS
Other finalists: Jon Elman-Brown and Bill FitzHugh.

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