Friday, June 26, 2015

Buenos Dias!



After a long day we are currently sitting in our awesome Spanish villa, enjoying a beer and feeling pretty stuffed after the pizzas we had for dinner!

After a day of travelling, made slightly stressful by having to ensure that the composite boats made it in one piece, we started the trip the best way possible with a couple of hours of evening surfing in small, clean waves, in sunshine and warm water! The surf forecast here is looking incredibly consistent so I'm really looking forward to the next few days of dialling in the waves and scoping out the standard of the competition!

Time to get some sleep! The plan is to keep this updated over the next couple of weeks, hopefully I'll keep finding time to throw something up here and there so keep an eye out! 

Sunday, June 21, 2015

Final Countdown!!

So the training is done, moves are down, fitness is as good as it's going to get...all that's left to do is dry off the gear, take a few days to chill out and then board a plane to Spain for World Championships number one; surf kayaking! 

I'm working on getting those lip moves a little higher, it's slow progress! Photo by Mike Barry.

Since the last update, after I had spent two weeks battling onshore winds before my tent eventually ripped in half in a storm, things have thankfully taken a turn for the better! Shortly after running away from Kerry the first time I was back there with Sheelagh, another member of the Irish Surf Kayak team who kindly lent me a tent and agreed to drive me around to go surfing! Thankfully this time the waves improved, the wind swung offshore and the sun came out so the training could really start in earnest! Aisling, Mick and Ant from the surf team also showed up at various stages and it was great to get some feedback going between everyone which really helped to develop the different moves that everyone was working on.

Sun, surf, Nissan Micra... What more do you need?!

Although we headed up to Clare for a bit of variety in the surf, and to swing by the Doolin Trad Music Festival, persistant westerly winds and a mediocre swell meant that the reefs we were hoping to get to surf never really worked. We kept busy all the same with things like rock climbing, caving and fishing but eventually called it quits and headed back to Kerry, where the curving beach of Brandon Bay picks up a lot of swell and offers more choices in westerly winds. In the end it was a great call and we got a few more days of great waves before deciding it was time to head back home and start preparing for the trip to Spain! 

So that's where things are at right now! The gear is outside drying off, the clothes are in the wash and I'm starting to really get excited about Spain! A few days now and we'll be chilling out in the sun, sipping cold beers after surfing in a new country; I can't feckin wait! 

In terms of life off the water over the last few weeks, one thing that's everywhere in the Brandon Bay area is really cool camper vans, from all over Ireland, the UK and even further afield; especially France, Germany and the Netherlands. Some of these vans have had awesome conversion jobs done to them and along with my experiences in the tent have really got me thinking about doing my one one over the next few months. Does anyone know of any companies who might be interested in buying advertising space on the side of a van that will travel to the majority of kayaking events in Ireland over the next few years?! The people who have brought all these great vans to Kerry, attracted by the surfing, windsurfing and relaxed pace of life down there, are all great to chat to and inspire great ideas for road-trips to the likes of Morocco and Eastern Europe! So any time over the next few days that isn't spent packing for Spain will probably be spent sketching ideas for the inside of a camper van and dreaming of the places that could be visited once it's finished!

Tuesday, June 2, 2015

Some Things Just Don't Work Out...

So you're out of practise and out of shape after final year in college, you've got two World Championships to train for, cash reserves are pretty scarce from funding trips to said competitions and you don't own a car...what to do? Easy, head to the west coast of Ireland with a tent, bike and surf kayak and spend as much time on the water as humanly posssible! What could possibly go wrong...

So that's what I did when exams were over and I had finished my end-of-college partying. Since there was the possibility of getting the odd day's work in Castlegregory and it has some of the most consistent surf in Ireland that's where I headed. I set up camp in a remote-ish sand dune, right beside the surf of Brandon bay and within cycling distance of a shop, toilets and other essentials. The first few days went to plan, I got out surf kayaking every day in mediocre onshore conditions, and whenever I wasn't on the water I was cycling, running or fishing; generally getting fit again and chilling out after a pretty hectic final few weeks in college. I also did a few hours work here and there running kayaking sessions for Jamie Knox Watersports, which was good fun and a nice injection of cash into the wallet. So far so good, I had everything I needed and there was no reason why I couldn't stay there until it was time to head to Spain for the surf kayak worlds.

Unfortunately the Irish summer weather had other ideas. Firstly the wind came up and the swell dropped off, meaning that opportunities for surf kayak training became extremely limited. This wasn't all bad news. I started windsurfing last year with the UL club, and between the UL people's and Jamie Knox's expert tuition I've been progressing and starting to fall in love with the feeling of flying that you get when you're up at full speed and planing across the surface of the water. Jamie Knox had said that whenever he had groups on the water for activities I could take a set of windsurfing kit out for a spin so when the wind started to pick up towards the start of last week I started having some awesome windsurfing sessions. Over the two weeks I was there I went from being just about able to get the board up and planing to being able to consistantly hold the board there with some element of control. So despite the lack of surf kayaking I was happy enough to hang around and wait for the surf to improve, windsurf all the time, and cycle as much as possible to keep the fitness going in the right direction. 

As soon as predictions for Monday's weather started showing up on the forecast sites it was obvious that it was going to have an effect on my life in the tent. Windguru was showing 100 km/h winds and 8.5 mm of rain for Sunday afternoon, which pretty much made it a duvet and movie day! My tent was nicely tucked away behind a sand dune and had been very well sheltered from some strong westerly winds earlier on in the week, so I stocked up on chocolate and biscuits was happy enough to wait out the storm in relative peace. However on Monday the winds swung around south-westerly, which meant that they blew almost unobstructed around my protective sand-dune and struck my tent at an awkward angle. I spent several hours in the tent, holding it up as best I could and reinforcing it with paddles and other gear as much as possible but unfortunately just before the storm was due to peak it all became too much. My lovely little red tent, which has served me well on many journeys around Ireland, several trips to Europe and a month in Uganda was obviously weakened by all the exposure to the sun and developed a small split beside one of the poles. I went out to try to reinforce it with duct-tape but with no luck, the tent was too wet and the wind too strong for duct-tape to have any hope of staying in place. There was nothing I could do except lie in the tent and watch as the small split grew and grew and eventually split the entire tent clean in two. 

So that was the end of that! I had to wait out the rest of the storm and bail out back to Limerick, to dry out all my belongings and come up with a new plan. So that's where I'm at now, with my gear almost dry, last week's sun and wind-burn nearly healed and getting itchy feet to get back on the water. With a new tent and a slightly better weather forecast I would head back to Castlegregory in a heartbeat as it really had everything I needed to survive for an extended period of time and maximise the amount of training I could do but we'll see what happens. I need a new tent before I head to Canada in August so if anyone has any suggestions for a two-man tent that has lots of room for gear and is good in storms let me hear them!

If anyone is looking for a new sport that gives a similar aaargh-I'm-flying feeling to kayaking or mountain biking, without mountain-biking's risk of colliding with a tree or rock and mangling yourself, then I highly recommend giving windsurfing a go! It can take a little bit of time to get the hang of it, and can be frustrating until you do, but my god is it worth the effort! If you decide to give it a try then go check out www.jamieknox.com. The best tuition from a champion windsurfer and passionate teacher, loads of great kit and a choice of locations nearby to make the most of the conditions on the day. What more could you ask for? I plan to keep it up over the next while, with the eventual goal of getting good enough to try wave-sailing! Combining windsurfing with waves and a big sail to prolong the air-time available looks like a reciepe for an amazingly fun sport!