Viva La Espana

Cantabria in Northern Spain were hosts of this years Atlantic Games. The team had been looking forward to this for a while, I was glad to have a week off work and hopefully score some sick Spanish waves.

The 24hour ferry journey over was very calm, the beers went down well and the boat barely rocked. This for us was bad news, a lack of swell!
We arrrived at our accomodation, a sports complex and were immediately greeted with plates full of food. The hospitality and food was great all trip, with a dangerous free bar at the athletes village.
The surf apparently had been pumping all summer up until the point at which we arrived, just our luck. So we had to head west to the local swell magnet beach Le Increas to score a surfable wave. Everyone was stoked to be surfing in warm water with the sun out.

Time seemed to fly by, and before long it was the opening ceremony of the comp, where Devon did themselves proud, with the awesome team spirit we had.

The contest was due to start on the Monday but a lay day was called. So it was a day of football an grockle beach activities. Come Tuesday everyone was ready for the comp. Day 1 was a mixed bag, with some team members bowing out, despite putting in decent performances. The standard was very high. I progressed through to the 1/4s, but got beat by Pazza (who won the comp), so that meant joint 9th overall for me. My good mate Greg Robinson, showed everyone what a good surfer he is (even if he doesn't believe it himself some times) by battling through to the finals, doing Devon proud and getting 3rd overall.
Things didn't end up quite so good for the fizzer - Zak Lawton, after smashing everyone in the first round of the juniors, the little tit only went and dislocated his knee!

Overall a great trip. Surf wasn't ideal, we may not have won the event, but we had the best team spirit and everyone supported one another the whole time. Had an awesome time and honored to be part of the team.

Big thanks to Isabelle, Cotty and Tundish.