Not long left in Lanka

Not long left now of our time in Lanka. It's been a quality trip, with great banter, fun surfs, heaps of food and plenty of Scrabble!

Today has been a highlight of the trip for me with some cracking waves at both the Rock and Plantations.

I'm now sat here thinking about how I'm going to miss this place and how strange it will be back home having to drive my van rather than just hopping in a Tuk-Tuk.

After checking the weather back home and seeing freezing conditions, I think I'm going to really enjoy this tropical sun set tonight.

Here's a couple shots.

Slice..........

After a really great surf on Saturday afternoon, the lads were pretty stoked and keen to sink some beers and local rum - I happily joined in.

Once we'd had dinner, we decided to head to a party down in Welligama. With a local DJ, bar and plenty of like minded travellers, times were good............ but then Callum and I did the most annoying thing ever - stepped on glass!

Being intoxicated at the time it all seemed ok, the cut was disinfected and I didn't think much of it until I stood up in the morning - OUCH

Above show's the cut a day or so later and it seems to be healing well. Fingers crossed I should be in the water pretty soon.

Also on the plus side, the Mo is coming along nicely.

Loving life in Lanka

Whilst sipping a cold coke at Easy Beach, I've been trying to figure out what I've had more of here in Lanka - Curry or surf.

It's a close call and so far they have both been bloody good!

We haven't had any epic points yet as a cyclone has recently passed by heading towards India, this has directly affected the quality of the swell in a bad way and produced less favourable winds. Due to this we've been heading for shelter from the wind to a place called Welligama. This horse-shoe shaped bay has dished up some super fun waves with long walling lefts and a few hollow rights.

I'm sat here in the sun with a big smile on my face, about to head off for another nail biting tuk tuk ride to surf again.

Here's something you don't see on the way for a surf at home!

End of the season........

Contest season in the UK is over for another year. Below are my results, pretty hapy with how the year went, as I achieved the goals that I set.

2010
1st Bristol Open contest
1st British Longboard Club Champs
2nd Woolacombe Open
3rd Overall Hotdoggers League
3rd Porthcawl Classic
5th Jesus Longboard Open
5th Redbull Break 5's Event
5th British Shortboard Club Champs
9th Atlantic Games (European) Northern Spain
10th Overall British Rankings (BLU)

1st Paddle 4 Relief race
3rd Gold Coast Ocean Fest Paddle race


(A few shots from the year.)

Elusive........

The boys at Elusive have been kind enough to send me some boardies and T's ready for my trip to Sri Lanka. Elusive is an independent surf and lifestyle clothing brand from Wales. They actively support surfing by sponsoring riders and contests.

Big thanks!

There's 6 0f us heading out to "Lanka" in less than 2 weeks time. It's gonna be great to get some warm waves, we're all psyched to go. Yeeew!

Top ten

So the British Longboar Tour (BLU) is over for another year. As always, it was great to be surfing against some quality surfers, many laughs were shared and as per usual the final event at Gwithian was no exception. The event turned out to be a cracking weekend even though the surf was pretty poor, with many people putting in some sterling efforts on the kareoke, especially Greg "bum muff" Robinson!

At the start of the season I set myself a target of finishing in the top ten. After a few events I was unsure whether this was attainable after being knocked out in 1/4's by less than a point twice in a row. In the end it was all pretty tight, but stoked to scrape the top ten and bring on next season!


To be honest with me ripping like the shot below shows, I don't know how I wasn't top of the rankings!
Cheers to Adrian Lincoln of SurfTalk for getting this shot of me at my best!

Hurricane season is here, with some meaty looking lows out in the Atlantic.
The south west of England has been blessed with some long period quality ground swell last week, which has been greeted with awesome weather and offshore winds thanks to that high pressure sitting there.
Good old MSW gave it plenty of “dark stars”, so the star chasing crowds were out in force on most of the beaches. After some really good surfs throughout the week, most of the local longboarders were setting there sights on the weekend, the final Hotdoggers league of the year.

We all new the offshores would be pretty strong, but as I rocked up at the beach and stepped out the van I nearly got blown to Lundy! Still there was a strong turnout and everyone was pretty stoked as there was actually a decent swell for a contest.

Throughout the first few rounds the swell did well against the wind, providing some tricky, but fun right handers. In between some of the windy close outs, I managed to find some reelers that I could put in a few 5’s and 10’s. I surfed well through the contest and took some decent scalps on the way. But as the comp progressed to the final the swell diminished, and it proved hard to find a decent set wave with good scoring potential.

Ben Haworth and Ashley Braunton managed to find these waves and grabbed 1st and 2nd respectively, with myself 3rd and Zak Lawton 4th.
It was good end to the Hotdoggers season with a BBQ on the beach to finish, cheers to Norman Wright.

Below are a couple shots that Mike Stevens manged to get of me in my Semi final.