End of my South Africa trip

Its been a while since my last blog update as Turfdog has been keeping me really busy while I have been away.

I had a really good first trip to South Africa and am defiantly coming back. There was good wind for most of the month and plenty to do if the wind was light.

On my way up table mountain with lions head in the background.

One of my favourite parts was testing the new F2 sails which were really light, responsive and powerful. Can wait to get mine at the end of the month.

http://20111.f2.com/surf/sails.php?L=1&o=/surf/

I also did some cage diving with white sharks. Sadly no pics of sharks as my go pro was lost surfing!!! I was not to scared until Scotty, floating in the cage next me grabbed my leg in a pincer action, scaring the S##t out of me much to the amusement of everyone else in the cage and on the boat!!!

Me, Scotty and Ian Gibson In the shark diving cage.

I was also really impressed with the number of different spots you could sail, with my favourite parts of the visit being couple road trips up and down the coast.

Milnerton

Melkbos

On one trip to elands bay, a few hours north of north of Capetown. We managed to get a bit of surfing for the first day and a half, before windsurfing in the afternoon of the second day. We decided hide are windsurfing kit in the rented house, as local surfers do not like windsurfer one bit. It not being uncommon for windsurfers to have a couple of tyres slashed by the local surfers

Getting up early 5.30 to surf on are final day before the wind kicked in. Me and Ben checked the surf to find the swell had come though in the night. Several gnarly looking older surfers came up to us to have a chat, saying how pissed off they were with the windsurfers at the break the previous day. We kept well quite but on walking back notice the guys were in the house next to us. There were a lot of dodgy stairs as we loaded up are windsurf kit onto the cars. Probably best to get back to cape town rather going to surf farmers (a spot which worked in small swell) and leaving are kit pretty much a big sign. Slash are tyres please!!

Surfing Farmer Burgers on the first day.

I was also luck enough to finish off my last day at cape point. With some nice wave riding just in time to rush back with and put my very wet overweight kit in the plane, thanks for letting it on Virgin!!

Pics of cape pont on the last day:

Cape point was a little tricky getting out as sometimes there was very light winds and reasonably big sets on the inside at the point. A fun day to finish a good trip on.

New Turfdog Promo Video

Hears the new Turfdog Promo Video. Enjoy

MPORA Action Sports >>

South Africa and Turfdog video

It's been pretty chilled since I got to south Africa at the start of Feb. Not much wind at the moment, but it's nice to be in the sunshine. I also got to try out the new 2011 F2 rave twin fin. I was really impressed with the smooth ride and how tight you could turn on a 77L combined with the new Chinook one piece carbon boom(super stiff), I'm really happy with my kit.

New board and flexing trying to bend my boom!!

If there hasn't been any wind there seems to be always somewhere to find some surf. Once the wind kicks in next week wee should have plenty of kit to play with, take a look at the garage pics.

Pulling a lovely face after a duck dive.

Are Garage, with kit still in the cars.

I have also been working on some turfdog videos with a short clip below, with a longer one out soon.

MPORA Action Sports >>

With the weather looking pretty cold and no one to sail with the East coast was an unpromising prospect for Thursday. This was a bit disappointing because NE is a nice direction, at my local spot all be it a little cold. It always gives some good side shore condition and good swell.

I am not a big fan of sailing by myself in these conditions (I lost my rig last time!) so the prospect of discussing some projects with Adam Sims and his new brand Silte along with Turfdog development, sounded a convincing argument for a session in Kent.

Slightly upset I had left my home spot in some of my favourite conditions. I was not to fully convinced about the conditions Greatstone would have to offer. Sims was adamant there would be some good ramps for backs and pushes. On arrival I was pleasantly surprised by the decent size waves with a good pitch.

Sailing with Adam never disappoints. I keenly rigging up my 5.3 and was presented with the by a "beautiful" spectacle of Adam in a father Christmas hat and RRD Y fronts setting the tome of the session. I had one of the best sails for a long while, hardly being bothered by the cold and spending at least 3hours out on the water. All in all pretty good fun, trying to keep a Christmas hat out of my eyes mid jump.

More Windsurfing Videos >>

Not so nice Norfolk

Once again on Thursday conditions looked good in Norfolk so I decided to make the one and a half hour trip up from Suffolk. Checking out Waxham in North East Norfolk, we found the wind was not playing ball with 10mph winds dead off shore coming from the west with no swell. Not quite the predicted NNW 25 knots! After a little we headed up to East Runton only to find the wind had swung and was now NNW 25 knot, dead onshore!!! Should have seen it coming really, so back to Waxham where it was looking good. It was side on and windy, with the swell starting to fill in so I rigged my 4.7 and 82L only to find that the second I placed my board on the beach, the wind dropped to 10-15knots. After a brief float I decided to watch how Henry was getting on. I found him down wind with a fist size knot in his kite. Game over for him after just 10 minutes!! I was up for going home at this point but Henry persuaded me to rig my 5.7 and 90l. I floated out with the wind a little more side shore but was incredibly under powered. I was just heading in when the wind filled in, followed by sleet. It was not too bad and I got a couple of jumps and rides before the wind died again after about 15 minutes. Well you win some you lose some but some days it seems we were never were going to win - still a 15mnute session is better than no session, all be it a little cold on the face.

East runton

Thursday was a pretty good day at East Runton. I got down mid morning to find Steve Thorp and Dave white on the beach. After hearing the wind might be dropping, I rushed to rig up as I want another go on my new quad. I had a pretty good session with some jumping and wave riding befre the wind dropped off at mid day. Just had to try and avoid falling in, as you ended up with a white water ice cream headache!

Snowboarding

I may have been slightly annoyed at loosing my rig the other day. Waking up this morning to see my house looking like a postcard picture form the Alps soon put this out of my mind. If only I had a snowboard! Luckily windsurfers think alike. My mate Jimbo had no one to snowboard with. We quickly built a kicker and spent the later half of the day until dark having fun in the snow. If there's more snow tomorrow, I'm thinking of a turf dog prototype snowdog board!