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Sitting here on a no wind day in Cape Town completely knackered after the epic conditions we’ve had out here the last few weeks I figured this was the perfect chance to compile all my best pictures from the last two months in Maui. I was out there again to do the testing for the 2016 North Idol LTD and while I cant give too many details away about that I can say that I’m extremely happy with the final sail and can’t wait to get the first feedback from the other riders.

We were already very satisfied with the sail but felt like the areas we could improve in were in the wind range across the sizes, whilst improving the wind range especially at the top end in the smaller sizes and the low end in the big sizes my concern was that somewhere along the way unintentionally the performance could be sacrificed. Kai Hopf the North sail designer however instantly came up with a slightly new concept. I was quite nervous at first about moving away from something that was already working very well but Kai as a true designer does always believes that you can improve what you already have and has drilled into me over the past few years to be very open minded and not to judge anything until its been tried. With that in mind when we set off in this slightly new concept I was instantly extremely impressed with the results that has not only massively improved the wind range but has also even further improved the performance of the sail. It was very reassuring to be so instantly impressed with the performance from the beginning because it gave us the time then to adjust the wind range of the sails to exactly what we require for competition sailing.

Thanks to V8Shots for all the pics!

Ok so first of all one of my aims now I’ve got this brand spanking new website thanks to Ginger Chris at Local Stray is to keep it all fully updated with what I’m up to! So after finishing the year ranked 15th on the PWA tour for the second year running and 5th on the EFPT, I was stoked with my results but also a bit relieved that the competition season was finished for a couple of months at least. I was unsure whether to head back to Brazil for the 5th year running or to do some thing different. Luckily enough an opportunity came up to go to Maui to assist with some sail testing etc.. So before I knew it was heading back out to one of my new favourite places to be! Dont get me wrong Brazil would’ve have been epic but in terms of not only pushing my sailing into the waves a bit more and also having the chance to try and create better career options for myself within windsurfing Maui was really a no brainer.

Since the Spring when I was in Maui with Gollito testing the 2014 Idol ltd I knew this was something that I really wanted to be able to continue to be involved with. The North designer Kai Hopf is a fascinating guy with years and years of windsurfing knowledge so it really was amazing to be able to spend time testing with him and learning about all the processes which go into designing and producing the sails. We were plagued by a bit of a lack of wind but it didnt stop me getting on the water at every opportunity. Some days I was driving on my own to La Perouse on the South West of the island just to get a few more hours in on the sails. La Perouse is normally renowned for being a big wave spot in south swells but if the wind is too easterly making it too offshore on the north shore then its almost guaranteed to be windy round there. Even without the waves its a pretty nervy spot to sail, the launch consists of sharp lava rocks embedded with sea urchins and I’ve heard there’s plenty of sea life around once your out there. In fact when I sailed there in the Spring I was almost certain I saw a suspect looking big fish shadow lurking around. These fears were backed up when during my trip a kayaker fishing at La Perouse lost his life in an attack there. I definitely did some of the quickest waterstarts of my life out there! Cheers to Mike Archer for the pics from La Perouse and to Jimmie Hepp for the shots from Ho’okipa!

Also a huge thanks to Kai for lending me the sickest truck ever…..

Check out and like my facebook page to see all the surfing + Suping action shots as well!

After spending Christmas at home I’m now out in Cape Town for a 7 week trip which is already shaping up to be pretty epic.. More news from that coming soon!

So after being pretty slack on here for the past 6 months I thought it was about time to get back into keeping this page a bit more updated. After feeling pretty excited about my result from the last event in Holland this finally gave me some motivation to start writing again.

Being the first PWA event in Holland for a long time it was great to go somewhere and have no pre conceptions about the event or conditions etc. I drove over there together with Gollito and Josh Willmot from Blacklab. It only took us three hours to get to Brouwersdam from Calais so its pretty feasible to head there from the UK on a good forecast. The forecast for the event was a bit all over the place at the start of the week but it help up and gave us some pretty epic conditions, I was praying for it to be mega windy 4.0 weather as thats when i felt I could do my best. I ended up sailing all my heats on the new 4.4 North Idol ltd which after seeing the full power conditions that some of the guys had to sail in wasn’t a bad compromise at all….  For the finals of the single elimination it must of already been around 40kts and once they were done with that they decided to run the first round of the double elimination and by this time it was much nearer 50kts!! Luckily enough for me I’d advanced far enough in the single to be waiting in the third round of the double for my heat. I was sat in the van watching together with Bubble and all though we had both been praying for full power conditions we were pretty happy to be sat in the van as some of the guys were struggling to land more than a couple of moves!!

The following day the conditions were a lot more bearable and I was back out on my 4.4! After beating Yarden Meir who’s one of my favourite guys on tour to watch sail as you never know whats coming next I then went on to face Niko Agkazicyan in the battle for 9th place. I’d never beaten Niko before so I knew I was going to have to sail my best to stand a chance! I was reading all the messages of encouragement from the boys in Vass in between my heats and this got me feeling more focused and relaxed than I’ve ever felt in a heat before. Feeling that relaxed meant that I went on to sail one of my best heats of the contest and it was a very close decision but I just managed to edge past him. After that I was up against Youp Schmit again another top sailor! This time I think I should of gone into the heat with a bit more belief that I could go further, the excitement of already being 9th distracted me from what I needed to do to beat Youp. He sailed unbelievably and went on to finish the event in 5th.

Overall I’m really happy with the result, especially as it almost guarantees me a spot in the top 16 for this year. The top 16 is so tight this year that it wasnt quite enough to move me up any further but fingers crossed if I get another good result in the next event in Sylt I will be able to discard my 16th place from Fuerteventura! For the moment its actually nice to be spending a week at home so I can chill out a bit before the next contest. We’ve even had some sick conditions here! Check out this Skopu clip from the other day at The Ray in Southend!

Single Elimination

Double Elimination