It’s been a busy start to second year of university, with 3 competitions in a row, right as the year started.
The first of these was the international kayaksurf open in Pantin, Spain. This was a super fun way to end a summer with tons of surfing in it. The contest was pretty small with only 3 heats, including the finals, but the competition was fierce. After a bunch of though heats I finished up in 3rd place, enjoying the Spanish sun. I followed this up with a great free surf session before heading back for the start in university in Southampton.
Sooner after I was over in Easky, Ireland for the Irish open, one of my favourite yearly competitions. As always it’s a super busy day with a done of heats, I think I worked out I spent over 4 hours on the water when I added up the length of all the heats and the time paddling between heats. This was also my first time competing in a long boat since the world championships after mine was unfortunately broken earlier in the year traveling to Santa Cruz paddlefest. The event reminded me why I love surfing the Attak so much, with it using the rails brilliantly, carving like a boat with fins. After a hard day’s paddling, I came out with another 1st in the short boat at the Irish open, as well as the highest score of the day, and a 2nd in the long boat.
Back at university for a week and I was soon heading to yet another competition. This time the British open, in Thurso, Scotland. We got some really clean waves and had a brilliantly run competition. The week started with the home internationals, as there wasn’t enough people for a full Northern Irish team, a combined team from the isle of Mann, Northern Ireland and Ireland. The team surfed great and we won the first round, but eventually came out 3rd in the overall ranking. Following on from this was the brits, I had a superb event and ended up making my goal of two finals. Following on from this I then went on to win the British open short boat, and a grab a 3rd in long boat.
After the end of the competition, I went back to university where I’ve been doing a combination or whitewater, freestyle and even managed to squeeze in a waveski trip to Bournemouth. Looking forward to being back home over Christmas and getting a few waves.
