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Written by Kevin Pritchard
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Monday, 15 October 2007 |
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Well we are moving.. had an early check in today at 4 am in Glasgow.. Man the people there sure were really friendly. Super nice. I actually really like Scotland. The people seem to be really friendly and helpful and the country side is amazing. I wish I new some better places to take photos in Glasgow but for most of the free day that we had there it was raining and didnt work too good for taking too many shots. Next flight is London to La.. Nice and long!!
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Written by Kevin Pritchard
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Sunday, 14 October 2007 |
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Well that 2007 PWA year has come to an end. Not a bad season for me.. not the best, but definitely not the worst. My Maui Sails Starboard combination was working great for me all year long and I was happy with the performance that they gave me. I would say that I gave it my best as well, moving up in the racing but down in the waves. It is pretty hard to really make huge gains when you are at the top of your game. This year was the longest season so far to date since I have been on the tour.. Cabo Verde which was the best wavesailing I have ever had, to Korea, Brazil, Portugal, Spain, Germany, and Scotland, which were all pretty fun events. The 2007 Aloha Classic is not happening this year which is a real bummer, no one had the sponsorship to step it up and make it happen. This is a bummer but what can you do. As for me I am back on the road home. I am in Glasgow at the moment and then to London, Los Angeles where I will do some wedding photography up in San Francisco. I am super stoked to go up there and get some more wedding shots in a different location than Maui. Cant wait. I will be heading up the Cali coastline looking for some good shots along the way. I am wondering if there is going to be any wind or waves this week, if so I might bring my gear as I have been sitting on my butt all week waiting for wind here in Scotland. Sorry for the lack of posting this last week. I had the worst internet connection and was just too hard to sit through it all. Plus there was nothing really to report. Sitting around waiting for wind.. The story of every windsurfers life.. Man I cant wait to get back to Maui and go sailing.. Whoo hoo.. almost there..
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Written by Kevin Pritchard
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Wednesday, 10 October 2007 |
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Well we have been sitting around in Scotland with no internet, no wind, no waves, but beautiful weather. I got a couple of nice shots around here but not too many. Hopefully we will get some more nice weather to try and get a couple more good shots.
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Written by Kevin Pritchard
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Monday, 08 October 2007 |
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The connection here is so bad, it just gets frustrating to even try and go on the net. It seems to me like the people with the mac's seem to get connected but for me it just is on and off and not really working. I can find the signal but then it goes to limited or no connectivity.. pisses me off. I have tried to make it go manual but it just doesn't seem to work for me. SO that is why you don't find any updates. So far it has been not too much wind. Today finally there is some wind but there is no waves. Kinda a bummer..The place here is pretty nice for some solitude but other than that I am ready to get this contest on with. Get some sailing in and get back to Maui.. Forecast is looking ok on Thursday and Friday but we will have to wait and see.
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Written by Kevin Pritchard
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Friday, 05 October 2007 |
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Well we made it to Scotland and it is absolutely beautiful. Rolling green hills, beautiful mountains, beaches, and sea! We flew from London Stansted to Glasgow Prestwick, got in our rental car, drove to Glasgow main airport where we met up with the event organizer to get some insite as to how we can get to where we were going and we were on our way. Drove for 3 hours to the ferry port where a couple other windsurfers were at and they waiting for the ferrry. We did however come accross a delima, all the windsurfers were up for camping in their car, we were in our rental car with a sweatshirt and the seats rolled back or pay $150 for 5 hours sleep and get up at 4:30 get on the ferry.. Of course if any of you know me, I opted for the cheap and hard way of sleeping in the car. It was actually brutal. We slept in the front seat of the car, it got freezing in the middle of the night, then got up at 5am to get the ferry, 5 hour ferry ride, had to sleep on the ferry as well, and was just a long trip. But we made it, got here, got an amazing place to stay, organized our equipment, and then went for a sail. We went to a place called the Maze which was pretty fun. It definately had it's moments and it was really nice to have wave sail which I havent really had since Brazil... and you guys thought that us Pro's just got to sail all the time. It has been almost three weeks since I had a proper wave ride, so it definaletly felt nice. We are all sorted out now, we have a great place to live maybe the best place on the island. I will post some picts of the place when I get some of the place and the location. As for now i am just checking out the internet and if I can actually post anything.. So we will see.
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Written by Kevin Pritchard
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Tuesday, 02 October 2007 |
Welll we have started our journey to Tiree. First a train for 5 hours, then a taxi, then a plane, and now in the UK for 2 more days before we get another train then car then boat to Tiree. Should be fun. We are staying with Robby Swift which is nice to get some time to get the laundry done and have some time to relax. You dont really know it but throughout that entire contest there is stress going on in your body. You are thinking or worring about the next race or wave heat, no matter what, even if there is no wind, you still need to be on hold and on your mind. So a couple days off is not all that bad.
Ok all for now. Not sure how the connection will be in Tiree so if you dont hear from me in a couple days you will know why.. I am on a small island off the coast of Scotland.
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Written by Kevin Pritchard
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Sunday, 30 September 2007 |
Pict by JC/PWA
Just finished with a pretty hectic day. I had probably one of the best races of the year with Bjorn and he just edged me out for the 3rd place. I had an amazing start right at the boat but just wasnt fast enough to out run the big boys from down low. I came into the mark in 3rd but Bernd Flessner rammed me at the gybe but we were both able to stay up and on it... But Bjorn snuck infront of me.. then off to the next gybe where I went inside of Bjorn and would have had an amazing pass but my foot got caught in the footstrap again.. I managed to get it out without crashing but couldn't make the pass stick. Going into the last mark I made another amazing gybe but it just wasnt enough to get around him. SO he beat me in the event by .3 of a point. Pretty close racing that is for sure.
In the end I finished 2nd overall in the racing for the year. Pretty stoked about that. Antoine did an amazing job this year and much respect for his season.
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Written by Kevin Pritchard
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Friday, 28 September 2007 |
Picts by Carter/PWA
Well they were supposed to start with the freestylers but it was too cold for them. They tried to start but no one would go out for their heat. Thats what I am talking about.. Let the sailors make the decision.. ha ha.. good for the freestylers.. they didnt want to compete in the shaky conditions so they didn't.. So we went racing.
And we didnt mess around. We started at 1030 on the button and didn't stop until three. Back to back for four rounds in a row. Was tough but was nice that we didnt have to stop and start in the chilly conditions. It was offshore from the right and was 22 to 28 knots of cold Sylt winds. I was on 7.6 and was powered, with my 101. I had good first round finishing in 3rd. The next one I went into the semi final and I was in qualifing position and my front foot got stuck in the front foostrap and just could not get it out. I had to crash to get my foot out. It was really annoying and pissed me off. So I didnt make it into the final. In the next round I went into the semi final and crashed again on a gybe but got up quickly enough to make it into the final again to finish third. In the last round of the day, it was blowing pretty good and they went for a half fleet race. So it was a semi final and a final and that was it. I made it through to the final and had a great start and finished in 2nd between Antoine. So all in all a good day for me.
You guys wanted to know about what it is like to prepare for this sort of racing. Well the night before the racing, I started thinking about what I needed to do. I made a mental note of where my gear was, where my race watch was, what sails I thougth that I needed to rig up, and what fins would go where. So once the morning hits, it is check the conditions to see what is going to happen, and start focusing on what the job at hand is. Today was a bit hectic for me cause I still dont have my bag with my fins or footstraps so I was running around trying to borrow stuff for my small board. I would have done it earlier but it is a pain to ask for everything unless you need it and I thought that we would be doing freestyle in the windy stuff.
Once you are out on the race course, you have to try to get your focus. Mentally today was tough for me because it was cold, choppy, windy, I was a bit in a rush, and it was hard conditions. I needed to get into the racing and focus on going fast. I needed to focus on the start and the gybes instead of thinking about what was happening with the weather or whatnot. So many things goes through my mind when I am out on the racing course, I really need to get it together and focus. It is also super choppy and cold and you are racing around and you forget to breathe. I had to remind myself, Breathe, Relax, Focus....
Not too bad of a day for me and currently in second place with 2 days left of the event. Looks like it should be lighter tomorrow. We will see.
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Written by Kevin Pritchard
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Thursday, 27 September 2007 |
Well today kicked off at 7 in the morning with a nice fresh walk down to the beach.. Next announcement at 10am. Then from 10 till 6 on the beach on the edge waiting for the racing to happen. They tried at 5 to send out the racers, then they called it off, and then they did one race and it was the looser final of the first round. The wind was so bad that the guys were pumping for quite some time around the corners and just didn't make it look too exciting from the beach. They called it off after that.
Tomorrow is meant to be a dreadful day of freezing cold rain and wind. We will see. Maybe only the tough will survive?
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Written by Kevin Pritchard
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Wednesday, 26 September 2007 |
Wow, what a beautiful day here in Germany. Nice fall weather at it's finest. Today, I guess the highlight of my day was an autograph signing session at the NDR radio booth. Other than that, not too much to report. Had an amazing sunset here on Sylt.
Tomorrow's an early skippers meeting with a 7am meeting time. I hope I can get out of bed that early. Still no bag happening and I am in need of my racing fins. Chances are high that we will be doing some racing tomorow so it would be good to get them soon. I am loosing faith!
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Written by Kevin Pritchard
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Sunday, 23 September 2007 |
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Just wondering if anyone out there is looking for one of my racing boards in Europe. I have a 101 and a 122 for sale after the event. If you have any friends or anyone looking for the best Isonics you can get let me know. I might have some possible way of getting them to you somewere in Europe.
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Written by Kevin Pritchard
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Friday, 21 September 2007 |
Well today we had the registration day and opening ceremony. I think it was a bit of a mess, we had a hour and a half wait in the opening ceremony, and they wanted to start 30 minutes after a mandatory opening, and there was no official ladder up for the waves or anything, to top it off the conditions were TERRIBLE.. Anyhow that is enough winge-ing from me... but I did think that it was pretty lame of them to start on registration day, we have 10 official days of competition, we just came from brazil where a lot of other people dont have all of there equipment and then to top it off the conditions were less than favorable. I could see if it was going off but...
Anyhow, I didnt have to go so.. So we will wait to do some wavesailing. Forcast still looks promising.. so we will see..
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Written by Kevin Pritchard
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Thursday, 20 September 2007 |
So I made it to Miami and then to London, all good. London to Hamburg.. perfect.. walk off the plane.. Perfect all the gear was there... waited around for the clothing and FIN bag... not there.. not to worry, German technology will have it there shortly.. Well not that short but ok, I think they have found it but I am still sitting in the same clothes since Brazil.. Lucky I packed some jeans and a sweatshirt otherwise I would be really cold. So this is where the story begins.
I haul all my bags to a truck that is taking the big bags from Hamburg to Sylt. 4 hour drive. I was hanging with Josh Angulo (my wave riding friend)ha ha.. anyhow, what goes on the water stays on the water.. maybe.. anyhow, hanging with Josh and his family and he was going to rent a car and drive up. Me, being the chepo that I am, not renting the car was like, hey, if you are driving up can I catch a ride.. Sure all good, something went wrong with the car and he ended up not renting it so we are now traveling together to catch the train. 5 hour train ride. We were going to stay the night in Hamburg but after searching around found nothing available under 300 eu... So we are like, lets see if there is a train running now and we will catch the train up and look for a hotel in Sylt, not the cheapest either but you never know what you are going to find.. Anyhow Josh has this one contact that he had the phone number for and calls him up and he is on Sylt and asked him if knew of any place to stay on Sylt for the night because what we had booked didn't start until today.. So Tim, is like sure you can stay at my place, and you and wife can take the spare room and your buddy, me, can sleep on the couch.. STOKED.. that just saved us 300 euros most likely and a lot of headache trying to find something when we arrived at the train station at midnight. So we get there and everything is great, except Tim has his girlfriend who was 9 months pregnant.. I guess she was all fine with everyone staying there and waking her up and all but around 2:30 I hear her starting to breath and I am like oh boy.. so tim comes into the room and says, her water just broke and we are going to have the baby hear because they wanted it to be a natural birth.. We are like.. cool but now you guys got to get out of hear.. And just as our luck would have it, Tim's girlfriends mom has a hotel 5 minutes down the road.... and there are two rooms left and she would be happy to put you up for the night!! So here we are barging in on this super nice guy and then we have to wake up the mother to get the most awesome room and let us sleep for the night. We must have had something working in our favor this night that is for sure...So got an amazing night's sleep with a nice bed and everything worked out perfectly. They had a healthy baby boy at 9:30 this morning!
Now got the apartment, and all is kla.. meaning all is good in German. Matt and Lindsay are coming in tonight and so I am happy to see them both.
Contest could possibly start tomorrow with the waves so lets hope the bags all make it this time. I have everything except my gear and clothing bag so I will be ok.. Just would make life a little more comfortable if it does come in!!
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Written by Kevin Pritchard
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Tuesday, 18 September 2007 |
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In Miami now on my way to London. I have 6 hours in London, not too much fun.. Then to Hamburg.. Looks like the wind is going to be there.. Should be fun!! For now sitting on the plane!
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