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Monday 23 September 2013

The British Wavemasters 2013 - Isle of Tiree

What an event!

We have just arrived home from an epic trip up to the Isle of Tiree in the inner hebrides.
As long as we can remember we have intended to head to Tiree...just to see what all the fuss is about!
It did not disappoint!

I won the Senior Title last year so was keen to retain the title and Sarah was keen to improve on her second place, sadly it didn't work out for Sarah this time.

Before we left home the weather gurus were calling huge surf and big winds..the tail end of the seasons first Hurricane spinning across the Atlantic....Hurricane Humberto was going to deliver!

Initially we were worried that the ferry would not run due to the winds hitting in excess of 40mph, the previous days ferry was turned around as it tried to approach Tiree after four hours of sailing and only a mile or so away! However Monday morning arrived and we set sail from Oban with a few other competitors who had also committed to this mammoth trip.

We arrived on the Isle and after driving around the Island several times getting lost...the roads all look the same, we found our cottage and quickly set off for Balephuil Bay on the west coast.
It was flipping huge...think big buildings and on top of that the winds were as cross off and gusty as I've been in, probably between 5-35mph. There were times during the comp I wasn't sure what the hell size kite up...could have been 5m or 11m!
In the end I stuck with my new 2014 Epic Renegade 6.5m for all but one heat where I could barely hang onto a 9m

Sean Facey heading out!

Lee "pasty" Harvey was killing it in these
heavy conditions making it look so easy
..it wasn't!
 


The next day was the first day of comp and we greeted with a smaller but still nice little wave and some sunshine too (between the showers)
Ian Edmondson from Expix was up on Tiree following the forecast for week and got some pretty cool photo's

 Marc@Blast
 Our quiver of 4G Epic Renegades 5/6.5/9m


The atmosphere amongst the competitors was awesome, such a good chilled vibe. In all classes, Open, Seniors and Ladies there were so many capable of taking the title.
Early stand outs were Jon Ellman Brown totally ripping as always and winning the Highest scoring wave in the process. Jordon Scott also deserves a big shout, he missed the first day because of cancelled ferries etc He slowly built up during the next two rounds and eventually won the third round, beating George Noble (last years winner) and his mentor, he even beat Jon and the overall winner Lee....all this riding switch 'cos he prefers this to back side! Oh and I almost forgot, he's been kiting 18 months, yeh a whole 18 months! Someone to put your money on for a future title I reckon!
 
The comp ran very smoothly especially considering the extremely harsh conditions at times, amazing place, awesome conditions and a super group of people made for a truly fantastic event. 

I'd like to personally thank all those involved in making this such a great comp...The British Kitesports...Richard Gowers and his team Craig Smith, Robin Snuggs, Sukie Huntley Robertson local girl Helen Thompson

So the results for the week of comp were as follows:

Open - Lee "Pasty" Harvey (Cornwall)
Seniors - Marc "Blast" Rowley (Wales)
Ladies - Helen Thompson (Scotland)


More images here:
http://www.expix.co.uk/exzine/news/95-expix-news/399-tiree-2013-following-a-forecast
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10151853593711294.1073741860.220023371293&type=3

Monday 2 September 2013

Quick update.........

Blimey it's been a while since we did our last blogg!

So much to report....obviously it's been an amazing hot sunny summer but on the down side to this has been the distinct lack of wind here in S.Wales (and much of the UK)

Still there has been loads happening here in the world of Blast.

The Blast Bus is now pretty much complete and only a few minor things waiting to be done including a diesel heater for the winter months.
 
 Pretty easy to see where we got the graphics from hey!
Epic!

We ran our first full group trip to Hatteras in Outer Banks USA back in May
Ten of us flew out to Epic Kites home for a full fourteen days of wind, it could not have gone better tbh
The Hatteras Video!
 

It wasn't long after returning from Hatteras that we were once again flying off on a group trip, this time to our regular spot in Portugal.
Once again we scored 14 out of 14 days of wind especially the second week with consistant winds in the 30's plus!
 

A video of Sarah & I in Portugal
 

As well as all these trips we have managed to get quite a few lessons in when it has blowed. We also did a trip to North Wales for an awesome weekend lit on 5-7m kites.
When it hasn't been blowing we have managed a few cable sessions wakeboarding, great alternative for no wind days, and of course a few great sessions on the SUP's.

We have just returned from the National Watersports Festival in Hayling Island where there was very little wind but a great show of kite brands as well as all the usual windsurf ones.
 
We even managed to get a light wind session on the V3 Infinity...a testament to how well this kite works in light winds. For a good while it was the only kite flying upwind in the extreme low winds.

I'm pretty damn sure we have missed loads more but thats enough for now and we will update with more info when we remember what else we have done!