The Blast Frozen Jam

Well, that went well!

After an epic few weeks back in January, it all went a bit erm pete tong in February with only the odd good day popping up so as we approached the annual Frozen Jam weekend here in Porthcawl it didn't look that promising, in fact it looked positively sh*t!

However as the weekend got closer there was a glimmer of hope with a chance of a breeze and sunshine on Sunday at least.

Several people contacted us to cancel they're trip and it started to get a little gloomy, however on Saturday we arrived at Rest Bay Porthcawl to find a great group of keen and hardy reps from kite brands around the UK who'd made the effort to attend. Soon there were loads of both local(ish) kiters but also plenty who'd made big treks to attend!

The day was spent catching up with friends and checking over all the lovely "kiteporn" on offer form the likes of ..........

Star Kites, Blade Kites, Epic Kites, JN Kites, Flexifoil, Axis Boards and Blankforce Boards

There was a huge BBQ running all day with the usual assortment of burgers, sausages and of course a few Tesco's special offers of horse meat.

After we'd packed up the huge amount of 30 plus kites on show we headed back to Blast HQ for a cuppa or two from where we walked the short distance to the Esplanade in Porthcawl for a meal and a few bevies ...a few to many for some!

There were over two dozen out that eve but only a few stupid/drunk enough to carry on to Streets Night Club....if you've seen "The Valleys" you'll have a good idea!

So, Saturday we met all bushy tailed, well most of us, at Coney Beach this time..and it looked promising  The winds were cross off at first but as the tide dropped back it started to improve and also increase considerably.

Most people were on 9-12m's, I reckon I would have been better on a 7m personally ;-)

Photo by local photog: Kevin Thomas

 I even managed a good while on the water too!

Once we'd all filled our boots (some took a lot of filling as many hadn't been in for as long as 5 months) we warmed up in the Hi Tide bar right on the beach.

This gave us a chance to thank everyone for making the effort to come in person but also to dish out a few little prizes for some random stuff like.........

Youngest Rider...Owen - progression DVD and 1-2-1 tuition with Blast Kiteboarding

Most rescued...Andy from Coventry... fortunately his board not so much him! - T.Shirt..windsurfing is a bit shit!

Best waveriding...Neil  - Epic T'Shirt

Most hardcore - Gareth - Blade Flask

Biggest wipeout  Tom busted ribs and a trip to A&E but all fine, set of  "L" plates

Oldest kiter, our very own Terry just pipping Harry  70 somin' plus!! - Mystic Poncho

Biggest boosting..Martyn - (he was on an Epic Screamer though) ;-) - Epic Cap

Longest on the water Steve P - Epic T'shirt

Shortest Time on the water Abi  - Blade Pump

Furthest upwind Dave - T.Shirt..windsurfing is a bit shit!

Oldest retro kite - Ade - Blade T'shirt

Big shout to the sponsors who supported this event....

JN/Epic/Blade/Axis/Blankforce/Flexifoil/Mystic/Star 

Finally, a huge huge thank you to all that came along, got involved, helped out and made The Blast Frozen Jam the success that it truly was, especially Ade for pumping SO many kites up over the w/end.

What a start to the year!

What a truly awesome month January turned out to be.....first we had pumping surf (but iffy winds) then an all time classic snow kiting in the Welsh Brecon Beacons and finally it went out with a bang with some epic grinding peeling point break surf.

Rest Bay, Porthcawl Jan 12th

 See Blog below for more on the snow kiting!

And finally...the Welsh Point Breaks turned it on big time!

We are blessed with not just one point break but two right on our door step here in S.Wales. I have been lucky enough to have lived and surfed both of these spots most of my life and now I get to combine my 

The Welsh Alps

What an awesome week we've had here in S.Wales!
How many places can you snowboard/kite/surf all in one day?

My leg was still in the cast from recently breaking it six weeks ago but it felt strong enough so I was not going to miss out on a rare day of snowboarding/snowkiting. So a small group headed up for a snowboard session on the hills around the Beacons. We arrived pretty early to find the main snow slope  with only a handful of people making the most of the untracked slopes.

After a few hours snowboarding we drove a few miles further up the A470 where we met a few other kiters there making the most the fresh snow. I had a good few runs on a mates kite/board and the leg felt even better than it was snowboarding....giving me more confidence if we were to have another dump of snow.

 Snowboarding in the Beacons

Followed by a sweet snowkite session.

 

 Another awesome SUP session in Porthcawl in between the dumps of snow.

On Tuesday we had a day showing off kitesurfing at the RAF Health and wellbeing exhibition, whilst we were there it was constantly dumping a fresh lot of snow especially up on the mountains.

My wingman Andy9Lives txt me early the next morning and we rushed up to Storey Arms where we found blue skies and up to waist deep fresh snow. It was a very long slog up to the top of Pen-Y-Fan especially as my cast had only been removed two days earlier.

What followed was easily one of the most memorable days kiting we both have ever had. We both took seven metre kites up but soon realised that this was way too small for the approx. 10knots of wind we had. 

We had a few hours in the super soft crystalised powder before heading back down to the car park, the treck down turned out to be the best part of the day as we found super soft smooth powder all the way down.

 Andy and I heading back to base camp.

 Austria, France, Switzerland..Nope Wales!

Once back at the cars we rushed back home to Porthcawl....forty minutes later we were at Rest Bay with a nice clean 3-4 feet breaking into the bay.

Anyway here's a vid of the last day we had

As I'm writing this we are about to get hit by a BIG swell from the Atlantic so we're hoping to get plenty of wave riding sessions over the next few days.

New Year....but lots of Blast group trips to look forward to!

Been a while since the last blog but we have not been idle!
Sarah has been super busy sorting accomodation/flights etc for the three main Blast Group Kite Trips...

First we're off to Hatteras, USA in May, then in June/July we're heading off to our regular spot in Northern Portugal and then finally in November we head off once again to Brazil......so which one do you want to join us on??
 
These trips are all about FUN, you do NOT have to be a minimum standard (although it obviuosly helps to get most of the trip if you can ride upwind) We take the hassle out of booking a kite trip and take you to some of the best spots in  the world!

We have done all three trips many times and even we'd hate to have to choose between them, they are all awesome in their own right!

Lots more info here:

http://www.blastkiteboarding.co.uk/index.php?_a=viewCat&catId=9

http://blast.forumotion.com/f1-holidays-events

We know where to go, when to go, where the best spots are, and where the best places are to eat. You'll be surrounded by others just like you, keen to kite in beautiful places and have a laugh and learn new stuff as well.
Marc & Sarah are both fully qualified BKSA Instructors with over 20 years kitesurfing bewteen them with Marc being British Wave Champ and Sarah runner up in the Ladies so we are also well placed to offer advice and coaching during the trips whether it's freestyle or surf!

If your in the least bit interested get in touch now as we are arranging accomodation NOW for the trips and places are filling up quick!

info@blastkiteboarding.co.uk

2012 .............What A Year!

Thought I'd do a review of the year as it's fast aproaching 2013

Where do I start, it's been such an amazing year packed with so many good times but I guess I'll just start at the begining.

We kicked off the year with a snowboard trip to Italy with a great group all keen snowboarders, we had a gerat few days and made the most of what off piste powder we could find (I wrote off my beloved LibTech Snowboard after hitting some rocks)

Even the snowboarding trips are Epic!

Just one of the many vids from one of our snowboarding trips.

SKA WAVE JAM

We then had another snowboard Trip to vivit my eldest daughter in les Arcs as she was working the season there with Hucksters whom we have been running trips with for about 10years plus.

February saw the first of our link ups with the SKA (Student Kiting Association) for the annual Wave Jam in Porthcawl, unfortunately  there was very little wind but that never stops this lot from having an memorable weekend!

Pre-Season session with the RNLI

Pre-Kite season we ran a session with the RNLI who were all super enthusiastic to find out more about kitesurfing and in particular the equipment we use...this would prove important for the coming season when they had numerous kite related call outs.

RNLI Porthcawl Station

We ran our usual Frozen Jam event but this year because of so much other stuff it was held in late March but it was still pretty good to be doing it in the warm sunshine we had on Coney Beach for that weekend.

2012 was the year of the Video for us here at Blast...we did so many and by April I was begining to get the hang of it all a bit better. We have now done approx 70 Vids in the past year alone....I love it!

May saw our first Kite Trip...out to Hatteras USA on the Outer Banks and where Epic Kites are based...the conditions were as always EPIC

Hatteras Slicks...OBX

Just some of the kite loaned to us from Epic Kites!

A vid from the Hatteras Trip

Dimitri at Epic lent us a total of eleven kites plus many boards and harness's etc and showed us many of the best spots to kite in this amazing location, doing some amazing downwinders in both the slicks and on the ocean.
Once back home we were all in full "teaching" mode with a full diary of students booked in....this past year we have had so many amazing students who have gone on to become fully fledged totally addicted kitesurfers!

 

Portugal - Kite Looping

Portugal - Small perfect surf

Our next Blast Kiteboarding Trip was to our regular spot in Portugal...our 5th time there now and it never dissapoints (although the second week was a bit lacking in wind this time)

We did have plenty of  amazing sessions though...both flat water and waves. The accomodation was once again fanatstic and also as usual so were those that came on the trip.....

check the video here for more insight.

Portugal Trip 2012

Live on Breakfast TV

In August we had a call from the BBC wanting to do a feature on kitesurfing live on Breakfast TV, so a day or so later at 6.30am there were around 10 kiters already all set up and ready to rip down on Coney Beach, Porthcawl. The BBC interviewed both Sarah and myself and the programme went out live both nationally here in the UK but also world wide too.
 

Sarah's interview Live on BBC BREAKFAST

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My Stag w/end in West Wales - I like diving!

September saw Sarah and my wedding, the day simply could not have been better, great freinds, family even the weather was great.
We had to wait only a day or two and then we set off for our honeymoon in Brazil.
Two weeks of solid 7m weather and just a pair of shorts and rash vests to keep the sun off!
Whilst in Brazil we met up with a few good freinds from home but also met loads of cool new friends along the way.
It was my third trip to Brazil and it NEVER dissapoints.

Brazil Video

Dark Slide

Kiteloop

Sarah ripping in Brazil

In Brazil we mixed up our sessions with plenty of downwinders in the surf and flat water freestyle sessions also as we both love each. I managed to get my high kite loops down plus dark slides so was stoked and Sarah was ripping on her surfboard in the nice warm waves on some epic downwinders.

As soon as we arrived home we drove down to Devon for the British Wavemasters Championships in Westwood HO, it was very much a last minute descision but as it turned out it truly was the best choice.
Sarah hurt her knee on her first session which set her back but she kept on kiting righ through to the end coming 2nd in the Ladies Open.

The surf was called the biggest swell the UK had had for over two years, it was fantastic conditions with a cross off wind from the left..both of our least favoured. I managed to work my way all the way to the final meeting good mate and huge rival Trevor but this was to be my moment and after a few years trying I eventually came 1st and became Senior Bristish Champion.

Interview on the NBC Weather Channel

Dimitri and I enjoying Hurricane Sandy

The hurricane caused huge damege to the east coast of the USA.  the worst ever!

Unfortunately we coouldn't hang around for the prize giving as I was off again this time back to Hatteras USA for the Epic Dealers week. This turned into two weeks couteous of Hurricane Sandy!

However it was an amazing few weeks taking advantage of the huge swell and mental winds we had at times....I even got interviewd following a 17mile downwinder in huge surf...on the Weather Channel.

Photo : ExPix

The SKA Nationals in Westwood Ho

Because I was held up with Sandy in the USA Sarah took over running the SKA Beginners weekend at the begining of November.

Another top weekend with the SKA In November we headed back to Westwood Ho for yet another SKA event, this time the SKA National Titles....man were they lucky.

Saturday arrived...120 students and zero wind however out of no where the wind picked up to around 20knots.

A brilliant day of kiting followed and an even better Saturday night.








Sadly since then things have gone a little off track, Sarah's little mishap at the British Wavemasters resulted in her requiring a new ACL so off to hospital she went a week later and is now on crutches.

I then had a few weeks in our "off" season in some sweet early winter conditions...and generally loving being able to kite all our local spots as and when they fired.

Unfortunately it was my turn for a mishap and crashed a high kiteloop landing and ruptured my ankle ligaments and snapped my fibula. I

t looked like I was going to need an operation also but hopefully now this is not needed...so now we are both on crutches hobbling around for Christmas BUT it is still the best year we have ever had here at Blast. I plan to be back on the water by late January with Sarah due back by April.


Since then we have been getting down the beach still as much as we can taking photo's of the regulars and offering tips.  We have also been working away on our website and all the plans to make 2013 as great a year as '12 was, a hard task hey!
See previous blog's below!

As well as all the great students and lessons we have had all year we have also grown the sales side of Blast with many of our products now selling across much of Europe not just nationally. Obviously we sell a lot of Epic and Blankforce but we have seen a huge increase in sales of Mystic wetsuits/harness's and accessories. Another hugely successfull product has been the Dynabar sliding spreader bar...anyone who rides waves while kiting should get one!

We have plenty more items in the pipeline for 2013 but we will continue to work closely with the brands we have already built a strong bond with so far.

So finally...thankyou all so much for helping make this one amazing year.

Cheers everyone!