Back on the old ski

First surf back home from Bali and I decide to get the old ski out to compare with the new model. Well guess what, as much as the new ski rips the old one rips a little better and its coming with me to Portugal. Its so good to have all these great toys to play with. Check out yesterdays action

Back on the old ski

Home from Bali

Scored some great waves again in Bali. Over the 20 days I was was there the swell ranged from 2 to 6 ft peaking on the last day with an epic session out on middle break. I got to surf every day and ventured out to Cangu, Ulu's, Padang Padang and the Kuta Outer reefs, I must have caught at least 600 waves if not more. Might have to go back again next year.

Photos by Ming here

Bali

Well I,ve been in Bali now for 10 days the surfs been ok around 3 feet on the outer reefs most of time. The last 2 days the the swell jacked up to 5-6 with some bigger bomb sets. Will post some pics when I get home, nothing from the big day though as the boat guy wasn't prepared to park in a good spot.

Session from the archives

Trolling through the old tapes I came across this gem from 10 years ago. The beach break was at Twin Waters on Queensland's Sunshine Coast. A few airs were had this day.

Check out the action here

TL Waveskis

Tyler Lausten the current US waveski No1 has been producing to TL branded waveski now for a few years and has come up with some pretty high performance designs. Check his website out www.tlwaveskis.com. Tyler was unlucky at Santa Cruz last year coming 4th although Fletcher Burton took the title on one of his latest designs.

Some action from Santa Cruz TL Waveskis

Matt and Caro at Santa Cruz 2010

Two of the best waveski exponents in the world ventured over to Santa Cruz last year scoring some great waves. Will Portugal this year give them the world title double, maybe. Here's a little bit of what we can expect.

Matt and Caro at Santa Cruz 2010

a little bit from Bakio 2001

Some action from the start of the 2001 World Waveski Titles in Bakio. Darren Kearns convincingly won this competition on a borrowed ski after the Bakio shore break snapped his old faithful in two.

Best quality here

2 days at Broken Head

With a nice 3ft swell running I decided to head down to Nth NSW for a couple of days to get the hours up on the waveski. Ever consistent Broken Head was the spot and I certainly had my fair share of great waves. Hooked up with Darren and Liam on Saturday for a few more fun waves, Darren sporting a new Rampage "disco ball" replacing the one that got away in Santa Cruz.

Pics by Ming check them out here

Lots of paddling

Certainly got a paddle workout today, Currumbin with a 25knot southerly and a strong sweep. No real air sections just some big fat walls to carve on.

a few pics by Ming here

The long road to Portugal

I cant believe its been 5 months since I sat on the waveski at the US open in Ventura. Well the Kayak is now on the rack until the end of August and training for the Waveski Worlds now starts in earnest. My first surf at Fingal yesterday was a bit sketchy but still managed a few big moves, paddling is such a bitch compared to the Kayak I think I need to lose some weight.

A couple of pics here

2011 Santa Cruz (USA) PaddleFest "survivalfest"

50 knot onshore winds, rain squalls, hail and 15feet + surf, would you go out? Talk about victory at sea this was crazy stuff. For the first time in 25 years the conditions beat the contest which finished up on Saturday as organisers thought the infrastructure wouldn't survive on Sunday. Galen surfed smart again to take the main prize. I needed a score of 66 in my Saturday heat to take the win but fell just short with a 63. I did get to surf Steamer Lane all by myself though. The article in the Santa Cruz Sentinel says it all, check it out here

A few waves on the Gold Coast

In between watching a few heats of the Quicksilver Pro I managed a to get a few waves in at Greenmount and Fingal in final preparation for Santa Cruz.

Pics by Ming here

Quicksilver Pro 2011

Each year we usually go down to Snapper Rocks on the Gold Coast and check out the surfing action from the first event of the ASP World Tour. Kelly Slater once again showed everyone who's king and won the competition in some classic surf. In some unbelievable surfing from the girls Carrisa Moore edged out Tyler Wright in the women's final.

Check out the action here

An interview with John "Christo" Christensen

Things just wouldn't be the same without John Christensen's contribution's to the sport of waveski surfing. The interview might be 20 years old but gives a great insight into one of the greatest competitors the sport will ever see. The cover shot is of Simon Ramsay a talented young rider in the 90's

Check it out here

Random boys at play

John McGrath put this great video together of some craziness out at Old Woman Island. This is not somewhere you want to go for a swim.

Check it out here

Surf Ski Quarterly

Back in the late 80's early 90's Dave Butler and John Christensen produced Surf Ski Quarterly a magazine dedicated to waveski surfing. I just happen to have a few copies lying around so I thought I'd scan a few articles in to relive the glory days of the sport. Here's an interview with Col Samways who's still going full steam ahead with Wavemaster. By the way thats Craig Dinning on the front cover who still rips on his ski around the South Sydney area

Check it out here

The Role

If you don't have enough speed to get the tail around for a re-entry or the wave's just not co-operating there's always the chance to turn the manoeuvre into a role. It's pretty much just doing an eskimo role on the face of the wave to regain the inside rail.

Check it out here. Pics by Ming

Foam Flick

When the wave has shut down in front of you and you still have speed there is a chance you can pull off a re-entry over the whitewater. Aim your kayak or waveski where the whitewater meets the lip throwing everything into it. Its important you pivot around the paddle and also use it to hold onto the wave. An extra paddle stroke might be needed to complete the manoeuvre.

Check it out here. Pics by Ming

4 days on the Sunny Coast

Checked coastalwatch.com.au on thursday morning and the waves were coming. Caught up with the Random boys at the factory in the afternoon but they were way too busy making boats for a wave, Alex was pushing 3 feet so went in for a late one. The next morning Maroochydore was pushing 4 to 5 feet and Darren and I had some classic rides, we followed this up with another 2 hours at Moffat beach Caloundra, all surfed out by 12. Saturday it was back at Alex with the Random crew which meet every week for a kayak session, 3 to 4 feet and glassy, that afternoon the North Easter picked up so I headed over to Kawana which was still around 4 feet. Sunday and the swell had dropped to 2 to 3 feet but still managed a 2 hour session at Maroochydore. Over 10 hours in the water, Ming matched that behind the camera, check it all out here

Time to start planning for Portugal

With less than 6 months to go to the world waveski titles in Santa Cruz Portugal its time to get things sorted. Air France seem to have the cheapest flights from Australia anyway although they just went up $200 from a month ago to $2500, these are only going to go up particularly with whats happening in the middle east and oil prices. Santa Cruz gets busy around Ocean Spirit time and accommodation becomes scarce, the Hotel Praia Azul is not a bad spot to stay about 5km south of the action right on the beach about 90 euro's per night. Santa Cruz is about 1 hr drive from Lisbon airport, your going to need a vehicle, you can pick one up through economycarrentals.com starting at $30 per day. Finally you need to register, go to worldwaveski.com print out the forms, fill them in, scan them and email them back. It will cost you $275 to enter 2 divisions including the association fee, I used the paypal option which was pretty painless, remember you will also need to be affiliated with your countries national body. I almost forgot bring some money to party with as Ocean Spirit is party central.

Santa Cruz (USA) PaddleFest less than 4 weeks away

Here's the latest from the Contest director Dennis Judson.

Paddle Powered Surf People,
The contest is about to turn on the key-here is the trailer of the event to get you excited. URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5d1B-f8Hq5U&hd=1 It was produced by our videographer, Mikko, with a head cam GoPro of Galen at Davenport with snippets of last year’s excitement. You know the start of the event begins on the Wednesday the 16th, March 2011 @ Jim & Betty Crandall’s. Here they play host to all the paddle surfers from around the globe. They will feed you with every comfort food known to US folks. Here’s their invitation:
Dennis,
You can put us down for dinner for the world at 450 Cox Rd., Aptos at 6.pm on Wednesday of contest week. Don't know menu yet. Bring your own drinks.
Later,
Jim, Bettie, and Debbie Crandall
Join them and help them keep the left-overs at a minimum and listen to every big wave story of 2010 from around the planet.

Dennis Judson

Sunday Session

After 2 weeks on the snowboard in Canada it was great to get back into the water again. Going from -10 to +30 was a bit of a shock to the system as well as my arms going a bit soft but there were a few nice ramps at my local break to cut loose on.

Pics by Ming. Check out the action here

Ming scores 2nd & 3rd in Kayaksurf's photo of the year

Throughout the year if Ming gets a good shot we'll send it over to Luis at kayaksurf.net. Two of her best made the grade, check them out here

Nikki Castens crazy move Bakio 2001

The first heat of the 2001 Waveski Worlds at Bakio was delayed for 20 mins with the guys out the back ready to go. Nikki Castens thought he'd catch a few waves in the mean time and landed this crazy move.

2005 Aussie Waveski Titles

Trawling through all my old disks I came across an interesting one and threw it in the computer. A few great pics from the 2005 Australian Wavesi Titles held at Emerald Beach Coffs Harbour, the same beach as the 2009 world titles. Check them out here

Luis Pedro Abreu

Is the man behind www.kayaksurf.net. He also backs up the site with a facebook page http://www.facebook.com/kayaksurf.net. Its a one stop shop for all your Surf Kayak and Waveski news from around the world.

Windy Moffat Beach

Caught up with a good mate of mine Mike Marsh and his son Geoff a handy bodyboarder for a surf at Moffat Beach on Queensland's Sunshine Coast today. It was a good 4 feet but a 20 knot onshore was onto it early. Oh well when you drive for and hour and a half you go out no matter what. Ming got a few pics but the camera wasn't happy, check them out here

Box of Gold

The Box of Gold was a project I undertook a few years ago to convert Rees Duncan's old VHS waveski footage to digital and pick the eyes out of the best stuff for a movie. The movie was sold through waveski surfing australia as a fundraiser, thanks everyone for the support. Well I've just converted, compressed and uploaded the whole 25min movie onto vimeo, although the compression has cut the other riders names and places out which is a bit of a bugger. The majority of the footage is of Rees in the 1990's. Sit back and watch the whole thing its unreal. The link is here

Taking the Renegade for a spin

Its Australia Day and that means lots of traffic to get to the beach. I decided to get the Random Renegade out, my 3m finless IC long boat and take it for a spin down on the Gold Coast. I had to settle for Main Beach at Surfers Paradise as I couldn't even get to my local break. For me this boat is a real challenge to ride well, its so critical to hold the inside rail or your up for an unplanned flat spin. The speed is a real buzz though, its easily the fastest thing I've ever ridden a wave with. Ming had the camera out, pics are here

The reo

The re-entry or reo is one of the core moves everyone should try and master. Similar to the aerial but the projection is at the lip. The landing can be a little tricky as the force of the wave is right with you. check this one out as something to go by here

Action from the Spit 24 Jan 2011

Scored a few good waves today at my local check it all out here

Alex Headlands session 23rd Jan 2011

Terry Petch, Darren Bason, Damien Vickery and myself were up at the crack of dawn for and early session at Alex Headlands this morning. The surf was around 3-4 feet but still brown and murky from all this rain we don't need anymore. All the boys were pulling of some big moves but the poor light wasn't the best for the camera. Ming got a few shots though check them out here

New waveski action

Looks like Travis Best has been at it again check out his latest piece of work here

So who are the past waveski champions of the world?

The most definitive list can be found here

and of course you can review all the action and results of the 2009 world titles at Coffs Harbour Australia here

Caroline Angibaud is the greatest competitor of all time with 8 titles to her name. Rees Duncan is still the man to beat and rumour has it his shoulder is fixed and he's training for Portugal.

Corkscrew air

To perform this manoeuvre you need to launch into the air and complete a 360 degrees role, rolling towards the beach and landing back onto the face of the wave. The main difficulty here is keeping straight as rolling tends to swing the tail around as well. Check the following 2 video clips of Nigel Bryant and Andre Burger showing us how it should be done.

Nigel & Andre

The Lip flick

Another variation on the re-entry is the lip flick. I position this move between the aerial and lip role, you're too late to get above the wave but not too late to resort to a lip role. Once you hit the lip you flick your hips so your backside is facing the beach and kayak is standing vertical. Your momentum should then bring the tail down to the base of the wave without nosediving. Slide the nose around quickly to escape the pitching lip.

Sequence here

Photos by ming

Tail flick re-entry

When you dont have enough speed or the wave isn't pitching in front of you then the re-entry or reo is the manoeuvre of choice. Flicking the tail out at the critical point will make the manoeuvre look a little more radical.

Sequence here

Photos by Ming

Team Random at Tea Tree Bay Noosa

Terry Petch, Darren Bason and myself scored a few nice log rides at Tea Tree bay Noosa heads as the big swell continued to push through on Quenslands Sunshine Coast. Darren was also riding the new Rampage, a low volume kayak for riders around Darren's size.

pics here

video here

Photos and Video by Ming

The lip role

This is what I call a manoeuvre of last resort. You've got plenty of speed but your going to be too late to make the section and want to do something to finish off the wave. Following a hard bottom turn climb the face at a lesser angle then when doing an aerial. Hit the lip almost parallel to it and twist your body to start rolling. Land backwards at the bottom of the wave and lean forward to prevent the tail digging in. Slide the nose around either way depending on how your balanced.

Here's one I landed at Noosa on the weekend

Kayak session Noosa Heads Sunday Jan 16

When the surfs on at Noosa the crowd turns up, 300-400 at National Park which means you need to fight for your waves. I had my fair share so I cant really complain too much except for getting dropped in on and washed up onto the rocks, the real scary thing was the next wave that got me while I was parked there.

Check out the pics and video

Photos and footage by Ming

Santa Cruz online registrations now available

Better get in quick this competition is bound to sell out

Link is here

A few shots from Ocean Spirit 2009

As we head for the world waveski titles at Ocean Spirit 2011 in Portugal a few pics from 2009 to get us into the mood.

Photos by Ming

pics here

Roundhouse cutback

Another great repositioning manoeuvre while you search for an air section. The first turn again needs to be performed at speed to make negotiating the whitewater section a little easier. Full commitment into the whitewater will also improve your chances of making it.

Filmed at the 2010 Santa Cruz USA paddlefest by Ming

Kayak hack

When you've got heaps of speed but no lip in front of you why not consider doing a hack manoeuvre. This is a really tight turn where all the speed and energy is expended in a small space. To generate a nice fan the kayak needs to get horizontal to the wave face. Check the sequence to see how its done.

Photos by Ming

Pics here

Waveski's flying left

More air action this time going left, the usual suspects 10 different riders can anyone give me their names? The last 3 sequences were water shots taken by Fletcher Burton at the world titles in Coffs Harbour, awesome perspective.

Photos by Ming and Fletcher

pics here

Getting that Kayak flying

The fundamentals of the aerial manoeuvre are the same for both kayak and waveski. The 3 critical things I see are speed, timing and releasing the inside rail, get one of these wrong and your sinuses are in for a flushing.

This is what I try to do

1. Trim high and identify the section your going to launch off

2. Drop down the face lay over onto the inside rail and bottom turn

3. As you climb up the face release the inside rail, get you paddle to the other side of the kayak and connect with the lip

4. You should hit the pitching lip of the wave with the flat base of the kayak in the seat area, too early and your over the back, too late and your through the lip.

5. Launch into the air leaving your paddle connected with the wave face.

6. Pivot yourself around the paddle and lean back for landing.

7. Land with your weight centred and slightly back to avoid nosediving

good luck

Here's one I prepared earlier

Two of the best

When if comes to choosing a waveski or kayak you cant go past the Wavemaster Custom and Random Evolution, both are at the cutting edge of high performance designs. You wont be disappointed.

Here are 2 of my toys

Why not Bali for your next surf adventure

Most years Ming and I will get over to Bali for a couple of weeks around May - June when the winds are offshore on the Kuta side of the island. We usually stay at the Febris a modest little hotel about 3min walk to the beach in front of Kuta Reef. I have found the stretch of reef between Airport Lefts and Kuta Reef to be very consistent with about 6 different take off points so you can get away from the crowd if it starts to build up. Last year I surfed 14 days straight with the surf ranging from 3 to 6 feet and Ming captured a couple of great shots from the boat.

check them out here

Team Random confirmed for Santa Cruz USA

Darren Bason and myself are heading over the Santa Cruz in March for the 25th annual paddlefest. Darren will be defending his IC crown while I'll be trying to improve on my 3rd place in the HP division. Its such a rare thing to be able to surf steamer lane with only 3 other guys out and if the waves come like last year we're in for another treat.

Official site here

Pics from 2010 here

Video here

Footage by Ming

Getting that photo published

Recently I was contacted by Pat Kinsella the editor of Outer Edge Magazine who was chasing a surf kayak photo for a double page spread in the Dec-Jan issue. Piece of cake so I thought. These guys want quality, 300ppi, big action off centre and lots of detail. Ming's shooting Jpegs at 72ppi which basically means the shots got to be perfect. Of the 20 best photos I sent Pat (and I've got thousands) only 1 just cut it, a hand held shot from the Southport sand pumping jetty of myself doing a right hand aerial. Ideally you need something like a Canon 1D mark 4 with a 300mm 2.8 prime lens shooting in raw format , anyone with a spare $12k.

Scanned pic here

Mutual Addiction availaible for download

Xaver aka subgraviti has converted Mutual Addiction to digital format and has made it available for download here. The movie is based around to 2000 world waveski titles at JBay, great waves, big moves and all for about $10 aussie. Get yourself a copy I did

Waveski right hand aerial sequences

What do most people want to do on a waveski? get some air. Here's a few right hand sequences of myself, Nigel Bryant, Dave Dinning and Rees Duncan.

Photos by Ming and Penior

pics here

2008 AWWP waveski event Reunion Island

The AWWP is the association of world waveski professionals. They run a couple of invitational events each year with the top international riders. Here are a few random shots of the guys charging the shallow reef breaks of Reunion Island in 2008

Photos by Ming

pics here

A few highlights from 2010

I thought I'd start this blog with a bit of action from 2010. I travelled a fair bit and scored some great waves along the way, even managed the odd competition.