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.