This time we were greeted with loads of wind Thursday, Friday and Saturday, which allowed all the competitions to go though without a hitch.
On Friday it was the turn of the professionals - they got through all the heats pretty swiftly, only for the wind to drop down for the finals, which was postponed for an hour or two, while waiting for the wind to pick up again. When it got underway again Ali Barrett scored a popular win after failing to progress from the heats in the previous competition.
When Saturday came, it was the turn of the amateurs - starting off with the juniors, youths and girls, as the wind was forecast to pick up during the day.
Soon enough it was my turn to compete, and had drawn Marcus and Jordan in my heat, the wind was blowing in the high teens, and water fairly flat with small wavelets. I landed a few decent tricks including an S-Bend and a downloop frontloop transition, but failed to land some others, inlcuding a railey to blind and a tantrum. As the results came through we were told that Marcus went straight through to the final, with me second and Jordan last (who really went for some big tricks but failed to land them).
The losers heat was about an hour later, in which it was time for me to struggle - the wind had picked up and the sea state was much rougher - I failed to land anything decent, and it was no great surprise to hear that I placed last - I just couldn't handle the onshore chop common on the west coast.
When I practice I always seek out the flattest most ideal spot to do my tricks in, which is all well and good, but doesn't really help when you could be landed with any conditions in a competition scenario. I'm going to force myself to practice in onshore mush, waves etc. in future, as its not just what trick you can land, its what conditions you can land it in.
I also got the opportunity to try course racing, along with quite a few others of the freestyle crew who decided to give it a go. I guessed I'd have a fairly good shot at it, as I had my trusty 15m Chrono to power me along :) After we had the briefing and got down onto the water, there were supposed to be 4 buoys which marked out the course, yet unfortunately I could only see 3 of them - so decided my best option was to find someone who knew what he was doing, and follow him :) The start went off fine, was a little behind the front men but no problem there, got through the 'gate' and followed everybody upwind. after several MINUTES of going up wind I could finally see the fourth buoy - about half a mile further upwind than where I currently was, my heart sank a little :) I managed to round the upwind mark, and head back directly downwind to the start (which in marginal winds is a lot more difficult than you think).
By this time a load of the other freestylers had given up, and I think I was the only person on a non-raceboard remaining. Having completed the course the first time, the second was much easier.
I think I was the first twin-tip over the line, but haven't seen the results.
By the end of Saturday I was pretty nacked - but beer had to be drank, and merriment had to be had after going to the red-bull BBQ.
Results-wise it was another poor event, but I'm learning more and more that competition isn't as straightforward as you'd expect. I was told when I first started that I should expect to do poorly in my first events, and I'm beginning to learn why now :)
The events are always a good craic, and it was good to see some local north-east riders make the trip over too, bring on the next one in bonnie Scotland!
