TamsinGreen.net

The surf up here has been pretty consistent considering it is summer. We have had some great sessions at some of our most beautiful breaks. At the beginning of this week a huge swell hit. We surfed a local reef where the sets were coming in between 12 and 14ft. It would have been fine if they were a little more predictable, they were not so we had some great rides and some major kickings! Tuesday night was a classic as the swell died we had an amazing surf in warm sunshine on fast steep waves - perfect.

At the beginning of June we headed South again for the last big comp. before the Homes and World Cup in September. It was a fantastic event with some great waves. I was really pleased to win the women’s event but even more delighted to come 9th in the men’s event. It was also a good opportunity to try our new van on a long trip (very long it took 11.5 hours to get there, the worst journey yet!).

I have just returned from a great weekend in Mundaka at the European Championships. We had lovely weather and good waves for the event. I was really pleased to win the comp and qualify for the world cup in September. Hopefully I can build on this success through out the rest of the year.

I was nominated in February for the Women’s Sports Personality of the year award from our local council. I was really pleased to be nominated and feel the work I have done to promote surf kayaking has been recognised in our local area has been recognised. I won the award which was fantastic, it is good that surf kayaking was recognised along side main stream sports.

In february we 2007 British Championships were finally held in the North East. The weather was sunny but freezing, a bit of a shock for the South West visitors! The event was very successful an attracted a number of new people to competition which was one of our main aims. Huge thanks has to go to the people who supported the event, all the competitors, Northumberland CC and Druridge Bay for letting us use the site, Buff for continuing to support surf kayaking so brilliantly, DB and Valley for bringing demo boats and prizes and Mega for supporting the event and providing a boat as a prize.

The idea was to keep my blog updated through out the world championships. Due to intermittent wi fi, charging issues for the lap top and extreme tiredness it did not happen. We surfed our way down France and into Spain in preparation for the competition. The surf was initially small and inconsistent but did pick up to allow us to get some good practice in before the event. It was great to be able to surf hard and be able to temper my training to ensure that i would reach my peak as the competition strsaving energy for the event itself - definetely something which I need to practice more!! I was fun to have team surfs and meet up with the whole team before the comp. The event started on the Friday with registration boat checks and finally an address by the mayor of Bakio and a parade through the town.

The competition was very hard work. The surfed was inconsistent through out the week which is something you always have to accept but makes adjusting to the different conditions from heat to heat hard. I chose to surf both short and long boats individually and was selected to do the same for the team. This mean I had a large paddling commitment.

I achieved three 1st and a 2nd for the team which contributed to us getting into the team final where we came 4th a fantastic achievement for a team with a large number of competitors which were at their first World Championships.

I went out in the semis in both short and long boat. In the long boat I was delighted to get so far as I have rarely surfed the IC boats. My short boat semi was hard and in difficult waves. I did not surf my best but hoped I had done enough to get 2nd , Unfortunately it was by 0.5 points that I missed out.

I was very disapointed to go out before the final but with a little hind sight am less so. I have only been competing in the sport for a year and still have a lot to learn about the art of competition. I have had some amazing results in that time and coming 5th at the Worlds has to be one of them! Loosing something you care about and have work at for so long is incredibly hard however sometimes loosing makes you realise what you have to do to succeed and gives you the drive to work even harder. I have never doubted I can surf as well as anyone what I now need to work on further is my competition skill.

Good things come to those who wait so watch this space….

I am hoping to be able to reflect on my achievements and sort out a plan of action for improving my results in the future. The next year is going to be busy. The major event for the year is going to be the World Cup. The initial stage is qualifiying for the finals which I am looking forward to! I have just been elected onto the new English Surf Kayak Committee which is exciting. Hopefully the committee will be able to raise the profile of the sport in England further and work towards rasing funds for those who compete. England and Portugal were successfull in bidding to run the next World Championships in 2009 to be held in Portugal. Dan is on the organising committee so I am sure I will end up involved too.

There are lots of people fired up to bring this sport far more into the public eye with new and exciting ideas, I intend to be up there with them driving the womens side of the sport partucularly.

We have just returned for a week in Cornwall surfing. We had a good week down there although the surf was accompanied by a harsh on shore wind for much of the time we were there. I was good to get to the South West for more than a weekend and explore some new areas. We went down to do some filming to create a short video for my new sponsors FLOW GROUP. It was actually quite good fun trying to surf along side Dan wearing a helmet cam and apart from one crash was successful! The filming went well and although the surf was less than perfect Adj made the waves look good and has put together a really effective 3 min video. Click below to see the results