Arlo

I just love this photo! This is a friend of ours Arlo, one of the usual suspects when its blowing in SA!

Easter Classic - Best yet!

Well the 30th Easter Classic has been run and won. Well I say win, but the classic has become more of a social gathering with three days of free sailing. 112 competitors signed up, $40 entry got you, free beer on the Friday night party, thanks Coopers (burp), also a cool hoodie, t shirts, hats, stickers, money well spent.

Conditions looked promising all week leading up to the event, 4-5 foot waves and solid winds greeted us on the first day, Friday. Kym hit it with the other ladies, Susie and Penny, very impressive considering waves arent the main focus with womens sailing in SA, but they did great, getting out through tricky shore break and showing good wave riding skills, some nice Gybes on the inside, aslo some good impromptu jumping by Kym early on (pity she didnt land the 6-8 foot first air!

Some of the action from Friday

I went out on the Sunday on my 6.7 and Carve 122, didnt get slammed, but was frustrated with no wind on the inside, making geting out, even in 2-3 foot swell tricky. Had a good time though. It was great sailing and listening to the DJ on the beach pumpping out some great tunes all weekend.

112 competitors were made up of about 85 kiters and the rest wind surfers. I want to make special mention of the good vybe in the water and on the beach with both disciplines. Before the comp we were all briefed about safety and wave riding rules etc.... I only saw one tangle for three days sailing, no agro, everyone looking out for each other, bloody good fun. Well done everyone.

Sunday nights prezzo was a great event, held on the grass just out the back of the Caledonean pub. Red Bull put up their tent, they even had little Red Bull podium cans which was a nice touch! Alas I won nothing :( something for me to work on for next year. Kym took 3rd prize, Susie slipped 1st around her neck, closely followed by Penny (who by the way is in Maui the same time as us this July)

Saturday had more of the same, just less swell and a tad less wind, but again some great conditions at 3rd Ramp, Robe.

So another top weekend in Robe / Beachport. Big thanks to Pete from Onboard Surf Shop at Glenelg, the work you put into the sport mate in awesome.....

Susie, 2008 womens Easter Classic winner! Go Susie! (Also a bloody good photographer)

The Girls Podium presentation,

The mens division was hotly contested, 'Macca' won, never met the guy but he rips! I only know Deane who finished 3rd, very tight contest across at least 10 sailors....I now want a wave board!

A few beers and a laugh before the presentation, Kym, Dean and Susie.

Kym finishing up, exhausted after sailing All day on Friday....

Phoebe's sailing is really coming on well, especially with the second hand RRD 160 ltr we just picked up!....Even I gave it a crack, this is my flacka to heli tack, just need some wind and i will be right!

Beachport - Speed weekend

I had last week off work to spend with Phoebe and basically relax. Over the course of three - four days I went to the Zoo, The Museum, 2 kids movies (Bee Movie, Golden Compass), a bike ride along the river and to a Hi Five Concert (hmmmm Charlie). As much as it was relaxing, it sure takes a lot out of you - beats working though :)

We also booked in another weekend at Beachport, our favourite windsurfing destination in South Australia. The KA Sails Windsurfing Speed Challenge was taking place over the long weekend and we were keen to get down and support the event. The wind through the week had been going off, constant 25-35knots all week, so we were looking forward to getting into some of that, but it didnt really go to script! The weather was great, but the wind deserted us to some extent. We had good winds on the Saturday, around the 18-23 knot mark at times, but was really flukey, not good for trying to crack that 30 knot mark (I only pushed out a 23.3 for the weekend - well short of my PB or 28!) Kym struggled with pace as well and concentrated on quantity not quality. She ended up sailing a combined distance of 60 nautical miles for the weekend, not fast, but steady - top speed 23.4knts. One of the local lads, Tim, sailed 102knots on Saturday night alone! Sicko!

Heres a few a photos of the weekend.....

'South Australian Girls Speed Team', Susie, Kym and future world champion Phoebe
The boys settling into a few evening brews, ready to watch the crusty demons style show, the local lads were pretty good motorcross riders, apparently they rode until 3am!

How much gear can you put on a car?

Lake George in all its glory! Where'd the water go?

KA Sails new 'quad boomed' model.....

Dunes near Lake George

TOUR DOWN UNDER!

Adelaide is currently hosting The Tour Down Under, the first pro series cycling race to be held outside of Europe, UCI version anyways, so its a pretty big deal, lots of big Euro teams attending. I had a chance to ride along with Stuart, my co worker and partner in crime for the first leg. As our work was a major sponsor we got to ride on the track in the car convoy before the race and during the warm up. Heres a few pics from the event....

Stuart looking for a bit more power from the SKODA beast! Engine is in the front mate!

Just looks tuff dont it? NOT! 0-100 in 18 seconds!

Lano and Stuart looking resplendent in our Tiser Sunday Mail T-shirts!

1500 Adelaide Now frisbies about to meet their new owners! Sorry to anyone I scored in the nose with these babies!

...Oh, and there was a bike race as well! C'mon, try harder you lards!

Heres my first video effort from bloggers video loader, hope it works!

Wow, two posts in one day, thought I would post up some recent pics....enjoy!

One of the locals saying g'day! He was a big sucker.

Lano and Chez, New Years Eve at the Cobbies! Zoolander poses me thinks...Blue Steel

New Years Day sailing at Murray Mouth, Sugars Beach...beautiful spot

Phoebe catching killer crabs at Sugars!

Nice one Santa, Phoebe with her new 2.0 Ezzy Kids rig, not sure she is ready to tackle the waves on Kyms Evo yet! Lookslike she will be a natural, look at the attempted tack on her first effort! More kids rig windsurfing updates to follow, needless to say, she did very well managed to sail for 4-5 metres first effort!

Phoebe gets some fantastic tuition!

Sailing into the sunset!

Waaaaay too long between drinks!

I am officially the slackest blogger in the world, been spending too much time on facebook and MSN.....oh well, I am back with lots of stories to tell.

Will start off with how much sailing we have done lately! Due to the poor condition of the River Murray lake sailing has been hard to do - need water. I was very upset to see people walking and riding bikes on the area of Goolwa lake where we sail, where I learned to sail as well!



Here's Kym sailing in the channel on a south westerly.

We have started sailing at the Coorong, Sugars beach, end of the Murray River. Its nice to sail in sea water, very refreshing. Some excellent speed sailing conditions at Sugars as well. I cracked a 28 knot run on Sunday, much to Kym's disgust, as her personal best was only 26.2 knots :) Who says we arent competitive?

I have made significant improvements with my sailing this summer, successfully completing at least 8 gybes this year alone.....woot!

City to Bay

Every year we here in Adelaide have a fun run from the city centre to the beach, Glenelg. I have never been a big runner, so never been interested in running the C2B. Over the last 9-10 weeks our work team, Agency Team, have been training our arses off, running approxiamately 18-25kms a week in an effort to build up to the 12kms that is the C2B! I even bought new shoes and comtemplated buying running and fitness magazines, but stuck with just getting some tips from gym instructors and the online tips from our generous employer!
Race day came up pretty quick, I was confident of making the distance, due to the fact I had accidently run the 12km distance twice, thinkning I was only running about 8kms! Lucky Im not an accountant. Anyway heres a few pics of the event.

Stuart and myself in our stunning running tops! Thankyou Sunday Mail!

Scotty, pretty happy with his 56 minutes .36 seconds in his first serious run! Top effort old chap!

And heres Lano, coming across the line, cutting a fantastic figure, 1 Hour 2 minutes and 37 seconds (yes I know it says 1.15.52 on the official clock, but your time actually starts when you cross the start line, which I didnt cross until the 13th minute mark, something to do with 23,000 people in front of me!!!!!!!!!!)

Now we were meant to kick on after the run, sink a few pints and carry on like we normally do, but this fitness bug has truelly bitten. I went with the usual suspects to the pub, had a pint, but it tasted unhealthy, what is going on!? So I left, caught a cab home and went to a birthday party for a mates wife at the local pub, nice beer garden, friends all around, beers flowing waa waa, but I just couldnt get into it. So a quick wink at Kym and we were out of there, down to Seacliff for a sail in a stormy. I watched, beers were making me sleepy.....Kym went out.

And to finsh off with, heres a photo form a recent team event, the annual Media Club Ten Pin Bowling night! The girls had their own team, Bowling Barbies (they won first prize - Nice cans!) and the boys went as 'The Dirty Sanchez' (we lost, but had a ball, hahahahahaha oh dear)