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Spending time on reunion , includes good day surfing at home !!!
and it was fun for me to take out my old plastic John Carper SD3 out of the garage !
It's a good shape , but need more flex when the conditions are not clean.
Anyway , good enough to have fun :)
What could be better than leaving europe under the snow and arrive on my island under the sun ....
Finishing 3rd in Estoril, I could get a LUFI STAND UP PADDLE in the board bag and flew to Reunion....
1st day, 1st sesh, 1st sunset, 1st shot ! good to see friends and cruise with the SUP on the black rocks tiny waves...;
just enough to relax after the season....
A "dodo" beer and here we go again !!!
thanks to lufi again who makes pme feel so happy with all da boards :)
Normally a surftrip has to be prepared longtime before so that you travel in good conditions...
Expecting to go with Yoan , Yves Sobansky our photographer and britany young blood Mathieu Marechal, everything was uppon to be perfect... excepted the fact that the week before leaving france we still didn't know with Mathieu was driving us in his surfwear factory campervan....
I had to think to a plan B and nothing seemed to be on my way !
But it was without thinking that my good friend, Jeremy Ferrara, who hosted me at this time in his own shape factory, was getting tired with his longtime season and needed to take a break....
After Repairing and organising his long Mercedes Sprinter Truck , making it waterproof . He dressed a balsa wooden kitchen and told me "...now , the van his ready my girl and I are as well , so if we can let the dog to a friend we drive u down south Morocco !!!"....
What a hell he open me the path to one of the best surftrip ever,,,
As a oldshool and fantasist surfcrafts specialist that he is , we took 24 boards in the van and took the road down south Tarifa, where we took the ferry and cross the detroit to Tanger . The promised land , where we expected good meetings and waves !
After 14hours driving 5hours boating and crossing morrocan border,15euros "backshish" , we finally rolled our wheels into Tangers street...
Something strange was happenning down there.... a felling like ghost town , something perticular in this capital ....
Actually it was "the Aïd" day , the day when the people of Morroco kill the lambs...
And here we drove the long van in the middle of desolated buildings, between bleeding lambs and guilty persons dressed in white wearing red knives as sharp as my performer longboard !
we arrived 4 hours later in BOUZNIKA,the village hosting the event...
we had nice litlle waves on the first morning , enough to warm up ...;
the next days were announcing strong swell, and the bay were roaring on each set.
300m long , 2m5 high peeling perfectly !
Solid take off and long drive , allowing noserides and turns...
Unfortunetly the contest starts by the end of the swell , but we still had some to put under our feet...
After breaking my magic board on Alexis ( Deniel ) fins , i had to improvise my surfing on my " spare hundred times creased second magic board "...
I rode thru the semis when my gentleness spoke . I let my friend from brazil Alexander (Woltherz) take the last wave of the heat and he flew to the final without me .....
No time to be depressed in this country !!! specially with such a crew....
Sleeping on the contest area in the big benz made us " tzigan" to the eyes of the french team, but real freinds to the local people , which is lot more interresting isn't ?.....
So that we spent the last days cruising with them , and Jallal showed us his town marrakech ...
By the time we had good sesh, tajines , and real good friends, we had to take the road again....
1 Billion dhirahms and hundred customs later we were on the boat to spain ...
Drove at night to portugal...
Arrived 2 days later in lisboa....
The Portugueese Capital is incredible... ! Jeremy who's the native and crew leader , drove us on the most beautiful view of lisboa , in the highs of Caparica !!!
We slept there in the forest facing the bay ....
It was time for me to get my new boards and such new boards :)
the event of Estoril is the biggest of the ETL season, the most waited and hisghest scoring one...
Former number 3 of the event , getting late on the ranking to be 1st I had to go my way and rip till the semis ...
What a plan in such bad conditions...;
With the swell getting smaller, the contest were hold in Guincho may be the worst place for all competitors, but the only place to be...
Jeremy, subscribed to the event and did well to the second round where he lose close to bit one of the best competitor..
He's to stylish and technical for comps ....
I tried my best and went to the man on man semi which was a great deal for me !!!
i had good waves and the board drove well... i just didn't get any good waves in the man on man heat abnd let Alexis go trhu the final .
So I finished both 3rd of the comp and 3rd of the ETL 2010 !!!
We ended in sao pedro where the wrap up was hold and all the guys and I went on beers, as long as the sunset.
I Had a good season with up and downs , but it finishes up so i was happy !!!!
Thannks to Jermy and Axou my trip partners and good friends !
After the French event of Vieux boucau where i reached the semis, i had to start a course to prepare my surf teacher carreer....
This made me busy all september. unfortunetly my course finished the day before the UK event ...
Luckily i found a cheap flight to london and YOAN "MULETO" Anerot joined me for that trip...
And what a trip !
We met in font of Bordeaux Airport and here started the mess !
When you fly with a low coast company, you may understand that the price is equivalent to the service !
the experience made us pack all the boards in one bag ! taht bag that we had to hold from one side of the airport to another like three times, before everyone understood that we wanted to carry it to the same place that we were going !!! which doesn't seem to be easy to understand for them !
Once we checked in .. we were packed like cattle in a 2square meter hall for like 1 hour !
We finally took-off and reached London Gathwick around 11.30pm ! and you know what ?
WITHOUT THAT BLOODY BOARDBAG
We also had trouble with the rental car company and got in the 3007 Peugeot red rocket after Midnight !
Well with some luck, we would be in Newquay by 4 in the morning.... WAOUH !!!
After driving at 150+ miles per hour , which we thought were KM/H , killed 2 rabbits , made 3 detours avoid 1 car crash and lost 5 times in the countryside, we finally had a break and tried to sleep in the car, thinking we would wake up out of this nightmare !
30 minutes later i woke up and drived with the sunrise praying whatever god to lead us to the right shore !
Trust me or not it works as we found the road , and drop the car on the contest beach , where we finished the night under the rising the and the storming ground swell that was breaking as a lullaby !
"HEY MATES YOU THE FRENCH GUYS COMING FOR THE COMP !! " here was our live alarm for the 2nd wake up of the night. feeling like we spent it in a nightclub,,,
I recieved a call from london telling me that the bnoards would be in Newquay airport by 10 in the morning, then we realised that Yoan and I was respectively in the first and second heat of the day !
With the lovely understanding spirit of the juges that organise our tour we could have the time to get the boards as they postponed our heat to the end ouf the round... finally we had some luck !
Back right on time with the boards we had to face a solid swell that already killed lot of boards and boyz...
with the pressure of the trip Yoan and i rode our way to the quarters where we met but had to separate !
unfortunetly yoan didn't find the average mark he needed to pass thru that heat which was high in emotions! strong surf and hard waves cold water , and a british crew ready to fight on the water to show who's the local !
After that 1st day of comp, i Got my ticket to the semis which were to be hold in the next day !
That night we went to the party organised by Skinners at the static wave of newquay to raise money for unvalids...
So much fun but had to go back bed early as we needed a real sleep !
The final day was hard, despite a good night slept, in a typical english hotel... i woke up lazy and tired....
Nothing good to go and rip a contest,,, specially when it's a rainy coldish day...
there was a good feeling and spirit inside the british team , a melting between fairplayand funny killrboyz !
the final was against a strong local Ben skinner and the french overexcited Remi Arauzo who finally won the comp, riding perfectly both radical and classical manoeuvres!
I woke up yoan and the we started the party with the french crew and were joined by the most beautiful couple of the tour , Adam Griffiths and his "wife" Holly Reed ...
the night started in the afternoon at the french house with beer games then we all went dinner and finished in pubs as the culture wants...
I went bed early.
We took the way back to london.had another trouble to check the boards in , and another delay with the flight but we were safe and happy :)
Thanks to Yoan which more than beeing a good surfer is now a friend !!!
ALOHA
Yay , the second step of euro tour was hold in Vieux Boucau...
I arrived there the day before and enjoy a ride on SUP on the lake and found a good accomosation with "MADI" a good friend from portugal , he's a legend !
peacefull and quiet place all what i like
leading the tour , I didn't want to put pressure on but i expected to go far ...
Many new heads for this comp, guyz from New zeland brazil and venezuela put the level higher .
I had this first heat which was quite scarry cause of the ranking game i was against the Big Adam Griffiths and the shredder from Venezuela...I don't know what happenned to me but i was scared , and once i touch the water I became a lion and won the heat !! so much good sensation even if i was tense....
the second day I went thru the semi and didn't find waves ,
Damien Castera won the final prooving his power and riding a Lufi longboard too !!!
so finishing 5th I 'm still leading the Tour before the UK event ....
Aloha
