Today was my very first session with a personal trainer, ever.  Over the winter I will be training with Sharm Kurup of Kurup Fit.  Yes, Sharm will be beasting my ass all around the UK come rain, shine or snow.  Today was only my assesment so I was measured on a number of things such as, how many press ups and ab crunches I could do, how long I could hold side plank for and how long it took me to run a mile and a half; also on how flexible I was, my BMI and total body fat.  I shocked myself today, not at how amazingly fit I was, but how much work I need to do to reach my goals!  Its going to take a lot of time and effort but I feel pretty confident and lucky to have Sharm by my side guiding me through my fitness regime!

The UK wake season is over… what is one to do?! 

When the winter gets under way in England I don’t hang up my board, but also don’t have the luxury of heading away for six months to live the dream of an endless summer.  So like a few other die hards, I ride through the winter donning the wetsuit gloves, socks and a good 5.4mm wettie – I’m not going to lie, this sucks and the water feels unbelievably like concrete.  However, in the frostier months, I wax up my surfboard as an alternative form of water activity and head to the coast (or away for a cheeky week somewhere in Europe) for a boardsport fix.  This is when the waves get better anyway; total shite in the summer unless you’re lucky.  So I thought I would see what the other wakeboard girls thought of my other passion….

I sent the facebook message out to the girls (Steph Caller, Sarah Kingdom, Jules Haley, Tor Young and Sophie Cordrey) and everyone jumped at it.  The more we spoke about it the more the levels of excitment were rising, especially as I hadn’t told the girls any details apart from head to The Thatch for Friday night and bring a wetsuit.  We all met up for one too many bevvies and a catch up, and then headed to our lovely Inglenook Cottage which was epic!!

After a comfy nights kip we met up with Lisa from Nalu Beads and Rob Tibbles who’s an awesome surf photographer based in North Devon.  He was around all day to capture our girly surf trip, and had us all laughing most of the time!  We headed to Surfing Croyde Bay Surf School where our instructor Rae was ready for our surf lesson on the specially made beach.  Surfboard riding time!  Everyone was either laughing or nearly drowning and all I could see was big blue foamies flying up in the air!  The girls were getting on really well and all mastering standing up and starting to turn.  After a couple of hours surfing in the sun, fuel was needed so we dried off and legged it to Blue Groove for some amazing tasting grub.

Our second surf of the day was much better.  The tide was on the push and the waves were a bit bigger and more powerful, I personally had my best ever session at Croyde that afternoon so I was stoked!!  Rob was in the water with us with a Go-Pro, fingers crossed the footage came out ok!  The girls were ripping it up as well… inbetween laughing!

After some showers, some Lion King and some beers, we headed for more beers at The Thatch which is the famous hang out in Croyde, which on a Saturday night is heaving!  The night was filled with copious amounts of  good food and more Desperados than I care to remember… even a few games and surfers….   But I’m not getting into that!

Day two of our Wake Girls Go… Surfing trip!  We had a bit of a lay in followed by a fry up to nurse our Desperado heads.  We headed to Surfing Croyde Bay’s roof terrace where Nalu Beads had put on a workshop for us so the girls got busy making bracelets and necklaces with their beads.  Just as we finished up Rae and the team laid on an amazing spread of homemade scones with clotted cream and jam, topped off with a pot of tea.  We copied Lisa’s skills on how to make our scones properly.. more thought goes into it than you think!  Nothing compares to cream teas from Devon as great fuel for getting our wetties back on to go surfing again before having to face the drive home.

The weekend couldn’t have gone better and it wouldn’t have happened without the help of Lisa from Nalu Beads, photograper Rob Tibbles and Rae and the team from Surfing Croyde Bay Surf School (who also sent us off with a proper Devon Pasty!!).  Massive thanks to everyone who was involved and made it possible for the Wake Girls to Go… Surfing!!

September came around which meant only one thing to me, road trip!!! 

Started out the usual way, headed to the coast for the lovely Dover to Calais crossing in the miserable rainy weather, and in no time ended up in France.  The aim of the game was to get to the Exo Cable in Moncontour before dark to shred and camp… did you know there are two Moncontours within two hours of each other?  Neither did I, yup you guessed it, we went to the wrong one.  The main reason for heading to France was for my cousins wedding in Angers which was so beautiful.  Everyone looked amazing and the day went smoothly.  The French know how to party!!

Then on to Lacanau-Ocean in search of some waves..  but all we found was massive onshore mush.  We were there for a few days though and took full advantage of the clear blue sky, 28 degree heat, cold beers and tapas.  The place is very peaceful and is great for competely getting away from it all; and you can walk/longboard everywhere!  The morning we packed up to leave for Toulouse we did the standard one last surf check and typically, it was working!  Wetties on, boards done and straight in for a cheeky wave.  As you can imagine after three days of watching and willing the waves to work our excitement was through the roof.  Could not run down the beach fast enough… Wooooop!

After a much craved surf and some baguette, we got on the road and headed off for Toulouse!  After a little trouble finding the cable (again!), we finally arrived to glassy waters at TNG.  After a couple of weeks off the water it was amazing to get back on my board, and really fun to ride a different cable.

After a night in Toulouse it was time to head on… to Hossegor! One of my favourite places. 

So we camped the whole trip but one night we thought we deserved a hotel (and to charge up all appliances), so we forked out for one on the beach front so we could surf check from the room. Score!  While doing a spot of shopping in the Billabong store we bumped into Donavon Frankenreiter and were invited out for a surf with him.  However, this was rather embarassing… As those of you who have surfed in France know, it can look a lot different on the shore than it actually is in the line up with rips etc.  This happened to us.  Donavon was effortlessly catching waves with his unmistakeable laid back style, so we paddled out…. and then we paddled in.  Got out here, much bigger and messier than expected, shat ourselves and headed in with our tails between our legs.  This was all forgotten after Donavon’s gig down in Les Bourdaines comunity centre, which was awesome 🙂

During our time in Hossegor, Jon showed me around the Billabong and Nixon Head Offices, was sick to see the 2013 gear!  You never know who you’re going to bump into… I bumped into Jenny Jones in the Billabong carpark, its where all the cool people hang out, obviously 🙂  It was great to meet Jenny who is absolutely lovely!  We had a mini Nalu Beads workshop going on as well..  

After an awesome time in Hossegor it was time to head North to England.  Two days of driving with a stop over in the lovely Vouvray, we got to Calais.  There was no way I was going to head home without a stop off at the supermarche to pick up as much French wine as we could carry! 

So two weeks on the road, bridesmaiding, surfing, wakeboarding, meeting Donavon and Jenny, seeing the European Head Offices and living off supernoodles and cheap red wine.  I had a fantastic time and as always, cannot wait to head back to France 🙂