Author: lex270

I'm a Wakeboarder and a Level 3 Wakeboard Coach from England. I'm also into surfing, health, fitness, travel and cold water dipping. I coach wakeboarding as well whether it be Ladies Morning, Kids Club, Individual Athletes or the British Team Development Camps or Wake Daze.

How to wear a summer wetsuit: the Diva Black Series

On By lex270In Fitness, Parenthood, WakeboardingLeave a comment

Yesterday I finally unwrapped my lady balls from their cotton wool cladding and went wakeboarding in a super short shortie.  I’m not going to lie, its been a while since I’ve ridden in anything but a full 3.2mm or a full 5.4mm suit.  Why?  I hear you ask?  And no its not because I live in England, we’ll thats partly got something to do with it, but the main reason is that I feel it keeps me together, in search of a better word?

See, I used to jump at the chance to ride in a bikini and short shorts (it was below the knee boardies with your arse hanging out before this stage if you remember, not a good look), but since I’ve had kids, I’ve chaaanged.

A number of factors come into play here.  I ride less because I have two small humans to look after, they take up a lot of time; riding time.  I ride less because when I do ride, its for an hour, possibly two hours at a time, I don’t hang out at the lake all day anymore, (yet.. I’m getting the kids into it, I’m dreaming of days where I’ll have to drag them away from the cable).  So because I ride less… I hate to admit it, but I’m less confident on my board than I was pre kids, and with that comes a hint of doubt.. and when you have doubt, you can cock up on tricks.  And if you cock up on a rail, plastic hurts so I like to have some neoprene covering and protecting my entire body.  Also, your body is just different after having kids.  It just is.  Saying all this, I’m pretty calculated with what I try on my wakeboard, so I haven’t messed up to warrant wearing a full suit, for the past six years.

So like I said, I found my lady balls, dusted them off, and got my ass out for a delightful evening wakeboard session down at Club Wake Park.

How to wear the summer wetsuit; well, you order one, wait for the deliver, unwrap it, check it fits, head to the lake, slip it on, zip it up and work the hell out of it and have a great session!

After all that chat, here are some photos of the beautiful Mystic Diva Black series suit that makes you feel like a legit Bond Girl.

Thanks to Janni Saarinen & Keegan Rigby from CWP for the snaps!

Wake Daze: Learn to wakeboard or improve your wakeboarding on one of our wakeboard days or weekend retreat!

On By lex270In UncategorizedLeave a comment

Calling all shredder babes!!

Come laugh, play and wakeboard with us on one of our Wake Daze or our Wakeboarding Weekend Retreat!

We’ve got loads of wakeboarding with one-to-one coaching, a great stretch & warm up for wakeboarding with lakeside yoga with yogi Parker Rose, a Nalu Beads workshop to let the lunch mellow down, more wakeboarding and hot tubbing. Also included on the retreat – dinner, camping and toasting marshmallows.  More info over on Wake Daze.co.uk!

Whether you don’t even know what a wakeboard looks like, or you’re smashing out the park and air tricks, there is always more to learn.  Come and ride with us to progress your wakeboarding.

Here is the edit from the Wake Daze back in July 2017, which was held down at Club Wake Park!  Edit from: fns creative.

Wake Daze Dates:

-19th May (fully booked)

-30th June (fully booked) *Stand up paddle board fitness instead of yoga*

-1st September (spaces available)

Weekend Retreat:

-28th & 29th July (spaces available) *over 18s only*

**Cancellations naturally occur so its always worth getting in touch to put your name on the wait list**

Email: lexballadon@gmail.com to book on and reserve your space!

How to dry your wetsuit

On By lex270In Parenthood, Surfing, Travel, UncategorizedLeave a comment

It only seems a few days ago that I posted about how to protect you’re wetsuit. Time flies when you’re having fun!  And here I am again about to fill you in on how to dry your wetsuit easily and fuss free!

As you know my main sport is wakeboarding, but I had a weekend surf trip at the coast planned and so I thought I’d put my Elite Dry Bag to the test while I was there.  (The Elite Dry Bag has mesh on one side so more air can get in/out, you wouldn’t want it out in the rain!).

How in the world my husband and I lucked out on that particular weekend, I’ll never know, but we did.  First of all, thanks to my folks, we had a child free weekend.  CHILD FREE WEEKEND!!!  Thats two nights, not one, but TWO!  Ok so this was a huge deal as we haven’t had this luxury since baby number two came along.  And he’s nearly three years old.  Enough said.

Second of all, I booked a four star hotel that ended up having breakfast and a two course dinner in the grand restaurant included.  As well as full use of the spa.  To top it off we had a sea view room and a balcony overlooking the waves.

Thirdly.  The weather played ball.  A rare occurrence here in the UK, but it did.  It was baltic but it was bright sunshine, not a cloud in the sky for the two days and we even tanned in the balcony’s sun trap while enjoying a cream tea (room service of course).

Fourthly – I know, last one I promise.  The waves.  The wave gods were with us 100% and we had great waves for the two days.  We seriously couldn’t believe it, and even the tides were right.  It was freezing so there weren’t many surfers out either so we had pretty empty waves as well which was great.

Thank you stars, sun and moon for aligning for this epic weekend.

Anyway, back to the wetsuit drying test.  So as we were staying in a pretty nice hotel, we didn’t want to walk through with sandy wet wetsuits.  I threw them in the Elite Dry Bag and carried them through the swanky place without even leaving a grain of sand on the expensive carpets.

So with the estimated wetsuit drip drying time of between 4-6 hours (geek I know), I knew my suit would be ready to wear the following morning, and I could hang it anywhere in the room and not worry about it dripping on the carpet.  But to give it that extra something something, I hung it above the radiator to make it nice and warm for me… it was needed, we were scraping ice off the car to get to the surf.

So all in all, my little Dry Bag test went pretty well!  I took a second wetsuit as I didn’t want to put on a wet one the second day, but I didn’t even take it out the travel bag.  The Dry Bag works well and is very handy while on the road.  I’ll be using at home as well so I don’t have to hang my suit in the shower all the time.  Win.