If you haven’t heard, its the UK Cable Wakeboard Nationals this weekend at JBSki!  This event has grown a fair amount over the last few years which has called for it to be run over two days!  Its great to see more and more riders getting involved and so all the categories have grown making the comp a great watch.  If you’re in the area and have some free time this weekend, it would definitely be worth swinging by to check out the riders battling it out with one another to be crowned National Champion!

I’m also stoked that my sponsors Two Seasons and Nalu Beads are involved in supporting the event this year!

See you there, Saturday & Sunday the 28th – 29th July at JBSki.

Aloha!  I’ve managed to cram in a lot while I’ve been in Waikiki!  The 11 hour time change makes you feel rough, but it actually helps you out as well.  I’ve been able to surf easily every morning before the waves get too crowded, and be done just in time for the breakfast rush to have passed.. win!

The best time to do stuff here is around lunch time as the sun is right overhead so its way too hot to sun tan, its tough, I know. But there is loads to do so I’ve had no problem keeping busy.

I’ve snorkelled at Hanauma Bay which is a nature reserve where you pay a small fee to go see all the beautiful coral reef and different kinds of fish.  I’ve climbed Diamond Head which is a volcano that last erupted 300,000 years ago, luckily it didn’t erupt while I was inside it, that would have been awkward.  I’ve been to Honolulu Zoo and the Aquarium, been a couple of miles out to sea on a sail boat to where the reef drops off – the ocean goes from turquoise to inky blue, I’ve even been to The Cheesecake Factory which is rumoured to be the busiest restaurant in the world, and I’ve surfed a longboard a couple of times!

The waves here have been pretty small with no power to them, and Waikiki is famous for longboarding so it was good to try something new.  You have to slow everything down on a longboard, its much more chilled out and people of all ages are catching waves!  I played on my shortboard though and had some fun times, as you can see below.. pretty small!  🙂

I’m off to the North Shore for a week now and am so excited to see all the famous surf spots!!  Its the wrong time of year so I don’t think my board will be getting wet anytime soon but its 27 degrees so I think I’ll have to suck it up.  Aloha!

This weekend I am off to Hawaii!!!!!  Excited doesn’t even cut it.  I’ve just checked and there is swell around, not loads because its the wrong time of year for pumping waves, but there is some at least!  I’m out there for two weeks, one week in Waikiki and the second week on the North Shore.  If not to be even more stoked, I’m staying at the famous Turtle Bay Resort…. bit speechless really as I’ve dreamed of this since watching the movie Blue Crush (cheesy I know), which was before I could even surf.

I have been to Oahu before, back in 2005.  I was studying at UC Davis and a my roommate Fi (or Princess Fiona as the Cali’s liked to call her, like Camron Diaz’s role in the movie Shrek) and I decided to go there for Spring Break and in the end a group of us went.  We stayed in Waikiki and pretty much partied and suntanned the whole week.  Of course we saw Pearl Harbour (well not all of it as we hadn’t booked), snorkelled at the volcano, and drove open top jeeps around the Island.. it was fun!!  This was before I surfed though. Now you can imagine how much this trip means to me after putting in the time and effort to get to a decent surfing ability!  Also, I haven’t surfed in a bikini since Bali in 2009, I love that I don’t have to take a wetsuit with me!!  Now is taking ten bikinis with me excessive?

If you’re interested in following what I’m up to out there, then LIKE my facebook page: Lex Balladon, follow me on twitter @lexballadon, and/or my Instagram is lexballadon 🙂