I go to Portugal once or twice a year to satisfy my surfing needs without breaking the bank.  It is relatively low budget, warmer than England and the sea doesn’t give you brain freeze, the sun comes out and the waves are usually pumping!  I head to the North of Lisbon to Peniche, which is a quiet fishing town full of, well fisherman, and surfers.  The people are friendly, the seafood is fantastic (and very good value for Euro), and if you see a flashy car, its lost.  Its a brilliant place to get away from the rush of everyday life, switch off and just think about where you’re going to surf next.  I love it!

I wanted to get some better surfing photos but of course when the waves are good – no one wants to be left on the beach with a camera!!  So here are a few of very tiny wave shots…

On Sunday 22nd April, the sun gods were upon us (hard to believe, I know!) for the first Ladies Morning of 2012.  The girls were there bright and early to join Sarah Kingdom and I for a quick warm up with Sharm of Kurup Fit, who took us through some dynamic stretches and exercises to warm us up a treat, before hitting the glass.

The group of girls were raring to get on the water and get a few warm up laps under their belts, or wetsuits rather.  We had a few new girls who were getting around the cable on kneeboards and progressed quickly onto wakeboards.  We also had a record number of girls retuning from injury / surgery.

Sarah and I were doing ‘double-ups’ with girls that wanted help on the water, which included kickers, spins, slider work, and raleys.  Everyone was on it!

Of course it wouldn’t have been Ladies Morning without some goodies to give away!  This session we had a huge amount of prizes from Nalu beads, Two Seasons, WakeMK, Wide-A-Wake and Kurup Fit.

                                               

Ema won the Nalu Beads prize this month for doing really well on the sliders when doubling up with Sarah!

Ash won the WakeMK 1hr Pro Coaching Voucher because she nailed a new trick while hitting a new slider on double ups with me!

Emma won the Two Seasons £15 Vouchers, a Bloc sunglasses case and a retro Roxy waterproof camera for getting on amazingly well for her first time wakeboarding!

Kelly won the Kurup Fit £10 Voucher – she did really well on her first ride back since shoulder surgery!

Amy Carter won the Wide-A-Wake goodie bag – she was doing laps in switch on a wakeboard and it was her first time!

It was a fantastic turnout for the first session of the season, and a massive thank you goes out to all the sponsors who helped us out and especially a big thanks to all the girls who got involved and made it a great morning!!

The next WakeMK Ladies Morning is on the 20th May.

Eeeeks!  It feels like its been a long winter, but the time has come to head south to warmer climbs and check out some waves.  My surf trip is late this year, I usually head away in March but I ran out of holiday… oops!  This time of year I am usually on my wakeboard training / playing and getting ready for the UK wake season that runs from April through to September.  However, I just couldn’t possibly do without my Spring surf trip, even if it is bordering on Summer…

Here are a few of my surf trip essentials!

 Surf boards: need these for the obvious reason really – can’t surf without a board!!

Got my surf hardware – couple of leashes – this is incase I snap one and then have to pay full Euro price for a replacement (yes, I’ve done this before), fins, fin keys, wax – make sure its for the right temperature (yes, I’ve gone from cold water to warm water and forgot to change my wax and ended up with melted wax on my arse).

Wetsuit as the Atlantic is still warming up.

Bikinis – you can NEVER have too many bikinis in my books!!

Good books to read.  I can never sleep on the beach after a surf so this is my favourite time to get in some quality reading.

Tunes.  Radio is not in English.  This trip there will be some Ben Howard, Donavon Frankenreiter, Empire of the Sun, Mumford and Sons… and more.

Denim cut offs – I wrote about these before, they have been a staple in my wardrobe going on eight years now.

Tanks – can’t get enough of tanks with fun screen prints on them. Wear em baggy.

Nalu Beads – so pretty, they go with anything, and if you get bored of it, undo and make something else!

Sunscreen – I love Hawaiian Tropic, always have done, always will.

Sunnies – I always have some Dragons on because 1) I squint a lot if I don’t have them on. 2) I don’t want wrinkles from excessive squinting. 3) Squinting is not cool.

Camera(s) – Love to capture all the moments so I can never forget where I have been.