A few weeks back we had a little family surf trip to North Devon.  Nothing glam or exotic but it was our first trip away with our five month old son so we wanted to keep it local.  Jon and I have travelled to a few different surfing locations, mostly France and Portugal, but we’ve been further afield to places such as Hawaii and Bali (we spent a month in Bali for our Honeymoon, don’t think that will happen again anytime soon…!).

When we travel, we’re pretty minimalistic.  We take one board bag containing both our boards and a small back pack each with our clothes in, which we carry on the plane.  For starters you need more stuff when travelling in the UK because its the norm to get four different seasons in one day.. so you can’t just pack bikinis, shorts and T’s.  Also, when travelling by car, you tend to just fill it, just because you can.  But travelling with a baby is a totally different ball game..

Baby Balladon requires a lot of stuff.  A buggy, car seat, travel cot, week supply of nappies and food, bottles and sterilising gear, and enough clothes to allow a couple of changes a day.  Oh, and an umbrella for the beach (yuk!).  Theres a lot of kit; not my preferred method of travel.  Quick note, for the beach we used a big blanket so he could roll around without getting sand everywhere.

Fair enough we couldn’t surf together, but we did manage to surf a couple of times each everyday!  We would set up on the beach and one would just have to occupy the baby while the other one surfed, and then we’d do a switcharoo.  We’d also use a baby Bjorn so we could stand at the waters edge, the surf wasn’t that big so we could show Ethan the other one surfing which he either loved or promptly fell asleep, no middle ground with this one!  I was just stoked to get in the water, it was my first surf since Ethan was born!

Feeding ourselves was more of a mish as well.  We love eating out, but three meals a day for five days got to be a little much with the baby.  However, by the end of the trip we’d mastered dealing with the baby/restaurant situation.   We made sure he was fed before hand, changed and that we had a bag of toys to amuse him!

All in all, I can’t say it was the relaxing holiday that we’re used to, but it was so fun and priceless to introduce Ethan to the beach and ocean which he seemed to love 🙂

We’re heading off to Spain for some wakeboarding and golf so I’ll update you again soon!

… well not for me in that sense BUT it was the first time I’d ever landed a right foot roll in competition AND I’m the first Mum to ever ride in the Open Women Category!  So I’m pretty happy, although I could have ridden a tad better in the finals!  I’m also grateful that my husband and son were sitting on the sidelines cheering me on 🙂

          

But I’m proud to say that my friends all won their categories!  Lottie Harbottle came 1st in the Girls, Chloe Gouidie came 1st in Junior Ladies, Tor Young came 1st in Open Women and Sarah Kingdom came 1st in the Master Women!  Well done ladies!!  On that note, the standard of the girls riding this year was incredible, it was sky high from the Girls all the way up to the Masters.  The girls are pushing it more and more every year which is fantastic to see!  We’ll just have to wait till next year to see what bag of tricks the friendly females will bring to the table..

Thanks to my sponsors for all their love and support, especially over these past 18months.  xx

Hyperlite, Mystic, Nalu Beads, Two Seasons, Dragon, WakeMK, Kurup Fit, Muvi.

We’re on a bit of a roll with the weather here in lil ol’ England.  This is the most I’ve ridden in skins for a good few years… so I thought I’d better get a few snaps for future evidence!  I’m loving it!!