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 🙂

On Saturday it was the FLOW girls day to support and raise awarness for breast care and ovarian cancer research.  There was everything going on from wakeboarding to SUP’ping, yoga to windsurfing, Nalu Beads workshops to home made cakes… and to top it all off, the sun came out to play 🙂

I turned up to find a glassy lagoon which is home to he new System 2.0 down in Hove.  There were girls doing yoga on the grass facing the lagoon before they started their water activities so I had time to catch up and have a coffee with Team Nalu.  Not a bad way to start the day!

The more experienced wakeboarders were the first group to head out on the System 2.0.  It was really good to see some familiar faces from the ladies mornings at various lakes in this group!  They were rocking it and most of them were hitting the lush fun box which was their first obstical ever!  Its a great way of learning as the cable speed can be lowered to make it feel less daunting.  There were women who were completely new to wakeboarding also who did really well.  The System 2.0 is a fantastic learning tool (along with Rach the driver/instructor!) as it allows people to find their feet mush faster than a cable due to the speed control for the indevidual.

I was also in the Nalu tent as we were running a workshop all day.  The girls were loving it and we were always busy with so many different creations going on! 

It was a fansastic day, massive thanks to Amy from FLOW who organised the event!!