Thursday 7 November 2013

What a shiner! Not the best start to the trip!

Oh dear. Not a great start to the trip! It looks like my cheek has swallowed a plum. I have arrived in Chile after 30 hours of traveling and TAM airlines safely taking five 32+kg bags...for free! The journey went fine (as fine as it could do sleeping upright in an aeroplane chair) and we even met our friend Jackie in Santiago. We are staying in a friend's amazing house (he is joining us Tuesday), and this time we landed on our feet with a 4x4 pickup, rather than a 4x2 which we had pre-paid for last time and almost didn't turn up. All is going well and the waves are sick!

I am a keen bean and couldn't waste these lovely lefts coming through this morning while Stef had to work, so I put on my new C-Skins boots and suit and walked through the forest to go for a surf. I launched round the rocks rather than through them like you normally would as I wasn't surfing with Stef (safety first! ha ha), but it wasn't the most ideal place as the rip in Chile is horrendous in the wrong place. It wasn't bad though, you can come in further down, you just aren't in the right place for taking off all the time. I had a total of two waves before going down with the lip on the last one and somehow knee-ing myself in the face! Oh no. My cheek starts to swell straight away but it didn't seem to hurt that much...I make my way back up the hill and put the best to ice I can on it-a sealed (now opened) duty free plastic bag filled with water! So now I have a blinder of an eye, which is a little awkward as poor Stef is getting some funny looks. I remember the last time I had a black eye in Plymouth (again from surfing but not as bad), people were really awkward around me, some giving weird silences and stares and some asking straight out how I did it! So my face is pretty swollen and I think I need to wait for the swelling to go down before I sail (or it could pop?!) I hope its quick....

We went to Topocalma this afternoon so Stef could sail. Baptism of fire. It was logo to mast, super offshore, gusty and 4.2 weather! Still, he had fun.

Rescuing a starfish

The crash that ended my session. What a clumsy mistake...

Finally, here is the link to the BWA competition video that I was in last weekend, with footage from the Amateurs, Masters and ladies. The ladies are at about 4 minutes.Check it HERE!

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