Somewhere, a sheep on a distant hill farted

Well that's what it felt like!
As the full double had been completed, the final round of competition for the pros was a series of fun 'Expression Session heats' (not to count for main event), and the word gusty could not adequately describe how my heat went. It was like someone was up on the hills above flicking a wind switch. You could be fully sinking, while someone 20ft away was on a gust and flying.
I was on 4.5 and 76, and only got 1 planing run when there was nothing to jump off, Andy King was on 5.1 and 85 and sinking, Mikey on 4.0 and sinking, Dan Gardener on 4.7. But then, a sheep on a distant hill farted, Mikey caught the magic gust and popped a backloop, and bagged himself a place in the final. That's the way it goes I guess!
All credit to him.. he went and did the same thing in the Final, which was deemed enough to beat Phil Horrocks slightly wet Double loop! When the result was announced in the pub that night, the Galway boys made it their personal mission to ensure he celebrated in style !

Anyway, have a look at this shot I took of John Skye from Big Thursday, pretty much sums up the whole day on Thursday !

All in all though a pretty epic event by all counts... we sailed every single day from dawn till dusk, in a whole mix of conditions.. and even got 2 days full sunshine.. Though that's probably the Irish Summer over now.. check back next year ;)

Big thanks to Simon Crowther for the shot on this current background too. We had a sweet evening session after the expression session, when the wind picked up, the waves got cleaner and better, and a bunch of us (Proffit, Finn Mullen.. ripping as usual, James Cox from bigsalty) to name but a few, chased Simon through the waves for a couple of hours. This was probably one of the best sessions I had this week, and sure cheered me up anyway! Everyone came off the water buzzing !

Next up is the UKWA event in Rhosneigor next weekend. Forecast doesn't look great for waves at the moment, but it is early days. The slalom crew will be there too, so should be a big event by all counts.

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