I am home.....here's how the finals went...

Hey everybody.

After a looonnnnngggg travel day, I am home.

Things got crazy at the end, so I didn;t have time to post how the team finals went.

I got a good night before the finals, as the contest was to begin at 9am instead of the usual 6:40am (thank goodness).

Almost all of us on the team had been sick or were sick going into finals. Though we were all pretty much running on fumes, the energy was still there.

I felt better than I had in days. And with the good night's sleep, I was ready to go for it in my heat.

The morning started off really well, we got a win in the first heat, which led to first and second places in the next few heats as well.

As the morning wore on and turned into afternoon we were in first place! Everyone was shocked and excited, we'd just been taking it one heat at a time and had no idea what to expect.

My heat was one of the highest scoring heats of the day, and everyone in my heat had good rides. I was patient, choosing to take some of the better outside waves, before coming in to ride some inside sets. I had some really good waves, and I was going hard for it on each one. I hit lots of tail slashes, a few karate chop things off the lip, some roundhouses, and even a retentive barrel roll on the lip on a smaller wave. Regardless of how I placed, I felt I surfed well.

The scores came in, Rusty Sage won the heat by a long shot, but I tied for second with the paddler from ireland, and lost the tie breaker to finish third in the heat. It was frustrating, but I felt good that I had tied at least, as the heat was very competitive. my friend Stuart from Jersey finished 4th, but he had some killer rides as well, like I said, it was the highest scoring heat in the class.

We hit a few roadbumps in the afternoon, but our women came through for us again later on. We fell to second place, and then they stopped posting scores, so we were not sure how we were doing towards the end.

My buddy geoff got us huge points with a win in a very difficult heat later on, and I'd say his heat was the most fun to watch of the whole day.

The contest finished and we did not know where we'd placed. They would be announcing that at the awards ceremony.

At the closing ceremony, I was asked to help hand out the awards, and I was really happy to see two of my team mates, Ross Fulcher, and April McEwen, become world champions in individual events. I got to give April her award, which was really cool.

On that note, the trophies are awesome, they are hand painted "wagon wheels" and they were made by a local artisan.

When it was time to announce the team event results, I noticed that the committee and judges were having a long discussion.....I thought to myself "oh boy, someone TIED"

Sure enough someone did. Jersey finished in fourth place. But our team and Ireland tied for second with 40 points each. The tie breaker was number of first place finishes each team had. Ireland had one more than us, so we finished third, them second, and US West first.

Even so, we were all really happy to of done that well, it was a great contest. We were only 8 points out of first place, and if we weren't all sick and tired and injured, who knows what might of happened.

I had a great time, it was really cool to get to help organize the event as a committee memeber, and I feel like this event was some of the best surfing in competition that I have ever done. I am really energized about surf kayaking again, and I hope to get back on the waves ASAP.

Thanks to all of you for your support and thanks for reading my blog.

Here is a photo of me and the coach, mike simpson, holding our awards.

jHo

Round 2 is over! we are in the Finals tommorrow!!

The Us East finished round 2 of the team event in 2nd place behind the US West (only by 3 points i think). The other finalist teams are Jersey and Ireland.

The slate is wiped clean for the finals tommorrow. Should be a fun day.

At the end of tommorrow, the team with the most points is the winner.

I surf around 11:00 or so, PLUS we´re starting the day at 9am instead of the usual 6:40am, which I am very happy about.

Talk to you all later.


Joey

end of 2nd day of team comp, US EAST tied for 1st!

We had another great day today, particularly our women and Juniors, who came up with 5 firsts and 2 secconds between them.

In my heat, I surfed well, with much better wave selection and some dynamic maneuvers. In the end though I got 3rd place, and 2 points for the team. I thought I had done better, but oh well, thats how it goes.

We clinched finals today, and we will surf in them on sunday.

At the end of today, with the points added from yesterday, we are currently tied for first place with US West!!! The good folks from Jersey (a small island near england) are in 3rd.

The Northern Irish and the Irish will battle it out tommorrow to see which of them will round out the 4 team final.

Oh, BTW, I feel MUCH better today, thanks for all the well wishes.

Joey

Correction, US East tied for first!

Well, I spoke too soon earlier, some late results came in and in a twist of fate, we are tied for the lead with Northern Ireland and US West! 41 team points!

puravidaworlds.blogspot.com for results

Tommorrow should be interesting.

Joey

First day of team competition.....sick as a dog

Hey everyone,
I am sick as a dog. I got a nasty head cold yesterday, and its worse today. Only my netty-pot, and my bottle of Zinc is holding me together.

We began the team event today. The way it works is there are 2 days of team competition, and you get points for how you score in your heat. Both days are added together and the 4 teams at the top go to a team finals.

I tried to conserve as much energy as possible, sitting in the shade (as Felipe´instructed me to), and drinking lots of water. I am pretty bummed that I am sick, because I tried my best to not get sick, but I wind up getting sick EVERY time I travel abroad. Don´t know why.

It was all I could do to paddle for 20 minutes today during my heat. I stuidied the break fro a while, noting where the waves were coming in. Unfortunately I seemed to be a bit out of the rhythm of the waves, because the good ones kept coming as I was paddling out. I kept getting much smaller waves, but I feel like I surfed them well. I was going hard for the lip, hammering it any time I could. I got some nice moves, a big karate chop, and a retentive barrel roll thing off a roundhouse cutback. However, I knew I wasnt getting the best waves. I was a bit frustrated with myself, and I guess I still am.

It wasnt all that bad, the heat was high scoring, and we all had good rides, and I wound up 3rd, which earned 2 points for the US East team.

Our coach, Mike Simpson, was really positive about my performance, but I´m still a bit frustrated that I didn´t have better wave selection.

Tommorrow is another day, I just hope I feel better, I felt like I was going to collapse after my heat today.

Oh, and the US East Team is currently in 3rd place overall, which is much better than our performance in Ireland in 2003. I hope we can keep our momentum.

jHo

Sorry there was no update from yesterday.

Hey everyone,
Sorry I did not post yesterday, it was a long day with a long meeting last night.

Yesterday morning, when I got to the contest site, I immediately began to feel sick. Within minutes I was dry heaving on the floor of the bathroom. I threw up periodically for about 30 minutes, and then I fell asleep for about an hour and a half. I have no idea what was wrong with me, but I suspect I am allergic to getting up so early. I was pretty weak the rest of the day, but I am a lot better now, and everyone here has been very nice asking how I am. The good folks from the Jersey Team, Stuart and Ailsa, gave me a rehydration drink that helped me get to feeling a lot better.

I was pretty bummed that I got sick, as I had my second round International heat at 2:40. I felt weak but ok by the time the heat rolled around, and I was ready for it. During the heat I just could not get a good wave. I would paddle to the right, a good wave would come in on the left. I´d paddle back left and a good wave would come in on the right. I did have a two fair waves, and I imagine they scored pretty high because I didnt ride much else good, and my score was still fairly high comparatively. However I came in 4th place and was eliminated.

Even though I felt sick, that wasn´t the reason I didn´t do well, I just did not get the good waves. I was pretty dissapointed, but overall I´ve had a good contest and I feel that I´ve paddled and competed on par with the other competitors here. I advanced in both classes, scored some good ridea, and paddled the way I like to, so I feel like I´ve had success.

Also we have the team event coming up on thursday, after a rest day tommorrow, so I am trying to focus on that, and I am looking forward to it.

More later, I have yet another meeting to attend now!

jHo

2nd day of competition, good news and bad news....and more good news.

Hey everyone,
Today was a much nicer day, with less rain, and more consistent waves (plus I didnt have to surf during the crap times as much).

This morning I had my round 1 International class heat. At the last worlds, this was the class I did the best in, and here I was ranked 5th overall going into the first round of the event. This means I got a more favorable heat in round 1. The waves were holding a wall much longer than they had been during my Open class heat yesterday, and when they wall up I can throw the ol´International boat (my beat up broken, Philip Aschliman approved Cyclone) around quite well. I felt good going into the heat, and when I spoke to David Jaggs from england (who was also in my heat) just before going out, I said to him ¨Lets you and I take this one¨.
I waited patiently on the outside, for a good large wave to come, as I listened to my ipod in its waterproof case (check out h20audio.com). Finally a good one rolled through and I caught it right at the peak. It formed up nicely and I carved agressively back and forth in the pocket, waiting for the lip to form so I could hit a big move. It continued to work nicely for me, and I was able to pull 2 off the lip roundhouses, in addition to other maneuvers. I felt really good about the ride, and it gave me the confidence to wait for another, I rarely feel that secure in a heat, but I was determined to finish first.

I caught another nice ride later in the heat, hit the lip hard, roundhoused off the pocket several times, and finished the ride well.

You get scored on your best 3 waves, so I needed one more good one to lock up a win.
I took several smaller waves on the inside, one of which I nearly completed a full helix on, but I didn´t get that 3rd really long ride that I wanted.

We had to wait a long time for the results. I finished in first place, narrowly beating Davd Jaggs in a tiebreaker. Sure enough, we took the heat. This means I move on to round 2 of international tommorrow.

Later in the day I had my round 2 heat of Open class, which I qualifyed for yesterday. It was a tough heat, with Sean Egan, my friend and Welsh ripper Nathan Eades, and Darren Basson of england, who finished 2nd place in Open at the last World championships.

The waves were pretty random and hard to read, but every once in a while one would steep up enough for a good long ride. My second ride of the heat I got one of these waves. It was just the sort of wave that I enjoy. I hit some nice carves, bounced off the pocket, and then went for the lip. As I´ve mentioned before, I have a move that I invented called the Barn Burner, which involves a 180 degree carve into a stern cartwheel. I decided that the time was right, so I went for it when I reached the peak of the lip. I pulled it off perfectly, pulling it right above the steepest part of the lip, and reentering the pocket in just the right place. I continued the ride, and pulled a second one, as well as a nice roundhouse off the lip. It was a long ride and I was totally stoked because I was able to surf the way I like to, which was one of my goals for the contest.....to surf my style. It turns out this ride was the highest single scoring wave of the heat.

I got another good ride and a few short rides with some nice moves. However, as I mentioned before, the heat was stacked with good paddlers, and I saw Darren Basson pull a few aerials, and Nathan apparently had some really consitent rides as well.
I finished fourth in the heat, but I was really happy anyway, because I surfed the way I liked to, I did the moves I wanted to that no one else is doing, and I got the highest scoring wave of the heat. I had several people from various countries come up to me and comment on how well they thought I did, and it felt really good.

Well, to conclude, I surf tommorrow in round 2 of the International class.
I´ve attained my first two goals going into the contest, the first of which was to surf true to my style, and the second of which was to advance at least once in each class. So regardless of tommorrow, I feel like I´ve achieved success.

Plus we have the Team event coming up in a few days, so there´s much more to look forward to. As a whole our team has been doing very well.

But as of right now I am only focused on that heat tommorrow, and I intend to do my best.

Hope you all are well.

See the scores for the day at puravidaworlds.blogspot.com
Joey

First day of competition.....done...

Hey everyone, had my first day of competition today. The waves were pretty small and mushy most of the day. I debated wether to take out my long boat or my short boat during my heat. I am glad I chose my short boat, even though conditions weren´t perfect for it, I was able to carve up the waves I managed to get. I finished 2nd in my heat, I was only beaten by 2 points. The first two spots in each heat advance, so that means I move on to the next round in the Open class. I surf the next round tommorrow, along with my first round of international class.

The waves weren´t spectacular, and it rained most of the day, but the contest seemed to run smoothly, tommorrow should be fun.

To see the scores check out puravidaworlds.blogspot.comJoey