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

To see heats and results

To see the heats and results from the contest, check out

puravidaworlds.blogspot.com

Check in and opening ceremonies

Whew, this morning I single handedly measured and approved every kayak in the competition. It was hot as hell and I was sweating like a pig.
Everything went pretty well, but its interesting trying to explain to a Brazillian ¨You´re boat is too pointy¨ when neither of us speak the same language.

I went to lunch with the team from Jersey, which is a small island near England. They are good folks, though they talk funny.

We had an opening ceremony tonight with traditional Costa Rican dancing, some cultural presentations, and opening remarks from Toca, the contest organizer.

I found out that I surf tommorrow at 11:40....which is dead low tide.....which is the WORST time for the surf. Oh well, I´ll do what I can. I compete in the Open class tommorrow.

Well I am off to get a few things done, and then I plan on getting to bed early, the competition starts at 7am......booooooooooo.......

My other boat got here....

Yesterday we hiked into a pretty cool set of waterfalls. The guide who went with us thought we would be able to run some of them in a kayak that he brought, but it wasn´t the right water level so we didn´t. They brought a little whitewater boat, and people started doing some flatwater tricks in it in the pool at the base of the last waterfall. I didn´t really want to, but everyone asked me to get in and give it a go, so I did and I got a standing ovation. The Costa Rican guys were yelling Pura Vida, which is the local greeting here in Costa.

After the waterfall we went back tot he contest site to surf a session. It was way crowded, and I HATE paddling with that many other surf kayakers at once. Its dangerous because people get agressive and greedy, and its hard to keep from getting hit, let alone find a wave to surf. So I paddled further down the beach where it wasn´t as crowded. The surf was the largest I´ve seen it yet here, and I seemed to be all thumbs, wiping out all over the place. I had some epic crashes off the lip, the worst being when I accidently did a full loop and the wave ripped my helmet off.....I kept falling and falling down the wave.

The boat I have been paddling is my High Performance boat, which is fairly short and has fins. I will probably be surfing this in the ¨open¨ category. The other category is the International category, and it involves the much longer boats, which do not have fins. It´s probably a bit confusing to a non surf kayaker. I am surfing in both categories during the individual event, and I am surfing for the team in the international category during the team event.


One of our Junior paddlers, Zack Miller, brought my International boat, the Cyclone, with him, as he will be using it some during the event. They just arrived yesterday, so this morning was my first chance to surf my Cyclone. At the last World´s I did best in the international class, but I had to use someone else´s boat. So this time around its great to have my old faithful Orange, beat up, broke and fixed, Cyclone.

We got up at 6:30 this morning (which I was none too happy about) and headed to the break. The waves were pretty large and mushy, breaking on the outside. I had some good rides in the Cyclone, though the waves were really slow and didn´t really have well defined lips. It was good to get some long boat practice before the event. We surfed until around 10 when the waves were too choppy, and headed out to get breakfast.

Now I´m off to another World´s committee meeting!

More later
jHo

Did not surf today

I took today off as I had a World Surf Kayak committee meeting at 3 today.
I needed a day to rest my muscles and get a few things done.

A few observations:
I must say that I wish I could speak spanish. I know a little bit that I learned when I was here in 2002, but not much at all. I feel like an idiot everywhere I go, and its a bit embarassing. However everyone here is very nice, and I suppose they are used to tourists, because everyone has been very patient with me. It makes you appreciate communication when you are trying to make someone understand what you are saying and neither of you speak the same language. I feel like I am here I should be speaking the local language instead of trying to get them to understand me, makes me feel a bit guilty.

It seems that drug dealers are everywhere down here. If you walk down the street at night, and you make eye contact with 10 people, 8 of them are going to ask you if you want to buy weed or cocaine. Theft is a huge problem too, you can´t leave anything in your car, and all of the houses here have huge fences with broken glass lining the tops. One of the fcars in our group had its window busted, while we were standing near it. The theives made off with April´s clothes and some money. It kind of sucks not being able to leave anything anywhere, I have to be really careful with my cameras. That being said, so many people are kind and generous here. It is a very welcoming place.

It rained a LOT today, and I got drenched. I guess they were serious when they said we were entering the rainy season.

Like I said we had a meeting of the Worlds committee, of which I am a member, and we had a lot to discuss. Everything seems to be on track though.
It seems that I have been put in charge of measuring boats and making sure they all meet specifications during check in. I hope it goes well, wish me luck.

Joey

A few photos from the contest site

A good day in the surf

This morning I had the opportunity to sleep in until 10am, rise liesurely, and then have a traditional costa rican breakfast. As most of you know I never pass up an opporunity to sleep in, so I was pretty happy to be able to do so. I think if everyone followed the same schedule I do, then the world would be a better place.

But anyway, we went to the contest site, Estirillios Oeste, again this afternoon. I didn´t have a very good time there yesterday, but today was comletely different.

The past two days, the waves at Estirillos have been mushy and slow. Today, however, they formed up nicely on the inside, with some good steepness to them.....just the kind of wave I like. The lip was good an firm, but when it broke it was deceptively gentle. For those of you who aren´t surfing inclined, a steep wave with a firm lip allows for big moves when the wave breaks. Its just the kind of surf that I like because I love doing tricks off the lip. On the east coast of the US, when the waves are steep like this, they can be intimidating because they usually are very heavy and break in shallow water. This was not the case today though, because this wave seems much lighter, and the bottom is quite deep. There were only a few of us surfing the steepest part, and we had a good time watching each others rides. I had some fun rides, and I was able to get some good roundhouses and ¨karate chops¨ off the lip. I am working on a new move called the ¨Barn Burner¨ and I was able to pull a few of those off as well. We surfed until dark, and all in all it was a great day. I only hope that the waves are similar during the contest, if so it should be fun.

Hope all of you are well.

jHo

Never fly.

Let me start by saying this.....do not fly anywhere....ever..
Airlines are no equipped to facilitate the movement of large numbers of people.
Walk, ride a bus, skateboard.....but do not fly.

I should of known what a fiasco actually getting to Costa Rica would be, for I was given a clue, the people at the check in counter and security check point were NICE.
My story pretty much goes down hill from there.

We arrived at the Charlotte airport at 4:30 in the morning after having gotten up at 2:30am to drive from Columbia.
Now for those of you who have never had the pleasure of flying with a kayak, this is sort of like trying to fly with an elephant.
Even though we pack our kayaks in surfboard bags, and they are often much shorter than surfboards, if the check in agent hears mention of the word ¨kayak¨, all bets are off.
However, on this fine morning we were greeted with kind ticket agents who were more than happy to assist us.....a bad sign.
We breezed through security and were treated with respect by the security agents....another first.
Our flight to miami was even on time!

As I expected, my seating assignment was less than favorable. I had to sit next to the dude with the biggest shoulders on the plane.
This gargantuan was severely invading my personal space, and I had to sit leaning out into the isle.
On top of this, he and his wife fancied themselves comedians and decided to comment on everything going on.

We arrived in miami on time, and walked to our connecting terminal.
Little did we know that we would spend the next 7 hours there.

Our plane was supposed to leave at 11 am. Around this time we got the first of a long list of bad news.
Apparently the windshield wipers on the plane were broken and they expected a 30 minute delay while they took parts off another plane.
Over the next 2 hours they would update us on their progress, which consited of explaining the way windshield wipers work, the parts they were using to fix them, the names and addresses of the repairmen, and more.

Finally, after more time had passed, they told us that the plane was not going to be repaired and we would need to move to another gate to get on a new plane.
After making the move to the new gate, we were told that the plan had changed yet again and we would need to move back to the first gate to get on the original plane which was now repaired. Confused yet?

We boarded the plane and after another 20 minute delay, we were given yet more bad news. The original pilot would be violating federal regulations for working too many hours, so a new pilot was driving to the airport from ¨30 minutes away¨.

You can imagine the groans from the passangers, who were on the verge of staging a mutiny. It was at this point that I began to laugh, it all seemed too ridiculous to be true.

About 25 minutes into the 45 minute wait for the new pilot, the pilot came back onto the PA with another informational message.
Apparently two jewish folks were going to have to get off the plane because the delays were going to mean that they would be landing in Costa Rica during the sabbath.
This would not be much of a problem, except that federal regulations required that their bags would have to be found in the cargo hold and taken off the plane.

At this point I went from laughing to pretty much cackling, you couldn´t make this sort of stuff up even if you wanted to.

Throughout this process, these two older ¨new yawk¨ladies, who were sitting behind me, were griping and complaining the entire time, as well as saying strange things such as this:
Lady #1: ¨I´m reading a book about gene traders from another planet.¨
Lady #2: ¨That´s nice, but I´m more interested in human gene traders¨

After all these delays, I was sure that they would be feeding us free dinner or something to make up for the problems, but I should of known better.
We were given one bag of tortilla chips, and if we asked for a second we were told ¨NO¨.
What is it with airlines not serving food anymore?

After two and a half hours in the air we landed in rainy San Jose, Costa Rica. The pilot announced that because the plane was so delayed, they would be unable to let us off at a gate, so we would have to get out on the tarmac in the rain.
I thought to myself ¨whats next¨? I half expected the pilot to tell us next that federal regulations required him to punch every passenger in the face as they exited the plane.

We were supposed to arrive at 12 noon, but the time was now past 6 and we still had to go through customs and drive ninty minutes to Jaco.

It took another hour and a half approximately to get through immigration, and get our rental car. We quicly loaded the cars up and headed out.
Everyone seemed to think the people in the next car knew where we were going, so we basically spent 3 hours in the jungle trying to figure out where jaco was.

We finally arrived, exhausted. Like I said before, don´t ever fly on an airplane.

We´ve been surfing the break in Esterillos for the past two days. Its a nice area with a tropical beach, parrots, etc.
The wave is pretty mushy, but yesterday I had some good rides, we´ll see how it changes over time. The size of the waves isn´t substantial (they are larger than most east coast waves), and apparently conditions are going to remain the same throughout the World Championships.

Well, thats all I got for now, I will try to post some pictures. Hopefully I will post again in a few days.

Hope everyone is well,

Joey

I made it to Costa Rica....more later

Hey everyone, I made it here to Jaco Costa Rica.
I dont have time to write much right now, but tommorrow I will post the story of the fiasco I had to go through to get here.....its a good one.

My mom says if it weren´t for bad luck I´d have no luck at all and I am beginning to think she is right!

More tommorrow, check back, hope everyone is well.

Joey