IrishFreestyle

 

 Just did this for scouting ireland, thought i might as well put it on here, link to pics: http://s300.photobucket.com/albums/nn13/ham_n_salad/

 The Kayak Surf Worlds was a brilliant trip all around. We were away from the 20th of July till the 3rd of august and got 2 weeks of the best weather, best waves and best craic I’ve ever seen. We were there 3 days before the competition started which meant we had time to figure out the set up and get used to the waves and everything beforehand. The festival itself started on the 23rd with a massive opening ceremony and concert on the beach till 5 in the morning; the first great night out of about 10! Lucky there was no competition the day after!

 

The competition itself started on Saturday when me, Neil, Brendan, Edel and Georgina were the first of the team on the water. All of us except Neil got through our first round heats and over the next few days most of the team followed us. The story every day was basically the same, go to the beach for 9 or so and then hide under umbrellas for the day only emerging to compete, eat and put on more sunscreen. In the evenings when it cooled down and the competition ended was the most fun surfing I’ve ever had, the waves are world class, the waters warm and the weathers perfect. It got crowded sometimes but even that died down after a while.

 

in the team event we were disappointed, with ninth place overall.  However we were short two masters on the team which left us down ten points, a huge margin to try and make up at this level of competition. In the individuals Len made the seniors IC semi final, and the two girls both made their semis. I came fourth in the junior IC final, which got me thrown in the pool at the awards ceremony and a cool trophy for my efforts! The whole event finished in typical Portuguese style, with a massive concert headlined by French reggae band Dub Incorporation. All that was left for the next day was to gather up all the gear, pack the boats and find our way back to the airport. Easy when one of the organizers has a friend in a bus company and can get a 50 seater bus for four of us! Needless to say we weren’t short room for gear!

 I'd like to thank again Scouting Ireland and Grennans Pharmacy for their support without them it wouldnt be possible to travel and compete.