One of the Best Days Ever...

19/6/10

819 (local time)

I thought I would start this one early as I woke up before everyone else and have already had a shower, done a bit of washing and then strangely enough made myself a cup of tea. This entry is all about my day yesterday (18/6).

It started off like any other getting down to the centre by 9ish. My lesson started at 9.30 although no one rocked up until 10. I had a really good lesson, I was getting all of my group into the footstraps and harness and a majority of them were planning and water starting.

The lesson finished by 12, and we all headed back to the beach. I was up next for a free sail, but I only had my 4.7 rigged and it definitely wasn’t 4.7 weather. So I rigged my 5.3 and headed out with Andrew.

When I finally made it out the conditions weren’t that bad, nicely powered up on my 5.3. The move I had been trying to crack for the last 3 weeks on and off was called a flaka. Which is a move where you do a Upwind 360 whilst going top speed, for any windsurfer out there, it is quite a difficult move to crack and it is kind of the entry into proper modern freestyle.

There is something special about landing a trick in Dahab because, even though for all the guys I work with a flaka isn’t such a big deal, they make you feel really good about yourself with high 5’s all round.

John Palmer (centre manager) even bought me a beer to congratulate me. In fact all the boys (and girls) were extremely helpful about landing a flaka, they were always there to offer me advice and to push me harder. So not only did I land a flaka soon afterwards I found out that I also got my National Insurance number so I will be able to get paid “woo hoo”!!!

So not only did I land my first flaka and get my national insurance number BUT! The Hawks won... again against Essendon...

Probably the best day ever, now I’m finishing this off now watching the Socceroos against Ghana, the Aussies were doing so well in the first 15 minutes, but then were robbed when Harry Kewel was sent off (honestly no surprise for the Aussies) for one of the most pathetic handballs ever. Not impressed which again proves my theory of why I believe soccer as a whole is one of the most unappealing sports on the face of the planet...

Never mind, tonight is the Saturday Night Party at Club Dahab, so after a couple of beers the Soccer will be forgotten and ill be too busy partying!

So until then! GO THE AUSSIES!

Steve

My First Wakeboarding Experience! COME GET SOME!

12/6/10

1428 (local time)

Hey guys, just another quick update. I thought i’d get in early with all this World Cup going on, its driving my head in! So over it and I’m only 2 days in! Anyway, earlier this week myself and the Birmingham Uni crew who are out this week, thought it would be a good idea to give wakeboarding a go!

Well I managed to get myself filmed whilst doing so and I made a very sketchy movie... so here it is! Enjoy!

I might add as well, that after 3 days of wind, I wasn’t able to sail because I was in so much agony! NOT GOOD!

But will definitely give it another go, when no wind is predicted.

Take care!

Steve xx

Messy Masbat Night!

20/5/2010

2137 (local time)

Alright, this is just an update on how everything is going this week! It was a Tuesday night, which means its Masbat Night, where we get all the guests together and head on into town. John Palmer and myself were the instructors on it this week. So we headed off into town. Ordered some food, rum and beer and we were set for the night! There was this girl that was in the beginner group who was ill be honest a bit cute... But the problem was, was that she was here with her father. So if was going to get ‘chatty’ with the girl I was going to have to ‘pull’ the father first.

So, like I said it was Masbat night! And everything was going well with the father, lots of chat going back and forth. Obviously more and more rum was downed and I think my chat got worse and worse. After eating the food, we kicked on into down and engaged in some pretty intense alcoholic fish bowls drinks. It came to about 1am in the morning, where it was definitely a good time to go home. So myself, the girl and her father jumped in the ute-taxi and we all headed back home.

As soon as I jumped into the taxi, I immediately felt ill... “aww mate, I feel pretty ill” I groaned to the guys. The father replied “just be sick...”  So I lent outside of the taxi, and waited for the storm, and there it came fish & calamari dinner, lots of alcoholic beverages etc... The funny thing was that, the father was also leaning out of the taxi taking photos of me, and because he was at the back he coped a mouthful of my dinner... Lovely! He thought it was hilarious! Lucky, because I thought that I had just blown my chances with this girl...

Anyway, that’s pretty much it for my story! Stay tuned for the next one!

By the way, that Sunday day, it was howling 40knots and I took out some speed gear and went 33.6 knots! FULL POWER! And a PB! It was a good week!

Till next time!

Steve