GOLD GOLD and GOLD Again!

Hey guys.

I've just arrived back in the UK and a bit jet lagged so sorry if this is a bit garbled! Just wanted to let you know that i've just won gold...again :-) at the Santa Cruz Kayak Surf Event in California. I had a good week training before the competition and was feeling good but really small waves made it an extremely tough event for everyone. Somehow I managed to find something to work with and make it to the final, by which time it started to shape up at about 5ft faces. It was still pretty weak surf so it was all about finding the best waves, taking off deep and solid surfing...not much opportunity to go off the lip or bust aerials so it was a really close final. Fortunatly for me i managed to find the best of the waves and pulled just ahead of USA team member and Santa Cruz local, Galen Licht. Winning the event feels great and especially as it's the 3rd year in a row (first time that's been done i think). But as always it's just great to get over there and surf with some great surfers and friends.

Thanks again to everyone for your continued support it's really appreciated. I know that Canoe Kayak magazine (USA) are putting together an article about the event so should have some shots in there. I'll be doing something for magazines here in the UK and kayaksurf.net has already got the news up. I'll also be getting some shots up on my blog asap.

In the meantime there's no let up. I'm talking at the Outdoor Show this weekend in the NEC, Birmingham...bit nervous but will be great for the sport. Then the coldwater series gets underway the weekend after and i've just started writing the book...which will definately keep me busy for the next year or so!

Hope everyone's well. Take it easy

Chris

www.chrisharveyonline.net

Doug Cooper surfing in Morocco

Getting on a plane at lunch time with a full blown reoccurring attack of malaria is defiantly not a nice thing but never the less there was no way I was going to miss my flight. I bought it 3 weeks prior and it cost a bomb so man up and get on with it . Sitting in my seat delirious, Natali had to hold me still to stop my shaking limbs from hitting the bloke next to me who seemed to be ever edging himself towards sitting in the isle in fear of getting the plague.

Finally arriving the boys put me in a cab and got me to the place we were staying in. So for the next 3 days I lay sweating and shaking and bunging tonnes of pills down my neck whilst Danny, Natali and Craig absorb the exciting and vibrant street life of Marrakech. I hate Marrakech any how, so was glad to be hiding in a room away from all those hustling rude Moroccans.

On day 3, Nat and Christine arrived and it was time to leave Marrakech and my riad tat I had come so well acquainted with. Still feeling dizzy I bagged a cab across town to the bus station whilst the others had to run in fear of missing the bus. Once on the bus we had five hours to kill until we arrived in dusty Agadir. Finally I was feeling like a spring lamb again must have been the lunch.

Getting off the bus we all grabbed a taxi . The driver wanted some extortionate amount to take us to our final destination, so with my new found energy I set about knocking him down. An hour of sitting on Danny’s lap in the front seat of a rickety Merc we were in Taghazout and it had cost a hundred Dirhams less than originally quoted. Finding a apartment was easy the taxi driver had a mate who owned a pretty impressive set of apartments and was happy to cut us a bit of a sweet deal. Sorted! All moved in, showered and in need of a serious eating session we headed down to town for eats and to watch the sun set in to the ocean . The surf was pretty consistent but never really that big we spent our days cleaning up on 6 - 10 ft at a few different brakes such as Mysteries and Panoramas.

A few times I headed out to anchor point but the point was often crowded with angry egotistic surfers (usual story) but the mellow rights at Panoramas was by far enough to keep us smiling.

One day we woke up particularly early and headed out to a beach brake called Tamree, this spot is a north coast swell catcher every bit of swell is slung at the beach creating some fierce waves that batter the coast line. We arrived in glorious sunshine with what seemed to be a steady 20 ft swell. Whilst the sore headed relaxed on the beach I grabbed Craig and told him we were going out back and we were going to bag some big rides.

Getting out back wasn’t as hard as expected as the bigger waves built in what appeared to be a bit of a channel half way along the beach. Once out back we chilled for a while catching a few smaller waves for a warm up . After half an hour of mucking about we headed across in to the line up. Craig took of on a few medium sized waves while I waited and waited for a big set. Craig rejoined me out back in the line up perfectly in time for a phat set to appear on the horizon line. As the wave began to form I lined my self up nice and deep and a few strokes secured me skidding down the face in to the ever building bowl. Racking a fast carve I glanced behind to take a look at how the wave was building, to my horror just in time to see the wave curling over with Craig some how at the very tip of it poised for a millisecond before he fell tumbling down the face of the wave and then sucked back up and washing machined. Chuckling to my self I rode out of the bowl and cursed the face for perhaps thirty seconds and then bailed.

Looking back in to the soup I could see Craig, he looked at me and gave me the 'i'm done look' before paddling back in to the beach. The rest of the day was spent blissfully cranking the faces of big waves and chucking lovely big air moves. I guess thats his bad karma kicking his ass for wearing Yak kit:). A week later we were blessed with another days big surf. In the morning we spent our time catching the edge of anchor point, nice but not huge. By the afternoon the waves were still good size but the wind had picked up and messed up the whole beach now surfing no longer was surfing it had become like running big volume class five getting out back just was not going to happen but it was fun trying until I got myself in to a bit of a tricky situation.

Catching a good sized wave I dropped in and before I new what was going on the wave began to close out and pipe up. Holding the carve I figured I could ride in to the soup and to safety. No sooner had this popped in to my mind I found myself picked up, washing machined, smashed on the sand bar, lost my paddles and shoved on to the beach where all I could do was to throw up until all the water was out of my system and flounder about in the shallows looking for my paddles. Well after that little beat down I decided I ought to spend the rest of the day on the beach making a fire and the all important digging of a hole.

Days went by turning in to weeks followed by Christmas finally our stay drew to an end and it was time to pack and make the long arduous journey back to the airport and home. For me the journey didn’t end there. I arrived just in time to hot foot my way to university where I found myself in the main lecture theatre doing my end of year exam and thinking what the weather was like back in Morocco.

Doug Cooper

Nookie Team Rider

Pimp your bag....

A suggestion from Team Rider and SRT Rescue 3 Instructor Alex Keller....
Make your Nookie Pro Throwline even better! On many rivertrips, steep creeks and deep gorges you've got your bag on you. But how often do you ever use it to throw? Most of the time, bags are used with the static
ropes for many other things than just to throw for swimmers. On advanced trips rope is needed to abseil, install safety backups and build Z-drags, pig-rigs and other rope systems. In most of these situations
ropehandling would be smoother and faster without the bag on it. With an simple system you are able to release your rope from the bag in a few seconds:

Open the knot inside your bag, take the rope out and cut a small piece off it. Melt the two new ends with a lighter. With the new piece you can build a small loop through the two holes in the bags bottom. Make sure
that this loop is not so big that you could grap through it with the hole hand from the outside (dangerous to get stuck in it). It is important for the loop too that you use a knot that holds for sure!
Recommanded is the Double Fisherman's knot or a Double Figure of Eight follow through. You must be able to connect the rope also on the bags end for high loads! Inside make a Double Figure of Eight into the new ropes end and connect it with a small karabiner to the loop. Make sure you don't take any karabiner. The small ones you find in every climbing store for a few pounds. They hold loads up to 2500kg and are cheep enough to leave somewhere in a gorge if you have to abseil and can't get back to take it with you. Note that hardware must be always stronger than the rope! And that knots take a lot of the ropes strength:
Knots from the Double Figure of Eight family between 20 and 30%, other knots up to 40%...

take care

Alex K
Nookie Team Rider

"A wave in Paris ???

Hi Dan,

Your new website is sick! Congrats!

I've made 2 vids of a wave in Paris but few things are in French.

Part1


Part2



Is that possible? Yes it is. France has more potential than we thought for Freestyle! The wave you’ll see on this clip is 15 minutes driving from Paris and 500 meters from where I live. It works from 2 to 8 weeks per year when the water is super high. If you want to know the address, just buy a Nestle product in France because their Headquarters is on the bank next to the wave =)
The clip shows many different paddlers from Paris in their routine including Jules Gallais, Julien Morel, Hugo Clouzeau, Bilal Dahamani, our guest star Sam Ward and me. Hope some of you understand French... or maybe it’s better for you not to listen to this shit lol!
When this spot isn’t working, we paddle at Joinville or Azy a new spot we have just found. Watch the pics !


Cheers
Léo Carpene”

I’m also finishing another vid that i’ll send you in few days.

Have you seen my new DVD “Le Nil Blanc”???

Léo

Ecuador & Peru - Surf & Ski

Hey Dan,

Just got back from a great trip travelling the coast of Ecuador and Peru surfing some amazing spots. Spent half the time in my surf kayak and the second half putting my ski through it's paces. The water temperature varied from really warm to cold so my combination of Short-Sleeved Ti, Long Sleeve Ti, Board Shorts and Three quarter length Strides worked really well!

We spent 4 months away in total, the first 2 months; fellow team mate Marc Holland and myself worked with 'Deadman Productions' finishing off 'Interference' surf kayaking video, and collecting footage for a surf kayak instructional surf kayaking flick: "Interference Presents: Surf Kayaking Basic Skills and Advanced Techniques"

The last 2 months were spent with my girlfriend Naomi James finding as many surf breaks as possible and surfing until our arms went numb! Back home now to earn some pennies and go play again!


As always thanks for the support and making these trips possible!

YB
Nathan Eades - Nookie Team Rider