Benone Thursday 16th Sept

As the nights draw in this evening was probably one of the last chances to have an after work session. A short, but good session with Alan, although when I got there he had already broken a line, and spent quite a while swimming - not ideal.

Wind was good, quite nicely cross-on (NW), and the waves were huge and white with long flats in between, just how I like it.

I was working on little jumps over the waves on the way out, some toeside on the way in with a toeside to heelside carve to turn. Still struggling to do nice turns on the way out, especially with the approaching wall of water if I miss.

Alan was trying to get me to do a grab when I jump to keep my arms under control, I was trying but wasn't getting on very well, judging by Alan's incessant shouting at me :) Like my teachers said "could do better". More practice required.

Dooey, Sat 11th Sept

I decided to make a day of it today, and head to the west coast, over to Dooey in Co Donegal.

When I got there I found I was on my own, so for safety I decided to go with the 9. It was good decision as the wind picked up considerably, although I was a little underpowered for most of the time. I was out for about an hour.

Today I was trying to work on riding toe-side, but I just kept sinking as I was underpowered.

Just as some of the others arrived the wind dropped off, so I had my lunch.

I changed to the 12 and was nicely powered. I had mixed success on the toeside, sometimes going really far downwind, and other times just crashing. It's like learning all over again, falling over waves etc, but after a bit of practice I was doing much better. Still shaky, but then so is my normal riding. Oh, and it's worth mentioning that I can only do it in one direction, no hope in the other way at all. That'll be for another day :) stayed out for just over two hours in the afternoon