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Cape Verde Rocks
03/07/2007 |
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Well our first and most definitely not last foray into the southern Atlantic, was truly amazing. We had one week to ourselves before the clinics started, which actually put the fear of god up us! Why? Well everyday we were fighting over the 7m. When you consider that this was the first proper physical activity since x-mas and the English winter, and that the manly half of us was way over his fighting weight of 84kgs you can imagine how it was quite literally howling. Added to this the waves were more than adequate…
As luck would have it the first week of teaching dropped off slightly (9 and 12m), and even gave us a rest. This fortunately coincided with the day after “el Diablo” Lazenbury took us all down in a flame of caiperinhas. The evening ended with a couple of second mortgages care of the Pirates bar, €60 a round, and memories of Old Street. So wind does come at a price.
Awesome performances of the week, Paul’s drinking aside, were plenty. Paul himself entered the world of riding a banana, aka yellow surfboard, and even managed a few rather large toeside front loops off the waves, nice. Brucey re-conquered the beloved front loop, tweaked his air gybe and got some beautiful air, and offered us loads of entertainment when being hassled for souvenirs. Big man Kevin, the carving legend, got to grips with some amazing kite loops, no mean feet powered on a 9m, although it all ended it tears, the one time without body armour. Mark went orbital, claiming some very decent air gybes, nice jumps and back loops, and will no doubt soon be adding them all together on the beaches of Bournemouth. A big hand also to Rachel, for putting up with the sand blasting and endless kite talk – good luck you two.
Week two and three continued to blow, Marky Mark fell in love with Cabrinha, and suffered an amazing bout of underturn-itus, carve city. La nouvelle Sophie was the poptastic, air gybe queen, fully lit on her smallest kite. Nick was harassing the air with his cheeky grabs and pops to toes-side. Tommy Toeside went skywards, beat the waves and fulfilled his role as social secretary quite brilliantly. Cezza as usual was going mental, both on and off the water and over the course of the fortnight polished many an unhooked kite loop manouver and his massive double front loop was world class. Donny Geezer, ibuprofened up to the eyeballs, along with his wing man, hurled himself at anything new with gusto. Lovely F16s only overshadowed by his attempt to steal the Gay Air Crown. Matt returned to the dark side of Mr Fuller, but still gave it all to the goddess of downloops, managed to come away without breaking his board, and must surely be closer to the elusive handle pass. Phil, the simmering nutter, continued his meteoric rise as only he can – whatever you do, just make sure you try it unfeasibly high. Front loops, back loops and even kiteloops, all performed at altitudes where the danger of frostbite becomes a reality. Paul’s banana riding became so good and proficient, that he had to go back on his “I’ll never jump” moto, although he’ll use the excuse that his ankle hurt too much on the surf board. Back on twin tip he was going huge, even if mum though it may have been a tad close to the beach at times. Robster excelled in the challenges offered. Arriving with trepidation, he overcame the huge waves, dipped his toes into air gibing and pulled a few respectable airs, awesome. The competition between roomies Hanno and Raffaele resulted in good viewing. Hanno was adding move after move, and his front loop kiteloops (intentional or not) were mind blowing. Topagigo was on fire and pulled some proper man sized old school Lentenesque back loop kite loops. Ciao regazi.
All in all we had a wonderful time. We were blessed with wind, the waves were incredible and everybody was on fine form. Food pretty much killed everyone off after such a long day in the sun and on the water, the pixy was tasty and the wine flowed. Can’t wait to go back next year. |
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