University, windsurfing, university, windsurfing, windsurfing....

30th Jul 2009 @ 08:55:46 AM

sSs Team Rider, Adam Sims has been trying to balance his priorities. Should he dedicate every daylight hour to his degree, or should he keep the pressure on improving his windsurfing with that very healthy SWA circuit to compete in? Adam talks us through his 'work' life balance...

It was coming up to Easter and work was building, essays were due and a dissertation to complete and write up, so I decided to go and book a four week trip away to El Tur, Egypt so I could get some practice in for my final event in the SWA series but also to invest in my future when Uni comes to an end and I start to compete on the UK scene, probably not my wisest choice of holidays. It was a pretty epic trip though, I didn't use my Ezzy 5.8 once, so it was 5.2 and less the whole time, with my Ezzy 4.7 getting the most use, it was nice to have a range of freewave sails but then the 3.7 wave panther for those very windy days.

It was also a good test as I got to use them on perfect flat water, in waves and off nice waist to head high ramps and they really feel very stable and comfortable in all conditions, using less downhaul and flattening them off for freestyle seemed to work wonders and then more downhaul and leaving a bit of fullness for the waves helped punch out through the sets and it gave me power for the cross on wave riding. I also had my RRD 100l twintip with me and my RRD twinfin 82l, two awesome boards.

The twintips sliding wonders worked a treat in landing a few new moves but still I managed to squeeze out speed for the power moves, air funnels and konos were the moves of the trip. The twinfin got me cranking tighter turns and holding more speed at the end of them for bigger top turns and aerials off the lip.

I got back and four days later the SWA nationals were on. There were two heats to the finals then the finals themselves. I worked hard in the qualifying heats and in the dying winds to land the moves I could, getting flakas, a wet double flaka, spock 540's one handed and a forward was enough to see me into the final. With not enough time to change up from my 5.2 to my 5.8 it started off with a few gusts, the early safe tricks were busted out, a flaka, a spock 540 one handed and then the wind died before I had a chance to land any of my new moves and so it became a gecko-fest. Later that evening like the students we were we partied hard until the early hours of the morning knowing that competition was over led to an eventful night and more banter than you could shake a stick at.

A little worse for wear at prize giving the next day I found out that I had come second to the very light Al Bentley, who won the event, partially based on him landing his first e-slider in a gust in the final few moments of the heat, however it was not enough to take the SWA series title away and I managed to clinch the first prize and be crowned SWA freestyle champion of 2008/2009 on top of this I got the SWA wave series title as well which resulted in a brand new Ezzy sail of my choosing... So it seems that RRD and Ezzy had worked well for me that year and the combo was just right to help me get the results I did, I'm still super pleased about those results.

After the Nationals was a hectic time in terms of Uni, I had heaps of essays to do, so late nights and early mornings it was, handing essays in just 48 hours after starting them and doing my dissertation in pretty much a week had me worried for a bit. The hardest decision was when the UKWA four nations cup began with Ireland being the first event. I soon found out my friend SJ was also in the same predicament as me, the 'I've got two essays to do before I go as the hand-in dates are whilst I'm away and we have to leave in 3 days else we miss the last ferry before registration begins' predicament. 2 days later at 3 in the morning I'm leaving to pick up SJ with my essays on my flat mates desk hoping he will hand them in for me.

We ended up traveling through the night in the hope to get an early ferry so we could get a days practice in before the event began. After a week of sleeping in my van and eating the most unhealthy meals the epic event had finished, I'd placed ok considering my sprained ankle in the first heat and the lack of walking the next day. It was on the way home that SJ and I had decided that we had paid a heavy price to go to that event and we had to draw the line somewhere, so we had to force ourselves to miss the Rhossi event the following weekend, such a bad call, it was another event of all events, the action looked insane. Tiree is next though and Uni is finished, which now gives me the time to practice even more...

It's been an awesome time at Uni and I would recommend it to anyone who wants to get into Windsurfing competition, the SWA format is ideal, it's not too serious but there is a high level within the top few. All I'd advise is, work hard when there is no wind and when it's dark, also don't get into any box sets series of your favourite TV programs...