BWA Wales and Ireland... What was it like for you?

3rd Jun 2010 @ 08:23:50 AM

sSs Team Riders Adam Sims and John Skye are flying high in the BWA championship this year after 2 events. Adam is leading the amateurs and John is chasing the overall title from a position of strength in the number 2 slot. Here's their inside view on both events, first off Adam talks us through his choice of kit based on the conditions:

"Wales saw light winds but on the Thursday evening before the event and the Saturday evening there was enough wind to get out, but unfortunately out of competition time. One of the highlights had to be the Saturday night fancy dress party.

The epic road trip over to Ireland then got underway, obviously the highlight for me at that event was taking first place in the Amateurs. My decision to go for the amateurs this year was down to getting experience in as many heats as I could for the future. We were fortunate to get the best conditions during competition, with a bit more wind then the pros and slightly bigger sets, especially on the first day, when the single elimination was held.

I managed to push through a couple of heats and come 3rd, which gave me some work to do in the double. The following day when the double got underway, it was just about windy enough for me to use my 74 Twinfin and 4.7 Wave panther, allowing me to cut some tight turns to get back at the small waves with enough speed but going as vertical as possible. This worked for the first three heats, then the wind dropped and there was no chance I could stay on the 74, so I got my 82 Twinfin and 5.2 out, which was the right call as the wind remained light. This gave me the advantage to catch more waves, which I made the most of racking up about 5 or 6 waves in the final, two of which counted. One of them I managed to link a few decent turns, pop a small 'aerial' and then finish off with a nice turn before the wave closed out.

All in all an awesome couple of events and I'm really looking forward to Tiree and Cornwall now."

And over to John:

"Ireland was really hard work. Lightish winds and small waves meant you always had to be on it and aware of what was going on. Missing a set could be crucial. In my first 2 heats everything went really well. I got a couple of good waves early on and could relax and try to push things a bit more. However in the final it just went wrong from the beginning. There was almost no waves at all for the first 5-10 minutes. For sure it was the same for everyone, but I just seemed to be out of sync with the conditions. Everytime I came in the wave would be crap and I would turn around and see the others on good ones. Luckily just before the red flag went up I caught a really nice wave and milked it for all I was worth moving me from 4th to 2nd, but unfortunately it wasn't enough to catch Ben.

I obviously would have preferred to win, but a 2nd is the next best thing and still leaves me in a good position for the overall title. It always seems to be really close between us all, and in the end it just comes down to how things pan out on the day. Fingers crossed things pan out a little bit better in Tiree and Cornwall."

John is also an international team rider for RRD.