Hi everybody,
Last Tuesday, following my 9am Accounting exam, I got straight onto a flight to South Africa. Despite missing my connecting flight and not knowing when I could get another, I still managed to arrive at Kevin Dry’s place, Boardalign, on Wednesday night!
The Irish Team had already been there for a few days to get some training in. For the next few days we trained hard and everyone was doing so well! Sian Hurst had already got her contest pass to perfection and was working on some new tricks, Lindsay and Aisling were both landing 3’s consistently despite Lindsay falling previously and injuring her ribs. Then Aisling started to step it up and get some toeside backrolls and some tantrums! (I have high hope for both in the EA Championships). Brian Deegan, even with no ACL was still managing to get a lot of his old stuff back which was great to see as he was just so delighted to be on the water!
We are now all at the contest site at the Vaal River, about an hour outside Jo’burg. Unfortunately, in practice Brian injured his knee even more and will be unable to ride. But he has become a pro ‘wheelier’ on the wheelchair. So I guess every cloud has its silver lining!
Today everyone is riding qualifying. I am pretty anxious as I got drafted into a heat with Massi Piffaretti from Italy who is just ridiculously talented on a wakeboard! (I watched him do a back 7 followed by a toe 9 in practice!!)
Thanks for reading and I will keep you updated.
David
