Cotty surfed Nazare and got one of the biggest of the day, possibly ever down there.

He’s up for an XXL:

and is geting exposure all over the place, not least because he English!!
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2478498/Woman-surfer-nearly-dies-St-Judes-storm-creates-biggest-wave-ridden-Portugal.html

There’s a good round up clip here:
http://vimeo.com/77979272#at=0

Andrew also has a Mercedes video ready to drop. We’ve seen the full edit and it’s very good.
http://blog.vitosport.co.uk/the-adventure-series/2013/10/29/trailer-for-the-adventure-series-cotton-vs-nazare/

So happy to get 3rd place British SUP National Championships this weekend….

In all honesty my preparation wasn’t good at all. I had a nasty virus a couple of weeks ago, which I have really struggled to shake off. Also… I recently got married and had a week away with no paddling.

Racing off the back of this was bloody hard. I lost the two guys ahead of me fairly early on because I didn’t have the lungs to keep at their pace…. I got my head down and spent most of the race on my own, which with the wind was a bit of a slog. I dug in to cross the line in a comfortable 3rd place. With all things considered this was an amazing way to end my season.

Massive thanks to NSP and Tiki Surf for all their support. I’m going to have a couple of weeks rest now before I hit the winter training plan.

Damo

It’s great to see our home shores getting the global recognition they deserve.

If you are looking for an HB bodyboard, get in touch. We are the UK distributor and as you can see from the vid – the sleds go pretty well over here! http://www.tikisurf.co.uk/bodyboards.asp

National Watersports Festival – Hayling Island. I had been training hard for this event, so wanted to do well.

I competed in 3 races over the weekend. I hadn’t raced the 14ft NSP DC in competition before, so was keen to see how I would go in this class on the Saturday. It went well……I came in 1st 14ft’er in the battle of the paddle. After a refuel and rest I was back on it in the arvo for the distance race. I also came 1st place in the distance race!

Sunday came quickly and I was still felling it from the day before. I did the land-sea race which was supposed to be a 1km paddle/run repeated x3. The run was quite short and it was more like an extended battle of the paddle race. I wanted to use the 12’6” NSP DC because the top guys were racing 12’6″ boards. I managed to come in 3rd place which rounded off what was a pretty tiring but amazing weekend.

Thanks to the NWF organisers and BSUPA for running the SUP event. T

The weather was shocking and conditions really challenging with the strong wind and building swell. I teamed up with Eric Jooste who is a seasoned waterman and solid paddler. All of the best paddlers in the UK were there and some teams had top overseas guys racing in their teams.

There were three races…. and we entered the two relay races, because we had one NSP 12.6 board available on the day. Team NSP came 4th overall in the gruelling Technical Race, and 5th overall in the Sprint Race. This was a brilliant result, and we were right up there with the leading guys. Our tactics were for me to get us in a good position on the first leg and for Eric to hold everyone off during his leg. We had some bad luck with a couple of critical falls slowing us down because of the conditions, but so did some of the other teams which made it even more exiting.

Although we haven’t had the official results posted yet I’m pretty sure we won the Exhibition Class (class for the team only using one board).

We ware so stoked with the results and happy to stamp NSP firmly into the UK race scene.

Damo

Travis Grant and Terrene Black achieved something that all but the world’s finest paddlers only dream of; they both won their Elite Unlimited SUP divisions in the Molokai 2 Oahu World Championships. In doing so NSP would like to take this opportunity to congratulate them both on this remarkable achievement.

“I’m just so relieved it’s done. Conditions were so tough. It was a battle the whole way with Andrea and Jenny. Once I took the lead, I just tried to put the hammer down. Somehow I managed to stay in front. I’m so stoked!!” said Terrene Black who joined the NSP team only hours before flying to Hawaii to prepare for this major race.

“Honestly I wasn’t lining up thinking that I would win. I just sort of ran my own race, did all the little things right, and came out on top. I can’t believe it. There are no words to describe how you feel after winning one of the hardest races in the world. A huge thank you to Billy Robello & Marshall Rosa for the board and the fantastic escort. Also Thank you to NSP & Australia for your support!” said an elated Travis Grant after the win. Travis’s result also follows a string of other major wins following his return from injury at the end of 2012.

Once again we congratulate Travis and Terrene for their respective achievements and sincerely thank their whole support network, families, skippers and boat crews who’s commitment is required to compete and ultimately be competitive in races like this one.

The NSP Rider Search was a simple concept.
The prize: a 1 year sponsorship deal with NSP and 2 Travis Grant DC boards
The Race – a straight sprint out to sea and back, Winner Takes All.

In perfect conditions the Race went ahead on Sunday morning, the final 4 battling for the prize. 1st across the line was Damo, displaying technique and racing skill that you’d expect from a much more seasoned racer. A former Duathlon competitor, UK Judo master and 10 year lifeguard veteran, Damian has natural ability in abundance and was a worthy winner of the prize.

NSP welcomes Damian to the team and looks forward to watching his race career unfold.

NSP would like to thank Tiki International, UK distributor, for organising the Search and providing the prizes and Paddle Round the Pier for hosting the Race.

A friend took a couple of photos (attached) – Phil Needham mysurfphoto.co.uk.

Cheers Damo