Aloha peoples from the North Shore, Hawaii. To my luck the waves have been pumping. Expecting some big swell the next few days around here , so that should be great to see the breaks huge. I surfed the biggest waves I’ve ever surfed last week out at Sunset. Talk about getting the adrenalin pumping. Also had some good waves out at Gas Chambers and Off the Wall , Pipe was pumping. Unfortunately the Bodyboarders had a comp at Pipe so they were all over it like flies to a honey pot. I heard they are all going home soon though so perhaps I will get to face the fear and attack the famous perfection…when in Rome….

Glad to be here, fun in the sun, and no drop ins. It is so good to experience this place. Mahalo.

12th Feb 08:

The Roxy Canterbury Womens Champs held on Feb 9th-10th in Sumner was not a successful event. Well, I flagged it because it there was no respect in the water for the girls. Yeah the waves turned on, and the standard of surfing very impressive from the likes of Daisy Thomas, Hayley Coakes and several up and coming juniors.

However, there was little effort on behalf of the oragnisers (untill I spat the dummy) to accommodate for the overcrowded zone of competition at Scarborough Beach. On top of that, insults were hurled at girls in the water, experienced surfers who knew the comp was on remained in priority and took waves, as well as plenty of kooks dropping in. Surfing is more than just a ride, its a way of life, a culture, and respect for others and the ocean is a huge part of that. As someone once said ‘If you don’t stand for something, you will fall for anything.’

Mana wahine

I’m off to Hawaii! Woohoo

After the horrible first day of the Christchurch leg of the circuit we woke up bright and early hoping for competable waves. ..and to our amazement, there were very small but surfable waves coming into New Brighton Beach right next to the pier.

It was all on, the comp needed to be finished by that day and none of the Open rounds had been surfed. So first heat was in the water at 8am, I was heat 4. In my 20 minute heat, after 17 minutes I had a total heat score of 1.05 out of 10. I thought it was all over and I could go home but a set came through and with one wave I moved into second position, I paddled back out and caught another just before the hooter which moved me into first position.

Next was round two which I won my heat again no problem. In the quarter finals I managed to knock a top seed Micheal Burling from Tonga out and win to move through to the Semi Finals.

Being in the semi finals meant that I already had a better result than I have achieved this year but I had the finals in mind. I caught the first wave in our semi and did two big powerful turns which rewarded me an 8.33 out of 10 and placed me in first position. I caught another alright wave to back it up and remained in first position although I had tough competitiors such as Daran McBride who won the last comp in Sandy bay in my heat and looking to beat me. In the last 5mins of the heat I caught a left hand wave and ran to the nose only to find Daran catching the wave coming at me from the other direction. We collided and I fell off, he stayed on the wave and surfed it to the beach. Unbelievably I had an interference called on me which meant that my second best wave was halved. It was a very 50/50 call and very dodgy if you ask anyone. Anyway It meant I was knocked back to third position with not enough time to catch a good enough wave to put me through to the final.
So a more pleasing result at this comp of 5th should help with my end of year rating.

The most exciting part of the comp was the drive home. I had Daniel Procter and Sam Johnson with me who placed first and second in the comp which meant I had to wait for prizegiving which didn’t finish until 6pm and we were booked on the 10pm ferry! We raced from Christchurch to Picton in the van only to arrive at 10.15pm to locked gates and a sign saying next sailing 10am the next day. I saw the boat had not left yet so I drove down the back roads to the train tracks then drove down them to the ferry where they were loading the last train. I ran on and talked the guy into letting me drive on next to the trains, the doors closed and ferry left before I had parked the van and turned it off… stoked!!

Hi Blog readers!!!

The recent new happenings with me…. where to begin!
I had a blast flying up to Auckland for the day to film an intro for this mountain dew website… what a laugh, after about 20 takes of a nervous me mucking words up…. like …welcome to Moutain Hutt… instead of Dew, we got a good one and I can’t wait till its on screen for ya’ll to see.

Its been a big shift in life as my boyfriends moved to Aussie. What was a quiet ‘BBQ n’ drinks farewell do’ turned into 4 DJ’s and a wicked sound system at my mates place… could have made a fortune if empty bottles were worth any money when you recycle them!!! It was a all night’r to the airport, so quite an event!!!

I’m still working on the knee, doing some fun workouts in a circuit class, my favourite is boxing, man it works ya!!

I’m looking after our Bull Mastif Puppy…. well she’s 14 months and 40kgs, so not that small. Taking her for 45 min run/walks are really keeping me fit too.

Looks like I’ll be extending my physio rehab for another 6 weeks to really get my knee 100%. Shot ACC.

I’m painting a mural at a preschool too, working as an artist has jobs few and far between, but this is a bonus fun one, with cartoon animals and bright colours. I’m looking into Mural art as a job through the city council.
Hope everyone’s enjoying what they’re doing and doing what they love.
Its the only way to live.

Keep it real out there, Peace!!!! Till next time! XOXOXjenna:)

Jen

Photographer Johnny McCormack from Manual Magazine had made his way through to South Lake Tahoe so we hooked up with Youngbucks Connor Harding, Joram Makuru, Spencer Falls and Bevan Hall for some photos. We got a few lil mellow vids following the crew around. Check it!

It was a 3 day mission with Jmac staying at ‘The Block’ Hotel in South Lake Tahoe thanks to Marc Frank Montoya and Charles. CHEERS!!! Day 1 we scoped a junkyard out and mission around South Lake. The snow was super hard on Day 2 but we found a pretty cool kink. Spence and Bevan both got broke off and both ended up in hospital. They’ll be sweet though – just some close calls.

Day 1 jibbing at the junkyard, Spence and Bevan hike it out

Youngbuck Connor Harding ate this rail for breakfast on our final day

Joram and Connor scope the road gap up at Heavenly, Lake Tahoe

This is Connor – don’t wake him up with a balaclava on – he freaks out!

Over the 3 days everyone got some stuff done with Conner Harding stepping up to the plate and taking care of business. He killed this road gap and dominated this other wooden rail at the lake. I guess the Snowmafia is still is full effect! Note: If some other crew wants a shot at their self proclaimed title just drop me a line and I’ll organise the battle off.

Make sure to pick up a copy of the Manual Winter Issue to check the hammer shots.

- Holler, NZsnowboard.com

Big Thanks to:
Jmac, David and Caleb at Manual Magazine www.manualmagazine.com
Aimi X at Heavenly www.skiheavenly.com
Marc Frank Montoya and Charles at The Block www.theblockhotels.com/tahoe/

Hey,

The big news is that I landed the worlds first regular stance 1080 yesterday! I’m the only the fifth person ever in the world to land a 1080!!! So Stoked!!!

Also on the weekend I competed at the third stop of the Air Nautiques Australian Pro in Hamilton. It was a kiwi final with Jeff taking out first place while I ended up coming second. This means that I’m currently in third place for the tour.

Here’s a couple of random pics from the it:

Above: Random crowd shot
Above: Jeff and myself (right) with our cheques

Above: Signings

We’ve just driven all night to Cromwell cause theres a freeride comp on here this weekend. Will keep you posted.

Brad Smeele is proudly sponsored by:

Oakley
Mountain Dew
Ronix Wakeboards
Ballistics
Ju$t A Dollar
Skull Candy

Hey,

Johnny McCormack from Manual Magazine and Aussie / NZ Snowboarder is here at the moment. We shot down in south lake last week and got some photos done for his feature story for Manual.

Landed a tad hard on some ice so I’m having a day or so off to play catch up. We are expecting another storm later this week so I would imagine once again it’s going to be all on.

Cool.

Holler

10.30pm Saturday 16th Febuary 08 :

Well after a long (extended and late) ferry to the South Island and then the drive down to Christchurch we were amping for good surf….

Saturday morning, 6.30am, ankle high waves strong offshore wind freezing cold and pouring down with rain.. It then remained like this all day!!

Thankfully the competition ran running all divisions but the Open men. At one stage they put down on the board as possible first round competing but we managed to talk them out of it.

So we had a full day of sitting inside the New Brighton club rooms watching surfing movies until we decided to go for a drive which was definitely the highlight of the day.. .The van was packed with the boys and at every traffic light they would hand cans of Mountain Dew out the window or get out and hand it through the cars. Some thought they could drive up next to us with the window down so we through cans in at 50kmh. All good times, and all reasonably safe…(but isn’t Mountain Dew all about being extreme?)

About to hit the hay eagerly awaiting to see what the morning brings. Hopefully bigger more contestable surf and more copable weather!
Time can only tell…