Woah nelly...

A slip in the status... A bit of an emergency check last night. Cheryl had to have a wee hospital visit due to some unexplained pains. They monitored the babies heartbeats for about an hour and did a number of other diagnostic tests, and everything is still fine and dandy. Nothing to worry about.

I reckon that being a father is going to be stressful! We aren't even there yet and there are stressful moments. Beds at the Wellington hospital were full and if there were any signs of dilation, we would have been enjoying a helicopter ride to another city.

My planned three-day hike into the uncharted bush of the Kahurangi over Christmas has been canned. There is no way I could relax and enjoy without knowing that Cheryl is OK. On the bright side, I'll bring my windsurf kit down with me instead of the hiking boots and pack!

Shaka!

It wasn't pretty, but I am claiming my first shaka. YEAH!

While its not the pushy or flaka I wanted to stick, I'll take it, and notch myself up to full on hard-core sailor status! Could be very very short lived, as we are going to our first Multiple-Birth Association Christmas party this morning. ;) Not to mention the fact that I am setting up the crib today.

Made the Quatro/Goya teams for 2007 too! Check out the websites.

Orcas in Evan's Bay

Every once in a while, we get this awesome treat of witnessing some neat sealife as we sail about. This time, it was a small 4-5 pod of orcas cruising through Shark Bay. I must have sailed right overtop of them as I came into shore... since i looked back immediately after and saw them only about 5 m off the point. Just amazing to see.

Freewave #2

Freewave #2 was another ripper day. Again 30-35knots, this time from the south, so the call was Lyall Bay. Waves were small to moderate in size, but allowed for some nice lofty jumps and short rides. Clayton was on form and nailed a wave 360 and big floaty backloop for the win. Tom followed up in 2nd, mixing in his freestyle repertoire. I had to settle for 5th this time, but more importantly, it was a pretty fun day! Some more details here: http://www.wwa.org.nz/

Check out this nice photo of Woo and his trademark forwards (photo by Leland).

Lighter winds...

Winds have dropped a bit lately... getting on the 5.0 a bit more over the weekend and last week. Sounds lame yes... but in fact, its amazing what difference the conditions make to working on the freestyle tricks. The last few flattish 5-0 days have been freestyle bliss. Finally it seems I have broken down the barriers on the spocks (landing about 50% on starboard), grubbies (landing about 50%+ on port) and stuck a very clean clew-first grubby 540 yesterday.

Leland is all over the flakas and getting the odd one, with most really close. Good action out there Big L!