Rowan Aish Blog: Hi Everyone

Here’s what went down for the me and the kiwi boys in Scottland. I’ll be coming home in just over a week so look forward to seeing some of you then.

Highland Open

The first part of the year on tour felt like catch up for me. I struggled with 2nd gear while the rest of the tour raced away in 5th. By placing 17th in the 6*Prime Highland open (my best ever result), it would seem that Scotland is where I finally arrived.

The Highlands of Scotland are a wild and beautiful country. Great grassy plains give way to craggy hills, small clumps of surviving forest surround icy lakes. The landscape is a collage of reds, browns and dark grays, which for some reason always reminded me of gravel rash.

Driving North 5 hours from Edinburgh you’ll find Inverness, the most Northern city of Scotland, then 3 hours of craggy wilderness further north of the most northern city lies the very remote and equally eccentric town of Thurso.

Ricardo, Nick and Myself had left Portugal the day before and spent the night in London’s Gatwick airport. By chance we met three New Zealand girls also camping out for an early morning flight. By joining forces and staking a territorial claim in the corner of ‘Starbucks’, we were able to create a sleeping strong hold. Aside from one of the girls (on the merry side) trying her hardest to share a blanket with the boys, it was a fairly good set up. Despite this it was a tired group of lads boarding the flight to Edinburgh the next morning, then tackling the 8 hour drive north.

Being seeded once again into the main round of 96 people, gave us time to recover and an opportunity to for some much needed ‘acclimatization’. As in the extremes of the political spectrum, the conditions of the Far North are very similar to those of the deep south, but with the quality of suits these days its not so much the cold that gets you as the extra weight and restrictions of a full cold water set up, and as anyone who’s ventured south of Wellington will know, it takes a few tries to find your feet in booties, gloves and hood.

As for the waves, with the right swell rolling in Thurso’s coast will offer world class set up after world class set up. Unfortunately during the Cold Water Classic (or any competition for that matter) the right swell rarely rolls in. There were however small windows of opportunity and it was in one of these windows that Ricardo, Nick and Bobby Hansen surfed their first heats.

Its fair to say that all three put up a good show, Rick and Nick impressed the crowd with at least one decent score each on the fast and steep right hand point. But failing to find a decent back up meant the end of the road for both. Bobby on the other hand was in classic Bobby form, dominating his heat with exciting critical surfing.

Two heats prior to my own the window closed, a devil wind rushed through the line up and the surf quickly disintegrated.

My heat took place instead at 6am the following morning, not at the fast steep right hand point break, but at the wild, over exposed bombie around the corner. Looking at it from the shore I had know idea how to tackle the wind whipped slabbing reef which was either a heaving close out right or a fat and bumpy left.

The heat progressed with little going my way but extreme ice cream headaches. But just as the hooter sounded I snuck a little lump off the guy in second and it turned into a grower! Seeing the boys pumping their fists on the beach I knew I’d won the heat, progressing to the round of 48.

In the heat following mine Bobby didn’t quite find his feet in the wild conditions and dipped with a 48 finish.

The next round was surfed on the same difficult slab, although this time the wind had swung and conditions were all right. Once again I was surfing a standard heat and posting average scores. But with 15 minutes to go I managed to sneak a good looking left off Brian Toth, the wave held its shape, I put up several good turns and scored an 8.3. Suddenly and unexpectedly I’m winning the heat. I paddle out with a new found confidence and stroke into another bomb, scoring a 7.3. Just like that I secured my best result ever.

For the round of 24 the window squeaked open once again, and although I lost it was a rare privilege to surf a fast, steep, right hand point break in a competition.

I have no idea why things finally came together for me in Scotland, I wouldn’t say I worked harder, although I wonder if the hard work of previous events caught up with me. I wouldn’t say I was more confident in my surfing than in France or Portugal. My only clear focus at Scotland was to enjoy my surfing. I never missed a surf for fear of being tired for a heat, and never forced myself to surf if it didn’t look fun. I was determined that even in my heats I would enjoy riding waves in such a wild and beautiful place and I wonder if this Is what made the difference.

Rowan Aish