Na Kama Kai - La Torche, France - Stand Up World Tour

So France. I have finally managed to upload this video, which I have been trying to since we got back, now some success!!

This was my first big event. The Stand Up World Tour. I only entered the kids event – the Na Kama Kai, but still all the pros were just there in front of us, chillin’.

It was an amazing experience walking around the Stand Up World Tour arena/PWA arena. We arrived on the day that the French PWA event finished, so there were windy kit and SUP boards scattered all over the place. We managed to meet up with team Rowe and Glyn Ovens, who had recommended us to come to the event.

We got to the Pointe de La Torche after a 18h drive and went straight to check out the peak. It had about 20 paddle surfers on it. Not a pretty sight (imagine what the surfers thought!!) We decided to head to the left of the point, which had a nice small peaky wave. It was about three times smaller than La Torche, but fun all the same. At the end that day I was feeling tired, but I thought I’d better go see how the wave on the point worked. It was big and good fun when you got on one, but I was on my small board. This was a bad idea, the chop combined with the rip out made it nearly impossible to stand on.

The Comp: My first heat of the Na Kama Kai was a 7 man heat squished right into the end of a day. The sun was nearly set, and there were some makka sets coming through. I only managed to catch 4 waves in my whole 30 minute heat, but still managed to get through to the next heat in 3rd place.

The next day I had my next heat, and unfortunately my last. It was all down to paddling as fast as you possibly could (which I did not do) and wave selection (I didn’t pick any good waves either), but I didn’t come last in my heat. 3rd out of 4…

We surfed every day and it was warm, so it was definatly worth going. There was also free WiFi and free Red bull at the arena, we were living the good life ;-)

I hope to go back next year, and improve my result. Also to go and hopefully get some more sunny waves, not in the UK :-)