(Da rat)
Shit sorry guys, it's been a long long break for us..we've been tied up in family for a while but we are now on the boil again I promise. Alot has happened since I wrote last. In September last year (2009) I was appointed as Team Manger for the Swedish Surf Team..(haha some may say...but we went to Jersey in the Channel Islands and we KICKED ARSE!!) not just in the competition sense but also in the party sense!!
I arrived in Jersey with an ozzie 'swedish' team member Craig Shearer (alais sheepo from the gold coast) after drinking a 'few' beers on the plane and met a completely new group of people.(AKA. The Swedish Surf Team, 2-3 of them i knew from before)..Over a period of a week we became a team and showed the whole of Europe what the Swedes are made of..we had a ball both in and out of the water!!
The surf was tragically crap, unfortunately. If it had been good, the competition would have been over in a few days and the rounds of golf I had arranged with some of the other team managers from different countries would have been realised., and some really good surf sesssions would have been recorded by me..but not to be..
Instead we spent a week waiting in the foyer of the hotel for the organisers to ring us,(we were on standby), while the ½ft surf dribbled in. Sad really cause the day before we arrived the surf was cranking and the whole week we were there for the comp it was just pathetic to say it politely. Such is life!
We had some hilarious and triumphant and (sad times) though..In the Open division, (with 85 entrants),we kicked arse and against Europe's best surfers we had one guy landing at 13th place and another at 25th!..Not bad from a country with absolutely no funding or government backing! We also saw some of our best surfers knocked out it horrendous surf..I MEAN UNSURFABLE surf, when they really had a chance to go further..(some heats were so bad that the winner was the one who caught more than 1 wave!!!!!)
All in all Sweden posted it's BEST reult EVER in the euro championships.
On the last night I had prearranged a karaoke night at one of the local pubs and took the team on a surprise mission..It was hilarious and apart from the odd 'terrible but hilarious' attempts to sing there was some REAL talent in the crew..One guy sand 'whole lotta love' from led Zeppelin and just slamdunked it good..we found out later he's the lead singer of a popular band in Malmö..nobody knew..hahaha..We had also linked up with the Irish surf team and they came along as well and the whole pub was just goin ARF.. it ws a huge night and really good fun.
during the week, on one of the many flat days, we hired the local flowrider and had a ball together as well..
The whole trip was a flop surfwise but a great time and many new friends were made and good times had.
Peace from team captain rat!
Shit sorry guys, it's been a long long break for us..we've been tied up in family for a while but we are now on the boil again I promise. Alot has happened since I wrote last. In September last year (2009) I was appointed as Team Manger for the Swedish Surf Team..(haha some may say...but we went to Jersey in the Channel Islands and we KICKED ARSE!!) not just in the competition sense but also in the party sense!!
I arrived in Jersey with an ozzie 'swedish' team member Craig Shearer (alais sheepo from the gold coast) after drinking a 'few' beers on the plane and met a completely new group of people.(AKA. The Swedish Surf Team, 2-3 of them i knew from before)..Over a period of a week we became a team and showed the whole of Europe what the Swedes are made of..we had a ball both in and out of the water!!
The surf was tragically crap, unfortunately. If it had been good, the competition would have been over in a few days and the rounds of golf I had arranged with some of the other team managers from different countries would have been realised., and some really good surf sesssions would have been recorded by me..but not to be..
Instead we spent a week waiting in the foyer of the hotel for the organisers to ring us,(we were on standby), while the ½ft surf dribbled in. Sad really cause the day before we arrived the surf was cranking and the whole week we were there for the comp it was just pathetic to say it politely. Such is life!
We had some hilarious and triumphant and (sad times) though..In the Open division, (with 85 entrants),we kicked arse and against Europe's best surfers we had one guy landing at 13th place and another at 25th!..Not bad from a country with absolutely no funding or government backing! We also saw some of our best surfers knocked out it horrendous surf..I MEAN UNSURFABLE surf, when they really had a chance to go further..(some heats were so bad that the winner was the one who caught more than 1 wave!!!!!)
All in all Sweden posted it's BEST reult EVER in the euro championships.
On the last night I had prearranged a karaoke night at one of the local pubs and took the team on a surprise mission..It was hilarious and apart from the odd 'terrible but hilarious' attempts to sing there was some REAL talent in the crew..One guy sand 'whole lotta love' from led Zeppelin and just slamdunked it good..we found out later he's the lead singer of a popular band in Malmö..nobody knew..hahaha..We had also linked up with the Irish surf team and they came along as well and the whole pub was just goin ARF.. it ws a huge night and really good fun.
during the week, on one of the many flat days, we hired the local flowrider and had a ball together as well..
The whole trip was a flop surfwise but a great time and many new friends were made and good times had.
Peace from team captain rat!
