It’s cool to be at home.
It’s been a pretty good few days. It’s cool to be at home, doing a big comp, actually, it’s just really cool to be home full stop. Over the last 48 hours the surf has been really good. I think two days ago, it was properly big, and there were a few big barrels around. But for some reason, I felt a little tired and decided to switch off from surfing. I went to the driving range with Clipper and hit a few balls. It actually felt good to get away, but then again, with golf, sometimes it just gives you something else to stress and think about. After the range I drove back home, about half hour south from Hossegor, back to Biarritz and had dinner with my girlfriend and had a pretty early night. I slept pretty well, even though I was competing the next morning. I don’t tend to wake up or be too nervous.
I had to get up pretty early as I had an early heat. I watched the first heat online at home and saw Jarred Sullivan get a few tubes and some high scores and was pretty amped as I drove up. I had left my boards at the Red Bull Rising house, near the competition site at Bourdaines, all ready and primed to go, and went and had a quick free surf and I felt pretty good, like relaxed, in the water.
In my heat though, not long after, I didn’t feel that great. It’s strange how that can happen, so quickly. It wasn’t the pressure, I feel more confident at home and had my dad and girlfriend watching, and I like the crows support, but it was a weird heat and quite slow with few waves. The conditions had turned way worse and in the end I was waiting for low score and almost started rushing and making decisions way too quickly. I forced myself to slow down, not panic and think about what was happening. I ended up waiting for the right wave, being patient and confident enough, and did enough to get the score and came second and progressed.
After my heat, I just hung around at the event hang watching my friends Matt Wilko and Michel Bourez surf their heats. Michel didn’t make it - he kind of got in the same situation as I had, but then he made some rushed decisions. He has so much energy and sometimes can’t help but go 100 per cent, all the time, but his surfing is just so good. Sometimes you just to have pull back and wait for the right waves, the right time. Anyway, that was that, I went for a freesurf, just to get my boards sorted and get my confidence back, then cruised back home. We had a dinner with the Red Bull crew in Biarritz and again home for a sleep and to be ready for another early heat. I’ll be surfing tomorrow in the round of 48 tomorrow and just aim to keep going, just one heat at a time and get throught to the final day, the man-on-man heats. Another quarterfinal, at the very least, is the goal now and to really make it count at home would be amazing.
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