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Thursday 14th Jan 2010
After a 30 hour journey, the Great Britain Junior Surfing Team arrived in Piha, New Zealand today to be greeted with 20 C air temperatures and water temps around 15C – a far cry from the snowy wintry conditions of the UK!
The journey, which for some started on Monday morning, didn’t seem to have much affect on the team, as 2 hours after arriving in Piha, they were in the water getting to know the waves that they will be surfing for the next 16 days.
“Although it was a long travel time, we had 3 stops on the way; Dubai., Brunei and Auckland, so the journey was broken up into shorter sections, making it a bit less of a drag” Jo Hillman team manger told us. “Thanks to Air Brunei – the check in and flights were seamless, although I think they were a little shocked when we arrived with all those surf boards!”
The conditions on arrival at Piha reminded the team of an average day at Fistral with slightly onshore winds with waves at around 2 to 3 foot!. Lucy Campbell was really pleased with what she saw “I was a bit nervous before we arrived as all the forecasts said it was going to be about 10 foot !. I’m really excited now, as the waves look really good and we all now feel really confident!
The team at staying at a house in Piha, which is only a 10minute walk to the contest site, so the coaches are planning to get some water time in for the team, before the other teams arrive for the contest. Mike Young told us “its really great that we are so close to the waves and that we have 6 days of training before the contest starts; it gives the team an opportunity to learn the break and get their confidence levels up before the rest of the teams arrive for the contest and the waves starts to get really crowded”
The plan for today is relaxing, surfing and free time to get over the jet lag and tiredness. Training starts tomorrow (Friday) – watch this space for updates and photos! I'm off to try and recover from this jet lag! see you tomorrow - technology permitting!
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