Finally...

Just thought i'd mention i finally sailed out of a spock yesterday, no water-starting mid way needed! Took a while but got there in the end :) Happy Days.

So its not a great picture but i thought I'd put it on as it did look quite cool, kinda lit up like you'd imagine an alien space ship.

We went to Dahab for the day yesterday to spread the word about the event we are hosting, it was great to see a lot of interest and quite a few instructors including the Egyptian guys say they really would like to come and will be trying very hard to make it possible.

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It was an interesting trip, having the life scared out of me in the taxi there, as Phil described it, it seemed like real life Wacky Races.  Our driver met a friend so they thought it'd be fun to constantly overtake one another at approximately 150kph on a road regularly featuring huge HGV's and petrol tankers.

Also during the journey at one point we drove past a huge lorry, pulled over on the dual carriageway with the driver and companion, under the middle of the lorry sat on a blanket  having a picnic as if on the beach or in the countryside.

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On the way home we had a laugh as we saw one of the resident geep laid out on the bonnet of a (rather nice) car sunbathing as if its a completely normal thing for it to be doing!

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Upon arrival back at the hotel, we were surprised to see our local oil rig (you may have seen it in my pictures) was being brought into the bay, apparently its annual trip to be serviced.  It will not affect us in any way as its right at the bottom of the bay where nobody goes, about a km away or more.  It was lit up quite impressively and whilst taking photos of it the Quiksilver surf schools photographer came and gave me some pointers!  Unfortunately for me I'm not as advanced as he thought and so a lot of what he said seemed very foreign to me, even though he was speaking in very good english!  Still, every little helps!

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Around the town

We are unfortunately having some slight delays in confirming and publicizing the 'El Tornament', which means I'm gonna take this time to put up some more pictures I've been shooting round the town.  These are not amazing shots, but give you an idea of the place Phil and I have been living this year.  Make sure you check out the Geep, this photo was taken in the middle of the 'high street' of El Tur, like I  told you they are everywhere, although this was the first time we saw a 'shepard' with them! If you look at the picture with a mosque, there is also some Geep bottom left munching on a car.

The place with the cola signs on the walls looks fantastic, its so worn but so popular, you can go past each night and its full of men with tea, shisha and backgammon.  Tea shops are like English pub gardens on a summer evening, the place to be for the local men, they drink tea, coffee and cola, smoke shisha and play games like dominoes.  (Its incredibly rare to see women in the tea shops in town, not unless its myself or another foreigner.)

This mosque I have photographed, also on the 'high street',  is our closest wake up call although there are many many more in the town, singing (as we put it) 5 times a day to call the locals to prayer.

The last photo is of the sun going down behind all the new buildings being built nearer the hotel.  They will be lovely apartment blocks when finished but a lot of them seem to have been the same since we got here 9 months ago.

I found this picture from a photoshoot at the point a while back, and I really like it.  Soon I will be putting more news up on the El Tornament but until then I hope you enjoy this picture.

El Tornament 2009

We have been hatching a plan and hope to make the ideas into reality. We will be confirming dates in the next 2 days. Cant wait its really exciting ideas. Check out http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=105525892450&ref=nf

Action in El Tur

We have been having some lighter days in the wind department, I have spent a lot of time on a 5.3 but i have been really enjoying it.  The water is flatter and it feels easier to learn certain things.  However it has been pretty exhausting too trying to keep planing in such light winds.

For the next 3 weeks there will be a lot of windsurfers in El Tur, as the Slovenian Quiksilver Surf School has arrived for its Summer session here.  This means that wind or no wind the water will not be flat as there are so many people out, making waves.  Its really nice to have so many people here though, makes for a completely different atmosphere in the hotel and on the water.  

We will also all be happy when it's finished though as we have been spoilt having the water pretty much to ourselves!  

So we got the wind back a few days ago, everyone went for it really hard and now we are all exhausted and in need of a lot of r&r!

Phil managed to land his first burners, a move he's been trying for a while, I am still working hard and being rather frustrated trying to get spocks happening, but I did nearly get my first carving 360 yesterday, which although its a move I never really liked or tried it was a surprise that I got so close and made me happy, will have to keep trying it, get it under my belt.

I have been out with my camera, although nothing to shout about and we have been quite busy having had windy days and guests arriving so I haven't had much time to sort them and put up some new ones...watch this space though they will come.

Lightwinds= photoshop playtime :)

El Tur

I took my camera to town last night, in the hope for some decent lifestyle shots.  We have the biggest church in the Sinai at the end of the road, and so i hoped to get this in the pictures as its quite beautiful to look at.  Unfortunately trying to be discreet meant i didn't want to use a tripod, resulting in some disappointing shots as the light was low.  I liked this one though, and will definitely take my camera again one night as there are some really nice shots to be had.

Light wind fun

Yesterday was a fairly light wind day, so unfortunately i thought it was a good idea to make use of my time and change some lightbulbs around the centre.  I carelessly dropped a rather heavy chair on my foot and now have a very purple big toe.  Besides from feeling incredibly stupid and a lot of immediate pain, it meant I then couldn't take advantage of being the lightest person when the wind filled in enough for some planning action! D'oh!  I did however get into the water with my camera and for the few moments where people were powered up to pull some moves I got a few decent and amusing shots.  

Most of the pictures are of Dan, who is a guaranteed source of entertainment in photos..thanks Dan!

The last shot here is of Adam Sims, an Oceansource rider who has used some of my shots on his website www.k669.co.uk check it out.

Oops its a long one...

Its still windy here in El Tur, and so we have all been working hard on the water.  Progress for me is slow and frustrating right now, but i am lucky to be sailing with people who can help me both by encouragement but also through coaching, as they are all more advanced than me. 

We have got a couple of days off and we were hoping to hire some pickups and take some kit up the coast, seek out a new beach to sail off for the day and then maybe camp overnight in the desert somewhere, Surfari!  Plan sounds great but sadly we were informed its likely to be impossible due to tourism laws in Egypt :( 

We will probably stay around El Tur, windsurf if its windy and chill out if not.  El Tur is a large (large for Egypt) town about 1 hour north of Sharm El Sheik.  It has little to offer for tourists, its an Egyptian town which is slowly becoming more modern but compared to the UK its very different.  There are a few roads and buildings which look great, all new and well built, and then the main road like most others has building sites and rubble and rubbish all the way up it.  Sadly Egyptians don't have the same view on rubbish as the more western countries, bins are hard to find and the street is usually the bin for most people.  This is sad but also adds character to the place, as there are plenty of local goats and sheep (a.k.a. geep) and cats and birds who feed very well off this lack of cleanliness.  They parade around the town and regularly on our bikes we have to slow down and wait for the geep to cross the road.  Putting our rubbish into the bins by our flat results in about 8 cats jumping out in all directions, before they quickly return to see what goodies we have given them!  I really enjoy living here, its very different and although you haven't got your Tesco or Sainsbury's round the corner to pick up your choice of dinner from, we have take away pasta or felafels for 40p, cans of coke for 25p and a meal in the fish restaurant for £4.  As well as the entertainment of the local animals we have the kids who are out to play until the early hours of the morning, and say hello every time they see us, repeatedly asking the same question "whats your name" no matter how many times you have met them before.  There is little to do other than windsurf, i find the heat at the moment is very discouraging to go for a walk or be outside in general, but fortunately for us its windy most of the time, and if not we have a couple of good snorkeling sites to keep us amused, and about 300GB of movies for the evenings to keep us entertained.

This evening, the wind is dying so its time for a beer, maybe a shisha and off to town later to find some food to fuel us for tomorrows wind.

Cant believe how close i got! but hey, nearly looking cool!

and there's more....

Here are a couple more pics i forgot to add, one from our morning in the water session, some from an evening shoot, and a couple of photoshopped pics too. I'm really enjoying playing with photoshop, the first of these pics i have edited (the guys with the red shorts) was out of focus, and i think the effect i added has made it look great, saving an awesome picture, whereas normally i'd discard the shot.

July certainly hasn't disappointed us for wind yet, and i have been taking plenty of photos that show just how good its been.  

Funny faces

I have been looking at emotions and facial expressions, its quite amusing and when you take windsurfing pics a lot of people look at the move and can miss the other parts of the pictures.