Well here we go :)

Ive never really written any sort of blog; the closest ive probably come is writing a company newsletter with colleagues about our outdoorsantics whilst I lived in Scotland. Although this wasnt really the pinacle of literary heights and consisted mostly of drinking too much, forgetting equipment, high aspirations and low performance- This probably wont be much different.

Anyhow, moving away from the norm of 200 character captions littered with emojis and dross. I thought it would be a good moment to just put pen to paper or finger to plastic and just blast out some words- im not even sure what im going to write about.

Although, I do realise that like many people I’m sat on a decade or so of outdoors anecdotal antics that may be mildly amusing or at a stretch useful to others that want to do similar things. However theres a lot to be said for learning from your mistakes and bloodymindedness.

In 6 months ill be racing the coast 2 coast in New Zealand, a multisport race where the name explains the route… so I may well keep a bit of a training blog of my antics. I must say I’m not the most structured types when it comes to training. I just have a very good idea of what works for me, I like type 2 fun and I dont mind shite weather- which generally works quite well for these sort of events. On top of that I have too many sports I pursue which means its hardwork to stay at a high level but on the plus side keeps things balanced training wise.

But like everything there is a tendancy to steer towards the things you prefer with training (ie avoid weaknesses), so I’ll do my best to perhaps write about forever trying to overcome that. Last weekend I actually competed in a local 50km kayak race around Copenhagen- which was a fantastic grass roots type event which came with the usual gang of enthusiastic grounded volunteers and competitors. It did serve as a bit of a wake up call to my paddling muscles after very little recent kayaking and 3 weeks of training; But im happy with 5th place and it was a great way of seeing the city. Which is perhaps one of the most well thought out livable Urban places ive ever seen.

Having not ever written a blog I can see the danger of not really knowing when to wrap things up, being concise and writing in a logical consistent manner etc etc. I should probably save something for future posts anyhow, rather than being too much of a one hit wonder.

Until the next instalment, cheerio. Giles

CHINESE FOUNTAIN

Dumpling heaven

ALPS

A quick jolly down to the Alps for a bit of racing, galavanting and general good times.

Just Bobbing around

Working in the North Sea through winter is not overly conducive to getting a massive amount of work done. On the other hand it does make you pretty adept at pouncing on weather windows and prioritising to make the best use of conditions on hand.

Bali Bagus

A few weeks to scratch the itch and rid that feeling of being wave starved. Infinite amounts of Nasi Goreng and some off season gems.