EJSBA Round One – Croatia July 4^th, 5^th & 6^th July.

We had a nice steady journey over to Croatia breaking up the journey with an overnight stay in Italy – which was lovely.  We arrived nice and early in Croatia so we could enjoy Croatia before the racing and met up with Kerry and her dad during the day and Graham & Julian and the B7 team arrived later that evening. The rest of the Brits James, Les, Brian, Yorkie, Shaun, Perry, Spencer, Lisa, Alex, Ant & Dec (sorry mean Luke) etc flew in on Thursday. It was nice to catch up with everyone that I hadn’t seen for ages and Keifer King from the USA who I raced with at the World Finals was racing so it was great to see him over here and catch up again.

The venue was the same as the last time the race was in Croatia and I really like it. The pits are next to the beach and apart from the launching being a little difficult it really is a great venue with lots of shops, restaurants and night life all within a short walking distance. The race is on the Adriatic Sea and the weather is hot!

Thursday was chill day – which was nice and Friday started by celebrating Jules 40^th birthday (which we didn’t know about until we got to Croatia – so we went out early and got balloons and a cake etc as a surprise) we also had signing on, tech and practice.  It was a long day as the timed chronos didn’t finish until about 9pm and we still had to go out to celebrate Jules birthday!

Saturday was race day – two motos for me. My race ski is in full working order so good news there. All the usual ladies were racing too including Yuki on her new Zapatta ski.  Moto 1 – I got out of the gate good but then don’t know what happened really as Yuki and Vicky drove passed me but I hung in there (even after a big jump on the back straight!) and I came out of the holeshot in third which is where I stayed for the race – Julie won by a long way, Vicky was second, I got third, Lisa got fourth after a battle with Yuki who came in fifth. It was a tiring race but I think racing on the sea always is.

I wasn’t mentally ready for Moto 2 – if that makes sense, I didn’t feel good. Again I got out of the gate ok but had a bit of battle to holeshot and again came out third but I didn’t stay there – Lisa got me through the splitters and then Yuki got me so I actually finished 5^th – not a good day on the water!  Well done to Julie who won easily again, Vicky in second, Lisa in third and Yuki in fourth.

Saturday evening we did a parade through the town of Crikvenica with all the skis on quads for the people of the town which I took part in and it was fun and the freestylers did a show too but then I had a quiet night alone to try and sort my own head out!!

Moto 3 on Sunday morning started with another good start and I came out 3^rd again this time with Lisa in the lead and then Yuki but then I took a swim and Julie passed me and shortly after that I took another swim and Marine passed me – just wasn’t my weekend!  I finished 4^th in moto 3 which gave me a 5^th overall on the weekend.

Well done to everyone in ski ladies Julie won, Lisa 2^nd, Yuki 3^rd, Vicky 4^th, me 5^th, Marine 6^th, Stefania 7^th, Pija 8^th and Irina 9^th.

I will keep up my training and try and better myself next time but it’s a tough class with some first class riders with good ski’s who are going to be difficult to beat but I will try and do better myself next time.

A special well done to Spencer who won his first European free style round.

A Thank you to Les also for his precious time – “gooday to you and hope you get to the right airport and have a safe journey down under!!”.

It’s a long drive home now back to Tattershall, Lincolnshire in the UK for round 3 of the British Championship. This time we are driving back through Slovenia, Austria, Germany, Luxembourg and Belgium.

See you all soon x x