During the entire trip I shared a good few sessions with the locals. The island has heavy localism at some spots and I respect that. As some of the guys live and breath the spots. One morning during a larger swell this left hander was packed with some local talent. I decided not to go out and shoot them for a few hours. Check out the vid.

After a while the spot began to empty out and managed to snag a few rights and was one of the better sessions of the trip. My k4 fins were working a treat with a thruster set up. 10’s in the side and a 12 in the middle.

It feels like a long time ago I was in rainy Devon, England at the British Sup National Championships. I traveled over in mid October for the weekend event in the little estuary village of Kingsbridge. I was sick with a flu but that never stopped me before so I downed the uni-flu and put my race face on. There was a stacked field of British talent and a few dark horses put into the mix. In the short distance race I went out like a cat on acid but that is not to good when your throat is killing you and ended up coughing my guts up for the rest of the race. Never the less I secured a 5th place finish with a fun sprint finish with Aaron Rowe and came out on top for the first time in a while. Sunday was the big three creeks race with first place taking 500 pounds home. Everybody went into serious mode and again I went out like the Tazmanian devil thinking I will try get out in front and suffer my way around the 10 km course. I was feeling powerful after the first buoy. I slipped back into fourth position on the draft train and tried to catch a break. I lost concentration for just 2 seconds while reaching for my water tube and they had put 20 meters on me. A rookie mistake. The rest of the race was playing the catch up game with big wave charger Tom Lowe working together. I kept my 4th position after another sprint finish. My body was completely ruined traveling home after the intense racing.

Next up was the La Torche pro France for the last stop of the stand up world tour. I had a lot of bad luck with my wetsuit getting stolen and didn’t feel 100 percent going over. It was still cool to see the level of stand up paddle surfing. I competed in the Trials but got knocked out first round. I had a bit of luck in the Na Kama Kai getting to the semi finials but getting knocked out by Mo Freitas of Hawaii and Christian Andersen of Denmark. Mo was surfing on boards which were pretty much under water all the time. The race event was canceled and the weather was pretty rubbish over the week of competition. Kai Lenny came out on top in epic conditions for the final with 10-12ft Sunset style conditions. I would like to give a big congratulations to Aaron Rowe for winning the Trials event and getting to round three of the contest.

Two weeks ago I traveled for the last time of 2013 to the Paris Sup Nautic. I did this race last year and this year it was a much larger affair with 300 paddlers paddling down the Seine. I went for a dip in the water this year not on purpose but with a flow of 4-5 kmh it made a bumpy ride along the 12 km route. I got 14 place overall including the pool racing which was super fun. A few mistakes early on cost me dearly on the river race but grinded my way through the rest of the race trying to catch the leading pack. For the last time this year I had another sprint finish but this time with my team mate Ryan James. Ryan had just picked me at the line but a good battle never the less.

 

I am struggling to get on the water these days with the temperatures so low but still getting some water time windsurfing and paddling in my wetsuit. I will post a end of year blog post around the new year.

 

Thanks to all the photographers.

After a busy few weeks getting back into the daily routine of school I have been training harder then ever to give the last few events of the season all I have to give me that motivation going into the winter months. Lots of news to get through.

Training in the dark now always test my determination

First of all I picked up the Irish racing title with the cancelation of the last event of the year in Kerry. Just a weekend before the second round of the racing tour happened in Bundoran with some extreme racing conditions going on it made for some fun racing. On the Saturday it was the short Bop style course in some nice solid 5ft waves on main beach in Bundroan. I had a lot of fun and only got caught once on the inside by a huge set which cleaned me up. I cruised around the course ahead of the pack and claimed first place. Sunday was the marathon race which was pretty crazy as it crossed over some of Irelands biggest reef breaks. I took an inside line which paid off but was pretty risky as if any big set came in I would have lost everything. I took out first place again. Look at the route. That big headland is Mullaghmore headland which Ireland premier big wave and lots of other world class reefs which I dodged.

K4 fins and Supboarder magazine are now supporting me with lots of valuable resources to help me grow and improve as a athlete. I am stoked to be apart of these two awesome brands. Supboarder magazine will be posting my weekly race tip and lots of ideas are being discussed for next year. Check out supboardermag for this weeks race tip. K4 fins recently launched their range of Sup fins which can be viewed at K4fins.

Frontside step back turn from Peter Kosinski on Vimeo.

The supconnect grom of the year awards are happening at the moment and you can vote for me at Sup grom of the year.

This weekend I am traveling to the British national sup race championships in Kingsbridge, Devon. I have been training super hard for this event and lets hope it pays off. Then I am home for a few weeks before I am off again to the La Torche pro in Brittany, France with a surf and race event over one week.

 

 

 

The days are getting shorter and summer is coming to a end. I had a action packed summer with lots of water time at home and abroad. I just came back from a fun weekend at the national water sports festival in Hayling island which was massive with windsurfing, sup racing, kitesurfing and kayaking. Plus throw in a few world champions, olympic medalist and a few thousand people it made a busy weekend of action. Team starboard dominated the Sup racing and windsurfing with more podium finishes then any other brand. I managed to get a 2nd in the Battle of the Paddle, 5th in the 6k race, 5th Sup run sup and 1st in the Survivor course. I was pretty stoked with my performance but can’t wait to get back winter training. Check out this video of the action. Skip to 9 mins for the sup race.

NWF 2013 Saturday 31st from NWF Media Channel on Vimeo.

Two weekends ago was the annual Wesup Battle of the brands down in Falmouth, Cornwall. Again team Starboard dominating pretty much every race with dream team Ryan James and Roman Frejo taking out first place followed by team Surtech with Ollie Shilston. Myself and Paul Simmons taking third place. The great British summer was out in force with a strong breeze and the rain constantly pouring down for the entire day. Check out this cool video of the event.

The weekend before that it was surf comp time with the Strandhill surf festival. Another great event with again team Starboard taking out first and second place with Finn Mullen taking first and myself taking second. The waves weren’t the best but a well organized surf event kept the action rolling. I was riding my starboard 8,0 pro which worked amazing in the mushy on shore waves.

 

All summer long I have been surfing my Starboard 8,0 pro and have been loving every moment of it. It rips in everything from 1 foot to 8 foot and everything in between. I find the thruster works best giving you the best of everything and only making minimal adjustments to the centre fin.

Peter Kosinski Summer 2013 from Peter Kosinski on Vimeo.

I also had good fun finless sup surfing which was a new perspective to sup surfing. Loosing control and just being able to glide across a wave slipping and sliding every were and randomly catching grip every so often to pull off a turn is the coolest experience.

The 2013 season is not slowing down with my focus now moving to local Irish events and possibly securing a few national titles along the way.

Sup racing season is in full swing with big races every weekend all over europe including Ireland and sup race series happening every week. It is full on for the next few weeks.

Since the Head of the Dart it was straight back training for the Battle Of The Thames in London. The event was filled with some of the best paddlers in the U.K and Jamie Mitchell of Australia joining in on the racing as well during his tour of the U.K. Jamie is a ten times Molokai to Oahu paddle board world champion and the current Long distance world champion so I was pretty chuffed with myself to be only 5 minutes behind him after more then 16 km of racing. I had a poor start and had to play the catch up game for the rest of the race which got me in 5th postion over the line. Chris Parker aka Mr Supracer gives a good review of his week in Engaland. At Supracer .com

 

The Dublin Bay Sup Classic happened last weekend and in conjunction with the Pure Magic Battle for the Bay. The event had a nice festival atmosphere and the weather was sunny at least but with a good sea breeze the temperature was pretty chilly. On Saturday Morning the inaugural JM Survivor race was done in front of good crowds. I loved this race format it keeps the racing more interesting then the boring course racing which is normally grinding. Then the Technical race was held in the afternoon. In my opinion the race organizers should have preplanned a better course taking in the one variable they had control on the TIDE. Never the less a rather water less race was had with lots of running around the course. Next morning it was the 20 km long distance race which was a love/hate race as it had some nice downwind sections but had tough upwind paddling and  lots of crosswind paddling. A good training course which really tested your paddling style and endurance as it took close to three hours. Overall lots of windy paddling and really nice paddles made by MR OWNES.

Just two weeks after the Dublin Bay Sup classic it was pack my bags and head for the airport once again for the Oleron Sup challenge world series race. It was a stacked field with the top 20 guys in the world attending. Names like Kai Lenny, Connor Baxter, Paul Jackson, Caspear Stienfeth, Beau O’brien, Chase, Jake Jensen, Eric Terrien plus a bunch of other european talent all took part in this cool event organized by Dider(Diablo Fun). Watching those guys race was a huge learning experience and then going up against them was a bit intimidating but seeing them push themselves to the limit shows how much dedication it takes to paddle at that level. Thanks to the Jersey crew, Starboard UK and a special mention to Tim Rowe for picking me up at the airport on the first day.

On Saturday morning it was the Long distance which was supposed to be a 30 k downwinder which was changed to a upwind downwind course of about 5-6 km. Not so much of a distance race but more of a long sprint. Never the less after waiting in the freezing cold for 15mins on the start line it was all GO GO GO. I had a good start off the beach and was around 10th postion but quickly lost places as we headed to the upwind mark. A combination of the cold and rough water made it was hard to settle into a fast pace so rounded the first marker far behind the main pack. The rest of the race was more a race of survival rather then trying to grind it out and gain a few postions. I finished around 30th postion.

Sunday was sprint race day. Another rainy day with a triangular style course in and out of the beach. My first heat and I was up against Kai Lenny and a host of other world class paddlers. I managed to get 4th postion which gave me a direct route in to the Quater finials. Each heat had 8 paddlers in it and the top 4 advanced into the next stage of racing. Then when I was lining up for my quater finial heat with Kai Lenny, Eric Terrian,  Chase Kosterlitz, Beau O’Brien and a few other top guys I knew I was going to need a clean start to stick with these guys. I fell off my board during the inside mark and couldn’t catch the guys once I fell off. After the race I was pretty chuffed with myself to be able to stick with those guys until I fell off. My finial postion was 27th overall and 3rd int eh Na Kama Kai(U16). Aaron Rowe from Jersey paddled the best I have seen him paddle ever beating me overall and claiming 2nd Na Kama Kai(U16)

After coming back from France I took out my credit card and booked my next flights to the Bilboa immediately . I can’t wait to race again on the Stand up world Series next weekend.

Credits to all photographers.