April greeted Scotland with the best weather we’ve had in months, perfect sun for weeks on end. Getting off the turbo and riding outside is always the best part of coming into summer. It’s been a busy month for me, starting it off with passing my driving test, then driving up to Thurso straight away for the Scottish National Surfing Championships.

I took a few sessions to get back into it after a bit of time out of the water, but once the competition started, I was back to my usual self. Day one was all about wave choice and navigating the tricky conditions to make it through to finals day. I luckily made it through my heat in second place after a poor performance. Finals day had decent conditions, a fun-sized swell with offshore winds. I made it through my semi-final with a better performance than the day before, getting a small tube and a few turns. The final was always going to be tricky with the level Scottish surfing has risen to in the past few years. I was able to put in a solid performance to come fourth. To finish off my Thurso trip, I scored some brilliant tubes that evening before heading home to Stirling.

Back in Stirling, I had a few weeks to prepare for the fi rst race of the British Triathlon Super Series. Form felt great and was ready to go in the lead-up to the race. I headed down to Nottingham for the swim portion of the event (swim and bike/run were held separately). Unfortunately, I didn’t have my best swim, which was disappointing, completing the 400m TT in 4:26, which left me with some work to do the next day. The bike/run race was started in order of swim time, so I started a bit behind the leaders. I jumped on my bike and hammered it out of T1 with my first 1-min power averaging 500w. Over the course of the 10km bike, I came within 5 seconds of the front group but was unfortunately unable to catch them, and I was also caught by a chasing group just before the run. On the run, I was feeling cooked after the hard bike; however, I pushed through and ended up in 15th place – a disappointing start to the season.

Once home, I regained focus and prioritised recovery in preparation for the Scottish 5km Champs
in a few days.April