MAVS Opening Ceremony!!!!!!!!!!!

Hey guys well yesterday was the opening Ceremony for the Maverick's Big Wave Contest at Half Moon Bay. Was a awesome afternoon not only with epic weather but just seeing all the big wave legends that i am used to seeing in the Movies but seeing them up close and getting a chance to hang out. We had a little ceremony on the beach where all surfers are introduced...Then we paddled out in the bay and form a circle and everyone gets to say a little speech and it was pretty cool... After the whole beach deal we headed back and had a nice dinner and watched the guys in the main draw actually go up and draw for heats.. Was funny to see the guys reactions when they saw who they had in their heat... After that it was off to Tim West's Place(who is a main invitee and all round nice guy) for a after party.. Was cool and mellow to hang out and catch up with all the boys and talk story.. Before u know it its early hrs of morning and time for bed.. I had to get up and head back to Santa Cruz and pack my bags as i am heading to the airport tonight and leaving for home..I'm so stoked to be heading home and getting back into my normal routing and warm weather and to see my girlfriend.. Im not looking forward to the flight but hopefully i can try and scam a whole row if the planes empty..Cheers Jamie

Ready to Roll!!!!!!!!

Hey guys whats happening... Well i have been hanging here in Santa Cruz for the last week staying with Pete Mel and his family..I stole Pete's son John's room..Thanks John John your the man. And what a cool surf town Santa Cruz is.. It's a real nice place with good waves everywhere when its on. I wish i had some stories to tell of epic waves and adventures but it just hasn't been like that.. I have spent the last 3 days working on my Jet Ski that i have had stored at Pete's place for the last year and also getting my trailer legal and registered.. My ski is a 07 Honda and only has 4 hrs on the clock and i needed to give it some love. It needed a sled and all the attachments that go with it plus i needed to grip up all the gunnel's and and hard bits and make straps and attach them to all the seats so i spent the last 3 days at Surftech's main Headquarters doing it all.. I couldn't have done it without the help of Randy French(owner of Surftech) . He was with me the whole way helping out..We cut piece after piece of grip trying to match every little nook and crannie had to drill through pop rivets to take the side webbing off then re- pop rivet and you name we did it but it came out looking so sick..I'm SO STOKED.. Thanks to Pete for driving me around and getting all the bits and pieces i needed and helping out when he could..His ski and trailer needed some love to so he was trying to work on that as well... So no water time as of yet.. Its been small anyway's.. So tomorrow we have the Mavericks Opening Ceremony at Half Moon Bay so that should be fun and i hope to get some pics and ill update before i leave back home.. Im on the plane Saturday night heading back home to OZ.. Well till then take care and ill post some pics from Mavs on Saturday... Jamie

One of those Days!!!!!!!!!!

You ever had one of those day's where you wake up think everything is going to be fine and then something little goes wrong then something else and it just keeps snowballing till you have One of those days! Well that's what happened to me and Pete on Thursday for the contest in Oregon.. We went and surfed the Wednesday arvo and the ski was working fine and me and Pete were pretty in sync and things were good... We went and had a nice dinner and then got a bunch of food and water for the Contest day and we were really organised.. Super pumped for the comp..

Then we woke up haha.. We got all our stuff walked down hooked up the ski and went to start the ski and Nothing.. Dead!! Battery was dead. So we tried a few little things to try and fix the problem but nothing..So then we tried to Jump start it from the car and nothing so at this stage we are running really late..So we just decide to head down and see what we can do at the beach.. We go ahead and dump the ski on the beach and get ready put our wetsuits and booties etc on and only have 30 min till our heat starts.So we find another battery jump unit try it again and it fires up so we are on again. So what we have to do is just not turn the ski off the whole time we are in the water which is pretty dangerous but we have no choice. So we go out and with about 2 min before our heat starts Pete leans over into the front hatch to get the tow rope out and boom just touches the kill switch and the engine dies.. Nothing.. Dead again.So here we are floating into the line up which is building to 15 feet .. NOT GOOD..So we get towed out of the zone and Pete's good Buddy's Adam and Alistar give us there ski and we switch for our heat so we got to surf and Thanks heaps to those guys for helping us out..Legends! They also went on to win the comp so Good Karma prevailed for those boys.

So once we finished the heat we now had to get the ski into the beach through a 10 ft shore break which was pretty heavy..Anyway's Adam towed Pete in copybook style and Pete rode it in on the sled and they pulled it off unreal..

So now we are trying to decide what we are going to do for the next heat? So we take off and go shopping for a new battery which we couldn't get cause none were the kind that were already charged so no luck there. So we went back to the beach and decided we would just put the ski back on the trailer and try borrow a ski for the next heat Pete was surfing in. So when we are winching the ski up the trailer breaks.We couldn't believe it.. A slat of 4x2 wood and some braces just snapped.. Perfect... So know we are trying to fix the trailer as well..

So back to the surfing we got another ski to use for the final heat and got some waves. We didn't make the final but I did whip Pete into the biggest wave of the day only for it to throw way down the line and he got smoked.. Big big wipeout.. That was the highlight for us was his wipeout haha..

So we finish the heat and Pete has to run off to the Hardware store and then find someone who can machine a few brackets for the trailer so we can get out of here 1st light Friday morning. Anyway he pulls it off and we fixed the trailer and we got on the road Friday morning for the 11 hr drive back to Santa Cruz. So all in all a challenging day for us but still fun when u sit down and have a laugh about it.. Oh yeah and then one last thing.. We were just about to head to the Presentation and we couldn't find our keys to the car. We lost them in all the mayhem..Couldn't top off a better day for us really hey... Here are a few photos and check this link on Surfline for some surfing shots .. http://www.surfline.com/surf-news/replogle-craft-repeat-at-nelscott-reef-tow-in-classic_31631/1/ Cheers JM

ROAD TRIP!!!!!!!!

Hey there everyone what a 48 hrs that was.. Well i left Brisbane for LA which was a 13 hr flight then had a 4 hr layover in LA before my flight to San Fransisco courtesy of a delayed flight. I arrived at San Fran then Pete Mel (who is my partner for this event) picked me up with his truck fully loaded with the ski, boards, tools etc and we headed off straight to Oregon.. I thought it was about a 8hr drive but i was mistaken.. We drove for 8 hrs before we hit a town called Eugene and we got a hotel room for the night and got some shuteye. We woke up this morning had a quick bite to eat then it was on the road again for the final 3hrs.. And here we are..Lincoln City Oregon. Its pretty cold compared to home but the forecast still looks good the swell is on the way up as i type. We just had some lunch and spoke to Greg Long and Mike Parson's and we are gonna hook up with those boys in 30 min and go launch the ski and go have a practise run and make sure everything is working and smooth and iron some kinks out..Its been a while since i surfed let alone Tow so i need to get a bit of practise. Plus for me and Pete its our first time teaming together so will be cool to dial it all out.. Well we have to get ready so i will update hopefully tomorrow night after the comp and hopefully have some sick photos as well.. Till then.. Take care JM

Somebody make me a time machine! PLEASE

Well well. Its funny how the weather dictates my life... I have just arrived home from LA after 3 weeks away and have literally just found out that i will be back on a plane tomorrow and heading to Oregon.. A Tow In Contest that me and Pete Mel are in has just been called Green which means GO and will be going on Thursday. Check out http://www.nelscottreef.com for more info.. Looks like El Nino is starting to come through with the goods already.Forecast is looking real good with light winds so should make for a fun contest..The wave itself is a sick right and left but the right is the main peak.. So I'm flying into San Fransisco on Tuesday mid morning then will be picked up by Pete and then straight on the road driving to Oregon with Boards and Jet Ski in tow.. I think the drive is about 8 hrs!!! Not fun but its all part of the adventure.

But there is also some good timing involved because the Mavericks Opening Ceremony is on the 30th October so i will stay in Santa Cruz for the week and get to see a sponsor Surftech and work on some new SUP surf boards and also do the Opening Ceremony and make the trip definitely worth all the travel, Jet Lag and bad aeroplane food(i hate that food).. So i will be keeping u all up to date while I'm away so be sure to check back and see how it takes place..Till then take care..JM

The photos are of the swell maps. The Red is Good.

Kaenon You Tube

Jamie Mitchell Video – Ultimate Waterman

Better LATE then Never!!!

Sorry guys i have been meaning to update but things have been pretty Crazy this past week.. Well The Battle has been run and Won. And us Aussies done pretty well.. Both Myself and Shakira won the Elite races with Billy Watson coming home strong in 4th and Jocelyn finishing 11th in the women's race as well and Sean Campbell beating home half the field as well.. It was a amazing race with lots of surf, wind and carnage. Wait till u see some footage. It will blow your mind. The next day we backed up after a few beers the night before and raced for Team La Hui Kai in the Teams race. Our team consisted of Myself,Billy Shaq and Danny Sheard. We had a epic race and took home the honours and topped off a great weekend of racing for all of us.. HUGE thanks goes out to Mick and Adrian of La Hui Kai for the fastest boards there and all there support and Mick for handling for me and always supporting me in my endeavours. Also to Danny,Sue and Sean for all the cheering and support as well. It was so good to have a awesome crew of Aussies there supporting each other..

This past week has been full with commitments to my sponsors and checking out some other opportunities which I'm really excited about. Thanks also to Kaenon,Future Fins and Quickblade for there support while we were in town. Love u guys.. Well off to my last commitment while I'm here the Sacred Craft Expo in Del Mar and then me and Joss are heading back to the South Bay for a few days before heading home.. Oh yeah i have some pretty exciting news I'm stoked about but i cant let the Cat out of the bag just yet but stay tuned. Im pumped about it.. Take care.. Jm

All GO HERE in the Big Smoke!!!!!!!

Whats happening everyone.. Well its been flat out here in California.. We got back from San Fransisco on Monday morning and had a total lay day/recovery..Still hurting from the big night on Saturday... Tuesday morning arrived and we were lucky enough to have one of Mick,Shaq and Sean's sponsors Watermans Applied Science guys come pick us up and give us a Van to use(wait till you see the thing). Macon hooked us up and drove us to lunch then to Kaenon our sunnies sponsor to see those guys and then to San Clemente where we were going to stay the night so we were a bit closer to Dana Pt where the race is going to be.. Thanks mate . Legend!

After a few days and nights in San Clemente we booked ourselves into a killer hotel right next to the Doheny State Park in Dana Pt..Walking distance to the beach. So last night was the Jamie Mitchell Experience at the Patagonia store in Cardiff San Diego. Kaenon put this thing on and i was pretty nervous about no one turning up but there ended up being up about 100 people turn out to listen to me talk story about some of my favourite photos and clip[s and ask questions about paddling etc. Was a fun night and stoked my Girlfriend and best mates could be there with me.

Today we decided to go check out Huntington Beach.Surf City as they call it here.. Ive been here before but for everyone else it was there 1st time and it was fun to check it out. This arvo we went and checked in for the race tomorrow and saw some friends from all over the world who have come for the race. Its going to be a crazy scene tomorrow with apparently near 1000 competitors racing in all different categories. Our race the Elite Battle is over about 10km in and out of the surf with some running and with a little Sth swell hitting tomorrow it will be a fun race.. 10 Grand is up for grabs for the winner.. It will be hard to get the big paycheck.U should see the dood's that paddle over here.They look like Incredible Hulks .Huge, strong guys.We will do our best but..Good luck to all the Aussies racing tomorrow Joss,Shaq,Sue,Mick,Billy,Sean,and Danny.. It should be a fun day.. I will update about the race as soon as i can ... Take care JM