Just got back from another amazing trip to Singapore! The first time I was there to catch up with some buddies of mine but this time I was there to catch up with some buddies of mine AND compete at the 2012 Asian Windsurfing Championships. Singapore is just such an amazing city it’s a bit hard to describe; so I thought I’d make an attempt with the above photos. A bit less craziness this trip as I was competing each day and running lot’s of training clinics and coaching sessions for the local sailors and up and coming kids but we still did manage to make it to every nightspot imaginable, and some! Enjoy the pics. All by except the ones from Howie!

The 2012 Asian Windsurfing Championships (and Singapore Open) are about to kick off on Thursday here in warm and sunny Singapore. Get the live reports from me with all the inside action by clicking the picture above!

Sentosa Tourist Park (can’t believe this guy ruined my shot!) – check out the 45m high stone MERLION statue in the background.

Collecting horrible Chinese masks in China Town.

Checking out the foyer in the $8 billion Marina Bay Sands Hotel/Casino (that place is awesome!).

View from Level 27 where our friends were staying in this amazing MBS hotel!

The Art/Science Museum at the front of the MBS where we went to see the Salvador Dali exhibition.

Caribbean Club apartments where we went to one of the wildest BBQ’s full of English twats and all-sorts on Saturday night before hitting the town.

The amazing INFINITY POOL on the roof level of the MBS which also doubles as a nightclub in the evenings called Ku De Ta (was $50 just to get in though – sheesh!)

Inside the MBS shopping centre there were small canals and fountains that you could take gondola boat rides in! WTF?!

Avalon Club. A 17,000sq foot ‘crystal inspired’ glass nightclub floating on the water in Marina Bay right in front of the Casino. One of the best nightclubs I’ve seen on the planet … simply amazing. Hello, another $40 to get in though and $20 drinks. Meh!

Hit the clubs with a few friends!

The city skyline viewed from the balcony at Avalon Club.

On Sunday we rocked the Tamjong Beach Club (they call it model beach apparently) for some sun soaked beers and sand. Great atmosphere.

Up the top of the MBS at Ku De Ta rocking the VIP section things get a bit wild. Our first adventures with the big man’s new fiance – think she took it all in stride!

About to check out the Louis Vuitton store which is another floating glass temple on the water in front of the MBS. There is actually a tunnel that goes between the LV store inside the MBS to this concept store where you walk under the water… Saw the most awesome pair of hightop sneakers there but they were $1,980.

On my last night before hitting the airport me & Timmy head to LITTLE INDIA and find the magic Ghandi restaurant where you are served endless rice/vege/meat curry assortments dumped on a massive banana leaf on your table and just eat with your hands. They refill the water glass pretty quick cause this stuff is SPICY!

Managed to actually make my plane this time and get back to Europe (and the cold). Singapore…WHAT A PLACE. Go visit! Do it!

Just after the PWA Slalom World Cup event in Ulsan, Korea, myself and Kurosh Kiani took a little trip down to Okpo Island, which is just outside Busan, in the south of South Korea. Okpo is home to one of the biggest shipyards on planet earth, owned by Samsung (yeah, you know them, the electronics brand, yo!) and a cousin of mine happens to be working down there overseeing the build and fitout of some of the world’s biggest Drillships.

Don’t know what a Drillship is?? Understandable. It’s basically what would happen if the Titanic, a Space Shuttle, Terminator and the Mining Industry had a baby together that looked like a ship. We got the full tour of one of the new ships being commissioned and it is one of the most impressive and complex pieces of engineering design I have ever seen. Drillships are designed to head out in to the far reaches of the ocean then can drill +3km deep in to the ocean seabed; mostly being used for exploration of new gas and oil wells and scientific drilling. These beasts don’t use anchors, they position themselves to exact GPS coordinators by maintaining engine thrust from 6 different thrustors to stay in position whilst the drilling takes place; all with a floating drill pivot that allows the ship to tilt over massive waves in the ocean without actually moving the drill pieces in the ocean – which would surely break if not! If that doesn’t seem complicated enough; at the same time this is going on, there is mud being sucked up out of the drill which is then compacted and treated on-board in massive tanks and turbines before being hardened and pumped back down to the bottom of the ocean.

The drills are controlled by just 4 guys sitting in a pressurised cabin on the top of the ship. Each driver sits in a space-chair complete with all sorts of joysticks and custom-keyboards and flatscreen monitors to show all the information that the drill’s sensors spit out – as well as cameras on every angle to make sure everything is running smoothly. The drivers don’t really need to leave the control room; even in a hurricane.

Samsung is one of the biggest shipyards on the planet employing over 30,000 people every day with its own hotels, sports centres, running tracks, gyms, shops and basically its own economy to keep the workers happy and on the site 24 hrs a day to keep busting out these massive ships.

Was definitely a side trip from windsurfing I will remember for a long time. Including climbing the ladders to the top of the drill mount which are around 30 storeys high climbing up a sketchy metal ladder! Thanks to Tim and the guys at National Oilwell Varco for lending us the overalls and allowing us to check out the site.

We’ve just finished up my first PWA World Cup Slalom event for the season in Ulsan, South Korea. I skipped the first event of the tour in Vietnam and thought I’d kick off in Korea as I really like this spot. As usual, it was a week filled with rice, language breakdowns, super strong winds, crazy hotels, more rice and bottles and bottles of Korean Soju. I finished 24th overall after the 7-day competition which is my best result on the PWA World Tour so far and kept me in the prizemoney.

On the first day we also had a “media race” with all the competitors starting together which I finished 6th in to add to the cash. Enjoy some of the photos from the event by PWA/Carter and as usual all the ones from the event party were shot by me.

• Formula Worlds Daily Report
• Sean’s Gear: Formula Worlds

And also, due to the amount of emails Sean received asking about this, he has included some information about the gear he registered and some tips on how to setup your formula gear for racing. Enjoy.