All booked up!!!

Well it looks like this year I'm not going to be billy no mates in Tenerife as four of us have booked up in the last few days. Co-incidentally posted on the Boards website yesterday was a vid of Adam Lewis sailing where we are going. Adam works at the OTC and is probably the one best port tack wavesailors in the Canaries (which means pretty much in the world in real terms) and is really approachable. Here's the vid:


An Evening in Tenerife from Adam Lewis on Vimeo.

Talking of the Boards web site I don't know if any of you saw their News section the other day but there, amongst news articles on the likes of Phillip Koster, the latest boards from RRD etc was a news report on none other than Guernsey, with link to the videos Hutchy and I did last month. Fame at last!! Here's the link:
http://boards.mpora.com/news/guernsey-action.html

Whilst on the subject of action here's a vid done by Rob Ayliffe in Jersey with some great DTL action in the northerlys that we've been getting. The editing is great and it puts my efforts to shame. Nice action too:



Last but not least Nick asked me to let you know that he has a JP 102 Freestyle Wave 2011 Pro edition for sale for £650 - comes with fins, straps and a boardbag too - sounds like a bargain to me. Great allround bump and jump board.

See you at the beach thi weekend hopefully.

All is quiet on the western front!!!!!!

All might be quiet on the wind side of things but that's not to say things aren't happening here's the low down:

Instructor Course;

Windsurf Instructor Course April 10th – 14th 2012


Richard Klein at the Guernsey Sailing Trust is planning another Windsurf Instructor course over Easter 2012.

The course will be 5 days long from 9am till approximately 4.30pm each day with the 5th day being a moderation with another Trainer from the UK.

The cost of the course will be £150 which will include the Windsurf Instructor manual.

Info
-Minimum age is 16, there’s no maximum age!
-Minimum candidates 4, maximum is 8
-You will have the opportunity to help with Team 15 and run other courses through the Sailing Trust, or even work for any RYA centre around the World!

Certificates needed to become an Instructor.
- Intermediate non-planing certificate with beach starting and non-planing gybe clinics;
- RYA Powerboat level 2 certificate;
- Valid first aid qualification.
Don’t worry if you don’t have the above qualifications. Please contact me and I will be able to help you sort them out.

If you would like to find out more, please contact Richard at the Guernsey Sailing Trust. If you think someone would be interested then please forward this message.

The next thing that is planned is the annual open day. As with previous years the idea is to go for early May and this year we can tie in with National Windsurfing Week and hold our open day on Sunday 6th May. There will be the usual free lessons and BBQ etc as per the previous years and we'll organise some fun races as well as may be an old school freestyle comp. The other thing planned is a dawn till dusk windsurf which will also take place on the 6th and rasie money for charity.

Also we'll be holding our annual AGM on the 15th March here are the details:

THE ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING OF THE GUERNSEY BOARDSAILING ASSOCIATION WILL BE HELD ON THURSDAY 15^th MARCH 2012

AT THE GUERNSEY YACHT CLUB AT 7.30 PM (19.30 HRS)

AGENDA

1.              Apologies for absence.

2.              2011 Minutes and Matters Arising.

3.              President’s Report.

4.              Accounts for 2011. No increase proposed for 2012 subscriptions.

5.              Election of Officers.

President

Matt Le Poidevin has indicated he is willing to stand for re-election.

Racing

Simon Lovell has indicated he is willing to stand for re-election.

Treasurer

Chris Hill has indicated he is willing to stand for re-election.

Secretary

Bob Perkins is retiring, and a new secretary will be required.

Guernsey Sailing Trust  Representative

Richard Klein is a co-opted member of the committee by virtue of his position in the GST.

If you would like to take on a position, or would like to nominate somebody, please attend the AGM or email the Secretary prior to the meeting if you can’t attend. In any case, a new secretary will be required.

6.              Any Other Business.

Either bring this up on the night or, if you have any other business which you think members should think about before the meeting, please email the Secretary in good time so that it can be circulated prior to the meeting.  

              Bob Perkins, Secretary.                                                 Email: pkns@cwgsy.net

              4^th February 2012

Anyone for Puppy Spanking??????!!!!!!

Last weekend saw yet again more wind and so far in January its been mild and windy. So much so that last Saturday I counted 16 out at Vaz - that would be a good turn out in the summer let alone the middle of winter!!
The waves were pretty small so after 20mins I was getting pretty bored even though we were on 4.7s so I decided to up the game and go puppy spanking. For those of you who don’t know ‘puppy spanking’ is for some reason Vazon Bay slang for forwards – phases like ’nice puppy’ and ‘puppy spanking’ refer to ‘nice forwards’ and the spanking bit really sort of refers to flat water forwards when you get slapped on landing – hence the reason for my post title. Don’t ask me where the terminology came from!! I don’t think I’ve heard it elsewhere – but it might be commonly used throughout the windsurfing world, I just don’t know. Anyone else heard it said elsewhere?

As it turned out in one 40min period I managed an average of one puppy every 3m45secs which pretty much means one every one run……result battered!! Not helped by a nasty push loop effort that went badly wrong and left me seeing stars for a couple of seconds (I'm still limping a little)!!

Great to see some of the Ladies Bay sailors out too. Oh and BTW if you want to borrow my head cam don’t hesitate to ask.

Vid Frenzy!!

Well it's been some time coming and the lack of wind over the last few days has given me the chance to put together a couple of vids and there's more to follow. I'm slowly getting better and faster at editing so hopefully in the not too distant future I'll be able to fire them out almost immediately after the sessions.

In the first vid it was a pretty big day, but interestingly the fish eye lens really reduces the apparent size of the waves - the sets were coming in at mast high (see the pics from the post below). My next mission will be to experiment with different mounts. In the second vid I lent the camera to Hutchy, we sailed for about 3.5hrs and ended up with only a few mins of decent footage. The other interesting thing is that by lending the camera to someone else that person gets to understand what the person with the camera is looking for; so I'll be lending it to all the Vaz regulars so we can all get to film and be filmed!! Enjoy--------

And there's more.........

Well the first few days of 2012 were epic, with solid westerlies, pumping swells and mild. Not a bad start to 2012; ok it's gone a little quiet over the last few days but hopefully 2012 will be an epic year!! Hutchy and I have done some more wideos and they'll be posted soon, in the meantime here are a few pics:

 Hutchy getting some good air

 Jason Bottom Turn

 Looking down the line

 Gnarly suck ups getting heavy - only about 60cms of water under the fins!!

Nicely framed - shame it's out of focus!!!

The video will follow shortly.

A Very Happy New Year!!!

The New Year has been super windy and is pretty much a follow on from the end of last year. Between Christmas and the New Year we had a few days and I had an outing on my new 4.2, not a huge amount of swell but there was some good airtime to be had. Here's a vid and there'll be more to follow:

And that 4.2 session was my 119th session of the year and my last for 2011. Coincidently the crapauds (for those who don't live on the islands that means the Jersey) also did a vid on the same day - nicely edited I have to say, which is better, you decide!

After that I picked up some dodgy stomach bug and was laid up for three days, and then after three days of it coming out of both ends what happens - yep you guessed it - it nuked, the swell built, and I was faced with dilemma of either staying at home in bed or try and sweat it out on the water. Jason called me at 12.50 and told me Phil was swimming in having been nailed on gnarly suck ups. So it was pumping, and I was weak from 3 days of not eating ah well it had to be checked out!! As I pulled up at the Vaz car park Phil was still swimming some 20mins later!! Here's his kit after he dragged it up the beach this is what was left:

I went in but took it easy as I decided I'd do some film instead - I didn't want to end up like Phil!! So took it easy I did, Hutchy was ripping with some great backies, 360s, and the like! I did some video but had some technical difficulties too - I'll post it soon. Oh and BTW the forecast is epic.

Been super windy!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Well my last post talked about an up and coming blow and blow it did!!! Last week saw deep depression after deep depression pushing through up the Channel. It all started to kick off about 10 days ago and Phil Warry and I had an airtime session in a WNW over the high tide heading out from t'others on the 4.2's - it was just loads of air time after loads of air time. It was classic Vaz with about 6-8ft swell breaking about 300-400m out and a perfect tide with the reefs breaking up the wind chop so that we could hit the ramps at full speed. I did a vid with the head cam which is a work in progress. Here'a a snap shot of Phil and I heading out for some action:

After opening blinder of a session the other sessions have all become a blur with the 4.7/5.3/5.5 and even the 3.7s seeing some action. The wind during the last week was relentless and I cannot remember ever ever in the last 28yrs of windsufing that there has been such a windy week; on the Monday it hit 56knts, the Tuesday it was gusting 63knts, on the Wednesday 62knts and on the Thursday a mere 52knts - oh and not forgetting the Friday and Saturday (today) when it was hitting 40knts. And it wasn't just the wind, the swell was as big as it gets, with Vazon facing straight out into the Atlantic it was taking the full brunt of the swell, the off-shore reefs like Les Roches du Bois, the Nor'West Grunes and the like were all firing and were clearly visibly breaking top to bottom, I'd guess with 40ft+ faces (bearing in mind Les Roches du Bois is about 2miles out and you could clearly see the wave jack up and break from the shore!!) In Vazon itself the swells on the Wednesday morning were pumping, so much so that they were breaking in line with Fort Houmet. In the pic below to put it into scale the fort on the headland is about 50ft-60ft above sea level so the wave in middle is at least mast and half and probably the bigger sets were nudging double mast: 

The reality is of course that it has been all a little too much, 60knt winds and 20ft of swell on the 3.7/4.2 is pretty suicidal. On the Monday Phil, Hutch and Simon took on Vaz, and it wasn't dis-similar to the above pic - the tales from the tube revolve around mast and half high bombs, so much wind in the squalls that they had to retire to the beach (they were on 4.2s) and lumps of ice falling out of the sky!!!
Thrown into all of this was the delivery of a few new sails, a 2.1, a 4.2 and a 4.7. They arrived a couple of days ago and I managed my first session on my 4.7 today. Now it is something to behold, at 2.7kgs or there about it is the lightest wave sail in the world, and for those of you who remember the Hotsails Gridlock from the 90's you'll know that if anyone can do light Hotsails can - I took it out today and I can say without a doubt it is the most responsive light reactive sail I have ever had the pleasure of using, so much so that I will happily lend it to anyone to try out because without the Firelight experience they will be missing something - I really think that Tom and Jeff at Hot have hit the nail on the head with this sail. It reminded my of the first time that i took out a full carbon board after years of sailing crappy flexible Tigas etc (because that was all I could afford) and being amazed how much difference it makes. The conditions were far from perfect with a low tide and Nw'er at Vaz, but at least there was a good swell, it was pretty much starboard tack but with 4-6ft faces I clocked some good air time and managed a couple of monsterous backside aerials on port in the the cross on conditions. No action pics but Steve Sminth did text me to comment on a 'nice backie' - always good to get a text from the one of the boys: Here's a pic of her in all her lightness!!!

The big Hotsails logo is a limited edition and i wouldn't mind betting that my outing today was perhaps the first in Europe with this version of the sail!

Of course not forgetting that during this frenzied week of wind last week we had the GBSA annual prize giving......but it's late and I'm tired so i'll report on that tomorrow!!

About time.......

Well after the greatest wind drought in living memor, with a mere 2 sessions in the last 7weeks it's finally coming together with Guernsey rightfully positioned as No4 in the worlds windiest spots for tomorrow and the outlook is epic with Sat/sun looking dreamtime with cross-shore 5.4m (about 16ft) swell and 30-40knts.

GBSA prize giving 9th Dec

The annual prize giving is coming up on 9th Dec at the Grange Lodge. For those of you who went last year you'll remember it as a good do and also, if I remember rightly the first night when the snow started to fall!! The response so for this year for confirmed numbers is pretty poor so if you confirm your attendance to Bob Perkins at pkns@cwgsy.net.

Given the lack of wind I've not had the chance to catch up with everyone but anyhow I hate to post without a pic or video so here's a nice one from Hotsails team rider Leon Jamaer - it's titled Feels Like Summer which given that we're having the mildest November for 350yrs - yes that is 350yrs!! is kind of appropriate:


..feels like summer... from broken bloke Production on Vimeo.

I'm sure it was windier back in the day.........

For those of you who have been windsurfing for longer than you care to remember here's some great footage of how it was back in day with coverage of the Tiree events back in '87 and '94. If my memory serves me well it was '86/87 when I started going for the forwards, well not so much forwards as cheese rolls as they were then and also somewhere in the memory banks I seem to recall that it was in 1995 when Hutchy won the amateurs and then went on to place 3rd in the Pro's beating some top pro sailors. Enjoy:


More Windsurfing Videos

Fame at last

Fame at last - well sort of!

Richard at the Guernsey Sailing Trust bought a couple of Hotsails rigs earlier this year. it seems that they proved popular with the kids, here's a link to the HSM blog on the subject: http://blog.hotsailsmaui.com/2011/10/dd-proves-popular-in-guernsey.html

Also whilst you're there check out the new Hotsail Firelight, it's officially the lightest production sail in the world. Hotsails lead the last lightweight sail revolution back in the early 90's with their Gridlock range and now that weight saving is all the fashion they've re-ignited their skills and have come up with this beauty. Pretty tempting, but it is their most expensive wave sail listing at £450 (compared to the Fire or the Smack which list at about £375-400)

A couple of dates to note

I've been a bit on the busy side to post but as a quicky please note the following dates:

1. Channel Island Wavesailing Championships/Ian Atkinson memorial wave comp.
Again this is being held in Jersey. The plan is to go over on the evening of Friday 14th Oct (check in for the ferry at 16.30) and come back on the Sun 16th (back to Gsy at about 20.30). We currently hold the top three slots so we need to defend them - but it's as much about the beer drinking as the sailing!! Cost is about £150 for the transport and accomodation. Last year 4 of us made the trip over but hope that we get more this year. give me a call or e-mail me if you're interested - it should be a good weekend. BTW we will make the call to finally decide once we have a good idea of the weather forecast - probably only the Wednesday 12th.

2. Christmas Do - we had a good turn out last year at the Grange lodge so the idea is to do the same again. The planned date is the 9th Dec - so book it in and more details will follow.

Cheers,

Out with old in with the new

Well the new toys have at last arrived. After about 18months of thinking about it and then deciding to take the plunge I finally took delivery of my Carbon Art boards - a 75l thruster 56cm wide wave board, an 86l single fin 59cm wide wave board, a 70cm 110l slalom rocket ship and a 125l 80cm wide slalom summer blaster. And of course that means that I'm now selling off my existing boards. I've sold one already but still need to off-load my 2010 81l Starboard quad (£550) and my 2008 104l Naish Cross-over freeride (£450). If I can't offload them soon I'll take them to France so please let me know if you're interested - matthieu@cwgsy.net

As for my new toys well lets just say they are special, very special. The small wave board is just that and needs a good blow to get it going. At 76l it's getting quite small for Guernsey and the difference between my 81litre quad and this board is really noticeable, those few extra litres making the difference between something that sink and something that don't sink. I remember well swapping over from a 75l JP to and 80l JP and it made all the difference in light winds - but that said give the 75l a good blow (4.7 or less) and she's happy as Larry. I've had her out three times so far this week and used it each time with a 4.7. The last session (which was today) the wind wasn't quite there but the preceding two sessions had been great with great drive through the bottom turn and an easy switch from rail to rail - I even managed a few aerials on my first outing so I can't complain!! Here's a pic which I particularly like because of the way it's framed and I'm mid aerial (the pic don't do it justice but I was in fact a good 5-6ft off the lip - honest).



This was taken yesterday when it was sunny and marginal, today on the other hand was windier and Hutchy was sailing a blinder with a huge stall forward next to me and a couple of cracking aerials and a nice 360.

Here's Phil having just ripped apart a nice grunter.



Cat that got the cream?



We had a good session for a while then then it got too busy and we had to sail out to Le Perron reef, about 1mile upwind. The tide was too low for the reef and she was sucking dry, but with a good ground swell running it meant that we could pick off the shoulders and keep away from the rocks. The sets were pushing through at about mast high and if we'd had another metre of water over the rocks it would have been pretty epic - ah well may be next time. At least it was sunny and warm (i was in my shortie all afternoon)

IT failings but at least there's been some wind!!

The massive beach a L'Aber, great in a SW'er



Free Oysters if you know where to look!!

So I've not posted for a few weeks because I've been on holiday in France and i've given up for now trying to edit my movies. No wind there but it was great kayaking down some rivers in the south of France and mountain biking up and down hills that make the Val de Terres look like a little foothill. I also had a week in Crozon (where we went for Hutchy's stag do) and there was some great surf, nothing big but good fun on the meat tray. Los'march is a great beach break with a strong rip that makes the paddle out super easy, you just sit in the rip and 5mins later you pull out to side and into the line up about 200-300m out from the beach. We also went down to La Torche, there was no plan to go to the beach we were just visiting the old city of Quimper but I left the girls to do some shopping and headed out to La Torche (where they used to hold huge windsurfing comps back in the days of Robby Naish) with just a pair of boardies to wear. The beach break at La Torche is nice and powerful, so it's easy to catch a wave even without a board, but you've got to be careful not to get pounded into the sand!!

Whilst I was away I missed out on a couple of sessions (reports in Phil and Hutchy's blogs) but the big news was that at last the boy Simon has managed to get all the way round going over the front, this is a major milestone and is something that has been dogging him for years, so well done Simon just remember don't let go!! However it's been pretty good for wind this week with four days on the trot, three on the big kit and one on the 85l and 5.5/5.3. Sunday on the 8.8 and the 133l iSonic was pretty full on as I ventured off down the west coast. With a big spring tide fully on the push as I ventured out I was fighting not only a big kit set up that was on the limit at times but also fighting up to 6knts of tide, patches of overfalls and swirling avalments (contra-currents for them that don't speak the patois them). I hoped that the reward of the down winder was going to be fun but instead the wind kept picking and picking and all I got for my troubles were some super fast broad reaches through 2-3ft chop and a serious case of back leg burn!! All good training though if we ever do a Guernsey Jersey race!! The Saturday was, on the other hand great fun to try out a couple of new sails. I recently took delivery of some sails from the guys at Hotsails (http://www.hotsailmaui.com/ ) in the form of Fires and Superfreaks Maui Editions. The Fires I bought are to replace my Smacks, they are more of a wave riding sail and I bought a 4.7/5.3/5.5, now you might think that the 5.3 and 5.5 are too close but the 5.5 is in fact a Fire Power, it's been cut with a deeper draft and is in many ways like the power of a 6.0m but with advantage of a small overall size. The idea is that you can use it for those drift and drop wave riding sessions and those days when a 5.3 is not quite up to the job, but you don't want the size of a 6.0m. Here are a couple of pics, and it has to be said they don't do halves when it comes to quality, take a look at the detail of the batten end - leather wearing strip, four lines of stitching. You'd be hard pushed to find that level of care on any other sail brand!!

Click on pic to zoom in.

I also tried out a new 5.3 Superfreak Maui Edition, I've been slowly over the years building up my quiver of Superfreaks, originally I bought them as much for messing around on my longboard and as they can do custom ones I had them done with the Guernsey flag on them. I also thought that as they last forever I can slowly build up a quiver and have them as a set of spares too. However I've grown to like them loads and these new Maui Edition ones are much more of a wave sail in the way that they handle. You have to put aside your prejudices when using these sails and if you do you get to see them for what they really are which is a no compromise wave sail that delivers power in exactly the right quantities and can be de-powered and powered up at will - oh and not forgetting that as they are made of the latest version of Dacron (it no longer stretches like it did 20yrs ago - and it is the world's most used sail cloth) they are super light - here's a pic, plenty of yellow to give you a tan even on the dullest of days

Work in progress:

I did some video footage the other day and at last I've found some suitable editing software etc so I'm finally putting some footage together, the idea being to get a half decent amount collated over a few sessions. Anyway here's a clew to what's coming!!



of course it doesn't always go to plan





But sometime the view can be quite good

Island Games round up at last - pics to follow.

Ahh at last some time to post about the Island Games. Well there were some ups and downs and it was quite an experience to say the least!! The up side was that Guernsey topped the medal table in style and all the talk was about how could Guernsey have done so well? Well the reality was that it was all down to hard graft and training and it was hard graft ands training that Chris Carter, Stu Martel, Dan Harradine and myself put in for several months before the games. There’s no training substitute for time on the water (TOW) and I, like the others, had had plenty of TOW in the months leading up to the games with myself recording 65 sessions in the 5months leading up to the event. I, like the others, was as they say fighting fit, and probably fitter than I have been since I was in my mid 20’s when I was into rowing, cycling as well as windsurfing of course. So the four of us rocked up to the event and the forecast was for wind on the day of the ‘training’ day (the norm for a regatta when you have a day to get to know the event area) and then marginal wind for the rest of the week with Wednesday looking the best. However, we’d been told by the event organisers that there would be a local thermal effect and that was why they’d bought 5.0m/6.0m/7.0m & 8.0m rigs and 104l & 133l boards, so at least that boosted our confidence. They wouldn’t have bought 5.0m rigs and 104l boards unless they knew something we didn’t!! So anyway down to brass tacks, day one ‘training day’, we were out on 7.0m rigs and 133l and the lighter guys on 104l boards with 6.0m rigs. All very nice and if the prospect of wind was as good as the event organisers were forecasting well it would be a cracking event. Day two, first day proper of racing, no wind, nothing not a breath in the morning, but the organisers were confident that there would be a thermal in the afternoon. So we waited, and waited and waited mmm by 2pm nothing not a breath so they stood us down. Went and saw the town crit cycling. Ahh well the event organisers said there would be a thermal the next day, so early to bed. Day three, mmm no wind, but the organisers said there would be a thermal in the afternoon and after all they wouldn’t have bought 5.0m rigs and 104l boards unless they knew something we didn’t!! Mmm at 3pm they decided to try to race, heat one headed out, ran through the race start up and then the wind dropped mid way through the race so the sailors limped back to the beach and then they stood us down, tomorrow would be windy they said. To be fair we knew that at the beginning of the week when we saw the forecast. Day four, ahh a little bit of wind. I went SUP sailing in the morning and apart from a brief interlude to talk to Prince Edward (he popped along to check out the action) and Chris Csrter having a chat with Sir Geoffrey Rowland (whilst wearing a pair of boardshorts with a leaf design that if the leaves were real would have seen him banged up!1) the prospect of thermal in the afternoon was again looking dodgy. Sue and Sarah (Stu and Dan’s better halves turned up) and it seemed that they must have bought the wind from Guernsey because within an hour of them turning up the wind started to kick in. They decided to send heat two out first which was my heat and sure enough there was finally some wind out in the bay. Heading out for your first proper slalom race with a proper countdown, unknown other competitors and with added pressure of flying the flag for Guernsey - to be honest it was pretty exciting!! With three minutes to go the adrenaline was flowing and of course I dropped the rigged, but no panic a quick uphaul saw me in just the right place and I hit the start line a full speed in about 6th place 4 seconds after the start gun. I pulled back a couple of places but it was Jersey sailor Mick Miller who stormed the start and led all the way. I managed to pull back a couple of places and even managed to cause enough chaos at one mark that resulted in a Jersey sailor falling in – nice!! I crossed the line in 4th place. I got back to the beach and I was shaking from the adrenaline rush – and in those few moments I’d finally understood why so many people love slaom racing!! Various other heats followed with Dan Harradine winning his heat, but Stu and Chris, like me, suffering from beginners nerves. My second heat again saw me place 4th, but I would have done better if I’d read the start line better and gone with the rest of the fleet. My two 4ths saw me get into the losers final and Dan’s first saw him get into the winners final. I placed 5th in the losers final, putting me in 13th and Dan muscled his way into second despite being the heaviest sailor in the heat. The idea is that a round of heats is in effect one ‘race’ (as a sort of complicated round robin system) and that to have an event you would ideally have 8 races (of 8 heats each). However this round of heats (or one race) had taken 2.5hrs. and given the prospect of no wind again there was a distinct possibility that that the one series of heats was going to be all we would get in for the whole week. And sure enough that’s what happened. Dan ended up with the silver, I was middle of the fleet and Stu and Chris never had the chance to improve on their initial stumblings. As it was I didn’t race against any of the medal winners nor 6 people who placed above me, but by the same token there were people below me that I didn’t race against so the result was a ‘result’ but not a true representation of the sailors ability. That said I think I might have got into the top 10 overall if we’d have a few more races, but I don’t think I’d have got a medal. As for the team result we got 4th behind the crapauds, which I have to concede was fair. Would I do it again, well apart from the waiting around and the pent up anger of no wind and working out ways in which to pass time I think I would. If the games in Bermuda have windsurfing I think I’d be hard pushed to say ‘no’!!

Island Games Update coming soon.....

I'll post soon about the Island Games but in the meantime did you see this:

http://guernsey.isle-news.com/archives/community-windsurfing-sails-purchased-by-set-sail-trust/6082/?utm_source=Isle+News+List&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=0b2f22a49c-RSS_EMAIL_CAMPAIGN

As most of you know Richard Klein has in many ways been the saviour of our sport here in Guernsey by teaching kids to windsurf over the last few years. His efforts are paying off with more and more people out on the water - even today at 6.30am there were 4 people out at Vaz who are all pretty new to the sport.

Rich and, to a lesser extent, myself have been trying to raise money for the Guernsey Sailing Trust and the great news is that the Set Sail Trust have donated £2,800 to the windsurfing project. This is great news for our sport and will go a long way to helping those who don't know how great the sport is learn about what they've been missing out on. Many thanks to the Set Sail Trust for their support.

A media whore? Moi?

Ok yes the press spoke to me and yes I sent them a picture of me, but I didn't know they'd really go for it and they told me they'd speak to the other team memebers but it seems they didn't! Anyway nice pic my Gsy flag Hotsail!!

Finally some time to post (more to follow soon)

Well it's been a few weeks since I posted and finally I've found the time to put finger to key board!! Well what's been happening? Here's a quick list:

1. I had a weeks training in Tenerife for the island games.

2. Martyn Ogier came 5th in Sweden's speed event - see www.martynogier68.blogspot.com it must be those Hotsails he's using.

3. The Island Games team has been training hard.

4. It's June and we've had a few waves sessions in the last few weeks

5. With a full set of slalom sails and a 133l boar I've managed to get in 2-3 times a week training for the games

6. I just can't seem to get my race starts nailed - until today that is!!

7. I'm ready to place my order for my new Carbon Art boards if I can get a sensible 7hipping quote - suggestions anyone? See www.carbonart.co.nz

8. I'm about to place a big order with Hotsails. They have some great offers at the moment with last season's wave sails at about £200. If you're interested have a look at www.hotsailsmaui.com I'll be covering the shipping costs too!!

9. I met with the Set Sail Trust and the Guernsey Sailing Trust to see if they would give Richard Klein and the Guernsey Sailing Trust some money. Well they did and shed loads of it - the best part of £3,000. Richard has been on a big spending spree for the trust and bought a whole load of kit ot teach the kids on. Many thanks to the Set sail trust for the money, it's vital for the future of our sport in the island. Hopefully some of the kids that Richard is now teaching will go on to become top sailors like, Hutchy (ex-British amature wave sailing champ) or Martyn Ogier (No2. in the world in speedsailing) or Briggsy (top ranked Formula sailor and former British champion).

10. I have a mountain of kit now for sale -I'll be listing it all soon. But as a starter there'll be an 81l 2010 Starboard quad £575, an 87l Naish wave board £400, a 104l Naish bump/jump crossover board £450 and various wave sails etc.

Tenerife was great fun, the day we (that's me, the wife ad kids) arrived there was no wind, but it was cloudy and warm. The next day was sunny and windyish. I sailed on a 85RRD and a Severne S1 (one of the new trendy lightweight wave sails). It has to be said that the lightweight sail was great, it reminded me of my old Hotsails Gridlocks that I had about 15yrs ago as it could be thrown about all over the place. The next day wave pretty windy and I went for a slalom session in the morning with a 6.6 and a Carbon Art. It had to be said on the Carbon Art with a freerace sail I had no worries about charging through the swells and heavy chop flat out - it was so easy to sail that I was overtaking a guy on an iSonic/Pryde RS combo. The next day was proper windy with some of the guys on 3.7s. I was on a 4.7 and it was nicely overhead in the sets. Danny Brusch was out wave sailing, he's no5 in world and was showing why with sweet off the tops. The next day could have been big wave kit but I chose to go for a 7.3 and the Carbon Art again - great training with some good sailors top pit my whits against. The next couple of days there was no wind which was good as my wife and kids had hardly seen me!! One major cock up was that I forgot my head cam so I've no pics from on the water. But here's a pick from the top of a mountain, pretty isn't it.




I've a few pics from today's morning session, more to follow but here's a close encounter with a lump of granite, you can see it lurking just in front and down wind of me about to pop out and bite me - it's pretty big - click on the pic and zoom in - if you look closely you can just about make out the limpets clinging on for their life!!

Where did that come from??

Today we had what must have been the most full on wave session of the year so far, better than anything in the winter of spring. It was pushing through at mast high on t'others and there were some seriously heavy sections around. Marshall claim the best wipe out of the day, a full top to bottom mast high grunter on the reef which showed him no mercy as is just sucked up almost dry, picked him up and dumped him - he even hit the bottom. Hutch was pulling some massive backies and the Phil and I shared some serious sphincter twitching waves. I set the head cam up but I'd forgotten to charge it for a while so only had a few pics before the battery went flat, anyway here they are, the one of hutch back looping was taken as I looked back over the waves, the other two are Simon and I riding in and Hutch lining up for the ramp.

Oh and BTW thanks for looking at my blog, my counter that I set up a couple of month ago, may be three months ago has just past the 1000 viewer mark, I'm getting about 10-15 hits a day, not bad!!

More and more and more TOW

I think I've been geting more TOW than I can handle, it's just becoming a blur of day after day of slalom race, start practice followed by more races followed by more start practice etc. I've just had 5 days on the trott and it's looking like there might be another 2 days of wind to be had!! I wouldn't say I've been converted to slalom sailing more that I've been enlightened - it's taken me a good six months but now I'm really begining to enjoy it, probably because I've getting used to blasting around at 30knts!! Anyway here's a little vid from Stu Martel taken during the Channel Island Champs:

Slalom Gear = TOW

TOW (Time on Water) is what we need and we've been getting a fair bit on the slalom gear lately; we had a good session today mixing it up with the longboard racers. I managed to call starboard on Simon Lovel forcing him in the drink, Stu Martel catapulted as he reached the finish line to be then overtaken by yours truely!! Dan Harradine even went in shorts - brave or foolish you decide!!

Also had an interesting evening out on Friday with one of the top PWA slalom pros which was invaluable as he gave us plenty of advice - more on that later.

Hate to post without a pic so here's some digital media.

Windsurfing Open Day 21st May at Ladies Bay - Your club needs you

The Guernsey Sailing Trust and the GBSA will be holding the annual have a go open day at Ladies Bay on the 21st May starting at 10am. As in previous years the plan is to have free windsurfing lessons for the public to have a go and then to have a fun racing/slalom session in the afternoon with a BBQ on the beach etc.

So if you're a club member or indeed not a club member but a fellow windsurfer it would be great if you could come down and help out with the teaching in the morning and then have blast in the afternoon. It's the future of our sport after all!!!

We also need volunteers to run the BBQ etc. any takers??

See you there on the 21st May - PS as per the previous years there will be bottles of fizz to be won during the afternoon's racing so if that can't tempt you down I don't know what will???

CI Championships Report

How does the phrase in Latin go , something like Veni, Vidi, Vinci - which I believe means I came, I saw, I conquered. Well it was something like that for the Jersey sailors but without the I conquered bit!! Mind you they did do well and did take back the Highland Spring Channel Island Champion trophy for the first individual.

Here's my report that I sent to the Guernsey Press:

Guernsey and Jersey shared the honours in the Channel Island Windsurfing Championships held at Ladies Bay over the weekend. There was some apprehension in the days leading up to weekend as the weather forecast was variable but on the Saturday, the main day of the event, the sun shone and the wind, as forecast, picked up to a moderate F4-5 in the afternoon. It was decided that with lighter winds earlier in the day a couple of rounds of course racing were to be held. Jersey veterans Mike Miller and Steve Melia dominated in the first race leading the 15 strong fleet from start to finish, with Miller first, Melia second and Guernsey’s Stuart Martel following close behind in third. In the second race both Millar and Melia got off to a fantastic start and again looked comfortable at the front of the fleet, however Martel stepped up a gear and in the final leg took the lead to cross over the line about 50m ahead of Millar. With increasing winds it was decided to pause briefly before heading back out for slalom racing. Slalom racing is a much higher speed discipline which relies on stronger winds and is the new racing format that will be used in the Island Games instead of the more traditional course racing format. With the winds now gusting in excess of 20knts the course was set with a Le Mans style start from the beach. Guernsey’s Matt Le Poidevin immediately took the lead to the first mark, followed by fellow Guernsey sailor Chris Carter. Carter took the lead midway through the next leg, however he fell at the next mark leaving the way open for Le Poidevin to take back the lead and retain it through to the finish line ahead of Melia. In the second slalom race Le Poidevin again took the lead however Melia took advantage of a wind shift which saw him take the lead and cross over a race winner with Guernsey sailor Jason Connolly in second and Le Poidevin in third. Melia’s win in the forth race meant that he took the honour of becoming Channel Islands Champion and Martel’s fifth places in the two slalom races saw him take second in the individual event. For the team event Guernsey retained the honours.

Individual Results:
1. Steve Melia (Jersey)
2. Stuart Martel (Guernsey)
3. Mike Millar (Jersey)
4= Matt Le Poidevin (Guernsey)
4= Jason Connolly (Guernsey)
6= Simon Gregory (Guernsey)
6= Justin Horton (Jersey)
8. Jo Robinson (Guernsey)
9. Chris Carter (Guernsey)
10. Pierre Le Page (Guernsey)

Team Result:
1. Guernsey
2. Jersey

Course Racing:
1. Jersey
2. Guernsey

Slalom:
1. Guernsey
2. Jersey

Here are a few pics (Stu has some video which I hope to post soon):

Slalom Sailors waiting at Les Amerreurs for the start of the next race



Stu Martel - Guernsey's finest!!

What happened to my head!!


I like this one - start of course race number 2


If of ocourse the Jersey boys has stayed one they'd have had the chance to take us on at some wavesailing too - and we all know what happeded last time they tried that!! There are a few pics on Les Perrey's web site http://www.e-motion.me.uk/ here's a screen shot:

CI Champs to be this Saturday at Ladies Bay

The Highland Spring Channel Island Championships 2011 are confirmed for this Saturday. Skippers meeting at 13.00 at Ladies Bay. Racing format likely to be slalom or poss longboard. Racing etc all afternoon followed by a social in the evening. The event is an open event and all comers are welcome. See you tomorrow. More info call 07781 122782

CI Champs this weekend - to be or not to be

Just a reminder that the plan is to hold the CI champs this weekend. The forecast is looking marginal for wavesailing but looking quite good for slalom or longboard racing. As it stands the Jersey team will make a decision tomorrow evening so check back here for tomorrow evening. If it's a goer it'll be 11am skippers at Ladies Bay followed by some serious (or may be not too serious) racing and then a few few beers at the Rocky or similar. Thanks to Martyn Ogier for the motivational pic!!

42.3sq m of sails

Yesterday I doubled my Hotsails sail count and added 42.3m2 of sails!! The majority of them were Martyn Ogiers' hand me downs and are a first for me as they are all three cammed slalom/speed sails. The sails themselves have some pedigry as they were the sails that put Martyn to No.2 in the world last year. All I need now is a couple of slalom boards - and some wind, but not a lot as the biggest is 8.8. I rigged one them up it took me about half and hour!! All those cams etc are not something I'm used to. Hopefully I'll do better next time.

A bonus waveriding session

Friday the 1st April turned out not too bad. We headed in a for a dinner time session even though the airport was only recording 11knts because the trees were giving it some chaff in town. Dr Stark was out on his 5.3 Hotsails Smack and was well powered but it was flat, that said the tide was about to turn and as expected a little bit of swell kicked in but it was fully offshore. We all manged to get a few aeriels, and Oly was ripping it up with 360's and forwards off the lip. Steve Smith did a little vid here it is:

There she blows

At last some wind!! Finally after what has been so far the worst spring on record we had some wind, nothing that would normally merit a post but such a rare thing has lifted me to a level of exuberance that I find little choice other than to put finger to key board!! It all kicked off at the crack of dawn, Ben Creasey and one other were in at first light - I'm guessing 6.15am followed by Dr Stark at 6.45 on his 5.3 Hotsails Smack and then surgeon Marshall at 7am. By the time I'd got down at 8.15 Creasey, an other, and Stark were packed up Marshall was still in and had been joined by Jas. I rigged up my 5.3 and went out on the 80l, it was grey with some rain there was no real swell may be head high in the sets and it was a bit of a crawl to get out but I managed to get a few waves and few jumps. Jas packed it in about 9.15 and true to form it started to pick as he walked up the beach, 10mins later I was the only one left with Marshall fed up of the slog - but the wind kept picking and by the time Marshall was at the top of the beach the wind had filled in so I was planning off the beach, I even managed a couple of aerials and spanked a couple of puppies! 20-30mins later the wind went but I needed to get to work anyway so all good. For the rest of the day the wind was up and down, there was someone in at dinner time and in the evening Marshall went for the double dip and he was joined by the boy Warry and the Lovell father son combo. So all in all a mediocre day but mediocre is better than no-ocre! I hate to post without a pic so here's a random shot of my kit in the back of my van!!




And on the subject of wind here's a pic of my newest t-shirt. Bean-jar it's the meal deal. For those of you who don't know Guernsey you'll probably never of heard of bean jar. well it's a traditional stew that we have here, in effect it is our national dish. It's a combination of carrots, onions, a piece of cheap meat like pigs trotter or shin, and of course beans loads of beans. Add some stock salt, pepper and a few herbs stew it for a day and then eat. The results are fantastic. As I say if you're not from round these parts you won't of heard of bean jar or will you know that it was in fact the humble bean jar that lead to the creation of Heniz baked beans. So the story goes that Mr Heniz had a food processing factory in Canada at the turn of the 20th century and as he toured Canada selling his produce he came across bean jar (loads of people emigrated from Guernsey to the US Canada border during 1850-1900 - every Canadian school kid knows of Issac Brock well he was from little old Guernsey and he would have eaten bean jar for sure eh) and decided to tin it, jar it or whatever it was back then and it proved pretty popular, but as times were hard he dropped the meat and with a plentiful supply of tomatoes they were added which in turn lead to the bean tomato combo that we all know today - so there you go you heard it here! What it's got to do with Coke I have no idea!!



Finally as I reported last time I have a new camera, I've been in loads on the slalom gear in the last month with the 8.5 and made a vid the other day. I'm still figuring out how to best edit it etc. Suggestions welcome but anyway the results are good - here's a screen shot:

I got da cup - now all we need is da wind!!!!!

Well the Jamie Whalley memorial trophy has arrived; the boys all agreed that a big tankard was be the sort of thing that Jamie would have wanted. To put it into perspective the little tankard to the left is a one pinter. So the plan is to get it engraved with some wording and they tell me they can convert a photo of Jamie into a line drawing and add that too so any suggestions for the wording would be well received. As for the trophy itself the idea is to have an annual expression session with the 2011 event taking place this spring - so everyone on standby please!! As for the book I wouldn't mind a few more pics of Jamie so if anyone can find any that would be great.

Talking of standby that little tease known as windguru has been upto her usual tricks of taunting us with wind in the outlook and then failing to deliver on the day - so I won't curse the prospect of wind by saying the outlook is finally looking promising.

Oh and I've done a trial run with the new camera; looks good just got to figure out how to edit the 4gig of clips down to something manageable!

WTWF - I'm bored!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm bored but this is great -



Looks like there's some wind in the offing next week - ingers crossed

Another Hot Session

Well I've been a little off the pace lately but have had a few good sessions since my last post both in the waves and on the slalom gear which I've now broken out for the season.

I think it was a golfer who said 'the more I practice the luckier I get' - well I had some luck a couple of weeks ago on the Saturday' but only after years of practice.

In the morning I went past Vaz just for a look as I was pretty tied up. There was a good 4ft+ swell but it was pretty light, good enough for a drift n drop with 6.0 but not much else. In the back of my mind I sort of knew that something was in the offing - WindG was forecasting a couple of knots more for the afternoon as well as veering slightly to make it onshore on the beach but cross-on on t'others. The burning of brownie points is a skill that can only be learnt by experience and I just knew, in the back of my mind, that with a veering wind, a clearing of the weather front and pushing in tide the brownie point burning would have to take place later in the day. Marshall and a new English guy from well England I guess!! went at 12ish on big kit and were struggling to get going but I wasn't rushing. I headed down at 2ish, the sum was popping out and Hutch was kiting and there were a few guys slogging it on big kit (6.0-6.5s). Not keen on anything bigger than a 5.3 I rigged up and decided to head out on the 85l. The tide was perfect and the swell was building - and more importantly there was the odd gust pushing through. I planned straight off the beach and knew straight away it was session on. After about 10mins the guys on the big kit were tail walking Hutch was struggling to hold on to his kite and there were some nice 6ft ers pushing in (for those who don't know a 6ft swell means about 3/4 mast high wave). It wasn't long and I was rushing up the beach to get my Starboard Quad and I was pretty much the only one left on the water. A few loops and waves under the belt and things were ticking along nicely. Hutch had packed in and event though he was way up the beach he clocked me doing one of the biggest backies that I've had in long time (just didn't quite hold the back hand on landing but pretty close) - and for Hutch to say it was big is a good endorsement for me!! Not long after that big Ogier came in with his 6.3m2, an d was planning off the beach - which meant that given his 110kgs it must have windy. I by this point had bee nin for about 2hrs and was thinking of changing down to 4.7, but the brownie points were burning fast by this point and I was conscious of eating into the capital reserves so I packed it in for another day.

It turned out that a few of the others had been in at Ladies on their 7.5s and slalom board clocking up towards the 40knt mark - pretty scary if you ask me. I'd rather stick to the waves thanks. But that said on the Sunday I broke out the 130l iSonic and 8.5 and went for some slalom racing. I'm beginning now to learn how to crack the jibes on the beast - it's a real art of deft footwork and hand placing to be able to get the aircraft carrier out of the jibe fully on the plane - the real probable being the apparent wind issues and backwinding in the jibe. We're now fully back into Island Game training and things are going well with the team not yet fully decided.

On a final note I've got myself a new toy. My old Gopro gave up the ghost a while ago and I'd been waiting for a good price replacement. Gopro do various wide angle HD versions but most of them are about £250-£300 which is too much. However they do a very difficult to come by slightly lower res still wide angle still HD version for £160 - so that 's what I've just bought and I'll be using to full effect on this blog soon.

CFN