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