Vive la breeze. The President's Blog

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

2012-02-07T14:05:00.000-08:00

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??????!!!!!!

2012-01-25T08:28:00.000-08:00

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!!

2012-01-16T10:50:00.000-08:00

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.........

2012-01-09T06:43:00.000-08:00

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!!!

2012-01-02T17:25:00.000-08:00

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!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2011-12-17T16:31:00.000-08:00

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.......

2011-11-28T16:15:00.000-08:00

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

2011-11-20T16:17:00.000-08:00

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.........

2011-10-28T05:44:00.000-07:00

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

2011-10-21T05:20:00.000-07:00

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

2011-10-03T15:24:00.000-07:00

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

2011-09-12T14:03:00.000-07:00

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!!

2011-08-29T10:58:00.000-07:00

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:

2011-07-31T23:24:00.000-07:00

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.

2011-07-27T15:38:00.000-07:00

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.....

2011-07-08T01:27:00.000-07:00

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?

2011-06-22T15:00:00.000-07:00

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)

2011-06-18T08:54:00.000-07:00

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??

2011-05-26T16:10:00.000-07:00

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

2011-05-17T05:00:00.000-07:00

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

2011-05-08T15:08:00.000-07:00

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

2011-05-05T13:53:00.000-07:00

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

2011-05-03T14:36:00.000-07:00

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

2011-04-29T15:23:00.000-07:00

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

2011-04-27T14:07:00.000-07:00

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

2011-04-13T23:34:00.000-07:00

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

2011-04-03T13:37:00.000-07:00

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

2011-03-31T13:32:00.000-07:00

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!!!!!

2011-03-28T13:46:00.000-07:00

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!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2011-03-24T06:01:00.000-07:00

I'm bored but this is great -

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

Another Hot Session

2011-03-17T06:12:00.000-07:00

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

That's just the lemon next to the pie.............

2011-02-18T22:41:00.000-08:00

Rigging for the Dawnie - The Early Bird Catches the Worm

There has been some massive swell around this last week or so. Last Sunday it was a proper 6-8ft (over mast on the wave face) and there was a marginal offshore wind. I ventured straight in with my 5.3 Hotsails Smack and my 87l Naish - perfect for a bit of D'n'D (drift and drop). I went in for a good couple of hours although I only caught about a dozen waves there were one of two full on DTL 5-6 bottom turn waves notched up.

The rest of this week saw a continuation of the swell but unfortunately no wind. On Wednesday it was really pumping and in the evening Hutch and I stopped at the Richmond headland to take a look at Le Perron reef break that I'd sailed the weekend before. It was firing in the sets but the sets were few and far between. The reef itself is not far off the headland but we tend to get to it by beating upwind from the beach - but looking at it from the rocky headland there's no reason why we couldn't sail out from there with a little caution. We'll check it out next time it's firing. I took a few pics but without anyone on the wave it's difficult to gauge the size in the picture and of course no sooner did I start to drive off and I looked I looked in the rear view mirror to see a monster set (about double mast high) push through. All we need is a little wind and the outlook is not looking good :-(

Fuerte Wave Classic - should have come to Vaz!!

2011-02-10T06:10:00.000-08:00

Here's a vid of day 2 of the Fuerte wave classic with all the best sailors in the world ripping it up. Doesn't look too different to Vaz last weekend!!

Also a few nice pics of Martyn taken by Pierre last Friday. Martyn made it into the Boardseeker daily news which is all good for promoting the Island and Hotsails of course!! Here's one pic that I robbed off Martyn's blog there are more windsurfing action pics on Pierre's site at http://www.gsyphoto.com/

OMG a blinder of a weekend

2011-02-07T15:12:00.000-08:00

It has to be said that January and Feb so far this year is making up for a poor Autumn. This weekend gone was without doubt one that will go down in the annals (careful with the spelling!!) of history.

It all kicked off on Friday morning when we met up at about 8.30 and Hutch, Martyn and myself rigged up the 4.7's and went on on the beach. There was a 4-6ft swell pushing in and we sailed up to t'others. We managed to score a few sweet waves on the reef with Martyn Ogier having one particularly sweet OTL, Hutchy nailing a 20ft+ backie and I even managed a few nice aeriels before dinging my board on the reef.

Saturday was pretty much a repeat of Friday but the swell picked up to 6ft and there was not a surfer in sight. Also the numbers were right up there with about 15 people out (not bad for mid-winter). There wasn't much jumping to be had but the waveriding was COP and it wasn't long before there were plenty of lips being shredded. Amazingly there was limited kit damage except for poor Steve Mellors who was nailed big big time on the reef. He had to ditch his kit and make his own way in. The kit was left high and dry on the reef in bits!!

Sunday saw an even bigger swell with some mast high grunters pushing through. The winds were alot lighter so I went out on my 5.8 Superfreak, which is perfect in light gross off conditions. Simon Harty and I shared a wave the size of two storey house before I headed out about a mile to Le Perron reef. When you are that far out in the ocean swells it's quite intimidating as you can;t see anything when you are in the troughs, and with a 9.0m tide there was a lot of water moving around. Le Perron either just crumbles slowly but if the wave peaks and jacks up it'll break top to bottom even at well over mast high, and as it's a reef you can be a shoulder soldier and stay safe if you want. I had one particular wave that broke heavily and I could feel the air vibrating through the sail.

Finally Monday Jason C and I scored a light wind drift and drop session with some nice waves to be had despite the rain. The swells were holding up nicely at low tide with the bigger ones starting to jack on the sand bar. After 4 days of COP I really felt like I was getting my wave riding together and scored some proper aerials, landing fully out in front on the flats on one of them - it's just a shame that we don't get it all the time because we know that by next time we go sailing we'll be so rusty we'll have to start all over again!

Session count this year:

Boards used:

81l Starboard Quad - 8
87l Naish GW - 4

Sails Used:
3.7 Hotsails Superfreak - 0
4.2 Hotsails Smack - 1
4.7 Hotsails Smack - 2
5.3 Hotsails Smack - 7
5.8 Hotsails Superfrea - 1
6.3 Hotsails Superfreak - 1
Total - 12

It's a work in progress

2011-01-27T07:16:00.000-08:00

We sadly said goodbye to our friend Jamie earlier this week and as many of you know I've been putting together a photobook of our memorial day session and some pics of Jamie. It's very much a work in progress but you can see it here:

I'd like to add comments and other photos of Jamie so if you have any please let me have them at mattlep@bhg.eu.com

Cheers and see you in the green room!!

The good and the bad

2011-01-21T15:54:00.000-08:00

Last weekend was memorable for the good conditions but no matter how good the conditions were they were never going be good enough to eclipse the sad news from earlier in the week about our friend Jamie. Hutchy made the call earlier in the week for us to all to get together and have a sail in memory of Jamie and about 15-20 guys turned out, which considering it's the middle of January, was pretty good. The wind on the Satuday was pretty light but a good westerly swell pushed in making it worthwhile. After the session we all got together in the Rocky for a bite to eat and pint or two (just like the the good old days). Tales were told about Jamie and we shared our thoughts. It was the best way that we could remember and enjoy the times that we'd spent with Jamie - just what he would have wanted us to do and probably the best way for his windsurfing buddies to have have some time together before the funeral on Tuesday at 14.30 at the Town Church.

On the Sunday the swell just kicked in sweetly and we scored a dawn patrol session with a much bigger swell pushing in, up to 6ft in the sets. Oly and Hutch as usual led the way with some big aerials as well as Oly going for some backloops off the lip (frontside). I was happy to lay down a bit of rail and score a few aerials.

There are plenty of pics to be seen on Pierre's site of the Saturday: http://www.gsyphoto.com/portfolio147956.html and a few of the Sunday after the dawn patrol crew had packed it in: http://www.gsyphoto.com/portfolio148914.html

Here however are a couple of pics from a few years ago of the man of the moment - and indeed the man to be immortalised in our hearts - our friend and windsurfing buddy Mr Jamie Whalley:

Sad News

2011-01-12T14:37:00.000-08:00

It is with great sadness that we have learnt today of the untimely death of Jamie Whalley in a skiing accident in France. Jamie, who was 32, was a regular sailor at Vazon and although he was based in the UK in recent years whenever he could if he was in the island he'd come down and rip up a few waves with the boys at home. I knew Jamie for at least 15yrs and although I can't remember exactly the last time I sailed with Jamie I do have some special memories of him and our sessions together; like a Perelle session on a sunny summer's day that was 6ft+, another session when we were all struggling to hold down 3.7's and he launched into a great backie only 20m off the beach 'one for the boys' he said afterwards; and the time that there was no wind at Pembroke and Jamie rigged up his kit (an old plastic Tiga Wave 254 - remember them?) so we could all practice different manoeuvres; and the time that he and I went sailing in my 420 dingy at Rocquaine with Jamie hanging out on the trapeze loving it - and I'm sure that many of the guys have equally fond memories of Jamie. In recent years I had less contact with Jamie but every time I bumped into him we always had plenty to talk about and he always lived life to full - and of course his Dad would often let me know what he was up to whenever I visited his garage. My sympathies and those of the fellow windsurfers go out to his parents Dave and Sue and his sister Maxine as well as all his friends. Jamie was, quite simply, a pleasure to be around and will be sadly missed by us all.

As a mark of respect Hutchy has asked everyone to meet up at Vazon at 10am on Saturday to go out for a sail and then a bite to eat at the Rocky. Your support would be greatly appreciated.

I've trawled through my pics but couldn't find any of him but here's a photo of a photo that was in the press of Jamie doing a sweet tweaked aerial in a wave comp back in Nov 2003. If you have the original or any other pics of Jamie please send them to me at mattlep@bhg.eu.com so we can all share them.

Nice blog nice ormer

2011-01-07T15:29:00.000-08:00

Phil Warry has started blogging here's the link -
http://funautical.blogspot.com/

Nice vid from St Malo

2011-01-03T12:09:00.000-08:00

Easy Ride Vidéos ZAPPING 2010 from Easy Ride on Vimeo.

Super durable slalom sail

2011-01-03T02:06:00.000-08:00

Hotsails Maui have been toying with the idea of a dacron slalom sail as a follow on from their successful Superfreaks (like my 'Guernsey Flag' sails). Unlike the old dacron sails that many of us learnt on modern dacron doesn't become water logged and is much more stable; it's also lighter than monfilm. Of course in addition to that it's super durable (my Superfreaks have done 4 seasons and look like they've got a few more years left in them yet). So Jeff and Tom at Hotsails had the idea to combine the benefits of dacron with the skeleton of a slalom sail (i.e. the battens) to create a superdurable slalom sail. The pics above are just prototypes and they need to work on the window to improve visibility. Another benefit of daron is that as it can be folded they can ship it in much smaller box (with demountable battens like tent poles) which will reduce the end costs - oh and not forgetting you can have it screen printed with whatever you like!!

Happy New Year - lets hope for a better 2011

2011-01-03T02:01:00.000-08:00

I've yet to run the numbers but as I'm sure you know 2010 was pretty poor for wind. I think I managed to go wave sailing about 25 times and 7 of those times were in one week in Tenerife!! There were some pretty memorable sessions at Perelle and one or two little gems at Vaz as well as a couple of epic waveriding days at Vaz in the spring - but all in all a pretty poor turnout on the wind front. Of course things are starting to look up. The North Atlantic Oscillation seems to be strenthening again meaning the blocking high that we've have for nearly 2 months (normally it's one or two weeks!!!!) will move north pulling the low pressures up from the south. However we shall see.

All I want for Christmas is............

2010-12-26T14:45:00.000-08:00

Wind wind wind all I wanted for Christmas was wind and all I got was a bad back on Christmas morning!!!!!

I put my back out a few weeks ago - it's the 'old war wound' that I sustained about 10 yrs ago moving a cast iron cooker. Every now and then it flares up and usually it gets worse if I haven't been sailing for a few weeks as the sailing helps stretch everything out. Anyway it flared up a week or two ago and I went to the osteopath to reset my bones. That worked fine for a few days but then on Christmas morning it all went horribly wrong and it ceased up solid. I spent a torrid night trying to sleep but kept waking up. So this morning I spent about three hours stretching etc and it would work for about 30minds then it would cease up again. On a scale of pain I'd put it at about 70%. For those of you who read my blog there is a certain Dr windsurfer whom I refer to as Dr Matt. Well Dr Matt is a fan of acupuncture - not my cup of tea, all those needles and stuff doesn't make sense but I was desperate and to be honest I'd always been a little intrigued by the idea. So in my hour of need I phone him up and he offered to stick some needles in me. I pop round to his place and he immediately started sticking needles in me. He approached the problem areas in two ways, firstly the more modern approach which was to focus on the specific areas and deal with the spasms and then to adopt some of the traditional Chinese ways which is to allow the Chi to flow!! Both techniques worked in different ways and the modern approach loosened up the spasms and the traditional technique left me relaxed. The upshot of it was that after the session my pain levels were down to 15% ish but more importantly I felt like I'd turned a corner and with any luck i'll be sailing tomorrow as the forecast is for a 6-8ft swell and 25knts cross off!! Here's a pic and if any of you fancy having needle stuck in you go see Dr Matt Stark it seems to do the trick and I'll go back for more!!

Photos Please

2010-12-20T04:28:00.000-08:00

I'm planning to knock up a GBSA club photo album using one of the online photo publishing websites like http://www.photobox.com/ . What I'd like is for everyone to send me in one or two of their best pics taken in the last year or two (they don't have to be 2010 - 2008 or earlier for that matter is fine). I'll then collate them and create an on line publication which you'll be able to then order a hard copy of.

I need about 30-40 pics of the highest res possible to make it worthwhile. Please send them to me at mattlep@bhg.eu.com

Kit for sale blog updated

2010-12-20T04:26:00.000-08:00

Check out my Kit for sale blog

http://kitforsale.blogspot.com/

There are some updates including a free trailer from the GST. Also if you have any kit for sale please e-mail me and I'll post it: matthieu@cwgsy.net or mattlep@bhg.eu.com

November Weather Stats just published - it's grim!!

2010-12-08T00:53:00.000-08:00

The official weather stats for November were published this morning. Apart from the rare snow event the real killer is that November has followed October as having not only an average wind direction coming from the North as opposed to the more normal South West but that November was the 10th month of this year to have below average wind strength - with only August having an above average wind strength!! It really does seem that the wind patterns have shifted towards a cold northerly direction during the last 12-18months. That said 2-3yrs ago to sail in a northerly was a rare thing so no doubt in time the winds will shift back towards the more normal and warmer south west. The 10 day outlook shows no restbite from the northerly winds and the extended outlooks are all talking of continued northerlies right the way through the winter :-( :-( Anyway why not remind ourselves of how it used to be
http://vivelabreeze.blogspot.com/2009/12/pinch-me-i-must-be-dreaming.html

AHD to release first production Hydrofoil

2010-12-07T14:07:00.000-08:00

Well it had to happen sometime and AHD have set the pace by revealing their latest creation the AFS 1 the world's first production hydrofoil board. You can see in the pictures that the board has a cut out in the nose to stop it catching the wind and the sailor's stance is pretty wide. It'll be interesting to read the reviews and see if the other manufacturers follow suit - I know I'd love to try one out. Interestingly the board hasn't been developed in the warm waters of Maui or the Canaries but only a few miles from here in southern Brittany by Hotsails sailor Bruno Andre.

Martyn Ogier World Speed Vice Champion 2010

2010-11-23T15:02:00.000-08:00

It's official Martyn Ogier has been ranked as the 2010 Number 2 in the world for Speed sailing; beaten only by Anders Bringdal and beating a certain Bjorn Dunkerbeck!! Well done Martyn and the team at Hotsails Maui. The pic is from Martyn's blog http://www.martynogier68.blogspot.com/

Big Ogier Update

2010-11-18T05:38:00.000-08:00

Big Ogier is now down in Port St. Louis competing in a speed event. It's pretty windy and wavey on the speed strip, but he's doing OK in 14th, see www.continentseven.com/2010/11/17/speed-classic-2010-2/ but importantly he's the highest ranked Brit at the event so I suspect that he might well end up in top 10 overall for 2010. Pretty impressive, and here's a sneek preview of the sails he'll be using in 2011 - http://www.hotsails.de/?&sprache=englisch

GBSA Annual Dinner

2010-11-16T14:28:00.000-08:00

Hi,

On the evening of the 26th Nov we're having the club's annual diner and prize giving at the http://www.grangelodgehotel.com/ .We've got quite a few prizes to hand out and we've decided to revive some old trophies so that there are prizes for not only the racing but also slalom, wave and even Herm crossings!! You never know it could be you walking home with some silverware so please sign up by letting Chris Hill know ASAP on chris.hill@cwgsy.net

Thanks, Matt

Ooer - didn't we do well!!

2010-11-04T16:16:00.001-07:00

Well as you may have seen in the local rag we cleaned up at the CI champs in Jersey with Hutch coming in first, me second and Stark (raving) coming in third.

Things were looking good as we headed out on the conventional ferry on the Friday evening with a good F6 forecast for the Saturday and a less good but do-able F4 for the Sunday.

We arrived in the land of the toads and found our hotel and then settled in for a few beers and were joined by a few of the Jersey sailors. There was plenty of talk that evening and the following morning after a massive fry for breakie we headed to St Quens for some action. The wind was still relatively light and there was no discernable swell to speak of but we headed out on our 5.3s and 80l boards in the onshore wind chop. As the first heat kicked off a huge black squall came through and this coincided with me walking down the beach (it was low tide and about 200m to the water's edge) into the F6-7 wind!! That said as I launched I took the opportunity to go for a backie of the first wave, which I didn't land but it was a good effort and a good way to rack up some points on the score card and to catch the judges attention!! Hutchy as usual was sailing a blinder and despite the bang onshore wind and minimal waves he was still managing to squeeze out a few loops. I too managed a few forwards and backies; as well as sweet aerial jibe in by a couple of Jersey sailors!

After a lunch stop we then headed back out for round two and the Ian Atkinson Memorial trophy comp. The wind was still onshore but had switched slightly to the north meaning it was the dreaded starboard tack; a none too familiar experience for us donkeys!! The wind had also picked and we were fully wound on the 4.7’s; and the increasing wind also pushed in the swell meaning that there was the odd logo high ramp being offered up. The increasing wind and relentless confused shore break proved too challenging for most and during the 45min expression session only 4-5 people made it out back, with the majority struggling to get through the dumping shore break. With Hutchy and I successfully making it out back we then took about 10mins to get the lie of land, or should I say water, and then started to rack up the points. A couple of the better Jersey sailors were out there with us but it was a pretty solitary experience on the whole, combined with random breaking swells there was a need to keep your wits about you. That said Hutch and I managed to rack up a few loops and backside wave rides with Hutch again having the upper hand.

At the end of the heat I took a beating in the shore break and as I was being tumbled in the white water I was waiting for dull crack of carbon but as I surfaced I saw that I’d amazingly only broken a couple of battens and tore the pockets. On the positive side the sail stayed in one piece and I sailed back up the beach, luckily for me I’d switch over from Naish a few years ago, or else I think I would have had a long walk up the beach with sail in tatters!!

The following day the wind never materialised so the upshot of it all was that Hutch came first overall, I was second and due to his two fifth places and the positions of the other sailors Matt Stark came in third giving the donkeys one, two and three. Richard Klein was the fourth Guernsey sailor and he too managed to get into the top ten - so all in all a pretty good trip for the Guernsey team and luckily for the Jersey boys it wasn’t port or we would have really cleaned up – oh hang on we did anyway!!!

CI Championships next weekend and the latest forecast is looking good!!

2010-10-18T01:39:00.000-07:00

If you want to come along to Jersey for a few beers and plenty of waves get in touch matthieu@cwgsy.net

tick tock

2010-10-15T15:41:00.000-07:00

The clock keeps ticking but the autumn winds are still not setting in. There's plenty going on in the North Altantic but the wind keeps missing us. We had three NE'er sessions in the last week, with the 4.2's seeing some action at Pembroke in onshore 4ft wind swell. Hutchy was nailing some nice forwards and Oly, the starboard specialist (in fact he's pretty good on port too!!) was nailing some nice pushies. I made a little vid which I'll publish soon, but in the mean time some of you may know that I'm probably going to move over to Carbon Art soon so here's a little promotional vid:

It's going to be windy!!

2010-09-22T10:06:00.000-07:00

Its going to be windy according to Metcheck

Weather Forecast in Guernsey for Wednesday 29 September

Location Information Sun Information Moon Tools
Lat : 49.5N Lon : 2.6W ASL : 30m Rise : 7:03 BST Set : 18:56 BST -- Select -- Print Forecast SMS Forecasts Weather Sticky Metric/Imperial Videos

Day From Until Temp Feels UV Rain Cloud Dir Speed Gust Weather
Wed 29 Sep 1:00 3:59 15 °c 8 °c 0 0.0 mm 83 % 223 mph 267 mph
4:00 6:59 14 °c 8 °c 0 0.1 mm 85 % 210 mph 252 mph
7:00 9:59 14 °c 7 °c 0 1.4 mm 99 % 204 mph 244 mph
10:00 12:59 14 °c 8 °c 0 2.0 mm 99 % 207 mph 248 mph
13:00 15:59 15 °c 8 °c 0 4.8 mm 100 % 220 mph 264 mph

Feeling the joy!!

2010-09-15T13:27:00.001-07:00

Ok so yesterday was one of the busiest afternoons I've ever seen at Vaz as far as windsurfers were concerned. There were probably in the order of 20 guys out during the afternoon (not bad for a week day!) and only a couple of surfers to get in the way. The usual suspects were stand out sailors of the day but it has to be hats of to Dr. Matt and Barny Williams as both of them are now starting to throw themselves over the handle bars - the great thing about doing forwards is once you've learned them there is almost as much pleasure in then talking to others about learning them and then sharing the joy with them as they start spanking the puppies!! Dr Matt had a particularly bad wipe out as he got spat out at the apex, but that's all part of the fun - how he got a black eye is of course beyond me!! As for other moves of the day there were plenty so I'll just list what I saw around me (some not so successful!):
Backies
Clew first backies
Forwards
Forwards on the wave
Pushies
Table Tops
Wave 360s
Vulcans
Aerial Jibes
Tacks
Aerials off the lip
Tweaked Aerials of the lip
Lip slides
Floater re-entries
Duck Tacks
Duck Jibes

Let's hope that the conditions deliver this autumn. Oh and BTW the plan is to make a video so over the season we'll be compiling footage and if you can find the time to film/photo everyone please do and send it to me.

Struggling to decide where to go wave sailing on your next holiday..

2010-09-08T03:50:00.000-07:00

Here's a great vid of the wave sailing spots in northern France - only a 2.5hr ferry ride away (if they aren't any delays)!!

Riders Match Été 2010 : Stefvideo - My Wave Riders Crew
Uploaded by Riders-Match. - Basketball, baseball, pro wrestling and more sports videos.

Interview with Ben Proffitt

2010-08-28T02:26:00.000-07:00

Here's a quick interview I had with Ben Proffitt just after he beat Seadi at Pozo. I had some editing problems and it took me ages to find a glitch that was in the film. Anyway the bit I cut out was Ben talking about the role of freestyle in the waves as well as correctly predicting the Cabo Verde event. I'll have more of play and see if I can get that bit uploaded too.

Ahh some wind

2010-08-28T02:09:00.000-07:00

Well we had a couple of pretty good sessions this week (remember it's August!!) at Perelle; on the Tuesday and the Thursday. The Tuesday was cross on and we were sailing through the Gap between the little island and the reef in a Westerly. It's only in the last year or two that we've started sailing there in a Westerly after we 'discovered' the narrow gap (about 30ft wide) allows us to sail into the inner bay then reach out through the gap and to then jump the wave as it breaks on the reef. Also if the swell is no too big you can then carry on to the big peak and jump off that too. On the Tuesday there we were on 5.3s and 80l boards, there was not much swell but every now and then a nice head high ramp would set up. I saw Hutch land a couple of sweet backies and as usual I was either rotating or not quite getting enough rotation, but at least I had a few forwards to console myself!! On the Thursday it was a dawn patrol. We were rigging by 7.30am; Jas Hutchy and I were in two minds as there was no swell but Hutch finally made the call and we followed again on our 5.3's. As usual the Perelle reef deceived us because as the tide started to drop the swell built and by the end of the session were taking drop on a couple of 6 footers, especially on the big peak. Again Hutch was going for some sweet backies and he had a big one just down wind of me just off the tip of the island. If I'd had my had my head cam on it would have made a great shot with him 25ft up and the island in the background. Anyway I hate to post without a picture so here's a nice one of Hutch.

2011 Quads - tried and tested

2010-08-22T14:13:00.000-07:00

This was my last day and it was a multifin day with the focus mainly on the quads. As for quads, singles and twinser generally I’d say a good analogy (not mine BTW) is to say that a single fin is like a front wheel drive car as you have a lot of certainty in the power delivery, you’re in control and they are comfortable, steady when getting going and secure (great in big waves), the twinser is like a rear wheel drive car, put too much in to it and the back end will be sliding all over the place, you need to be balanced and making sure that you read the feedback from the board all the time; and as for the quads, well they’re like an all wheel drive car, always loads of grip and yet at the same time you’re able to slide it around and concentrate on where you want to go and not where the board might want to go!

The forecast was for perfect conditions and they certainly materialised as I headed out on a 74l Goya twin fin and a 4.7 Severne; and went for a play in the south bay. Seeing as it was my last day I decided to go topless!! That soon proved to be a mistake as I suffered a very very nasty back slap from a very very poor forward!! The board was sweet and I can say that of the brands tried during the week I would say that the Goyas suited me the best with a good balance between user friendliness and radicality. After the back slapping I came in and donned my wettie before heading back out, but this time I’d managed to blag a go on the 2011 Starboard Quad. This was a very different animal to the 2010 version, mainly due to the fact that it’s a completely different shape (straight pin) and they’d swapped the fins around so as to have the larger fins at the rear and the smaller ones at the front (as per all the other 2011 Quads). In effect what this does is make the board like a twinser with stabilisers!! This board tracked up wind and I was soon up at the harbour wall. The waves weren’t as good as the Wednesday but they were still overhead in the sets although it was also a little more on shore. With the 2011 version there was more opportunity to change radius in the bottom turn and more importantly it was easier to break out the tail and slide it around. All in all I still can’t decide between the 2010 or the 2011 as to which is better but I suspect that the 2010 with smaller fins would make a big difference to the top turn. After a few waves on the Starboard I jumped onto a 74l 2011 RRD quad, shape wise it is quite radical with a gunny tail and quite a bulbous nose. The rails up front are pretty soft and generally they, as have the other shapers, realised that there are benefits from retaining a fast tail section and to then soften up the front and put some more volume there to help slide the nose around and maintain speed as the board inevitably looses speed in the top turn (unless you’re Jas P!!). As with the others quads the RRD tracked upwind with loads of grip. On the wave it was very forgiving and looser than the Starboard. It was much quicker to accelerate although the top speed wasn’t that good. On the wave it was loose and slippery but the best thing about it was the acceleration. On several waves I managed to fully slide out the tail, get it grip in and then accelerate for another full speed bottom turn before sliding off the top again. My only reservation on this board was its lack of drive off the rail, in a way whilst it was perfectly suited to the mushy waves of El Medano I think if you were out on it in a decent ground swell and clean lining up walls it would be a struggle to hold a good line, and might be a little slow. After the RRD came the Quatro Keith Taboul DTL 75l (ish) quad. This was being touted as the ultimate down the line wave machine and it certainly seemed to fit the description. One way in which the market has evolved over the last few years is the creation of much better onshore boards to the point that the local ‘hot shot’ should now ride an onshore board if the local conditions dictate and whilst the onshore version might historically have been the less radical version it has to be said that the newer boards are just better suited to what they are designed to do. So this Quattro whilst no doubt great as a DTL wave board was, in the small on-shore conditions probably the least suited of all of the boards that I tried. I tripped the rail on my first bottom turn but then found after a couple of waves the technique needed to drive off the rail to keep it tracking nicely and I found that coming off the top needed a lot of rail pressure; but at least there was the certainty of lots of grip. Generally the volume distribution was good which helped compensate for a what felt like slow acceleration (although sailing out it seemed comparable to the other boards around); but from what I tried I’d say that the on-shore range of boards would probably have been a better choice in El Medano. I didn’t get too long to try it out however as I was taken out in the break by one of the other sailors and the board ended up with a ding! The last board I tried was the Fanatic Team edition quad (79l I think). Shape wise it looked very nice with a fast outline and thin tail, and from looking at it I thought that it was possibly erring on the side off to cross shore shape however on the water the board proved to be a surprising good all-rounder with a good compromise between speed loosness and grip. In a way as equally good an all-rounder at the Starboard but more radical and better suited to the experienced sailor; my only reservation was that I got the feeling that it possibly could have been a bit of a pain in terms of loosing speed in gusty on off conditions.
So in summary, the best board as a box ticking marketable safe and yet at the same time still pretty radical was the Starboard, the only problem being that you’d probably feel that it was a little too much of a compromise after a while; the best board for smaller onshore mush was the RRD by a long way, but it would probably have been a little too lacking in directional control for big waves; the best board for bigger waves was the Quatro (they do make an onshore version that I’d liked to have tried, and from looking at the Goya it almost seemed to fit between the two Quatros) and the best board for probably not holding you back was the Fanatic.
As for fins etc. I didn’t really study them too much but it seems the market is starting to settle down and probably over the next season or two we’ll see one particular style of box establish itself as mainstream (be it mini-power box, or short US etc). the other fixtures and fittings were all good and the straps seemingly a lot more comfortable than in previous years.

Am I now a quad convert? Well it has to be said that I am. In fact I’d be so bold as to say that the quad revolution (and for that I include the twinser as part of the learning process) is as significant a step forward as Marco Copello’s revolutionary creation of the Copello Red Line back in the early 90’s. Wave sailing boards have been a long time in the waiting for something as radical as the quad/twinser revolution and it is, in my view, a welcome change!!!

Tenerife Day Five - Light Winds

2010-07-27T04:41:00.001-07:00

As the day dawned there was not a breath of wind, nothing nada not even a slight puff. The fishing boats in the harbour were meandering a their moorings and I’d resigned myself to what was inevitably going to be my first windless day ever in the Canaries. As I started to settle down and read a book I occasioned to glance up at the fishing boats, they had all turned to face the same direction, but apart from that there was noting more than the slightest drift of wind. Back to the book, half an hour later I looked up and noticed that the fronds of the Phoenix Canariensis were twitching ever so slightly like the eyebrows of KO’d boxer coming round. Was I in for a session after all? Was my 100% wind record for the Canaries to remain unbroken? Well in a word yes, but in a way no. I popped down to the OTC and sorted myself out with some big kit, a 6.0m Gaastra and a 95l Fanatic Freewave. This was ok but was all in all it was a little dull, but at least it was about 30degsC and the water was warm. Then I struck upon an idea, why not scare` myself stupid and get myself a slalom board and a 7.5m? That I did and proceeded to plane off the beach past all the other saps who were struggling to plane on their 6.0’s. The board was not in fact a full on slalom board but a 111l Starboard Futura and a 7.5 no-cam Severne (effectively the same gear as we’ll be using in the 2011 Island Games in the IOW) but even so the guys weren’t wrong when they said it was super quick. I blasted up the coast to Cabezo and then some more before turning round to complete what could only be described as a super scary down winder during which I reckon did not drop below 30knts; bearing in mind that this is in effect open ocean with a good 2-3m occasionally breaking swell!! There was a good bit back leg burn as I held the tail down and I learnt that I’ve got loads of training to do if I’m to be even remotely successful at the Games!!

Tenerife Day Four

2010-07-27T04:39:00.000-07:00

This was a day of contrast and change, ultimately leading to some pretty good conditions. I kicked things off with a 5.3m RRD and an 80l Naish Pro wave, neither were any good!! The sail was quite heavy and for want of a better term dull, and the board was like dragging weed (even though there is virtually none here!). I quickly changed boards to an 82l JP real world wave, again this board was, like the RRD sail, dull. People rave about the JPs but from what I’ve experienced over the years the JP thing is a little lacklustre, the board felt slow to get going and then once up running it was bouncy and unresponsive. Of course it’s easy to blame the kit for me not sailing well but I once again swapped over to the Starboard 2010 Quad and dropped down to a 4.7 Severne and once again I found myself managing to get into the right place a reight time and generally sailing better than had been earlier in the day. But this second outing on the Starboard made me realise that the board did have its limitations, particularly when wanting to change the radius of a turn. All in all day tour was pretty full on and again the standard of sailing would put the most radical of local ‘Hotshots’ back in Britain to shame.

Tenerife Day Three

2010-07-27T04:37:00.000-07:00

As the dawn broke it soon became apparent that the reliable trades of the Canaries weren’t always 100% reliable. Despite the forecast there was not a breath of wind and I resigned myself to a day off – but as I set about figuring what to do a lone gust of wind showed itself, ghost like, as it sped across the waters of El Medano bay. The countless other visiting windsurfers and kiters, they themselves also resigned to a day of inactivity stirred like some sort of slumbering ant colony disturbed, in the heat of the day, by an unwelcome intruder. But in our case the disturbance was very welcome and within 10 mins that lone gust had been followed by an armada of similar aqueous disturbances all beginning to blend as one, joined soon by a smattering of white caps like a scouting party looking to lead the way for the big guns. And as the slumbering colony of wind obsessors rose to its feet and prepared for the onslaught, a cavalry of white horses started to push in from the horizon, urged on by the building ground swell and relentless push of the never ceasing Canary Island wind machine.

Anyway enough of that bollacks – I sorted myself out with some kit, This time a 5.3 Goya and a 89l twinzer (ok it wasn’t that windy but it was continuing to build) and headed up to the wall. The swell was ok with the odd little over head set and some clean walls lining up. The board was nice in the bottom turn and as with all twinzers pretty loose off the top. I did find getting up wind a real bind as I have found with all twinser, but that I’m told that this is to do with the way you drive off the fins and is really a technique thing. After a brief pause for some sugar I swapped over to the starboard quad and it has to be said my deep cynicism of the whole multi fin thing and my conviction that it’s all marketing bullsh*t was swept away before I’d even carved my first gybe, and by the time I was heading back to the beach I’d become a quad convert!!!!! Now whether it’s a fin thing or if that particular board is just a good shape anyway and would work with as single fin I don’t know, but the grip and the drive upwind was something that I’ve only ever really experienced with a thruster set up. I quickly sailed the ¼ mile up to the wall and was soon dropping down some nice waves with absolute confidence with the grip in the bottom turn. The drops were nice but I was having difficultly carving it off the top as tightly as I’d have liked; almost as if it were over finned. This stiffness off the top was something that I mentioned to Chris Murry one of the Starboard team riders and he said that he used slightly smaller fins. Interestingly the 2010 Starboard is different from the JP quad in that it has larger fins up front and smaller fins behind – this has all changed for 2011 and Starboard like all the other brands (except Naish) have gone for larger fins at the back and smaller ones up front. In effect this means that the boards are really nothing more than twinzers with stabilisers; perhaps the twinser thing was too radical for the market?? Of course it also interesting to see that JP, Taboo and more importantly Naish are bringing out thrusters set ups. Why more importly Naish; well they avoided the twinzer revolution and it seems the quad, but the thrusters thing is of course nothing new and seeing as Harold Iggy their shaper has seen it all before I suspect that the thruster thing may be where most brands end up focusing their efforts over the next season or two. If I were a betting man I’d say that that market will evolve to dedicated shorter fuller nose quad/twin fin/tri fin boards as one camp and single fin more drawn out boards with thrusters options as a second camp. Then the sail type will be more relevant.

Day Two

2010-07-27T04:33:00.000-07:00

As the second day dawned the full reality of the preceding night’s events rang like a church bell during bell ringing practice in my head. However the tolling of the bell was not as bad for me as it was for some of the other guys who I caught up with and then went out with. I’d bailed at 1am, but they were on a mission and ended up in Playa de Las Amercias (aka chavtown) sampling the delights of Spanish hospitality until 6am. As for the sailing fortunately it was a lot more relaxing than the preceding day, albeit that it that the day kicked off with very little wind that then built during the day. I tried a 5.3 Goya and an 80l Carbon Art but that wasn’t enough so I went big and switched to a 5.9 Goya and a Starboard 86l kode. Of course the wind continued to pick and that soon became overpowering, but that said I did have a particular liking for the Goya sail. Anyway I then switched to a 5.5 Severne and a 85l RRD Freestyle Wave. This proved to be perfect (bear in mind I was knackered from the day before), so I sailed up to Cabezo, tried a couple of backies (fell in of course) and spanked a couple of puppies. I must say that on gear like that Cabezo is hard work and the rewards in the way of waves were limited. All in all day two was pretty much what I expected – I was knackered and the conditions were, for want of a better term weak.

That evening beer was fully off the agenda; but that said a when in Rome so I stopped off for a solitary pint at one of the myriad of bars that lines the beachside and enjoyed the view as the sun set before falling asleep at 9pm!!

Tnerife Day One

2010-07-19T14:36:00.000-07:00

Day one was, in many respects, a case of being thrown in at the deep end. Having had only had 2-3 decent port tack sessions this year an outing with a 4.2 was perhaps not what the doctor ordered! After only about and hour and a half I had a blister on my foot and the skin my office worker hands were beginning to wear thin!! Oh and to top it all I fell in on my first jump. That said it was lovely to get back in water. The set up in Tenerife is great. The hotels and apartments line the beach but the lie of the land means that you can chill out by the water side in complete shelter or walk the 200m or so down from the town centre to the windsurfing hire centres. As last year I’m hiring kit from the OTC www.otc-windsurf.com , it’s a multi brand hire centre where the have a selection of boards from all the main brands like JP, RRD, Quattro, Starboard etc. This year also they have a selection of a Carbon Arts from New Zealand which I was particularly keen to try out seeing as I still have one floating around in my shed from my NZ days (see my previous post below). As I said the first outing was pretty painful but the kit was good. For the morning session I had a 73l Carbon Art and a 4.2 Severne. The single fin board was sweet with a traditional outline and I knew from my first gybe what I was in for, with its fast and a certain extent gunny tail it set up into the bottom turn really nicely and was easy to drive off the rail and to switch back for the off the top. The sail too was interesting; it’s one of the new generation of wave sails that has a straight foot with no batten below the boom. In the cross on conditions up by the wall it meant that switching from back side to front side and staying in close to the wave was no problem as the foot of the sail didn’t catch on the water or my shins. All in all the morning session was good and I had one of those session when you seem to find yourself always in the right place at the right time. After a brief pause for lunch, wound repair and just taking a deep breath I went back in on a Starboard Kode 74 and a Goya eclipse 4.7. It seemed the wind had dropped but after only a few minutes out I was maxed out off the beach with too much power to do anything other than big floaty jumps. Again the kit was good, I particularly liked the sail and the board was nice but perhaps a little big, or may be too much of an all round shape, a jack of all trade and a master of none if you will. The wind continued to pick so I switched straight down to a 3.6 Pryde Zone and a RRD 74 Twinser. It has to be said that both the sail and the board did not suit me. The sail was neutral and gutless (probably great in the bigger sizes in cross shore DTL conditions) and the board was scatty and unidirectional, just like it’s supposed to be I guess! Anyway it meant may afternoon’s session was marred by being in the wrong place at the wrong time, I cocked up almost every jump and loop I went for and span out on all most every off the lip! Having said that the conditions were good, and Adam from the test centre was the standout sailor with numerous floaty backies and a very nice double forward. As for the other sailors here, well there’s a tale to tell, but more of that later.

The pics are of the new 2011 boards including a thruster set up from JP and Taboo and some nice looking quads from Fanatic and a proper tri fin from exocet

Are you jealous??????

2010-07-16T07:31:00.000-07:00

Well I'm off tomorrow - here's the forecast. Are you jealous, if not why not?? For those of you who don't know for the Windguru forcast at Tenerife you need to add 2/3rds to the wind speed shown to get the real wind speed. That means the 15-16knt forecast that you might be scoffing at will, at El Medano, be about 25knts - oh and about 25-30degsC.

It's going off in the Canaries......I'm off there too!!

2010-07-10T15:02:00.000-07:00

I feel like one of those guys who puts on his CV under interests 'Skiing' - you know the type they put 'Skiing' on their CV but the reality is that they only go sking for one or two weeks each year and they can't think of anything else 'sporting' to put on their CV so they put 'skiing'. I have 'Windsurfing' on my CV but seeing as there has been literally no wind this year (the calmest since 1929!!!!!!!!!!) and I'm off to the Canaries next Saturday I wonder if I am really a 'Windsurfer' or just some bloke who goes windsurfing for one week a year whilst on holiday and then calls himself a 'Windsurfer'??

Anyway the fact remains I'm off to Tenerife next week and it's all booked up and the forecast is looking really good with a couple of 20-30knt days to kick off with and the wind then building up to 30-40knts by the end of the week. It's been going off in the Canaries and in Pozo Fernandez knocked out last year's winner Koester in the PWA comp yesterday - the pic above is what I'll look like by the end of next week:

Your chance to represent Guernsey....

2010-07-02T15:21:00.000-07:00

Ok so next year is the International Island Games in the Isle of Wight (in 2013 it'll be in Bermuda!!). The windsurfing will be done under PWA slalom 42 rules with all the kit provided by the host nation. The windsurfing is being organised by Aaron Williams brother of PWA all round ripper Ross Williams. If you feel like you can cut the mustard and want to represent Guernsey please let Tim Laine know by the 12 JULY 2010. His e-mail is mail@timlaine.com for more info on the games check out http://www.natwestislandgames2011.co.uk all up the cost will be about £600

Summer Time...........

2010-06-14T04:53:00.000-07:00

We things continue to be slack at the moment but that's not to say all is quiet. I'm hoping to buy some new boards from a custom board builder in NZ called Carbon Art http://www.carbonart.co.nz/ so I'm selling all of my Naishes to raise some dosh before I place my order. I've got the following for sale - all in excellent condition:

2008 Naish All Terrain 104l (cross over board with 2 fins) great for blasting. Sail range 5.3-7.5 - £550
2008 Naish Global Wave 87l (onshore wave board, quick to plane ideal as lightwind wave board or as first time wave board) - £500
2008 Naish Global Wave 78l - (smaller version of the above, ideal as a main wave board for Guernsey conditions) - £500

I've also got a set of 3 Hotsails Smacks 2008, all in excellent condition, sizes 4.3/5.8/5.3 indestructible and no monofilm. £125 each or £300 the lot.

As a final thing here's the best surf vid ever:

Rumours Rumours

2010-05-22T15:35:00.000-07:00

I've not posted for a while but there's plenty to report on including the open day, the racing in the afternoon and the slalom at Pembroke, oh and the two Simons' round the island trip - I'll post soon. However the thing that's really caught my eye is the latest rumour is that the Pozo event is off and will be held at El Medano from the 16th to the 21st July - guess when I'm there?? I'll be there from the 10th to the 17th - perfect timing get to sail with the pros and watch the first day of the comp - Phil Jas and I did that in 2006 at Pozo and it was the best for watching the action. Here's the link http://translate.google.com/translate?js=y&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&layout=2&eotf=1&u=http://pozonews.blogspot.com/&sl=es&tl=en

Simon & Jason's first time Herm Trip

2010-05-03T05:25:00.000-07:00

Well the strong NE'ers forecast didn't quite materialise but the conditions were perfect for a blast over to Herm island. I've done it quite a few times but both Jason Connolly and Simon Marshall were Herm crossing virgins and today they lost their virginity's!!

As you can see they look pretty pleased with themselves!! The pic was taken right at the NE corner of Herm just by Shell beach. with Guernsey in the background about 4 miles away. For anyone who has been in a boat through the over the overfalls they'll know how rough it can get between the islands. The crossing over was pretty intense as the wind was due north and with a solid F5 with the full flood of the tide running up past Roustel beacon at about 6knts into the wind there were 6ft standing waves with some chunky sections of white water pushing through - not the place to fall in as you'd never catch up to your kit if you got separated!! Once clear of the overfalls we then entered a flat section of water off the north of Herm with the tide in that area running in the opposite direction. But no worries and a few moments later we were on safely on the beach in Herm. A quick photo shoot and we were on our way back. This time I fired up the sports tracker and recorded the route.

The crossing back took about 11 mins including a bit of back and forth with the main crossing over the shipping channel only a few minutes. The top speed I recorded was 25knts, not bad considering the lumps of water moving around!

Here's pic of Simon looking pretty pleased to have survived his first Herm crossing!!

Calm down, calm down!!

2010-04-29T09:44:00.000-07:00

Ok so I would never ever ever get excited about a NE'er but beggars can't be choosers and the latest Windguru finally has some proper wind on the horizon with 30knt+ NE'ers forecast for the beginning on next week. If they do settle in for a few days we could end up with some decent wind swell and good starboard tack jumping! With low tide at 4.30pm it should be best from about 2.30pm onwards.

Also probably what has to be the most talked about but never delivered bit of technology has finally arrived in the shape and form of a Vazon Bay web cam - J Bisson who set up www.gsysurf.com has fitted one to the roof of the Waves apart-hotel (the old VB Hotel). I know I'll be using it to save me the 10min drive to be beach.

GBSA Open Day 8th May 2010

2010-04-26T05:21:00.000-07:00

Remeber last years Open Day? Well time flies and it's back on in a couple of weeks - the 8th May 2010. It will be the same sucessful format at last year with 'have a go' sessions and free lessons in the morning followed by a BBQ and then racing in the afternoon. Please spread the word and I'll see you there - please if you can help let me know so that we can allocate jobs to everyone.

Now it's official - the wind is slowing down!!

2010-04-21T04:59:00.000-07:00

The met office have just released their full report report for 2009 here www.metoffice.gov.gg - it's a good read if you like statistics. However more importantly you know how we always used to say 'it was windier in the good old days' well it seems we were right - here's the killer quote - 'Only November was substantially windier than the average, with most months being quieter than normal, so that this year continued the trend of lighter winds over recent years' - Ah well as I always say nature has a way of balancing out, which means that the trend will stop soon and then reverse!!

A pause for thought

2010-04-03T23:33:00.000-07:00

I don't know how many of you are familiar with http://www.mauisurfreport.blogspot.com/ if you're not you should be!! Anyway over the last few weeks the blog author 'GP' has been telling the story of how he jacked it all in (working for HP) and went to live in Hawaii. Please take the time to read it it's thought provoking.

Now GP lives in Hawaii and, by his own admission, has no money but lives and breaths the ocean life. I think to myself I too , like GP, would like to jack it all in and go and live on a tropical island and go and play in the ocean every day...but here's the rub..... the important bit is not the 'living in Hawaii' bit but the 'jack it all in bit'.....if you find yourself constrained and trying to live your life by fitting into a set of rules set by others/society at the very least break those rules, even if it's just a little.

If you don't you'll regret it, after all it's better to regret trying than to regret not trying at all!

BTW a few pics from last week's sessions on http://www.gsyphoto.com/ by Pierre Bisson

From 3 fins to no fins

2010-04-01T12:14:00.001-07:00

Whilst the rest of the windsurfing world are adding fins it seems like Starboard are taking them away see http://chinookleucate.wordpress.com/2010/03/31/starboard-no-fin-concept/

As for the local scene there's finally been some decent wind and sailed with the 4.7 and 5.3 the last couple of days. Tuesday evening was good, very good with it being cross off 4.7 and over mast high in the sets - the swell seemed to come out of nowhere as it started off at only head high in the sets and the 2hrs later it was spitting people out all over the place - and by contrast the Wednesday started out with a solid 4-6ft and 2hrs later we were reduced to wind chop. Hopefully will get some pics from Carter and maybe Pierre. The forecast for the Easter break is looking good with some forecasts like Magicseaweed showing wind everyday. Hopefully we'll get a couple of days if not more on the water.

What goes around comes around

2010-03-22T06:56:00.000-07:00

This time it's more of the old Carbon Art that had a re-birth last year thanks to the hands of Bob Warry. Inspired by http://www.thrusterproject.blogspot.com/ I've decided to play around with the fins on my Carbon Art and ditched the traditional thruster set up with two small (2 inch) thrusters and a 19 inch main fin in favour of three 4.5 inch fins (basically the same set up as on a surfboard). Tri-fin set ups are apparently somewhere in between the directional stability of a single fin and the looseness of a twinser; but from what I can gather that's with the 'traditional' set up (i.e. small thrusters and larger central fin). My set up will be interesting - I suspect that there will be little to push against and when riding it'll be easy to overload and pop out the tail. We shall see - may be this coming Friday.

Only fools rush in...

2010-03-06T07:48:00.000-08:00

Cold grey and wind chop - and when I say cold I mean really cold like 5-6deg C. Too cold for any sensible people like Hutchy who took these pics of two fools called Matt. the only things hot out there were the sails!!!

So finally some wind...........

2010-03-03T08:32:00.000-08:00

This winter has been a torrid affair with a lack of wind and even when it has been windy it has freeeeeezing cold. Last Friday at least proved to be sunny and windy with a few ramps around, ok so it wasn't dreamtime and on a scale of 1 to 10 it probably ranked as a 6ish. but a wetting is a wetting. Here are a few pics from Mags Fewkes - if you want fuller res versions get in touch as I have them on disc:

El viento viene

2010-02-28T09:10:00.000-08:00

Finally some half decent wind the other day and not too cold. The pic below is from Mags Fewkes - check out her site http://www.magsimages.com/ - she'll be sending me some more pics so check back.

Ok I robbed it off another blog www.peconicpuffin.com

2010-02-14T14:11:00.000-08:00

Top Ten Reasons For Women To Date A Windsurfer (Valentines Day encore post)

Ladies, are you still searching for that special someone? Consider looking amongst the windsurfers:
10. The ratio of men to women is 4 to 1.
9. They can talk about something besides football.
8. They don’t smell too bad because it’s a good bet they’ve gotten wet recently.
7. They have another interest besides sex.
6. You know they’re rich enough to afford windsurfing equipment.
5. You always get the latest weather report, several times a day.
4. They are capable of commitment, at least to their sport.
3. They have no issues about wearing rubber.
2. You always know where they are, at least when it’s windy.
1. Windsurfers are generally fit, tanned, and have cute butts.

Non-windsurfing men should NOT...repeat NOT...pursue windsurfing women, unless they are prepared to immediately throw themselves into the sport. Otherwise such men will be surrounded by angry windsurfing men who all seek the great and rare prize: the girlfriend or wife who windsurfs. To squander such a find on a landlubber is an offense to those of us who sheet in! (There is the opinion held by a small minority that it is a drag to be a man whose significant other windsurfs...you probably have to rig for them, they use your equipment etc. but generally speaking the willingness of such wahines to make every vacation a windsurfing vacation, to understand why the garage needs to be packed with tons of expensive wet gear etc. outweighs the rigging/sharing concerns. Discussion of such matters is encouraged.)

(Since running this feature last year, the Romance department at Peconic Puffin HQ has received a number of additional reasons to consider :
11. Ladies, if your man isn't home during the day, you'll know where to find him.
12. He'll be on the water so often won't have time for anybody else besides you.

Hutchy's Stag Do (Part one) - Better late than never.

2010-01-07T14:28:00.000-08:00

It's been a while and apologies for not posting sooner but here's the low down on Hutchy's stag do to France which coincided with the biggest swell to hit France for the whole winter - the story goes something like this.

Day one - every surf trip has a major cock up and the first one happened before we'd even left Guernsey. The wind was already blowing hard and Condor ferries bought forward the ferry as the wind was forecast to pick up that afternoon. No problem for any of us and the eight of us in our three vans met up down at the harbour in plenty of time. As we were queing up to board the ferry Briggsy, who was one of my passengers looked over to me holding up the passport he found in my glove compartment and said "doesn't your boy look just like you!" - ahhhhh I'd picked up the wrong passport. Quick chat with the Condor ferries who said I had 20mins and no more, then manic turn around and a frantic drive home. It normally would take 35mins to make it home and back but I had no choice I had to floor it - ask Dr.Matt who was the other passenger in my van how stressed I was- he and Briggsy had a white knuckle ride and we made it back - just - thanks to Condor for holding the ferry to wait for us.

St. Malo from the ferry - already getting dark and still a 2hr drive to the break!!

The ferry trip that ensued was on the operational limit for the boat with a 2-4m swell running and winds up to about 30knts. The 8 of us were the only passengers grining from ear to ear, as almost everyone esle was throwing up! We arrived in St.Malo with about 3 1/2hrs of daylight left - we floored it to Le Dossen and after 2hrs driving me, Jas, and Dr.Matt went for a sail (why not the others still remains a mystery to me) with 4.2s and a reasonable 4ft swell - we milked it till we couldn't see any more! Jas was the sailor of session with plenty of waves and some sweet bottom turns.

Jas - heading out to score some sweet waves at Le Dossen.

After that it was another 3hrs of tarmac through some of the heaviest rain of autumn as the big storm front pushed in - with the obligatory beer stop at a massive supermarket called 'Geant' literally 'Giant' in French . We arrived at Crozon right on the far western tip of France and tried to settle in for the night as 50knt+ gusts battered the house.

The following morning we had to make a quick decision where to go but first things first we needs to check out the near by beach break of Le Goulien only 5mins away. It was super windy and as we drove over the crest of the hill and looked down on the beach 500m away it quickly became clear that it was a non-starter. The 25ft+ forecast swell was pushing straight in and the whole bay was a white out with double mast high swells breaking miles out to sea. I'd sailed Le Goulien dozons of times as it (and the nearby La Palue) picks up pretty much the most swell in area, however we needed to consult the Stormrider guide as it was painfully obvious that we needed some shelter.

The guide pointed us in the direction of Dournenez, a tucked away town normally a safe haven sheltered from the prevailing south westers. The drive was about an hour or so but there were a few stops on the way as we checked out the other beaches on route. We made it down to Dournenez, eventually, after a few wrong turns curtousy of blindly following the GPS, but the wind was too off-shore. A quick conflab and we decide to head 5miles back up the coast to Kerval, described as 'a nice flatwater spot, ideal for blasting and learning the all important waterstarts and carve jibes'. Mmmmmm not the wave sailing heaven we were looking for but with so much wind and swell we though we might get a few small waves. Off we went and as we pulled up into the carpark it was obvious we'd made the right call, every man and his dog was there and there was a 4.7 rigging frenzy (it was a little sheltered). It was cross to cross-on with some decent logo to mast high swells pushing in. One of the locals told me he'd never seen that much swell in the bay - may be we had found shangri-la after all!!

The man of the moment Hutchy was first in and he opened proceedings with a massive backie and this pretty much set the scene. Jas was next, I followed and then Steve Smith, Richard, Briggsy, Simon the boy, and Dr. Matt. I nailed a massive forward on my second run, which it seems no one saw :-( and a few of locals started to take notice. However the chief weapon in their arsnel was Thierry Bel'beoch, brother of ex-world wave champ Patrice. There's no doubt that Thierry was the king of beach and he is hot, so hot i'm surprised he didn't burst into flames! The backie is his manouvre of choice and he was nailing 30ft ones regulalry, and as someone said - 'he might be one trick pony but it's one hell of a trick'!! The following few hours resulted in plenty of carnage. Simon the boy had, for sure the wipe out of the season so far afer he misjudged his sortie from la plage and got taken out by a logo high set just as it was breaking. He was right next to me and his kit flew about 40ft downwind!! There was a more serious issue however, Dr.Matt go nailed, went through he sail twice (as you do) and ended up hobbling up the beach because he'd cut his achillies tendon badley. He sat out the rest of the session and Hutchy and Briggsy then took him to the hospital to get it stitched up. Being a doctor, and having worked in A&E, he was pretty blasaie about it and said it was just a scratch. But if you ask me when there's loads of blood and you can see the inside of a tendon it's more 'fleshwound' than 'scratch'.

That evening was the was the official boys night out, but the only trouble was we were to knackered to really go for it - but go for it we did. First things first of course was the mandatory getting the stag to dress up, not normally easy but Hutchy just suddenly appeared in a dress --- mmm the fact that he seemed so comfortable in that it does still beg a question???

Hutchy - not just a girl's blouse on the water but off the water too!! But that look from Dr.Matt is a little concerning??

My French buddy Philippe joined us, Hutchy ditched the dress and we strolled down to the port of Morgat (well Dr.Matt hobbled) for a bite to eat and vin, vin and more vin. We frequented a few of the local pubs and stumbled back to the house all pretty worse for wear.

Part Two coming soon!!

Pinch me I must be dreaming

2009-12-07T14:57:00.000-08:00

The first weekend of December was a carry on of the month of November that according to the official stats was the windiest November for 32years - in fact the stats speak for themselves - only 1 day with wind below 20knts, 2 with wind between 20-30knts and the rest somewhere between 30 to 40knts oh and not forgetting to mention 3 days above 50knts. Of course with wind comes swell and the surf has just been pumping day in day out - with it too big on 2-3 occasions in November. Yesterday was just sweet with a solid 6-8ft pushing through on reef and here's the proof............

Few pics from nukin' Sunday.

2009-12-03T05:54:00.000-08:00

Here are few pics from Chris Carter of last Sunday - it was pretty windy!!

A few pics from last week!

2009-11-25T00:52:00.000-08:00

It was walling up nicely on Thursday.

Nice little aerial on the the inside.

Getting in the thick of it!!

Nice aerial from Hutchy

Glassy cross-off and sunny - what more do you need????

There were some grunters pushing through on the reef and a nice period between the waves on the Sunday.

Carter - scaring the birds off!

Nice backie from Hutch the backloop king.

The master teaches whilst the students watch!!

Beyond Epic and again the windiest place in the world tomorrow according to Windguru

2009-11-22T11:08:00.001-08:00

Today was cross shore, sunny, 4.2, mast high with the waves super smooth and sucking up into nice barrels on the reef. It could only be described as Beyond Epic - probably the best t'other side session for several years. Hutchy nailed a super high backie without even getting his ankles wet, I landed a sweet one off a real grunter but just dropped the landing. Jas milked it to the death and Simon the boy had a barrelling mast high grunter on his first wave of the day. Pics to follow. Oh and in case you thought it was a flash in the pan - well it won't be - tomorrow will be better still and we are ranked number one in the world on Windguru click to enlarge. Enjoy!!

Now 'ear this

2009-11-11T13:29:00.000-08:00

Here's a post from my good buddy Phil - you have been warned!!

Aright fellow water enthusiasts I thought this might be of use to you all. Having been an active windsurfer and scuba diver for over 2 decades I have enjoyed windsurfing and diving all over the world and have been lucky enough to have sailed and dived in some of the best locations, both in warm water and cold water. Over the years due to spending time in the water we have all probably picked up the old dreaded “ear infection” and no doubt have been to the doc to get some antibiotics and been told to stay out of the water for a week… no drama !Well personally I have had my fair share of ear related ailments; ranging from ear infections / swimmers ear (different to surfers ear) / blockages due to water being trapped when face slamming into the water learning to forward loop!

So, on the last visit to my local GP to get some antibiotics for yet another ear infection he was looking in my right ear and said something along the lines of “Oh Mr. Warry, I think I should refer you to the ENT at the specialist medical center as you have some bony growths in your ear canal…’’, on further discussion with him he basically explained what the problem was and why my ears were in the state they were in.So what had caused this – SURFERS EAR!!

Surfer's ear is a condition of the ear canal where the bony lining under the skin develops a number of lumps (exostoses) that grow into the tube. This can eventually cause a partial or even complete blockage of the ear canal. In my case 90% blockage! Great! I had heard of this problem before and actually knew a few surfers on the Island who had suffered from this and who had the dreaded Operation to get them fixed. Thinking about the amount of ear infections I have had and the loss of hearing of late, especially to my right ear, I now started to fear the worst. Some of you may be thinking yeh so what!! Well read on. If the ear canal is narrowed, water and debris can get trapped behind the narrowing causing a very painful infection, which is difficult to treat. In very advanced cases it can narrow enough to cause deafness. In the early stages infections can be easily treated by a trip to the doc, some antibiotics and general cleaning and on going care of the ear. The problem is that once these lumps (exostoses) start to grow they don’t go away and after a period of time they get worse. This happens gradually and it is a fairly slow process, which is why a lot of people don’t think there’s any problem, normally until the exostoses are advanced. So what’s the cure? This is the fun bit. “Surgery” Basically there is an operation you can have to remove the bony lumps. The process is relatively straight-forward. Under general anesthetic the surgeon cuts the back of your ear and then drills out the bony lumps which are in your ear tube. You don’t feel a thing because you are asleep and the operation takes approx 2/3 hours.And then a long healing process of 3 months out the water "Bummer"

Prevention is better than cure - Surfer's ear is six times as common in cold water surfers than warm water surfers. The longer you surf the more likely you are to get it. It is thought that it is caused by cold water and air getting into the ears repeatedly over a long period of time. So if you can keep your ears warm and dry when surfing / windsurfing/diving there is a good chance it won’t get nearly as bad. The usual way to do this is to wear earplugs but a hood in the winter will obviously provide good protection too.

Ear plugs Manufactured / custom made ear plugs can be used to quite good effect, basically you want something tailored to the ear that does not interfere too much with hearing and balance. Your ears will need to be measured to get the correct size. (or they tend to rub after a period of time)Silicone wax moldable putty plugs are ok, but reduce hearing and can impair balance. They are available at most chemists. Blutac or White tack is good and used by a lot of watermen and women which has the advantage of being a bit sticky and less likely to fall out. Blutac is claimed by some experienced users to be the best for a completely dry seal if used correctly.

Swimmers Ear Explained...Swimmer's Ear is an inflammation and infection of the ear canal caused by prolonged moisture and is commoner in the tropics, but is not caused by the bony growths, so this is different to exsotoses / surfers ear.

Is there any good news? Many surfers have mild exostoses which cause no trouble. And if you protect yourself now you can stop it happening or getting worse. So be warned

Phil W

Who turned on the wind machine???

2009-11-06T13:45:00.000-08:00

Well it's been non-stop for the last couple of weeks, nothing huge but enough to keep the boys happy!! Last Sunday was a good day, not because it was epic or because it was super windy but just because it was - for want of a better term - nice! There were about 15 guys in and cos we were sailing at t'others there was no hassle with the surfers. Gnarly suck reef bared it's teeth a couple of times with a couple of 4-6ft'ers but generally there was an easy 2-4ft swell and the odd heavy suck up on the beach for a bit of aerial fun. Moves of the day were- well where do I start, Phil W's rocket air (something to do with his impending ear op and making the most of his last session on the water for 2 months), Hutchy's perfect 360 on his first wave, Jason's nice off the tops, or maybe my oh so close backie ofter backie. Anyway the pics above are - mainly Phil W - after all he'll be out of action for a few weeks and a pics of my thruster Carbon Art bought out of retirement just because it's fashionable and a Stu Martel heading out.

Oh and before I forget we've had 6 days on the trot of wind and the 3.7 has even seen some action this week and just in case you think it's all talk I've posted the proof from Windguru that Guernsey was the windiest spot in the world (BTW has anyone ever seen Jsy at the top of this list??) - click to enlarge.

Time for a feast

2009-10-20T15:18:00.000-07:00

Well as I said the other day this season so far is either feast or famine and there's a big feast on the way after a month of nothing but a few 4.7/5.3 sessions. ECMWF has one hell of a forecast in the offing and Windg is forecasting a 4.6m swell for Sunday. So if you've put on a few pounds over the last couple of weeks due to lack of time on the water it don't matter because looking at the forecast you'll need every ounce of extra weight that you can get!!

By the way didn't the boy Ogier do well at Weymouth - he came fourth beating the likes of Dave White in the process. It seems his new 2010 Hotsails GPS speed/slalom sails are going to set him up well for the forthcoming season!!

Some wind, not much swell but some pics from Sue

2009-10-11T14:26:00.000-07:00

Well there's been some wind but no real swell, but all the same can't complain. The conditions improved during the afternoon and by the end of the day there was a couple of foot. Sue was down taking some pics of her boy Dan and of Stu. Good to see them doing so well in the waves and about 10 others enjoying the conditions.

Feast then famine

2009-10-04T05:12:00.001-07:00

As sure as eggs are eggs the epic start to September ground to an instant halt mid way through the month. As reported on the 12 September the NE'ers were settling in and I had in total 17 sessions in less than three weeks - then nothing. But the only upside was that at least the weather was good. I went for a longboard jaunt around Herm with simon Lovell on massive spring tide right througth the river as it following full force on the ebb and then up against the wind and tide through the Percee passage which look about half an hour just to get through it - more about that later. As well as the nice weather the fishing has been good too.

Yesterday at last we had a wavesailing session after about 2 1/2 weeks off - Vazon was insanely crowded with surfers, swimmers, kayaks and even jet skis- but you can't blame everyone as it was the first swell for ages. Things worked out well with the surfers staying up wind - for those of you new to sailing at Vaz please keep out of the surfers as if you're sitting in the water and someone goes charging past you at 25knts it's pretty scary - even if though we know there's no real risk. Phil Warry was the sailor the day with some huge airs and Oly was nailing some nice pushies on 2010 Prydes. I sailed badly - but let's not dwell on that!! And whilst we were having fun the pros in Sylt were having it tough - bang on and nukin. Check out the PWA site for the video footage. Oh and before I forget Angulo is now the 2009 Wavesailing Champ!

On a final note Hutchy's stage/surf trip to France is all booked up - we're going to the tip of NW France.

Get clean this weekend

2009-09-16T02:47:00.000-07:00

This weekend sees the Marine Conservation Society's big clean up. The idea is to clean up the shore line and gather litter to assist with the society with understanding the pollution levels. Locally the efforts are being driven by G-Can (Guernsey's Climate action network) - see http://g-can.net/articles/detail.aspx?articleid=160 The GBSA of course wholeheartedly encourage all windsurfers, non-windsurfers etc to take part and help clean up our shoreline. Personally whenever I go to the beach I always make a point of cleaning up some litter - unfortunately there's always plenty around :-(

On top of the world - again!!

2009-09-15T04:55:00.001-07:00

Guernsey tops the Windguru list as the windiest windsurfing spot in the world - again!!!

Times they are a changing

2009-09-12T00:28:00.000-07:00

The weather's on the change and the autumn winds are begininng to set in. At the beginning of last week I was pottering around the fishing boats ar L'Eree with the family on the beach but by the end of the week I'd had five sessions in as many days on my wave kit mostly with the 4,7 and the 75l. Then a few days off this week and the wind's now switched to a Ne'er and we've had a few Pembroke sessions - great if you like starboard, not so great if you don't, but I still mananged to spank a couple of starboard tack puppies so I'm pretty pleased with myself for that considering we only get to sail starboard about 5 times a year!! Anyway here's a pic from last week - the hazy days of summer seem but a distant memory!!

L'Hydroptere Smashes World Speed Record

2009-09-06T13:44:00.000-07:00

The french speed catamaran has just broken the world speed sailing record and clocked 51.74knts - what's this got to do with windsurfing you ask? Well if you look closely at the pic (click to enlarge) you'll see none other than a certain Anders Bringdal in the team as well as few other team members sporting Mistral attire!

Thanks Bill

2009-09-01T23:15:00.000-07:00

Hurricane season is in full swing now and the remnants of Bill pushed through last week. I was on holiday in France last week (where we're going for Hutchy's stag do in a few weeks) and the Atlantic facing beaches were being pounded by a good 10ft+ swell on the biggest day. I managed a cheeky 4.7 session at La Palue where it was cross on and nudging mast high in the sets. The wave was a little disjointed and sectional but a few rides were had as were a few jumps. The jump of the day that I saw was a massive backie from a fellow Hotsails sailor that must have been a good 25ft+ up! Once again I took a few pics - I particularly like the one which is distorted!

Also managed a good pic of sailor of the day - he looks pretty radical if you ask me!!

Not too sure if I like this??

2009-09-01T23:07:00.000-07:00

Not too sure if I like this - but I think I do. A new range of wetsuits for all - personally I'd go for one if they made a 'birthday' suit version! Check out the range here - http://bydiddo.com/?p=152 What do you think???

Ogier in the Press

2009-08-19T06:05:00.001-07:00

Fellow Hotsails sailor has a write in today's press on his trip to Karpathos. There are more details on his blog http://www.martynogier68.blogspot.com/ - not a bad effort but he says he should do better. Personally anything above 30knts and things start getting a little hairy if you ask me!!

Mmm - who switched off the wind!

2009-08-17T16:03:00.000-07:00

Well it's been a case of feast then famine! Since the wind blasted month of July the month of August has not delivered, not even the normally windy period of the first 2 weeks of August delivered anything. Statistically it's windy almost every year during the first two weeks of August - this is was spotted way back in the 1800's by a weatherman Buchann who realised that the 8-12th Aug were always windy - remember the 1979 Fastnet race! Well not this year!!
But all is not quiet, fellow Hotsails sailor Martyn Ogier has been out in Karpathos squeezing everything out of his Hotsails GPS's to get them up to 37knts. The speed was good but not enough to get him into the top ten, but he was the fastest Brit. Check out his blog at www.martynogier68.blogspot.com On final note, some of you will remember that I won the top prize in the New Zealand wave sailing nationals and took home a new Carbon Art wave board 10 years ago this October - well the green machine will soon be back on the water and Bob Warry is just finishing her refurb off and Carbon Art want to do a report on the board etc. - I'll keep you posted and get some pics up soon. I'm off to Crozon in Brittainy next week - I'll be 2 mins drive from Goulien/La Palue one of the best wave spots in France wish me wind!

Rocket Air and Rock Stars

2009-07-22T14:56:00.000-07:00

Well the wind just keeps on blowing!! As it was too busy at Vaz on the weekend we went for a sail at Perelle. The small swell meant that we were able to sail the big peak as a bit of an experiment - normal we sail the left behind the island and not the big peak as it's quite far out and there are rocks everywhere. Talking of rocks Phil paid the price for going for a backie too close into the island and got sucked into the reef.

I also tried my camera in picture mode as opposed to video mode and took over a 1000 pics - this is definatly the way to go and here are a few of them. There's Phil landing (nearly) a backie, Hutch just taking off for one, Phil mid forward, Phil on the rocks and a very blurred pic of Phil on the island.

The wind was very mighty!!

2009-07-17T14:16:00.000-07:00

Well the forecast wind delivered the goods. The afternoon saw the clouds clear and the wind & swell pick. By 4pm it was comfortable on my new 3.7 and there were some big swells starting to push in under the fort. The pics attached show Phil and Simon coming off the beach, as you can see they've only just got going and they are already maxed out on their 4.2s. The other is Phil on my new 3.7 which is the best smoothest 3.7 I've ever had.

May the wind be so mighty so as to lay low the mountains of this earth!

2009-07-16T04:54:00.001-07:00

Guernsey No.2 in the world after some remote island off the horn of Africa - enjoy and see you down at Vaz. - click to enlarge