New kit, what's it like?

My new kit from Tushingham and Starboard arrived back in January, but I've been in Bristol at Uni. Finally, last weekend, I got home to try out my kit for the first time. I was lucky with the weather, sunny both days, with lightish winds on Saturday and lots of wind (for Raceboard) on Sunday.

What am I riding?

Tushingham XR Race 2012/13 9.5, with an Ultimate Pro 520 100% Carbon mast, and Starboard Phantom 377 the 'batwing Phantom'. Noticeable features of the board are the tail wings, which actually start right up by the mast track, which is slanted, so the back is lower than the surrounding deck, and the front is significantly raised. The deck has a concave shape, so the rails are quite raised, and the board has a lot of vee underneath. The sail rigs pretty deep with shape continuing quite high up when rigged with low downhaul, it also has 6 battens, 1 less than my previous XR Race. For reference/info/whatever, I weigh about 68kg, and I'm about 180cm tall.

Saturday was fairly light, with about 6-8 knots when I arrived at Siblyback lake, but once I had screwed all the footstraps on, the wind had picked up a little to about 8-10 knots, still a few lighter lulls. I put the stock 52cm Drake fin in and hit the water. I sensed a little gust coming, so I slid the mast track right to the back (very smooth and easy with the slanted track), and after a few pumps I was planing. The board was very quick to get going, quicker than my Phantom 380. What really surprised me however, was when I hooked in after the first few pumps, the board just kept going! On the 380 in this wind, I would be continually pumping to keep it planing, especially on a broad reach, but this board didn't. Of course, with continual pumping on this board, I found that I could just go deeper and deeper downwind, when normally, I'd be struggling to keep the board planing at all. The sail is really nice for this as well, it is much more powerful than my old XR Race, and with 6 battens, it really feels nice and soft, reactive, and springy when pumping, I could really feel a lot of power being generated for even the smallest pump.

Planing in such light winds on this board is quite a strange sensation initially. It feels like there is a lot of lift and support under the back foot, which feels a little strange, because at the same time, the tail minus wings is actually pretty narrow, and not as wide and fat as the Phantom 380. It is easy and fun to blast around on, much easier than old style Raceboards with narrow tails.

You'd think that the wings would make it pretty awful at gybing, but actually I think it is better than the old Phantom 380. OK, neither have a particularly small carving radius, but the new board seemed to keep a lot of momentum making it really easy to come out planing on a broad reach to broad reach gybe, which is the only type of gybing we usually do on today's trapeziod or windward/leeward courses.

The board is a little narrower than it's predecessor, and so it gets on the rail upwind much more easily. This is also a good opportunity to discuss the next unusual feature of the board: the slanted mast track. For those of you who don't know, Raceboards have a sliding mast track that enables you to adjust the position of the mast foot depending on the wind conditions and point of sail. The idea behind the slanted mast track is that the raised position at the front gives more leverage, letting the board rail up earlier, and the lowered position at the back gives more control on the reaches and downwind. Does it work? To start with I used the front position of the mast track to give the maximum possible leverage, and the board did indeed rail very easily and early. However, I felt like I was lacking a bit of angle upwind so I moved the mast back a couple of steps, and it worked. The board now railed more easily and pointed higher.

On Sunday, I headed to St Johns lake (Torpoint) to test the kit in stronger winds. It was SE'ly and about 16-22 knots, maybe a little more in the biggest gusts. I hadn't sailed Raceboard in strong conditions for a while and it took me a while to find my groove. I still opted for the 9.5, and after a while, got used to the increased power compared to my previous XR Race. Like the old sail, this one has a huge tuning range, with it on pretty much max downhaul, the top of the sail de-powers really really well yet the very lowest panel above the boom stayed pretty tight. This helped pointing and powered the board upwind through the chop better than the old sail. After a few runs, I found the secret to taming the board! I put the mast track one back from front to help ride through the chop, although I moved it all the way forward in the biggest gusts, and gave the daggerboard a bit of rake: something I didn't really do on my old 380, since you could just keep moving the track forward on that to get more control, on this board however, not as much control is gained from having the track right forward, and raking the daggerboard a couple of degrees really improves control. You have to be pretty careful not to have too much rake, because then you can't point at all. I also changed down from the stock 52cm fin to a stiffer 46cm, which gave me a lot more control downwind and reaching.

Overall, I'd say that whilst the Starboard Phantom 380 is an amazing all-round board, and absolutely flies, the new Phantom 377 absolutely destroys this board in marginal conditions, where is rails and plans much easier and earlier. In strong winds, it is really rapid downwind and on the reaches, and flies really well upwind through chop, in a slightly different way to the 380, can't quite put my finger on how though! I seem to have written a lot more about the board than the sail, mainly because they are things that really need time to get tuned to perfection. The new sail is more powerful than my old one (the very first version from 2009), which makes it an absolute machine in light winds - well matched to the board. My old XR Race was stable and easily de-powered in strong winds, giving is a low drag, flying feel which suited my light weight, so I was a little apprehensive about how the new sail would feel in strong winds with it's extra power, and 1 less batten. I'm pleased to say, that this sail definitely retains it's predecessors mega wind range, and is easily de-powered  although it feels quite different, even when de-powered and totally manageable  it has more of a 'drivey' feel upwind. If anything, it the power is more stable and the centre of effort more locked in place than the old one, which surprised me, since it lacks the extra batten.

My bags from Overboard also arrived. I'm loving the 60l Dry Tube - really well built and perfect for stuffing loads of wet gear into, I'm also using the Adventure backpack, I can fit so much stuff into it, including a nice padded laptop pocket, and I'm still discovering little pockets useful for all sorts of things! Check out their website to see their full range of stuff - they make a waterproof bag or case for anything!

Cant wait to get properly tuned up over Easter, because I already feel pretty fast and ready for 2013! You can find out more about me and my windsurfing on my new website, which is now up and running here or by clicking "Website Home" at the top of this page.

Photo's and video by Paul Wright.

SWA Puravida wave series: 2 – Plym/Exe, and some more Cornish road tripping

It seemed like a very very long time since my last SWA event, only last December, but a lot had happened since then, a windy wavy Christmas, some exams, and now back to uni.

Plymouth and Exeter uni’s joined forces this year to run the second event of the SWA Puravida Wave Series, with some beginner tuition also on offer at Siblyback Lake. On Saturday, half went to the lake, whilst I joined the others at The Bluff, Hayle, where the weekend’s wave competitions would be held. Conditions were pretty light and flat, and after an equipment talk from Jim Brooks-Dowsett, Ian Ross, and others, Sam Ross made the call for a wind-SUP contest in the gradually improving waves. Equipped with some Starboard SUP boards and 5.2 Tushy Edges, we got into our wetsuits and hit the water despite the knee high waves and force 2-3 wind. Initially, the waves were a little messy and small, but as the tide came in, conditions improved and got really fun. It was all about being patient and sailing out to wait for the biggest waves, because between the sets it was just choppy. After some nose dives, crashes in the shore dump, and some spinny backside, back-winded wave-riding and light wind freestyle, I made it through to the final with Tom Firth and Jo Wright. Unfortunately, I didn’t quite find the waves I was looking for, and finished 2^nd behind Tom who got some solid waves. The Women’s final was won by Rachael Ince, who got the wave of the day.

WindSUP freestyle in the Lagoon. Photo by Sam Ross

After the long drive back to Plymouth and a lot of Pizza, fancy dress was constructed in accordance to the ‘Double Acts’ theme, and we went to the Student Union for a night that is beyond the scope of a windsurfing blog!

It was up bright and early on Sunday to make the most of the promising strong North Westerly forecast.. Unfortunately, when we arrived, the wind was light and onshore and the waves small. We rigged up anyway, and by 12, the wind had built to some nice 5.0-5.3 weather and competition got underway. The waves built as the tide pushed up the beach, and although the wind was gusty, it was pretty solid 5.0 weather for me. Unfortunately, the wind dropped at the start of my heat, and I spent half of it underpowered, downwind, and struggling to make any jumps, I should have just run in and let some outhaul off, but was pretty powered up before the heat, so thought the wind would return pretty quickly. The wind did pick up in the end, and I got a couple of nice backside waverides, a jump, and a backloop attempt. The wind was really onshore, and finding a good ramp was actually quite hard, as was any frontside waveriding. My performance wasn't quite enough to get me through to the next round, and I finished 3rd in the 5 man first round heat, giving me a joint 9th position in the event. Combined with the same result at Portsmouth, I am currently joint 6th in the SWA Puravida wave series. Hopefully the next event hosted by Cardiff will also deliver some good conditions and I can make it through some more rounds! I still had a great time, and spent the rest of the day freesailing, the wind picked up and I was pretty stacked on 5.0 some of the time, so changed down to 4.2 - perhaps a little too small for the gusty conditions, but it gave me some more confidence to try some loops - still yet to land one though!

Well done to the finalists:

1. Ben Page (Southampton)

2. Jony Price (Cardiff)

3. Mike Ellis (Southampton)

4. Will Jones (Cardiff)

and to Jo Wright for winning the womens competition. Full results at http://www.studentwindsurfing.co.uk/.
Thanks to all the people from Plymouth and Exeter for organising the event, Jim from Puravida for sponsoring and helping to run the event, judges Sarah Bibby, Stef Hilder, and Ian Ross, and to Sam Ross and Luke Green from Tushingham for providing the kit for the wind SUP contest.

Photo by Will Jones

Two weeks earlier, exams had just finished, and I hadn't got much work to do, so with a massive forecast for Cornwall, I hit the road with Chris Guest and Jan Zaucha from Bristol. We had an awesome session on Sunday at Daymer, starting with some choppy bump and jump, then some nice cross on port tack conditions. I was expecting some nice down the line riding on the other side of the river, but timed it a bit wrong, and spent most of the time practicing my cross on riding and jumping, which was good fun, pretty powered up on 4.2 most of the day, and tried my first backloops - such an amazing feeling to get the rotation on those! When I decided to head to the other side a bit later, I arrived just as a massive, massive squall hit. I don't know exactly how windy it was, but I could barely sail or even waterstart with my 4.2, I was so overpowered. Luckily I survived, and mustered the energy to head out again, although by then, the wind was far to light for my 4.2!

After heading to the pub in Padstow, and a lot of sleep in Falmouth, we decided on trying Gwithian or Hayle, since the wind hadn't picked up to the forecasted 50 knots yet! By the time we got there, it was low tide, and the big swell was looking pretty heavy, preferring not to break our kit in the cross offshore wind, we decided on a quick bump and jump session at Exmouth on the way back to Bristol rather than waiting for the tide to come in and the waves to get less heavy (but bigger), and the wind to pick up to 50 knots!

This weekend, I'm heading home to try out my new Raceboard kit from Tushingham and Starboard, and collect my new stash of Overboard waterproof bags and cases. Keep an eye out for some photos and a press release in the near future.