BUCS/SWA Nationals!

Last weekend, I enjoyed the many student windsurfers from across the country at Calshot near Southampton to compete in the BUCS nationals, which is also the last event of the SWA series.

After a mini disaster on finding out that the Bristol minibus we booked didn’t exist, the car convoy got underway (shout out to Dave Cox for making a detor to get my Raceboard from the kit store!). We pitched our tents in the dark and found everyone else partying in the hanger.

Saturday saw racing for Beginner, Intermediate, and Advanced divisions. Whilst the beginners and intermediates competed in the flatter water of the lagoon, the advanced division raced around a triangle course on the Solent side of the spit.

Initially, the wind was quite strong, and I was pretty fully powered on the old IMCO 7.4 I found. I didn't have the best start in the first race, but managed to finish a comfortable 2nd behind Sam Sills, who lead from start to finish.

The wind had begun to drop and become pretty gusty by the next race. I got a better start, but still arrived to the windward mark behind Sam. The first reach was very broad, and I pumped hard to get a deep angle. It paid off, and I just managed to overtake Sam shortly before the gybe mark. Unfortunately, this didn’t leave me in the best position for the gybe itself, and he gybed inside to lead me down the last reach to the finish.

By the start of the 3^rd race, the tide had begun to ebb, and the wind-with-tide conditions made the upwind leg tactical and challenging. I got the best start, and headed into the beach to avoid the tide as long as possible. Sam still managed to get ahead and cover me for the second half of the beat, but I managed to get past just before the windward mark, before his fin got stuck on the anchor line, allowing me to pump into a strong lead down the reach. Sam found a good gust and made up some ground, I messed up my gybe big time, and allowed Sam to claim is 3^rd consecutive race win. 

It was decided to finish the 5 race series without a lunch break, since the tide was really racing. I knew I would have to pull something pretty special out of the bag to win the event.

I got the start spot on in the next two races, heading straight into the beach, where there was no tide, and allowing me to make a big gain before hitting the strong tide past the point. Sam unfortunately fell victim to the strong tide in race 4, getting pushed off the line, forcing him to start behind most of the fleet and allowing me and Kirsten O'Callaghan from Exeter to lead the fleet to the windward mark. Sam still managed to finish 2^nd, just ahead of Kirsten.

The last race was the most exciting. I started slightly ahead of Sam, and managed to point a little higher to get into a decent lead and loosely cover him to the windward mark. I didn’t fall in on my gybe this time, and managed to win the race.

In the end, my two race wins weren't quite enough to get the win, and with Sam winning 3 of the 5 races, he took first place, with me in second, and Tom Firth from Cardiff counting some consistent results to take 3^rd. Kirsten was first woman with Jo Wright in 2^nd and Rachael Ince in 3^rd.

Photo: Duncan Dumbreck

The rest of the day was spent having a blast on the Futura 111 and T4 7.0, and trying a bit of old-school freestyle on Storm 5.2 and Kode 94.

Needless to say, the traditional Saturday night boat party lived up to all expectations, with some pretty amazing fancy dress around! I think Bristol pulled off morris dancing pretty well, bells and all, and UWE went to their usual outrageous lengths to make an incredible marching band.

This ended badly! (photo George Curtis)

Sunday started pretty slowly, and once the lagoon had filled with water, the team racing got underway. The competition was pretty fierce with 13 teams competing, and the wind was marginal planing/non-planing. Team Bristol managed to get to the final, but couldn't quite replicate such an amazing performance in the Final, oh well, maybe next year we'll get the chance to better last years silver medal. I think we finished 6^th. Cardiff and Southampton Solent had an excitingly close battle for 1^st, but in the end it was Solent who took the win, successfully defending their 2012 title.

The freestyle was next, I felt fairly confident, since the light winds meant that it would be non-planing freestyle on big boards. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find the form that I discovered at Aussie Kiss, and Nottingham, and struggled to find my style, dropping a few moves, and losing to Tushingham team-mates Ollie Acton and Jo Wright in my first heat.

As well as second in the BUCS racing, I won the SWA racing series for the second year in a row, which is pretty amazing. I also got joint second in the overall SWA series (combined disciplines).

Next year, I’m going to miss all the SWA events apart from Aussie Kiss perhaps due to my placement. But it’s been an amazingly fun 2 years at the events, I allready can't wait for AK! Thanks to all the amazing SWA sponsors for letting the events happen and giving some incredible prizes!

Next stop is Weymouth for the first event of the UKWA cup series this weekend!

UPDATE:
Event video by Duncan Dumbreck now up!

UKWA Inlands 1

Had an amazing weekend at the first UKWA inland series event last weekend, which was held at Northampton Sailing Club, Pitsford Reservoir.

We had fantastic weather all weekend, although the wind kept teasing us on Saturday. It would fill in occasionally, but never stayed for more than 20 minutes or so, shifting all over the place. It was a relaxed start to the season, most people got out on the water for a bit to make the most of what wind there was to dust off some winter cobwebs. Race officer Mike Dempsey decided to run a few fun/training races. I spent most of the day revising in my tent: fun, fun, fun!

Sunday's forecast was gave 10-14 knots or so, so 6 races were run to make up for the lack of racing on Saturday. The forecast wind did not appear, until the afternoon and 3 races were run before lunch in a shifty 4-8 knots. I played it safe, keeping to the middle of the course although I made some losses and gains with the shifts, I worked hard to pull back to the front of the fleet, and my conservative tactics paid off with a consistent 2,3,1. Alan Jackson destroyed everyone in the first two races, deciding to head right out to the left, and winning by miles!

After lunch, the wind picked up, although still in a very shifty, gusty form! In race 4, I got a decent start, but struggled to find my speed upwind as a big bust came through. However, I pulled back some places on the downwind and next upwind to finish 2nd behind Mark Kay, who got a great start and had good board speed.

Mike Dempsey chose to change the course for the last two races to an "L" course, which added some fun reaching to the finish. I had a good start and managed to get a really good angle upwind too arrive at the windward mark first. The wind was still very patchy, and whilst I managed to find follow a gust on the downwind leg, others weren't so lucky; Mark Kay and Tom Naylor managed to find a hole in the wind, allowing Rob Kent and Guy Spreckly to take 2nd and 3rd. The last race saw a big wind shift leading to a very starboard biased start line. Unfortunately I went over the line during the last 30 seconds, so had to go round the end... to find a big long queue behind the committee boat for the favoured end of the line, so I started last! Somehow, I managed to outpoint the fleet upwind, and arrived at the windward mark in 2nd behind Mark. Again, I managed to find all the gusts downwind, and after the 3 lap race, I had a healthy lead. The gusty, shifty conditions shuffled the fleet up, giving some exciting racing

The new kit was working great, with the sail offering plenty of power in the light winds, whilst being easily adjusted as the gusts came through, it's light weight 6 batten design helped downwind pumping. The board allowed me to get on the rail in the smallest of gust, and point high upwind, and most critically: get planing, and stay planing on the gusty downwind legs.

In the end, finding consistency in the tricky conditions was the key, I took the win, and one discard saw Mark Kay and Rob Kent count consistent top 5 results to finish on tied points. Annette Kent won the ladies, whilst Aidan Liddy was first youth. With many of the top guys in the fleet now sailing the Starboard Phantom 377, expect the competition to only get hotter as the season gets going. Can't wait until the next event at Weymouth in a couple of weeks.

Results:
1st:  Louis Morris (Starboard Phantom 377, Tushingham XR Race 9.5)
2nd: Mark Kay (Starboard Phantom 377, Demon 9.5) (1st master and heavyweight)
3rd: Rob Kent (Starboard Phantom 377, Tushingham XR Race 9.5)
1st super veteran: Alan Jackson, 4th overall (Starboard Phantom 380, Demon 9.5)
1st veteran: Tom Naylor, 5th overall (Starboard Phantom 380, Tushingham XR Race 9.5)
1st Lady: Annette Kent, 7th overall (Starboard Phantom 377, Tushingham XR Race 8.5)
1st Youth: Aidan Liddy, 16th overall (Tushingham XR Race 8.5)

Full results here

All ready for the 2013 season?

Had a great few weeks home in Cornwall. Done a lot of windsurfing which is nice, both on my Phantom Raceboard and on the waves. The first couple of weeks were pretty cold and easterly, but I've had some great raceboard sessions at Torpoint and Siblyback and really feel like I've got to know my new kit well. I've sailed it quite a lot in stronger wind conditions, and feel much more confident than I used to, since these conditions aren't my strength.

Photo by Paul Wright

Unfortunately, the wind is looking pretty light for the first UKWA course racing event of the season at Pitsford this weekend, but  I'm really looking forward to getting racing again, it's been a while, just got to hope that there is enough to race! In the mean time, there is one more day of strong wind and waves left!

Louis Morris's SWA update!

The Student windsurfing association events are all but over for the 2011-2012 year, I which is kind of sad, but the big one is still to come: Nationals!

First, a round up of the last couple of events. The last event of the Puravida SWA Wave series was hosted by Cardiff Uni a few weeks ago, and whereas Portsmouth was windy but flat, Cornwall (Plym/Exe) was windy and bumpy but very onshore, the welsh event promised some nice swell. As for the wind...

Well it was light and easterly (offshore), not ideal, but after some fun SUPing and surfing at a busy Porthcawl on Saturday  the forecast of 10 knots or so looked ok for some down the line conditions at Newgale in Pembrokeshire. Unfortunately, the wind was just too gusty and offshore to run competition, although I got out on an 86l, with lulls of virtually nothing, I didn't get far! Luckily  the swell was nice and it was sunny all day, so again, some fun SUP, wind-SUP and surfing was had by all. That put me in joint 6th for the series, mainly because I did all the events, but still, I beat some people!

Last weekend was the last core (inland) event. These events are always good fun, with loads on offer for all levels of windsurfers. This year is was very cold, but there was wind on Sunday: NE, gusty and snowy! The freestyle competition kicked off first. Unfortunately the wind dropped a little in the first heats, but this complemented my light weight, and I played it safe, going for some consistent upwind 360s, 1 handed variations and duck gybes. It seemed to work, because I got through to the final, and although I couldn't match Ollie Acton's Flaka, I still managed 2nd place, which I was really pleased with because there are some amazing freestylers in the SWA. I won the individual racing, which was nice, although the races were pretty short it was nice to be planing all the way around. The awesome prize was free entry to the Round Hayling Island Race, should be good fun, ideal first race for my Tushy XR Race and Phantom I think! Thanks to Boardwise for providing the one design racing boards for Team and Advanced racing.

Top 3 Racers. Photo Courtesy of Notts County Sailing Club.

Freestyle:                             Racing:
1st Ollie Acton                    1st Louis Morris
2nd Louis Morris                2nd Jo Wright
3rd Ben Page                     3rd Adam Chubbock
4th Jo Wright

It's been nice and convenient to be using my Overboard kit at these events - dry tube for my wet gear, and adventure backpack for my other stuff, thanks to their support.

If only the SWA doesn't allow the use of 9.5's and Raceboards at their events! Hopefully I will use my Phantom at the SWA/BUCS Nationals so watch out! I can't wait to get back out on my Tushingham/Starboard racing gear over the Easter holidays, only a month 'till the first UKWA event now!

The SWA is a great way to get into windsurfing, and meet other enthusiastic windsurfing students - highly recommended! www.studentwindsurfing.co.uk

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.

Christmas Holidays in Cornwall

To be honest I was ready to come home for a break, Uni was hard work this time! To be fair, I hadn't been giving myself much space to relax with all the SWA events and stuff. I've had to crack on with some revision for the exams, but the Christmas period coincided pretty well with a lot of wind and waves, so I took the general timetable of revise all morning and windsurf all afternoon! Had some nice wave sessions at Daymer, and some flat water/bump and jump at Torpoint. It was almost too windy most of the time for Raceboard (or at least that's what I told myself as I packed my waveboard into the car for the nth day in a row), but I've had some good training sessions, new years day was perfect NW'ly 4-5 at Siblyback with friends - Paul Wright made a short video of it:

It seems that after a couple of months break, I can still hang onto my 9.5, and feel fairly fast, just need to keep up the board-handling skills and stay fit really. I'm pretty exited to announce that Tushingham will be supporting me this upcoming season, and can't wait for my new rig and Starboard Phantom 377 to arrive. Unfortunately it's back to Uni for exams this week, but hopefully I can come home for a weekend and start getting the new kit tuned up for 2013, stay tuned for my first impressions of how the kit compares to my current Starboard/Tushingham setup. In the mean time, why not check out what the manufacturers say about it here:
http://www.star-board.com/2013/products2/boards/index.php?id=phantom-377
http://www.tushingham.com/windsurfing/sails/xr-race