Home delivers some wind, hello Scotland

I was great to get back on a windsurfing board after my exams by competing at the 3rd event of the UKWA Inlands at Farmoor, even better to win it! However, something was missing: wave riding and jumping! Luckily for me, the week following Farmoor was windy, and I scored some great sessions at Wonwell, Bigbury, The Bluff, Marazion, and Siblyback. I feel like I've finally cracked the forward loop on Port tack, consistency needs to be worked on, and although my Starboard tack jumping is pretty atrocious, I'm at least trying on my bad side. It sounds simple, but the key thing that made the difference for me was making sure my feet were really deep in the footstraps so that I didn't loose the board, and getting the front hand back as well as the backhand. Need to try some more backlooops now, and see if I can get flat water spin loops.

Two sessions really stand out for me. One was when I headed west to sail The Bluff and Marazion. The waves were small, but it was really windy, making it simply a really fun jumping and riding session: bright sunshine and 4.2 all day! The other was just 5 minutes down the road at Siblyback lake. The wind was southerly, pretty clean, and was a great opportunity to do some much needed high wind raceboard training. I'm pretty impressed with the Lightning 8.5, it is actually really powerful and great upwind, downwind, it lacks power compared to the XR 9.5, but in 18 knots+, it's the ideal raceboard sail for me. 

8.5 Tushingham Lightning + Starboard Phantom 377: ulimate high -wind racing combo! Pic by Paul Wright

The wind then picked up, full power 5.0, and I put the Kode 86 through it's paces, I just couldn't bring myself off the water! It really bought back to me back to just loving windsurfing without having and waves, whitewater, startlines etc. just blasting, chop hopping, and cranking around gybes and downwind 360's! I was pretty stacked on my 5.0 in the gusts, 4.2 would have been fine, but decided to head out on my 8.5 and Starboard Phantom again! I haven't sailed a longboard in this much wind for a very long time, but it was fine, fun, and I felt nicely in control with the 8.5 lightning and a 46cm fin.

Starboard Kode 86: carving machine! Pic by Paul Wright

Testing. Pic by Jacob Henning

It was also great to catch up with the Siblyback Waterwarriors Team 15 club at the weekend as well. They competed in the second even of the season, and finished 3rd team in a close battle with arch rivals from Roseland. Aside from the home made tropies, the new feature this year is the total domination of the Polkerris Pirates, who absolutely smashed the last two events! It was a nice force 4 wind for them, my brother Ross finished 2nd in the 6.8's on tied points with first, luckily for him it was windy, because he hasn't sailed in non planing conditions for a very very long time! I also managed to get out on the water to test an interesting prototype race sail.

I've also just moved house to St Andrews for a 12 month work placement, so once I come back from touring (ok, holiday) Croatia with the Bristol University Big Bands, I've got some exploring to find the best windsurfing spots on the east coast of Scotland, as well as two month to get fit and fast for the Raceboard world championships in the Czech Republic in September.

Fully loaded: there was just about room for me inside.

UKWA Inland 3: Farmoor

This weekend saw the third event of the UKWA Inland series, which was hosted by the London Windsurfing Association at Farmoor reservoir near Oxford. The Raceboard fleet was well represented with 24 competitors registering for the two day event including 5 youths.

Whilst Saturday saw plenty of juniors compete in the Team 15 event, only three stayed for the 2^nd day of the UKWA event. The Inland series is a great introduction to national level racing for all ages, and the next event (at Whitwell, Rutland water) runs alongside the RYA Junior National championships, which is a perfect event for all Team 15 windsurfers. 17 young windsurfers raced in the Techno class, and the promising forecast enticed four Formula racers to the gusty lake.

With a really gusty offshore wind, it was difficult to judge the wind strength from the ‘beach’. Race officer James Palin set a box course, with the Raceboards sailing an Inner loop course, with an Outer loop for the Techno’s, and a windward/leeward for Formula. The wind was pretty strong, with some big gusts in excess of 20 knots sweeping down the course.

Rigged and ready, it's windier than it looks!

Tom Naylor flew past me soon after the start, but decided to take a trip to the other side of the lake, missing the layline and handing me the win. James Moon delivered a strong performance to take 3^rd ahead of Rob and Annette Kent, with 15 year old Lewis Barnes delivering a solid 6^th place.

I got a pretty bad start in the next race, but managed to get some good upwind speed and get the gusts and shifts right to arrive at the windward mark first and take the race, with Rob Kent in second.

After lunch, it looked like the wind had dropped, it had but there were still some pretty strong gusts coming through. I won both races, but didn’t get it all my own way; the gusty, shifty conditions causing big mix ups in the fleet each upwind leg. Downwind, some were unlucky to get stuck in a hole, whilst others could carry a gust to the leeward mark. A mixture of lots of pumping and following the gusts downwind helped me recover from some bad positions. Tom Naylor and James Moon seemed to be having their own private battle, with Tom just edging ahead in each race. Rob Kent found some good consistency, ending the day in 3^rd behind Tom Naylor and ahead of James Moon. Consistency was hard to find in the tricky conditions, and whilst Tim Colles had some impressive speed to get a couple of top 6 results, Alan Jackson, Annette Kent, and Adrian Rippington fared better with their top 10 consistency.

The Techno and Formula fleets also managed 4 races, with Henry Bloodworth and James Hatcher showing the way around the course with four bullets and four seconds respectively in the Techno fleet, and Chris Bond dominating the Formulas.

Raceboards ready to go

The wind was much lighter and very shifty on Sunday, especially in the afternoon. I won each of the four races, with marginal winds rewarding me downwind, allowing me to make up for any mistakes on the shifty upwind legs. Rob Kent is quick in this wind, and was consistently 3^rd except in the last race where he got done by a big wind shift. Tom Naylor was less consistent, but with two discards, he counted only 2^nd and 3^rd places to take 2^nd place in the event, following his win at Rutland a few weeks ago. James Moon started the day well with a 3^rd place, but couldn’t keep it up, and ended the event in fourth. Annette Kent performed well in the light winds, showing the fleet how it is done with her 8.5. It was Nick Welsh’s first time on a Raceboard, but some impressive results saw him finish first youth and 12^th overall.

HB and James Hatcher were absent from the Techno fleet on Sunday, but Alice Read destroyed everyone with straight bullets to win overall as well as first 7.8 and first girl. Hugo Thomas was first 6.8, and Rebecca Kent first 6.8 girl.

Full results at https://ukwindsurfing.com/results/

Raceboard results summary:

1. Louis Morris, 1^st Lightweight (Tushingham XR Race 9.5/Starboard Phantom 377)
2. Tom Naylor, 1^st Veteran (Tushingham XR Race 9.5/Starboard Phantom 380)
3. Robert Kent, 1^st Master (Tushingham XR Race 9.5/Starboard Phantom 377)

1^st Woman: Annette Kent, 5^th overall (Tushingham XR 8.5/Phantom 377)

1^st Senior Veteran: Alan Jackson, 6^th overall (Tushingham XR 8.5/Demon 9.5/Phantom 380)

1^st Heavyweight: Tim Colles, 9^th overall (Tushingham XR 9.5/Phantom 380)

1^st Youth: Nick Welsh, 12^th overall (RSX 8.5/Phantom 380)

UKWA Cup 1

Well here we are, the third event of 3 consecutive weekends! This time, it was the first event of the UKWA Cup Championship series, and I won it! This makes me unbeaten on Raceboard in the 5 events I've done since June last year, crazy days!

The Raceboard fleet was a little smaller than at Pitsford, with notable absences from top racers Tom Naylor and Chris Gibson giving a fleet of 15. However there is a slowly growing youth presence, with four under 20's competing this weekend.

Day 1 was windy! With 18 gusting 25 knots forecast it was tough deciding whether to sail on 9.5 or 8.5. The final wind reading from the boat before I left the beach was 15-16 knots, so I decided to go for 9.5 with my small (46cm) fin. Once I arrived at the start line, I found that even with full downhaul and outhaul I was pretty overpowered, but most of the fleet were also on their big sails so I wasn't alone. I think the wind was around 17-20 gusting up to 25 perhaps? Anyway, it gave some exciting races!

From go, Mark Kay found his usual impressive high wind speed, leading around the course with me, Rob Kent, and Chris Guest in pursuit. Upwind was hard work overpowered in the steep chop, but I was fast downwind, making a good angle. Unfortunately it turned out that I'd forgotten how to gybe, and dropped two downwind which allowed Rob and Chris to get past. Mark was miles ahead by the second windward mark but erroneously decided to put in an extra lap, taking him out of the race. I followed Rob and Chris down the last downwind and reaches, but Chris dropped a gybe allowing Rob to take the win with myself in second.

The next three races on Saturday began to take a familiar format: Mark Kay won them all, myself in second, Chris Guest in 3rd, and Rob Kent (looking far too comfortable on his trusty Lighting 9.4) in 4th. (Eventually Chris's board had had enough of going fast, and his slot flusher decided to break, he still managed 4th behind Rob though!)*. I didn't drop any more gybes fortunately, and I got more comfortable and confident with the conditions as the day progressed. There were a couple of races where after the first beat, I kept close behind Mark for the rest of the race, the question is how did he get in front in the first place? It looked like the wind had dropped at lunch time so I stayed on my 9.5 XR Race all day. In fact, it was still just as windy! Luckily, the XR Race has a huge wind range so I was able to de-power it a lot, although I think I would have been a bit faster on my 8.5. Harriet Ellis found some good strong wind performance to end the day ahead of Annette Kent.

Sunday was a completely different story, I opened my tent to a cold, grey sky and barely any wind. We were postponed for a few minutes, but soon launched... the wind promptly disappeared and the sun came out, leaving me to cook in the wrong wetsuit as we drifted to the start line. The wind arrived on the race course by the time we reached the start, and filled in to a good 10 knots or so. My favourite conditions. I managed to plane for all of the downwind legs that morning, it was worth the hard work to keep it up, and I won both races.

The wind dropped after lunch so it was non planing all the way round the course for everyone now. I wasn't quite as fast upwind as I was in the morning, so I had to work extra hard downwind to extend my slender lead. I was pretty fast downwind again, so won both afternoon races by a good margin: happy days! Mark Kay struggled downwind in the lighter conditions despite showing some good speed upwind, allowing me to take the event lead, with consistent Rob Kent in second. Annette Kent got some great results to overtake Harriet Ellis in the results table, whilst Chris Guest held onto his 4^th place.

Monday. Foggy and no wind, great!

The wind started to arrive, and the fog retreated by midday. Unfortunately the wind wasn't quite strong enough for racing so we waited... and waited... and revised, ate, played football, nursed sunburn, dried wetsuits etc... (during this time, the fog came and went and the wind picked up to a blistering 5-6 knots). Suddenly, the call was made for us to race, just as the wind had reached 8 knots and was building further. As we left the beach, the fog bank (which had been politely watching from Weymouth Bay) decided to visit us again, and put an end the weekends racing.

Thanks to all the UKWA team (race officers, safety crew, admin, Bob Ingram etc.) and everyone who turned up to race, it was a great event! Time to get some work done for my exams now I think.

Raceboard results summary:

1. Louis Morris. (Tushingham XR Race 9.5, Starboard Phantom 377)

2. Rob Kent, first master. (Tushingham XR Race 9.5/Lightning 9.4, Phantom 377)

3. Mark Kay, first heavyweight. (Demon, Phantom 377)

1st Lady: Annette Kent, 5th overall (XR Race 8.5, Phantom 377)

1st Youth: Andrew Robinson, 8th overall (Demon, F2)

Full results at http://www.windsurfingresults.co.uk/WPNSACup1-2013.html

*for those of you who don't know, the slot flushers are rubber lips that stop a fountain of water from spurting through the daggerboard slot in the board. If they aren't working properly, you go slow!

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