Mountains, Bridlington, Polkerris and Weymouth

I've not been so good at updating my blog lately, but a lot has happened.

For a start there was the second round of the UKWA national championship series at Bridlington. The forecast was looking pretty awful to be honest, but we got two good races in on Saturday morning; one in fairly strong wind, and one in marginal wind. I'd been doing a little bit of training before the event, and I felt a lot faster upwind than I did at Whitwell. Combined with some good downwind speed, I won both races by quite a margin. Another race was started, but the wind disappeared completely and although it teased us on Sunday, it was never consistent or steady enough for racing, although good light wind training.

Bridlington results:
1. Louis Morris (Tushingham)
2. Robert Kent (Tushingham)
3. Mark Kay (Demon)
4. Tom Naylor (Tushingham)

After that I finished off my placement in St Andrews, and went on holiday for a week, hiking in the west of Scotland (Knoydart, Skye and Glen Coe).

Then I came home to Cornwall and resumed work as a watersports instructor, now at Polkerris Beach instead of Siblyback. Got out for some fun freeride and freestyle.

Photo taken by Bob Shillito

Photo taken by Chris Bilkey

Then I went to Weymouth for the 3rd event of the UKWA national championship series. The conditions were almost perfect all weekend, with sunshine and 8 races in 10-20 knots. I hadn't been training since Bridlington, and felt slow upwind in the gusts, but fast downwind, and occasionally fast upwind (in the lulls). However Mark Kay and Tom Naylor really put the pressure on and frequently sailed straight past me upwind. In my efforts to regain the lead, I made lots of silly mistakes: got my laylines all wrong, dropped a gybe, crashed into Mark and broke his batten at the windward mark etc. The event win went right down to the last race, with me and Mark on tied points. I got a good start, but tacked a bit too early then caught
some weed, then tacked too early again, then my hand slipped off the boom gybing downwind and I couldn't catch up! I settled for 2nd (the first time I've lost a national event since June 2012), but I have plenty of time before the next event to do some training and get my racing head back on. I also plan to rig my sail correctly if it is windy next time (I'd forgotten how long my boom should be and didn't have enough outhaul).

Photo by Paul Wright

Tom Naylor was super quick upwind on his Tushingham XR-Race, Rob Kent was super quick downwind on his, and I was quick enough on mine to almost make up for my mistakes! Well done to Mark for winning, I'll be back on top next time!

Weymouth results:
1. Mark Kay (Demon)
2. Louis Morris (Tushingham)
3. Tom Naylor (Tushingham)
4. Rob Kent (Tushingham)

Inland Regional Series 2 and the legendary Rutland Marathon

All of the photos were taken by John Liddy, there's loads more of them via here.

The second event of the UKWA Inland Regional Series was hosted by the Midlands region at Whitwell on Rutland water. At times, the forecast was looking pretty awful, but in the end, we got some nice wind on both days, a lot of rain on Saturday, some sun on Sunday, and a new record for the marathon.

Rob York won the RSX fleet

Saturday morning was a bit cold and wet (I chose the wrong wetsuit), but the wind was ok, easterly 7-10 knots so marginal for most. Unfortunately a big black cloud turned up so we got sent in for an early lunch in cas of thunder.

After a lot of rain and wind shift, 3 further races were completed in a very gusty and shifty SSE wind for Techno, Raceboard and RSX. The Formula fleet were out training most afternoon, but it was too gusty for them to race.

All action in the Techno fleet: won by Andy Brown

The tactical conditions suited Guy Spreckly who spent plenty of time in front of the usual top 3 raceboards, I certainly got my tactics wrong a few times. After his first UKWA podium at Christchurch, young Lewis Barnes was also looking dangerous, especially upwind.

Mark Kay: 2nd raceboard in control of me off the startline

On Sunday, it was windier, sunnier, and generally fun! Still very gusty and shifty though, with a "P" course (upwind with a downwind slalom) giving some exciting action at the gybe marks. 

In the RSX fleet, Cameron Coghill and Lewis May had been giving the 9.5's (Matt Barton and Rob York) a hard time on Saturday, but Rob took control on Sunday to win the RSX fleet.

Youth Raceboards: Robin and Aidan

The Techno fleet was very closely fought, with mixed results for many, as it was a struggle to be consistent in both the light winds on Saturday and the strong winds on Sunday. In the end, Andy Brown just snatched the win from Matthew Carey, whilst Josh Carey convincingly won the 6.8's and Alice Read was first girl.

Chris Bond dominated the Formula fleet, winning 3 of the 4 full power races completed on Sunday. I can't find any photos though, sorry!

Marathon start

Mark Kay beat me in both the windy races, I almost held on to him upwind, but on the reaches, he just found another gear, a smaller fin helped me win the last race. Never mind, I won the event anyway. Annette Kent was first Lady, and Robin McAllister used his impressive upwind speed in the strong winds to take first youth ahead of Aidan Liddy and Emily Kent.

It was great to see the juniors having some great fun racing and training with Ali Yates.

The Marathon was great fun, and was a charity race for "Action for Children". The wind was a little light in places, but the direction meant that most of it was planing and reaching, which lead to Ross Williams 48 min record being smashed by Chris Bond in 43 minutes, with Lee Marrs taking 2nd on Slalom gear, and myself a couple of minutes behind in 3rd. Interesting to see the three different board types coming out almost even in the end!

Big shiny marathon trophies!

The next event of the Inland series is at Farmoor (Oxford) on June 7th-8th, and the next event of the National Championship series is at Bridlington on 21st-22nd June. Keep an eye out for news, and hopefully see you there!

Event results summary:

Juniors:

1st 4.5: Zoe Basset

1st 5.8 Junior: James Bulson

1st 5.8: Maya Wylie

Techno:

1st Andy Brown

2nd Matt Carey

3rd Zed Spencer-Milnes

1st 7.8 girl Alice Read (6th overall)

1st 6.8 boy Josh Carey (7th overall)

1st 6.8 girl Mollie Densley-Robins (20th overall)

RSX:

1st Robert York

2nd Cameron Coghill (first youth)

3rd Lewis May

Formula:

1st Chris Bond (Point-7 sails/Gaastra board)

Raceboard:

1st Louis Morris (Tushingham/Starboard)

2nd Mark Kay (first heavyweight, first master) (Demon/Starboard)

3rd Robert Kent (Tushingham/Starboard)

1st Veteran, Guy Spreckley (4th overall) (Demon/Starboard)

1st Super veteran, John Pete (7th overall) (Demon/Starboard)

1st Lady, Annette Kent (8th overall) (Tushingham/Starboard)

1st Youth, Robin McAllister (10th overall) (Tushingham/Starboard)

Full results here

Marathon results summary:

1st Chris Bond

2nd Lee Marrs

3rd Louis Morris

Full Results here

Blog o' Clock again!

Been a while.

I have decided to use less words and more pictures, and I have pictures this time!

Been in the mountains a lot, did my 80th Munro the other weekend.

And I got a camera for my Birthday, hence pictures below:

Cairngorms:

Ben Cruachan with mum, visited my brother Owen in Taynuilt as well

The Mamores (near Fort William)

The Grey Corries (also near Fort William)

Went on an epic trip to Islay with Antoine from Endinburgh. 4 hours driving from St Andrews and a ferry, we camped in the sand dunes and windsurfed all day in clean shoulder-overhead high cross off down the line 4.7! Very gusty but I was on the Tushingham Rock: that sail isn't bothered if it is a gust or a lull!

Antoine (by me):

Me (by Antoine):

Then the weekend after that I went to Rhosneigr for the first event of the BWA (British wavesailing) tour. Was, plenty of wind and waves, but tricky sometimes. I used everything from 3.9 and 74l to 5.2 and 86 Port tack Saturday, Starboard tack Sunday. Had a shocker in the single elimination, but came back in the double to get =9th, think there was 16 or so of us. No pics. Broke my wave fin at Rhossy, so used a big 26cm freewave fin, worked fine.

Got home, chopped up my wave fin into a freestyle fin, used blu tack instead of a fin bolt (US box, so it couldn't fall out completely), and then went and landed my first vulcans after work at West Sands St Andrews on Starboard Kode FSW 86 and Tushingham Edge 5.2 woop woop!

Next weekend I'm off to Rutland for the 2nd event of the UKWA Regional Inland series. My first time on a Raceboard since January and first time racing since the worlds last September. Should be interesting, forecast looks rainy and light winds, cant' wait!

Jazz time in St Andrews now, see ya!

Why I love windsurfing...

Thanks to Austin Davies for sending me this photo of a (crashed) loop attempt at Daymer bay in December.

This short video clip doesn't contain any amazing action, but pretty well encompasses two things I love about windsurfing: going fast and jumping! (also by Austin Davies)

Tuning the Tushingham XR Race

I have made a tuning guide for the Tushingham XR Race. Watch this video to help you get the best performance out of this sail!

Top tip: let your outhaul off and pump downwind! (pic Paul Wright)

I wished for a windy Christmas...

I couldn't really believe my luck! I flew south from Scotland on the 20th of December, the conditions had been looking pretty sweet in Cornwall for a couple of weeks, surely the wind would disappear as soon as I arrived?

Actually, no, the wind disappeared the day after I flew back to Scotland haha!

It was really nice to be back home with my family and everything, not just windsurfing but also enjoying the outdoors near my house and playing a lot of music with my parents and siblings (it seems I am the official accompanist, so lots of sight reading for me!).

My sponsors had very kindly agreed to lend me a set of wave kit whilst I was in Cornwall - then I didn't have to drive my kit down or try and get it on the train.

So the day after I got back, I packed my wetsuit into my Overboard dry bag, drove west, and I headed out at The Bluff in cross off, float and ride. Maybe I got there a bit late for the tide, the wave wasn't massive but pretty close outy. 5 minutes later I took a wave on the head whilst trying to water start, and snapped the mast and broke the 4.7, oops! At least my car keys stayed dry in my Overboard case!

Luckily (thank you for ever!) I got a new mast, and was able to sail in 4.2 weather every session! The 4.2 Rock is a pretty grunty sail with a quite wide downhaul and outhaul range so it was fine, especially with the magic Starboard Kode wave 77, which planes in nothing, stays controlled even when I can barely hang onto the sail, goes fast upwind, and for wave riding is, well... slashy and slidey! Actually it took some getting used to because I'm used to a bit of an old(ish) single fin, and the Kode slides the top turn really easily, I just had to adjust my bottom and top turning styles (if you could call my turns a "style", I'm a bit of a shoddy waverider).

Anyway, I had some really nice sessions at Wonwell/Mothecombe in Devon. Just up the coast from Bigbury, it is a perfect storm spot in a S-SWly, being in a shallow esturary, at high tide, the waves break gently and you can go further out for bigger ones.

Also Marazion for Starboard tack cross on, fun, but actually harder than I expected to line up a nice ramp. I sailed for too long on that session and missed the tide for The Bluff, which looked like it had been really good when I got there. I still managed to get some waves at the rivermouth though so that was fun.

And Daymer! I love Daymer bay! I forgot how good it was. I had two sessions there, the first was perfect, a bit gusty, but most of the time full power 4.2, head high set waves, cross/cross on port tack, sunshine, with loads of other people out. I watched the King brothers stomping backloop after backloop, and tried some myself, rotated either too much or too little, but hey, I guess I've got to start somewhere, and actually, I'm feeling a lot more confident with my jumping now that I actually just go for it. My port tack forwards feel pretty dodgy though, think I need to bring the rig more across me, the movement feels more automatic on starboard for some reason.

Not forgetting the Raceboard! Most of the time it was a bit too windy, and when it wasn't there was nothing! I had two sessions at Torpoint: one in 0-2 knots and one in 3-9 knots, and one session at Siblyback in 5-16 knots. Raceboarding is fun, and I can still just about sail with a 9.5 sail and 377cmx67cmx260 litre board, so that is encouraging for the Race season 3 months away!

Keep an eye out for my tuning video for the Tushingham XR Race racing sail very soon.
Also, I've changed my website around a bit. Click on the "Website Home" button at the top of this page, go on, you know you want to!

Pictures by Sue Walker

 My Autumn in Scotland

Pic: Paul Wright

So it’s been quite a while since I’ve updated my blog, anyway, I’m doing it now.

As I write this, I’m in the departure lounge of Edinburgh airport, ready to fly home for a couple of weeks. Of course, it’ll be good to catch up with my family and everything, but I can’t help noticing that the forecast is for awesome wind and waves, and I’m gagging to get out in some proper wave conditions again!

I’ve been windsurfing a bit, and fife is a pretty windy place, but also a pretty flat place, so to get proper waves you have to be prepared to drive a fair distance. Actually I’ve been content to save money, stay local and play in 1-2 ft onshore mush, the result: shuvits and Starboard tack forward loops, yay!

My raceboard kit has been feeling a bit lonely in Cornwall without me I think, but I plan to become re-acquainted with it, and also make the Tushingham XR-Race tuning video that I’ve been thinking of doing since the worlds.

So what have I been doing other than bump n jump/mush shredding? Well… working, studying and mountaineering: the joys of having an industrial placement in St Andrews.

So with weekdays spent in the lab and dark evenings spent doing my distance learning, free time is the weekends. It’s been great to get involved with the university mountaineering club here, and I’ve really enjoyed getting to see the varied landscape and weather of the highlands. The short daylight hours get to be a bit of a pain, but as long as you don’t mind part of the decent with a torch, you can get rewarded with amazing views, quite possibly not at the top (in the clouds), but at least halfway up. Also, the lack of daylight does mean that what light there is during the day is pretty nice to look at, it is effectively evening all day! Check out some photos below: the crappy fuzzy ones are taken on my phone, the nice ones taken by my friend Martin!

Anyway, stay tuned for:

1.       More blog updates from my time in Cornwall, where a Starboard Kode 72 and some Tushingham Rocks wait for me.

2.       A tuning video to help you get the best out of the super adjustable race winning Tushingham XR-race 9.5.

3.       An updated website

Cheers, have a good Christmas!