Liberation!

Here in Guernsey we celebrate, on 9th May, the liberation of the island from the Nazis in 1945. It's our national day an a public holiday. Today we scored a great session off Perelle with the 5.0. Here are a few pics. The gopro never does the wave size justice!

 

Summer round the corner I hope!

Well I managed to get in a couple of times in the last few days, nice late on Friday and then a quick session at Pembroke on Saturday. Dan Armsden spotted a great pic from the Saturday. I was using my new Naish 90l that arrived on Thursday and my Firelights. The board is 61cms wide so it's pretty wide and floaty, but the tail is a straight pin so its pretty much a perfect mix of wave and light wind stuff, mind you I think it'll be pretty good in a blow too. With my super lightweight Firelights I can go straight from a 6.0 on the 90 to my 8.0 GPS Slalom sail on my 110l carbon art slalom rocket ship!!

Extreme Wind!!

March here in Guernsey is a month of change and it sometimes brings extremes however this year the extreme wind and snow was something to behold! Snow here is pretty rare, as a child I didn't see snow till I was 9yrs old so the weather we had earlier this week was unbelievable. We ended up with about 10 trees down the biggest being two 80ft+ Monterey pines. Here's a vid that I did from a field next to my house....

http://m.youtube.com/watch?feature=plcp&v=M3WVR32XFGs

From a different perspective......

Well I'm pretty fed up! No wind for month and I am going stir crazy, that said however I have finally sorted a different mount for my gopro. Did a rigging test and it seems to work ok so I'll try it out the next time there's a decent blow---which judging by the forecast should be in a few days, even if the temperature will be hovering above zero, just!

And there's more!!

Here's a little vid taken one afternoon in Tenerife last year. It was pretty small and onshore and not exactly epic but it was warm and windy. If my memory serves me correctly we went for a beer or two after--nice!

Finally a new vid, and more to come this year!

Finally got round to putting together a vid

It's taken me a while but I've finally got round to putting together a vid of the first few sessions of the year. It's a bit of a mix up and if you were sailing here on the day of days, which was last Tuesday your'll know I wasn't wearing the head cam. However the future is looking good as the boy Warry has got himself a gopro and a load of mounts, as has 'Trust me I'm a Doctor' so we should be able to cobble together some good footage over the coming month. http://youtu.be/-h3yfcjKhHQ

Busy busy

Been pretty busy so far this year so haven't had time to post - but that said I have made time to sail in the last week. It all really kicked off last Sunday when the early birds caught the worm with a cross on 4-6ft jump fest at Vaz. I was all done and dusted by 11.30 having hit the water at 8.30. Then the Monday was pretty epic with a good 6ft cross shore; I was on my 5.0 Firelight but it was waaaay too big in the end and I could hardly hold on. As for Tuesday well lets just say it was the day of day, that's official no debate. It perfect cross shore 5.0 weather and mast high in the sets with a good 15sec period. I've a few pics from the Monday and I'm working on some video. Nothing I'm afraid from the Tuesday as it was getting pretty gnarly and the last thing you want is to compromise your sailing because you're trying to film your mates!

Oh and BTW for those who haven't heard 3xworld champion Kauli Seadi has left Neil Pryde and joined Hotsails and Steve Thorp has left Simmer to join you know who. http://blog.hotsailsmaui.com/2013/01/18/kauli-joins-hot-sails-maui/ and http://blog.hotsailsmaui.com/2013/02/01/steve-thorpe-joins-hot-sails-maui/

Here are a few pics from the Tuesday:

End of the Year Session

The Magic Hour

Living in Guernsey with a huge tide of nearly 10m poses problems, least of all when to go wavesailing! Today the 9.8m tide was high at 9.10am, meaning mid tide at about 12.10am, and the old rule of thirds means that by middy the tide would be falling fast and making the call would be difficult. A westerly is ok on high but any south in it and you need it to no longer be battering the sea wall and if there's no swell you need it high but if there's swell you need it low etc etc etc. So when is the magic hour?? Well today it was t'others from 11.45 to 12.45, any earlier and there'd be too much backwash from the wall and any lower and it would be rock city! I made the call at 11.45 and Jas and I had a sweet sess with cross on on t'others, 6ft in the sets and nicely powered on the 5.0. By 1pm it was getting low and the wind had swung onshore! It was good call even if I do say so myself!!!

As for other stuff well the last few weeks have been pretty windy with 8no. 5.0 or less sessions in the last 14 days. I've minimal media coverage it has to be said as we've been too busy sailing :-) however Martyn Ogier's now back from Namibia having taken part in the Ludertiz speed trials; he's not quite broken 50knts over 500m but pretty close at 49.55knts - but he did peak at just over 50knt as a VMax. He was also there to witness the greats of our sport Anoine Albeau, Bjorn Dunkerbeck, Anders Bringdal battling for the top spot which was eventually won by Albeau at 52knts (and a new windsurfing speed record).

As for me well we're off to France on Saturday from Christmas. Renting a place right on the beach and the forecast is looking pretty good so hope to score a few Breton waves during the hols.

Here's a link to Martyn's blog http://martynogier68.blogspot.com/ and a couple pictures taken by Pierre Bisson that I took from Martyn's blog - also there are tons more pics of the event on Pierre's website www.gsyphoto.com

Next up, Christmas get together at the Rocky

Don't forget tomorrow night at the Rocky we're having our annual get together at 7.30. I've booked a table for 27 of us so it should be a good night! See you then.

Few pics from today's COP sess

Ogier arrives in Ludertiz

For those of out of touch with what's going on in the world of speed there's a big comp going on down in Namibia. Andres Bringdal was the first windsurfer over 50knts (ave sppeed over 500m not just peak) and Antoine Albeau quickly joined the 50knt+ and in the process broke the world record several times to take it up to nearly 52knts. Guernsey's own Martyn Ogier has also headed down there and arrived yesterday with resident stalker, sorry photographer, Pierre Bisson. He had a couple of practice runs and here's a pic that I robbed off Pierre's FB page of Martyn on his 2013 Hotsails GPS. He's done 49.something knts so there is no reason for him not to be in contention so wish him luck because in few days the fastest windsurfer in the world could well be an Ogier from Perelle! BTW the forecast for Saturday is 55-65knts.

mmm should have gone to Jersey!!

It's not often that you'll hear me say that I wish I was in Jersey but I and few others have been trying to organise a trip for a few weeks now and the weather and ferry time haven't combined to make it worthwhile - or so we thought! Last weekend Hutchy went to Jersey anyway with his missus for a romantic weekend - but he took his kit just in case. Turned out that he made the right call! Here's he couple pics off his FB page - more jam than Hartleys is all I can say! Now there is one last chance to go to Jersey on the 7thDec and back on Sun the 9thDec - if the conditions are looking good I'm there and are you coming?

Also just a little further way at that very same time - whilst it was flat here (they even cancelled the surf comp) the French held the last round of their annual wave tour in St.Malo in pretty dire conditions - here's the vid:

A bit of an up date

Well not a great deal to report on the wind front over here, despite some fantastic forecasts. However there's also stuff to report on.

First things first Simon 'the boy' Marshall has now become a Dad so I guess we can no longer call him 'the boy'! Congrats to him and Kate & welcome to the new boy Felix Marshall!

On the subject of new arrivals my lastest Hotsails have just arrived. I've gone for some Fielights - they are the lightest 5 batten wave sails in the world and look something like this:

On the speedsailnig front Martyn Ogier is in Weymouth at the moment. He's currently lying in 10th place but the winds have been too light for the big man, looking at the forecast it looks like Friday could be the day for him but either way I don't think there's a possiblilty of any records tumbling - but tumbling is something the one of the Hotsails sailors did on Tuesday - here's the vid there's a nice wipeout at the end!

Guernsey No1 (Again)!!

Well the forecast is looking seriously good for the next couple of days with solid 8ft swell and 30knts cross shore, with a neap tide to boot. Oh and yet again Guernsey tops the Windguru 'Best Forecast' list; that's the best forecast out of about 2300 spots around the globe. Tales fron the tube will follow soon----

French Trip anyone??????

Ok so I've sent a few texts and am trying to see whose interested in joining Hutchy and me over the weekend of 29/30th Sept on a French trip? The idea is to go to southern Brittany and take part in a fun  SUP/Windsurf event and make a weekend of it. The event started off a few years ago as a promotional thing for AHD boards but has now become well established as a fun event in its own right. Here's the link and the event poster http://www.sealion.ahd-boards.com/2012/blog/inscriptions-mondial-sealion-2/3248 :




And if that doesn't tempt you here's a video shot on two spots each within 20km of where we'll be going.


FRED JEZEQUEL BREIZH TRIP 2012 from Stefvidéo on Vimeo.

Give me call ASAP if you're interested - should cost no more than £200 all up.

Mmm not been much wind........

Well I say not much wind there have been some good sessions such as our cross off session at Perelle the other evening which was pretty good at 6ft in the sets and nicely powered on the 5.3.

Anyway here are a few more pics from our Tenerife trip, the pics are myself, Phil W and Andy Jackson (an ex-Gsy sailor who we meet up with there).

Terrific Tenerife

 A few years ago I had a write up published in a mag titled Perfect Pozo - well this time I think any write up ought to be titled Terrific Tenerife. We had a week there and it was the best week I've had there in the last 4 years and it was a double bonus as this year I'd persuaded Phil Warry, Glen Le Chem, and Nick Afflek to come along too. Oh and to add to it all when we rocked up at the beach (1hr after we touched down) not only was it big air 4.2 weather but we also bumped into former Guernsey sailer Andy Heighton-Jackson and then at the end of the week Steve Smith turned up - he's there now watching the PWA comp, which it has to be said I wished we'd picked this week, but seeing as the PWA couldn't decide if it was off or on we just had to go for it and book way back in March. Anyway enough of my waffle, here are some pics from BJ, the resident photographer - thanks BJ for flattering my style!

 The trip was perfect, in fact so perfect that I had little time to post whilst I was away as I was either too knackered or drinking beer - although Glen and Nick were the beer monsters, Phil and I were too eager to go sailing the next day and adopted my body is my temple attitude!! Hours on the water I think probably equated to about 35-40hrs in the harness and the wind was typically 4.2/4.7 most day but ranged from a 3.7 day to 6.5 afternoon (after a 4.7 morning). We've about 35GB of pics and video and over the next few weeks I'll cut, crop, edit and post some of the highlights.

Here's a backie sequence - taken about 1hr after touchdown in Tenerife

 Nice close up of the mast - check out the bend!!

Setting up for the bottom turn on the 3.7 - that I'd packed in my suitcase - pics of the have Hotsails Superfreak will travel coming up in the next post - the batten bending bought tears to eyes of Phil when he saw me packing them!!

Nice air but check out the cheese below!!!!!!!!

The great thing about the OTC is that you can swap gear all day long and it's a real opportunity to try out different gear so you can decide what you like. Here I am on some Goya gear, nice set up but not ideal in the cross on conditions

Getting some air on the Hotsails 3.7 Superfreak Guernsey flag special.

Phil and I heading out on the 3.7s

Trying to force a 360 - what is going on with the hair!!!