Exam Period, Summer is almost here!
Well its been a few weeks since I updated the Site, Finally between revision and surfing I have managed to get the final banner done, I have also Put together the few clips of my windsurfing whilst I was in Egypt before I managed to injure my foot.
Enjoy
El Tur Daytrip.
So after a cancelled flight and no wind and it looking like I
could maybe windsurf if I taped up my foot but keeping the stitches in. We were
looking at various forecasts out of interest, then 3 of us looked at each other
and pretty much said, ‘Road trip to El Tur’
For those that don’t know Dahab is a 3 and a bit hour drive
to El Tur which is located adjacent to Dahab on the opposite side of the Sinai
Peninsula. (See attached map) Although it’s only about 200km the cars and
busses are not what you would call quick or reliable! So there tends to be a lot of overtaking in
quite scary places!
The plan was that 3 of us would pack kit up and leave at about
6:30am, the 3 of us after news got round turned out to be 11, which was good as
it cut down the cost of the transport, 750le for the taxi both ways, staying
all day with us that’s roughly £85 not bad really.
We all arrived at Club Dahab at about 6:15am ready to load
it onto the roof, after an argument with the taxi driver that thought his rope
(which was more like sun damaged twine) was stronger and more likely to keep
the stuff on the roof than our ratchet straps and Dakine roof straps we were on
our way.
All went well until the westerly Sharm Checkpoint where the
police told us we had to turn back due to the lack of a visa for that side of
the Sinai, a cheeky 100le later all of us were allowed through.
We finally ended up at Oceansource at about 9:30am greeted
by a steadily rising 15knots. We sorted out the kit and headed to the wave
beach first. No Wind ####
Back to the centre and luckily the wind had built up and was
nice 5m weather. After a few runs and tricks around the bay, even with my dodgy
foot I was still landing funnels, half chachoo’s.
It was an awesome trip and I definitely recommend going up
there if you windsurf, nothing else there at all but its windsurfing you want
you can’t go wrong.
Now I’m finally back in Plymouth and settling down back into
work and exams.
(Pictures to follow)
Dahab With Stitches
So, been out here for just over a week now, quite a few dramas. We arrived after a short delay and settled in for the night. I was awoken at 3:30am by so very noisy wind, must have been easily 35knots.
I woke up at 8am and very quickly got the sun cream on. After a chat to John Palmer and the Club Dahab I set out onto the water set up with a skate 90 and a 4.5m which turned out to be very nice, this was on the monday. I managed to re-learn most things , landing a few punetas, esliders, spocks and flakas. After a good days sailing I settled in for the evening with the boys and a few beers.
Next day its was even windier, we headed out to the rescue island out in speedy with a camera and a group of students.
After filming for a good hour with some awesome footage I went for a forward loop as I had been doing all morning i got a good take off and for some reason my front foot came out of the straps, next thing i knew my fin had landed on my foot somehow, in a ridiculous amount of pain i managed to sailone footed back to the pontoon where the others raised the red flag and i got picked up in a boat.
On arrival back to the beach a doctorwas called due to the cut/slice in my foot was extremely deep and is desperate need of a few stitches.
After some painful local anesthetic injections the doctor put in 6 stiches and alot of pills to take.
Now im sitting here a week later and haven't been on the water,stitches out tommorow and stranded in Dahab with wind coming out!
West Wittering Sesh! Back home for easter!
So I have left the land of warmer waters, good waves and alcohol for the comforts of home and the perfect freestyle conditions in West Wittering.
Had a lovely windsurf today (26/03/2010) easterly, so was cross on port tack, quite fun some waves were of a reasonable size, just a little underpowered to do anything on them!
I was on my Lovely Tushy Rock 4.7m and my RRD Twintip and the best thing was, It was gorgeous and sunny for once!!
More good sessions to come with the forecast good for this weekend.
See you on the water...
Mount Batten Sessions.
We have been teaching our windsurf members alot recently, we have had glorious sunshine and it had been very nice to wonder around in the flip flops and shorts again! Ok, shorts may be a bit optamistic. It was all going very well teaching wise until two weeks ago, we turned up and it was howling, eaily a F6 ENE the perfect sailngi direction for mount batten,Croos offshore and flat! Imagine Baby Bay but, say, 15 degrees colder!!!
We wuickly gave a chat to the group on why we couldn't take them out (MBC Rules etc...) then briskly drove them back to uni and grabbed our kit.
One of our members happen to mention how he was doing photography and how he would love to do some photos for he portfolio, SCOREEEE! so after racing back to mount batten we rigged up our 4.7m, freestyle boards and tiny fins to hit up the Sound!
First few runs were interesting and a little bit of bobbing around. The wind then filled in and off we went, As it was the first tiem out in a while I thought it would be a session for re learning, this was not the case, first flat water forward, Landed, First spock, Landed, First Flaka, Landed. It was awesome, the pictures came out very well, so well he has given me 3gig file of photos of me and josh on our 2 hour session! He is now our resident photo guy!
Big thanks to MBC for letting launch off of the pontoon and Aaron Hindes for the amazing photos.
Plenty of sessions, water is now warm (ish/er)
So its that time of year! hood has come off, gloves are no longer a nesesity and boots will be off soonish.
I have had a good few sessions in the last few weeks, one nice chilled out wave sail, mainly jumping but good to know that after a month off of the water i can still air flaka and forward pretty much everytime comfortably!
Yesterday (3/03/10) I had a lovely session off of the Sailing Centre (Mount Batten) perfect 4.7m weather and the freestyle board, it was flat water heaven, a bit iffy on the way out but fully planing on the way in perfect for flaka's and shuv-its. Pictures to follow shortly!
Good sailing...
16h Jan 4 degrees in the water!
Had another lovely surf last Tuesday Was rather cold with the air temp being around 3 degrees and the water at 4!
We were in for abotu an hour and a half with wasn't half bad seeing as it was sooo cold, the surf was about waist to chest at times, not peeling aswell as I hoped as the forecast offshore 4mph wind switched last minute to a strong F4 onshore so was abit blown out, Still doable though.
Got some nice rides here and there and a few little snaps. I also took my Olympus waterproof camera out and took a few pictures which was abit awkward when paddling but then the card broke so I soon took it back in!
Another nice sesh at Challaborough, Devon, can't go wrong with spot it seems as its only 25-30 minutes out of Plymouth!
Update!
It's been a while since I updated on here, so!
Things have been a bit slow, I've managed to get out windsurfing a few times here and there when lectures and time has allowed. Seems as though every time I have a free few hours the wind dies! But its not been too bad, we've been doing quite a bit of teaching with the Plymouth Windriders lot, plenty of people who had never done any windsurfing before last year have now started using the harness and planing around which is really good to see!
They are also very keen as the water is still 4 degrees here in Plymouth and they are still willing to get involved! More brave than me thats for sure!!!
Although the lack of wind has been killing me, there has been plenty of surf, so I have been out for a surf at least once a week if not more which is cool. Now it has started to warm up I hope to get out more as the wind comes through and get some new photos and video with the help from a willing volunteer!
See you on the water
James.
Icy Surf
After an amazing night out with my fellow lifeguards, I was woken by a call from a mate telling me to grab my wetsuit and board! After a quick wake up shower and breakfast I headed down to Jolliffe Road in East Wittering, greeted by some very clean and relatively fast looking waves!
I had a good 2 hours or so until the swell died down a little followed by a pub lunch courtesy of mum and dad! Score!!
30th December 09
Home For Christmas!
Well i'm back in West Wittering for christmas, and it's freezing -2 in the mornings! I haven't ventured out into the sea yet but before I came home we had no wind so was surfing at least 2 or 3 times a week, although it was very cold and we had to get the boots, gloves and hoods out we were all still surfing very well! hope to get on the water very soon windsurfing, just need some wind now!!!
Daymer 18th and Torpoint 19th November
Daymer:
Since the big storm we had last saturday the wind had continued to blow,
Myself and a couple of others saw the forecast for Daymer 2days in advance and got rather excited.
It was showing 4.5m waves and 28knots, In other words, PERFECTION!!!
As we arrived the waves were starting to come through but the wind was only about 20knots.
everyone was rigging 5.5m sails but myself and Ali rigged up our 4.7m in hope of the wind picking up.
We wobbled about for an hour or so and then the waves finally came through, It was the best wobble and ride I have ever had! Shoulder high waves coming in and peeling perfectly for some light wind down the line.
I had an amazing session getting 5 or 6 really spray throwing turns on each wave.
This may have been because I was on the new Starboard Quad 76, which was absolutely amazing!! All in all it was an epic day/afternoon wavesailing.
Torpoint:
After a good sleep, I woke up the next morning to extreme whistling winds down the back of our house! I had alot of work to do that day so told myself me and Ali would have a quick session at Torpoint.
On arriving it was howling so we proceeded to rig 4.2m but then ditched them for 4.7m as it was dead flat and would rather be over powered than under!
As we got onto the water we realised that this wasn't going to be a quick one, it was glass flat and windy as you like! I was landing flakas, doubles, one handers and diablos, aswell as spocks, punetas and a good few very close funnels and kono's!
After about 4 hours Ali's footstrap broke but luckily the wind dropped off and the tide got too high so we had to head back for an afternoon of work!
Another epic session, two days of perfection, AWESOME!!!
Torpoint 55knot Madness
The forecast looked amazing, 36knots or there abouts, it looked like an awesome oportunity to hit Torpoint early for a freestyle session followed up by the wave sesh at Daymer.
I let Plymouth just before 8am and got the ferry at 830am, I didn't realise quite how windy it was until I moved down the slipway toward the boat, the waves were lapping up the slipway beyond the boat ramp with loads of spray going over the top of them!
It was the bumpiest most rolley ride you could ever have on a chain ferry a mile into a harbour!!!
Once off the ferry it was a brisk drive round the the sailing/rigging area, Once I was out of the car I soon realised it was stupidly windy with about 20 people rigged up but waiting for it to drop!
Still, we rigged up our smallest (Rock 3.7m) and freestyle boards, due to the tide dropping and made our way to the water, Just before we went out one of the guys infromed us that he had checked the wind and it was at 49knots with the big squall still to come through.
The session was long and full of massive overpowered freestyle crashes, after about 2 hours we decided to head in as it wasn't dropping off! good call really as it didn'tdrop off until about 1pm.
Overall it was a good session but very overpowered, Glad we didnt venture to the beach in the south as it was mentally windy with huge dumping waves all over the shot!
Aussie Kiss 8
With a horrible wet start to the day, we knew were in for the usual Aussie Kiss weather, Wind to start with and plenty of rain!
After meeting all 27 people that were coming with us we loaded up the minibus, two vans and my car and set off for the hour and a half journey to Bude holiday park! We left Plymouth at about 5pm then went to Sainsbury's to gther the 'essentials' and set on our way over the Tamar and up to the north coast.After a horrible rainy drive to bude the rain stopped as we entered the mudy car park at the campsite.
Myself and Rich (safety officer) had to go and collect welcome packs, keys and wristbands so the guys in the vansand minibus' had to sit tight for 15 minutes or so.
Due to us not getting there until 1930 or so we thought we were going to be 
one of the last uni's there like last year!
This was not the case, as I walked into the reception there was a big cheer! 'First President' my club was the first there suprisingly, Later we were told there was a huge crash on the M5 resulting in most of the uni's being in massive delays!
Once I had signed my life away, got the keys and various other bits, I went to collect my T-shirt, Which I must say was a bg improvement on last years!
The evening started with some Beverages resulting in us moving onto the 'club' where we partied the night away!
The next morning we were rudely awaken by Amy Carter at 7:30am, But the free bacon sarnie and tea made up for this.
We left the campsite at about 9:30 am for roadford lake.
On arrival there was wind an quite alot of it! After a briefing we sorted out all of the begginers into groups for their lessons and quickly rigged signed out and the freestyle began! Alsorts of moves and tricks were getting thrown down all over the place with Javier Choi and Kris Le Vay Getting some epic photos (upload soon) The Wind was massively gusty with us being underpowered on 5.2m most ofthe time then 4.2m gusts coming through in the middle of the lake! This was annoying but we all had anepic session, Well Apart from Josh Farmer who bent his bramd new boom with an epic hooked in spock crash!
The evening bought the underated party in the theme of SUPERHEROES, It was an epic night and there were many amazing costumes out there! the evening went of until the very early hours of the next day! (Think we got to bed at about 5:30am!)The next day was a killer for us as we were rather tired and hungover so most of us spent the day asleep in vans and cars! Although most of us were dieing the begginers had perfect conditions to learn with cross off 15 knots, we managed to get most, if not, all our members on the water at some point during the trip which was epic!
At about 3pm we decided to head back to Plymouth so we could get back in daylight and have a nice relaxing evening of food and sleep!
It was an epic trip and it was amazing to see so many windsurfers on the water at one time!
Big thanks to;
Windriders committee and members,
SWA,
All the Uni's,
Bude Holiday Park
Jen Lewis (our driver)
The Van drivers for taking our kit
Javier Choi and Kris Le Vay (photo men)
Wicked Weekend, see you on the water!
Daymer Bay Provides Perfection
Another early morning leave for us on Saturday (3rd october 09)
With no wind what so ever in Plymouth we had our fingers crossed for Daymer, The idea was to catch the incoming tide so we could score some flat water love in the morning with some sick waves in the afternoon.
On the approach it was looking epic loads of wind and dead flat on the inside, It seemed very very windy and opted for the 4.2m tushy rock and my twintip (the perfect setup!) But then for some reason I put the 4.2m away and went 4.7m.
Lucky really 
seeing as we got to the water it seemed to drop 5knots or so.
10 minutes later it filled in to perfection! Lush! I had a good hour of freestyle and chop fun, landing some real clean flat water forwards, flakas and spocks along with Josh, Joe and Ali aswell as others.
I then got too tempted by the idea of the logo high waves out back, although there was flukey windy, I went for it and my god they were big! I got some really really nice rides but wish I had the new Starboard Evil Quad as it would have been perfect conditions for it!
We eventually decided to head to shore for some amazing launch ramps on the beach
(almost like Sotavento but 15 degrees colder!) We had a good 30 minutes on these until I went for a huge shaka and got overpowered half way round and got spanked onto almost the beach! that was me out for the day and limped back to the car for my waterproof camera!
For about 45 minutes i stood in waist to chest deep water and got some epic pictures of the boys busting their moves! The two to the right of this are probably the best ones in my opinion!
See you on the water.
Freshers Fair And Trip to Daymer!
Well it went very well, lots of banter a few hairy issues with monez but all got sorted in the end!
We set up our stall at 11am and sold sold sold until 8pm!
9 hours of standing does start to hurt!!
We sold ourselves very effectively with our 8 strong team and now have 94 paid up members with more to come.
Thankyou everyone for joining its nice to see so many people wanting to learn and improve!
This Saturday (3rd October) looks sick for daymer 20-22 knots and incomingtide couldnt be more perfect for some freestyle and chop fun! We are all leaving Plymouth at 9am which means on the water by 1030am PERFECT!
Good sailing,
See you on the water!!!
Plymouth Windriders at the Freshers Fair 09
The Freshers Fair starts next week on sunday!
This year The comittee Consists of;
Me (El Presidente)
Josh Farmer (Chief Pole Dancer)
Will Hayes (Chief Dangler)
James Edwards, Will Mckean, Abi Campbell (Social Secs)
Dave Roberts (Money Man)
Rich Gaunt (Safety Officer)
If you need any information on our club email me using my contact form!
We will be at stand 97 (on top of the SU) in the huge tent from mid-day Sunday
the cost is a very small £20 including a packed goodie bag and a free t-shirt on our first social!
See you there!
James.
Back To Uni
Back to Uni on Friday afternoon, can't wait to start a new year, the windsurfing should be good and being president of the Windsurf and Kitesurf club should be good, cant wait for the comps, maybe some new kit!
Ill keep this up to date as I hope I will be able to get some good wind down in Devon and Cornwall.
East to West Paddle #1
Saturday 15th August saw the East Witering to West Wittering Paddle held by 2xs and the shore surf club. A whole 2 mile race!!!
We has a full team of Lifeguards and the plan was to use our rescue boat as part of the safety cover.
Our head Lifeguard decided to enter one of us into the race on our new surf rescue board, He chose me as he thought I was the stongest paddler out of all of us!
We arrived in East Wittering on our boat ready to race, there was a quick briefing and then the start. I was entered into the paddle board category. I had a very good start and very quickly took the lead over the surfers and paddle boarders! by the end of the race i was leading the surfers and paddlers by about 150m and beat several kayacks bringing me in, in an overall 4th but 1st in both surfers and paddle boards! RESULT! Lifeguards still quicker than everyone else!
3.7 Heaven
Wittering delivers another after work full power wave session.
As I rigged my 3.7m Tushy Rock and my Newwave 68, Chimet (The local weather station in the Solent) updated showing gusts of 42knots!
As I approached the water I knew I was going to be holding on for dear life!
The first few runs were interesting but with some nice little onshore slashy waverides.
As Chris from the windsurf club entered the water the backies were getting thrown down all over the place with some painfull yet hilarious crashes on both mine and Chris's part.
My session ended with a painfull eject from a mid Ponch! This involved my arm getting somehow wraped around the boom with me laying upside down on my sail. OUCH!!!
Hoping for more of this during the summer!
See you on the water...
WW Provides the conditions again
As forecast Wittering did it again, waves out back and freestyle on the inside!
I arrived at the beach at around 9am and went into rigging mode almost instantly. Out came the TwinTip and my Tushy Rock 4.2m PERFECT!!!
As I hit the water the wind dropped right off but luckily it picked back up again 10 minutes later! On the way in through the waves I went into flaka mode, I managed 7 consecutive flakas until I hit the beach, all of which were fully planing and dry, sweeet.
The day went on like this with me landing all of my tricks.
After 2 hours on the water the wind died to 8 knots and stayed this way for about an hour which wasn't forecast, We waited and waited but it never really came back to its full strength.
Owell, I had a really nice session and day off work!
See you on the water.
It's Back!!!
Finally we have some wind! I've managed to get out after work a few times which has been nice, we had a day of 4.2m stacked wavesailing, 5.2m nicely powered DTL on the sand bar off of Chichester Harbour and then some full power 3.7m freestyle sessions in the trench at West Wittering.
Two days later we were blessed with 4.2m weather again and waves! and decent ones at that, I was throwing some forwards and a few backies but I was really concentrating on my wavesailing and ponches. On the way in I landed two ponches/goitas and lots of slashy top turns! Just hope for more of this for this summer!
A slow start!
So I finished my lifeguard course with flying colours which was all good! Straight back home and to the beach, I started work just after my 19th birthday on the Friday it has now ben two weeks of setting up the hut boat and board aswell as the general beach and we have finaly had new staff start which means we can now start lifeguarding properly for the summer! looks like it will be a hot one! Hopefully we shall get some wind, well I hope so thats for sure...
Back from Lusty
Finaly after a week of lifeguard training I passed once again without a sweat! It went really well and I remembered everything I learned from the first time which was good.
I managed my swim in 6:32 which I feel was good as I was at cruising pace all of the way!
Lifeguarding again this season at West Wittering estate which should be good as we are in for a nice hot summer!
While at Lusty Glaze we had Helimed181 landing on the beach underneath the cables which was very impressive. The reason for this was that a surfer manged to come off onto the rocks and snapped his tibia and fibia! Ouch!
3.7m at Wittering
An amazing session in the sense of wind,
But the direction was slightly horrible!
I was perfectly powered up on my brand new Tushy Rock 3.7m and my 68l wave board.
The jumping was ok with some good back loop ramps further out and on the way in you could get some turns on the onshore mush!
Overall it was nice to get out on the water on the small kit! I did manage to land two ponches on the way in which was good as I havn't landed one in a while!
I've got to retake my lifeguard course next week so im currently training for that! Then up to Lusty Glaza to do that, then back home for a full summer of work!
Hayling Sea front 8am start!
We set off for Hayling today (16/05/09) at 7am, got on the water at about 8 i had a nice mix of wave sailing and freestyle sailing on my Tushy Rock 4.7.
I got off of the water at about 1130 and drove back over to West Wittering for round 2!!
West Wittering delivered some awesome jumping ramps for backies and forwards!
It was nice to see lots of people on the water as it is finally warming up!
The Bigbury sessions
Monday 11th May brought forecasts of winds reaching 45 knots! We had to head to Bigbury for this! The forecast for swell was poor but we though that the ENE winds would kick up a classic little starboard tack ride on the bar! We were right! We got there and I rigged my brand new Tushy Rock 4.2m teamed up with the Twintip (was flat at the time) and found myself very very overpowered instantly!
As the tide dropped it provided a nice little wave about waist height to ride! You could get 5 sometimes 6 turns on it which was awesome!!! After a good 3 hours on the water of mixed wave and freestyle we decided to head back to uni for a full on afternoon of revision in preparation for our coming exams! Bigbury once again was the place to be!!
Friday 8th May.
A good Forecast showed for 18-20 knots with a nice swell! Bigbury it was!
As we got there the guys that had been out told us it was dropping off and they were underpowered on 5.7m and 100l FSW boards, Oh well we thought, and went for 5.2m and small waveboards anyway!! First run out I was planing! SCORE!! Over the 3-4 hours we were out I crashed and landed a few stalled forwards as well as scoring some sweet rides on head to logo high waves in front of the estuary mouth!!
Back to Uni
I'm back at uni now after a good four weeks off! Hopefully we get some wind soon, We only managed to get out 5 or 6 times over the holiday, still those times very good, a few new tricks were learned and other improved!
Well back to the large amount of revison i've got for my exams next week!!!
See you on the water!
H.I.S.C RTI Race 09
Well!!! it started well! needed biggest kit possible (I was on 7.5 and large slalom board) planed nicely off of the beach to then find it dropped right off to nothing by the time i had got half way to the bridge!
Once we got under the bridge we had to start the tacking, I can't remember how many times I tacked to get upwind and uptide, probably pushing on the 100 mark!!! Well it was fun to start and then it just got tedious and boring.
By the time we got to the ferry inn the organisers cancelled it due to lack of wind and the strenth of the tide.
The race would have been amazing if the wind was there but it just wasn't! we shall see how next year go's!!
See where it say's 11:00, 
yep thats when we started and instantly look what happened!
PHOTO'S HERE
National Windsurfing Week 2009
We all know how great windsurfing is, so why don’t more people participate? One theory is that windsurfing as a sport is not being marketed sufficiently at a time when there are lots of other leisure/extreme activities to choose from!
We are therefore pleased to announce that National Windsurfing Week 2009 will take place from the 2nd to the 10th of May 2009 and we want you to take part!
Click on banner to go to the website
New Website
K656.co.uk
As you can see I have moved away from the .blogspot website, I have to moved to this so that I can have more pages at a better quality with a good address!
Hope that you all like it! leave me some comments through the 'Contact Me' section.
Esso Beach, Hayling Session
Today's session (28th March 09) at Esso Beach on Hayling Island was pretty good.
Nice and windy, perfect 5.2m weather although was very up and down at times! lots of people were out blasting around with a few guys going for freestyle moves.
We had a good 2 Hour session followed by a nice pub lunch!
Can't get much better than that, Sun, Sea, Wind and some very nice new shiny kit.
This page was last modified on Sunday, May 16, 2010 03:21:42 PM