2012 is already flying by, I don’t know where January went,
although as you may have heard we did have an epic week in
Switzerland and Austria during this time with good friends,
experiencing learning a new sport, Snowboarding, whilst all the
time being treated to lots of amazing local food and drink. If you
have not already done so, you can read all about our fantastic trip
on our website. A huge thanks again to our sponsors F2 for
introducing us to the sport with their snowboarding team FTWO
and also to a very good friend/ big brother, Joe and his family and
friends for really joining up the dots, making our trip possible and
very very enjoyable.
So, back to the rest of the year! Phil and I are continuing
Getwindsurfing, as always aiming to make it bigger and better. We
will be introducing new coaching locations, continuing to work
hard to help get more and more people into the sport, help those
windsurfing to get more from their sessions with tuition, coaching
and kit advice as well as continuing our quality photo services,
capturing the action. We will also be trying to enter as many
freestyle events around the UK and around the world this year with
PWA, UKWA and EFPT. After last years taste of the Pro’s World
Tour, we want to put our training into action again and windsurf
with the best in the world in all of the PWA freestyle events for
2012. We will also attend as many UK and European events as we
can fit in around the PWA. By attending every event it will not only
enable us to get a fairer and higher result than you might see from
one or two events, it will enable us to gain more publicity and a
higher awareness of British windsurfers sailing at such high
standards, aiming to encourage more people into the sport and
especially for me, show the ladies out there that windsurfing and
freestyle is definitely not just for the boys.
The competition calendar is very busy and we are working
very hard to gain sponsors and funding to ensure we can reach
each event, as well as afford the training time necessary to
maximise our potential and improve our performance and results
in the events. Thank you to all the help we have had so far, any
further help and sponsors will also be greatly appreciated.
Between events we are planning time around the UK to
provide coaching sessions and promotional Getwindsurfing days
helping to promote ourselves and our sponsors. We will also be
available for private and group
sessions and so if you are keen
to get on the water with us to
improve on your skills, perhaps remind you of ones that may need
defrosting after the winter months, try out new locations or simply
get some brilliant action shots to record your sessions please
don’t hesitate to be in touch. As before, we aim to be as flexible as
possible to your needs to help you get the most from every
session.
For coaching weeks abroad, we are putting together a few
dates in the next days and will get these up on the site asap. We
will no doubt be returning to Egypt to make the most of the sunny
windy fantastic conditions, we have another week in Ireland lining
up and also are hoping to teach for a week in Lesvos, Greece and
we are even trying to line up coaching weeks in Aruba! If you
fancy any of these or have your own ideas for us, again, please be
in touch!
So thats us, so far our news and exciting plans for the year…
we will be keeping all the information coming on our webpage as
well as Facebook and news letters. The camera will be present for
all events so look out for our photos and videos, and we will also
be working with Boards Magazine to publicise updates, as well as
a monthly technique feature we are contributing to the magazine.
Check out our first one from the links in my email.
A big thanks again to all friends and family encouraging and
supporting us with our hopes and plans for the year. Hopefully we
will succeed in our plans and make it to all the PWA and UK
freestyle events, as well as getting around in the UK, enjoying the
excellent conditions our country has to offer and helping others to
get more from their sessions at home.

Roadford

As part of winter training I have go with the south/south west zone squad to Roadford Lake in Devon. At our training weekend it was really windy and because of being a lake meant it was really gusty as well. As it was so windy we were only allowed in three groups which had about 6 or 7 people in each.

We were practicing carve gybes and with the amount of wind and the gust it was hard to do so at times. Both days most people dropped down sail size.

From the shore it didn’t seem as windy as it was, when we launched it seemed as light as five knots and when we got out there it got to 39 knots! When we were practicing our carve gybes we had to bouys that we gybed around each end. It was really good fun, even though some sails ended up with holes in them.

As we had three groups there were two on land doing theory which we went through rules, steps of a carve gybe and loads more.

At the end of the weekend the wind had dropped off a bit to let out everyone at once where we did as slalom race together. But where the wind had dropped of we could have all been on our normal sails as we would have gone a lot faster.

Thanks Rachel that is very interesting and hopefully will inspire others to join in

And here some words from Dan

The new year has kicked off with full power up at Rutland, although a little chilly, (which isn’t an issue with a Spartan anyway!) we had some epic days over xmas and new year, with over fifty sailors out enjoying the conditions on the lake.
So things are already looking good for 2012!
2011 was an indifferent year for me, it kicked off with promise after a super windy  test trip to Dahab and a decent spring back in the UK. My summer however, was a bit of a write off after sustaining an injury to my leg which resulted in a week in hospital, followed by eight weeks recovering.
Fortunately I made a full recovery and just in the nick of time for the wave test in Tenerife.
Things got a lot better and on the last few days of this trip, we scored some of the very best conditions that El Medano can offer and the year was then wrapped up on a high with another top test trip to Dahab.

I’m currently busy making plans for my next trip out to Dahab in a few weeks time as well as organising instructor courses for the spring and am really positive for a great year ahead, both on and off the water.

Pic 2 – Wave board testing in Tenerife
Pic 3 – Freestyle testing in Dahab
Pic 4 – Testing with team mate Sam Ross
Pic 5 – The test taxi
Pic 6 – Wave kit testing at the wall in El Medano

Not a bad life really. Dan will post some of his course dates soon

“BIGGEST WAVE EL COTILLO HARBOUR,,,8Metres  MARTIN CORKY KIRKHAM.,,

yep…was 9m sets harbour at el cotillo northshore fuerte,,,sailed with a 94 litre fanatic to make sure i got out back!!!!!!!!!!,,sail was 5.3m…it nwas squally so in the gusts i was flying and down the face had to take a board with alot control so i actually took a slow board so as i had control.after this set broke i got stuck on the inside,,and had to wobble bacvk out through the sets a mile outside to get upwind,,then hammer it in straight to the beach with a bigger set behind me..!!!!!!…winter in fuerteventura…..corky…oh and spartan long leg short arm…” (Corky 2012)

Great to see you out there Corky – keep sending the pictures. We (the Spartan we) have sailed Cotillo and anyone who has knows how huge that day is…wow.  We sailed at Bigbury ……wasn’t the same but knee high can still be dangerous….can’t it?

K-bay, Forwards and 50knots

Despite Christmas being cancelled for me due to looming exams in January I still managed 4 sessions on the water, not too bad….

Christmas session 29^th Dec

Brackelsham 4.7m, 85l

Started the Wednesday morning with a short (90mile) drive to the south coast to meet up with Lee From LAR Watersports for a looping lesson, good chance for some revision in the van while Dad drove.

Arrived Brackelsham to find wind and small waves, with a warm wetsuit in the back.  Perfect combo to learn forwards.

Loop off with dad…first one to forward gets the boasting rights

I got round one but didn’t manage to waterstart away from it.  Dad only managed half way, and knocked his head on the boom. So first points to me.

Tide came in, wind dropped off, so that was the end of looping for the day.

Christmas Session 30^th Dec

Kimmeridge Bay, 4.2m, 85l

First time visiting K-bay

K-Bay has to be one of the nicest looking windsurf areas I have ever been in with the huge cliffs and the long narrow roads leading there its almost like it doesn’t want to be found but when you (finally) arrive at the beach its simply spectacular.

Decent waves south coast style, nicely spaced in the bay and monsters on the bench. Gusting 50knots, 4.2 heaven here we come….

Met up with some of the RAF windsurfers in the car park, about 5 brave souls with Craig Hamilton giving the briefing of how to sail the bay.

Lots of crash from me as I figured out how to cope with the conditions, but did manage a few tabletops and a layback jump.  Craig was throwing down some nice back loops.

By the time we came in there must have been more than 20 vans, so guess everyone had the same idea. Great way finish the year.

Hey Matt do you have any pictures of the event?

Thanks from all of us a great read

The UKWA  (United Kingdom Windsurfing Association) is very pleased to announce the winner of the UK windsurfer of the year Zara Davis.

Zara had a fantastic year to gain her nomination including achieving a new women’s production speed record in Namibia. Then back to back wins, in three rounds of the European speed tour to become the ISWC European champion for the second time in her career. She also won the UK Weymouth speed week for a record 6th time as well as the women’s British GPS 2011 speed ladder.

She was up against some tough competition from the other nominees from the cream of windsurfing including Adam Simms (Freestyle) Ben Proffit (wave sailing) Ant Baker (Slalom) and Kieran Martin (Racing) Zara’s win was decided by online voting and closed on the 30^th of December. Zara won by a clear margin over her rivals and means she joins a long line of previous winners including Bryony Shaw and Nick Dempsey our Olympic medal winners.  Zara said “ I was absolutely thrilled to have been nominated in the first place but to win against such a well known line up is fantastic and tops a great year for me. I would like to thank all the people who voted for me.”

Bob Ingram the president of the UKWA said “This is the fourth year we have put nominees out to the general public to decide a winner on an online vote and it has proved to be very successful. It is particularly valued by the winners because they are voted on by their peers. Well done to Zara a worthy winner”

The UKWA is looking forward to another full year of windsurfing competition which will include Wave, Slalom, Speed, Freestyle, Formula and long board racing. It will obviously be given a great boost by windsurfing in the Olympics on home turf at Weymouth.

60 knots out the back according to the latest weather data!!
It was either the 5.0 and 80l Witchcraft or Mistral Superlight for a
bit of Level 1 gybe practice (centerboard up of course).

Stacks of power in the inside with perfect dtl or neally anyway, just
a tad too offshore, I was reaching parallel to the beach out the
back..
Couldn’t really turn so survival tacks and both feet in straps hooked
in waterstarts but in the lulls it was perfect.

The board is just amazing in those conditions, I didn’t need to worry
about its ability to perform, the sail worked well, a bit more
downhaul and a few m2 less would have been nice and also loving the
Reflex with the 3mm on shoulders and arms just so comfortable and warm
bearing in mind the wind chill affect was fairly active..

I know if you had been there the superlight 360′s would have been the
trick of the day..

Cheers
Phil

Thanks Phil we love the look of the shorebreak – keep sailing hard

Yesterday Ben Hanbury and myself went to Bigbury bay for a windsurf. We put up 5.8m sails and had quite a lot of fun zipping around gusty old Bigbury (which we love). And we talked about how its never that windy in Bigbury compared to Worthing and so on. We traveled in the same van so I took my big kit – ie 5.2m and 5.8m plus 100 liter board with a biggish fin.

Next day we thought – zero wind in Totnes so the forecast must be wrong. Let’s go to the beach anyway. No sign of wind on the way, well at least our surf boards are loaded. Still no sign of any serious wind until we came over the brow of the hill.  OMG. Force XXXX and once on the beach everyone had rigged 4.0m or 3.7m. Great. So with a combined windsurfing experience of 50 years and most of that in the trade we had two 5.0m’s or in my case a 5.25m, sheer brilliance. I am not a slim as I would like to be of course, I like beer far too much for that and the word slimming to me means ‘Becks Vier’, but I needed some extra pounds then and there.

What to do. Ah go for it. Shake rattle and roll. I tail walked all over the bay, had an amazing work out and fun time. Got so flattened by the power of the wind as the guys came over and said, Jesus John we can’t hold onto our 4.0m! 50 years experience, doh doh doh. Ben and I lasted a couple of hours but when I could not simply hold onto the sail in the water it occurred to me that Bigbury was having its revenge for the words uttered on its shoreline yesterday.

What was really brilliant was that 22 windsurfers were hopping, looping, jumpin’ and having great fun. Long live windsurfing there was just so much fun to be had.

Tomorrow I will be taking all my kit.

Techno Training Weekend December

In December even though it is freezing and there are no competitions techno training is on going in the coldest of months. Even though it was quite cold, it was great fun. People from across came to Weymouth and Portland National Sailing Academy.

On Saturday it was light winds and in the afternoon it got up to only 10 knots but everyone was planing! We did an exercise to improve our tacking and gibing by spotting as we go round the turn. In the afternoon we did three races which we really good fun.

On the Sunday it was windy and the biggest gust was 39 knots!! We all went out short boarding and some were more experienced than others. We were all on a range of kit and all working on different things to improve our windsurfing.

Overall it was a great weekend and was quite mild to what I expected it to be. Everyone had a great time.

Hope all is well at spartan, been a really good winter so far in terms of wind and still been relatively mild, i have only been in the 4/3 so far!

First a big thank you for the support you guys have given for the SWA so far, the prizes really make the events worth winning and for that i am really greatfull. I have been lucky enough to come first at 2 of the 4 events so far and have been the recipient of a spartan rigging jacket and a winter wetsuit. My old reflex suit is starting to fall apart quite substantially at the seams so a winter wetsuit is a genuinely useful prize for me. Unfortunately the suit i won was a girls cyclone (not such a great fit). I was wondering whether it would be possible to swap the suit with you guys for an equivalent mens one, I don’t mind if there is a difference i would need to pay. Anyway if you can advise if that is possible i would be really grateful.

As far as an update goes; as i said already i have won 2 of the 4 SWA events so far in freestyle and waves. With a 2nd at Bristol and making the final at Aussie Kiss, I am so far leading the SWA national series in both freestyle and waves, so super happy with that start to the season. At Aussie Kiss i was awarded the Severne “Awesomeness” award as well, which was a nice bonus in the form of a new Severne sail, in recognition of my “awesomeness” apparently (Proof that being able to mix partying and windsurfing pays). I attached the photo they used in all the press releases for that anyway, Windsurf & Boards+ Boardseeker with the Spartan suit featuring quite nicely. With a couple of potential trips planned before the events start again in March I’m hoping this great start to the windsurfing year can continue into 2012.

Matt