Pembroke session

Well, we've been stuck in this northerly airstream for a couple of weeks now and it's all looking pretty grim outside. The seasonally cold weather doesn't normally arrive until the start of New Year so to have it in November has been a right old kick in the knackers. I even thought about getting the kite and board out the other day and trying some snow kiting before the thaw started to knock any of these ideas on the head. I think that the next time we get a big dump of snow we'll definitely have to try out some snow kiting antics! Yesterday the wind backed to the south west and myself and a few of the guys managed a Vaz windsurf but even that was pretty dire. It didn't stop raining and the wind was really fickle which made for a crap session. The only good session we had was last night down the Rockmount pub with Charlie and the windsurf crew which turned out to be a right old piss up!!
The forecast is showing northerlies for the rest of this week but no snow which is a bonus so if the wind picks up then it could be worth trying some kiting if it's not too cold.
Below you'll find some photos of myself and Dan Armsden giving it what for at Pembroke a couple of weeks a go which were kindly taken by our resident photographer-Steve Smith-cheers mate!

Vaz has been rocking lately!

Well the last couple of weeks have been pretty good here on Guernsey. We've had a series of deep depressions tracking through giving us some great wave sailing action at Vazon and Perell. For the moment it's gone a little quiet as a high pressure system moves in but the wind will be switching to a more northerly direction at the weekend and hopefully giving us some workable conditions at Pembroke/Lancresse. The only downside to this however is it will be probably f$#!"ing freezing! Lets hope that this is just a short blip and the wind will return to our favoured and more tropical direction in the Sou-west. Here are a few photos taken by Steve Smith of Starky (Hotsails) and Briggsy (Point7) getting to grips on the last wave session at Vaz...

CI Champion!

Last weekend saw four of Guernsey's hardcore wave sailors travel to their sister Island of Jersey to compete in an inter-island wave competition organised by Justin Horton and crew of the Jersey Association of Windsurfing.

We caught the last ferry on Friday evening and arrived in Jersey around 19.30 and checked into our hotel shortly after. We spent that evening in the bar accompanied by a couple of Jersey sailors, chilling out discussing the weather and each others sailing ability and generally talking up a good sail as you tend to do after a few sherberts!

The next day we were up reasonably early and after a good fry up were on the road to St Ouens bay to be greeted by the Jersey boys and a fresh westerly wind. The swell was pretty small and the wind was bang onshore at Le Rocco so we decided to head up to Big Verns where the wind would be more favourable.

The format was a 40minute expression session with your best 5 jumps and wave rides scoring to the overall points. Everyone was on the water around 11.30 and the competition was on. The 5.3 was the sail of choice and as soon as the flag was up we were hit by a massive rain squall. The wind settled down after 5 mins but conditions were tricky due to the onshore wind which meant we were able to jump on both tacks and also get some ok back side wave riding.

We all came in after the heat, de-rigged and headed to the Splash for some well deserved food and drink.

As there were two trophies up for grabs it was decided to run another expression session in the afternoon on the rising tide.

Kick off this time was 14.30 and the 4.7 was the sail which everyone seemed to be opting for this time as the wind was building and the swell was getting bigger. The wind had also gone around a bit more to the NW which gave us a bit more direction sailing out but this also meant starboard tack jumping which was not our favourite. Never less the prevailing conditions gave us some great jumping and I managed to get some good forwards and back loops but the waves were getting heavy and starting to hit logo high. Everyone was finding the sailing difficult and the shore dump was particularly gnarly. Getting caught inside made it hard to get out again and I got pummelled a couple of times. Matt Le P was caught on the inside and trashed his "indestructible" Hot Sails 4.7!! ... luckily it was the end of the heat.

Everyone had a great session and were all feeling pretty shagged out after the long day.

We packed up the van drove back to the hotel, showered, re-couped some energy and headed off to the yacht club for the prize giving.

The overall results showed an undisputed win for the Guerns with myself taking 1st place, Matt Le P taking 2nd and Matt Stark taking 3rd. Richard Klein earned himself a very creditable 9th overall which was good seeing that he rarely is seen down in the surf at Vaz.

Thanks must go to the Jersey guys and girls for hosting and judging the event and we look forward to catching up again when they come to Guernsey in May for some Island Games training with the donkeys.

It's been a while but

the wind Gods look like they are going to finally deliver some decent swell and wind over the coming few days. I can't remember the last time I saw weather charts with this much activity in the Atlantic so dust down your gear and get ready to don some rubber.....It's going to be going OFF!!!

Has Autumn finally arrived....?

The past week has been firing here on Guernsey. When I say firing, I mean it's been the best that we've had all summer! Two full on days kiting and one powered up session on the wave board with some lovely little waves at Vaz which was a real bonus. Check out the link to vivelabreeze.blogspot.com for Matt's low down on the windsurf session at Vaz.

The Torch has had a couple more outings, firstly with myself and Baz on Tuesday at Vazon and then on Thursday, big Danny boy put it through it's paces. The general consensus from the boys is that the Torch is a rocking kite! If your looking for some "C" shaped goodness then you can't go far wrong with this little beauty.

Thursday was also quite windy and it was a good time to get out my other new toy - the 9m Naish Bolt.

My initial thoughts are very good even though I was slightly under powered. The design is very similar to last years Cult so the flying characteristics are also pretty similar too. The de-power is really good and it's quick in the air as you would expect for a kite of this size. It's a great kite to fly, very easy and good in the waves and I'm looking forward to getting it wound up in a bit more wind.

Unfortunately I don't have any photo's of it yet as I was down the beach when everybody else was at work-That's the beauty of working shifts so mustn't complain, I could be stuck in a 9-5 nightmare!

Here are some photo's that Baz's girlfriend Mia took from our Vazon session on the Tuesday-Cheers guys..

Is it a bird, is it a plane?? No, it's the new Naish Torch!!

You can put your life savings on it that when you get some new equipment the wind stops blowing??
Yep, the past week has been highly frustrating. I've had three sessions on the new Torch now and each time the wind has been borderline and there's nothing worse than trying to get to grips with some new gear and there isn't enough wind to get going.
Today was a slight exception though. We managed to get in at Richmond this morn but the wind wasn't quite enough again but late this aft it picked slightly and had a good low water Vaz session.
This is the first time I've tried the 5 line Torch and first thing I noticed that is different from the 4 line Helix/Cult is that the bar pressure is significantly heavier. This is due to the fact that there are no bridals and the lines connect straight to the kite. This makes for a highly responsive turning machine, but when the wind is light you really have to work this baby so she definately needs slightly more wind than the norm but will also probably hold down more wind too.
Once powered up the kite flew really well. It flies a lot closer to the window than Helix/Cult and really likes you to edge the board hard. Jumping is sweet compared to the bridalled kites, as the kite is so responsive. Saying that it also sits well when un-hooking and the 5th line is definately an advantage when retrieving the kite after screwing up when un-hooked as you can just grab the chicken loop and you get instant de-power.
Overall, after my limited time on the water with the Torch, I'm a little bit more optimistic than I was up until lunch time today. It definately requires more wind to get going than say, the 12m Helix but once up to power, she's lively, great for jumping and great for un-hooking.
Hopefully, I'll get a few more sessions this week to try her out fully as the forecast is looking good.
I also received the new Momentum, previously I have been riding the Thorn. The Momentum is a fantastic board. Its wider throughout it's profile with more rocker and flex than the Thorn. The major advantage of this board is that it rides chop well and you get no spray thrown into your face which the Thorn had a tendancy to do. If your riding choppy water a lot then the Momentum is one up on it's brother the Thorn which prefers smooth water.

Here are some photo's of this morning's session at Richmond.


Torch 2011-Nice profile!













Dimi gets some air with the new Torch


























Trying to work it in the light wind..













It helps when you only weigh 50kg













Backloop kiteloop













Mike and Ian enjoying the great weather!

Unchartered waters

We've had some good kiting recently but the wind has been pretty dire for windsurfing. Myself, Simon Marshall, Jason and Stevie Smith managed a Perell sesh last week. It was good to get out on the wave board and be powered on a 5.3 even if there was no swell to write home about.
The high pressure has dropped south a little, pushing the odd slack low pressure through giving us some moderate winds which have been ideal for the big kites.
Vazon and Ladies Bay have been the best beaches to kite but on Sunday the wind was blowing NNW which gave me the first opportunity to kitesurf my local surf beach - Portinfer Bay.
The wind probably had a bit too much North in it but it was a good first session anyway.
A quick phone call to Dan and we were rigged and out for about a 30 minutes before the wind dropped and we had to come in. It's only possible to kite on the high tide and the wind was blowing across a reef upwind creating a smooth ride inside the bay. Considering the wind was slightly offshore it was also incredibly steady. Now we know it's possible to kite this bay we're looking forward to the next session with the wind a little bit more from the west with NW probably being the best direction-definitely some potential in this picturesque little bay.

View from the balcony of our house

Me and Dan kiting-Portinfer Bay

The boys after the session and Dan looking particularly happy with himself!

Unfortunately Dimi arrived down the beach when the wind had dropped but managed to get the first couple of shots from the balcony of the house.

Le Road Trip!

Not too long ago we recently made a joint purchase with my folks on a camper van and we had a week free in the middle of July to load her up and head south in search of wind and waves.
Over the past couple of years we have made several trips down the west coast of France and every trip away has produced the goods with regards to wind and waves so hopefully this time, van loaded with kiting kit and SUP we were going to score lucky again!
Initially I wasn't sure which way we were going to travel but after studying the weather forecast prior to going we decided to head down to an Island called Noirmoutier. The charts showed an approaching low pressure and the chances of scoring some good wind seemed very optimistic.
Also one of the local surfers had mentioned that he had been to Noirmoutier before and it was a great place to surf and kite.
We set off on the Monday evening and arrived at Noirmoutier on the Tuesday morning and were greeted with sunny skies and a steady force 4, the only problem was, that the sat nav had taken us onto the island via the cobbled low tide causeway and not the recommended bridge. I could see the kites in the distance but it took about 20 minutes of driving to finally get to the kite spot. The tide was super high and the spot was at the edge of the estuary so it was damn choppy but never less great to get in the water.
We spent a couple of days down at Noirmoutier, it was a great place to chill out, eat and kite. The tide went out for a fair old distance as it does around a lot of these places but we scored some brilliant conditions and the wind blew constantly.
A brief check on the net and the forecast showed the wind tailing off towards the end of the week so the call was made to head North which brought us to a great little spot called Gavres where we had been to a couple of years earlier.

This is the scene that greeted us at Gavres. On one side of the road was the sea and on the other when the tide was high there was a sheltered inland estuary which was unbelievably flat.
.....get me my 9m!

Now that is smooth as....

Tide out at Gavres

Gavres is a brilliant spot. On one side you have the waves and on the other you have flat water perfect for learning those kite loops or riding blind. So far the trip had been epic but we were running out of holiday time and needed to head north. The next stop on road trip was a place called Penhors. This is the only time we stayed on a camp site whilst away so all in all our accommodation costs probably amounted to around 35 euros in total-not bad for a week away.

The plan was to get some surf time in when we headed north but the slight onshore wind left over from the passing low pressure made the surf messy and unrideable.
Penhors

Eating out French style..

Dimi chilling after a few hard days kiting

Ours is the blue beast

We spent the last couple of days in and around the St Malo area mostly shopping and chilling out. We certainly did very well on the kiting front even if the SUP didn't get off the roof of the van. France has some great spots to kite and the people are friendly and the food fantastic. The camper went a treat and the living can be cheap if you've got your home on your back. Next year we will have more time so hopefully we will get to travel a little bit further and find some new spots to kite and more waves to surf!

Sunset, St Malo area

Team Hutch!!