Saturday 14th January 2011

Below you'll find a selection of photo's from Saturday morning session at Vazon. It was a classic weekend made all the better by the lack of surfers in the water. Unfortunately we didn't get any shots of the Sunday session but if you think these look good? - Sunday was even better!
Thanks to Pierre Bisson for all the photos www.gsyphoto.com

The motley crew....
Marshan..looking seriously happy
Phil....nice sails

Yours truly

Oly...style master

Harty...back in action

Heavy!

The President....sliding it off the top

Jas.....mind that foot!!!

Chris.....re-entry

Whoops!...

Weekend to remember!!!

It was a weekend to remember in more ways than one.
Firstly, due to the sad loss of our fellow windsurfing friend Jamie Whalley on 11th Jan we decided to have a get together at Vazon and have a sail in remembrance of the good old times that we spent down the beach with Jamie. As if by some sort of act of God it also coincided with a pumping westerly swell and perfect cross off conditions.
This gave me the perfect opportunity to try out my new 87 lt Naish Tri-fin wave board. The board is a good size for those marginal days when the waves are good and the wind is a little fickle. The board tapers quite narrow into the tail and thus turns really smooth even in single fin configuration. Great for snappy off the tops and re-entries. As the session progressed my confidence was growing all the time until I eventually took it too far on a big one and went over the falls with my kit. Hanging onto the boom as I got rinsed I popped up from the white water to discover that the rail had been crushed probably by the mast as I was getting dragged over the falls.
Gutted, this was the second time that I had done my kit some damage in less than a couple of days as I had bust my mast a couple of days earlier and holed my wave sail.
As you can see from the photos she's in the repair shop with my mate and master craftsman Steve Mellors who is hopefully going to perform some moments of magic and bring her back to life.
I've posted a couple of photos of the board looking in a sorry state but fingers crossed she'll be looking like new ready for the next cross-off session :-)

Ouch.....!

Very sad news

Tragically a friend and windsurfing buddy, Jamie Whalley was killed in an Avalanche in Val d'isere on Tuesday morning. He was a great guy and well known and liked by all who knew him. This Saturday at 10am some Guernsey windsurfers will be meeting at Vazon bay to have a windsurfing session in memory of him. Condolences go to his family during this very hard time. He was a great guy, always happy and smiling and good fun to be with! He will be missed.

Please take a look at Matt and Phil's blogs for further tributes-

vivelabreeze.blogspot.com

funautical.blogspot.com

First Session of 2011!!

Location-Vazon beach
Sail size-Naish 5.3 Force
Board-Naish 87ltr tri-fin wave board
Conditions-cross-off, 2 foot!!!

Doesn't sound very exciting but it doesn't take much to get the boys fired especially when you take into account the severe drought that we've experienced over the last 2 months!!
It had been blowing pretty hard for most of the morning but the swell forecast for the day wasn't great so I wasn't expecting much when I arrived at Vaz at 1.30pm. My old friend Harty had already been in and was just getting out when I arrived down the beach. To say it was small was an understatement but there were signs of a small swell and it was definitely windy and Dr Stark was going in for a quick half hour and I'd thought I'd join him and keep him company.
As the tide dropped the wind got stronger and the swell was improving all the time. The new board was going a treat. I had it in the tri-fin set up and she was feeling sweet. It is sooo loose but then again when you see the size of the fins you can understand why. As time went on a few more of the boys turned up. Phil, Matt, Stu and Dave had all come down to make the most of the cross-off wind and small waves that were now rolling in. Even though the swell was small the crew were whacking out some fine aerials just in the shallows. We all came in around 4.30pm and were fully stoked with the afternoons session. The forecast for the remainder of the week is looking good so fingers,toes and eyes crossed for some more fun later in the week!
On a final note Phil (North) Warry has now got a blog up and running-check it out at http://funautical.blogspot.com - Nice!