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!

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!