Winter Round Up

It’s been a great Autumn and Winter, I’ve got out in decent waves nearly every week, sailing Horton, Kimmeridge, Gwithian and some secret point breaks around the Welsh coast.

  

Lets hope that this recent return to milder air is the precursor to an early spring. Today certainly felt spring-like in the mild ten degree temperatures.

Here is a rather random round up of pictures:

The first few are by Gary Lawton (and in a different league to my own rather slovenly snapshots).

See more of his pics and sailing on his blog http://www.garylawton.com/.

A January whitewater smack: Chilly, but you have to love the white, white surf at Kimmeridge - it makes sailing there even more special.

Clew first bottom turn - it's nearly always side onshore here

The Moo redirects nicely with a bit of backfoot pressure (you've got love all that fin power: 15+15+14)

Do I want a tail slide here? No thanks I want to get back down the wave.

Like this 

And then another turn from the same day

The end of another perfect session at Kimmeridge. I've been sailing here since 1982 and have seen so many fantastic sunsets here. Long may it continue

Secret point break - click to zoom - 1 windsurfer and 2 surfers, on consecutive waves. This place really is King of the endless section

Same spot: A lazy groundswell bends in around the point - not quite enough wind to sail which I bet made the surfers happy

Back to Kimmeridge - The bay at low tide in winter light

Kimmeridge bay again - "washing ledge" projecting out into the bay and responsible for that lovely section that rolls into the bay and makes a perfect take off ramp

Carnage count: 1 boom and 1 ripped sail in 4 months. No boards snapped... thankfully

Kimmeridge, Kimmeridge

I’ve been shoddy at keeping this blog up to date – and that has mainly because I’ve spent so much time sailing this Autumn and Winter I’ve had no time to post -  and I’ve been camera-less for several months.

Nevertheless conditions in early 2012 have been windy through January (and December before that). The wind took a holiday during the first two weeks of February as a high pressure pushed in with some colder weather, but today, 18 Feb 2012 the Westerly airstream is back with milder temperatures and some solid wind and wind waves.

So, Back to Kimmeridge for yet another session. With the predominantly West, rather than South West wind Kimmeridge has been incredibly consistent throughout December and January.

Today was a fun (if rather grey) onshore jumping session.

Blog Author in the sky

Alex back loop

Alex back loop - on the way down

Blog author enjoying an Ezzy 5.5

All pics by the lovely B

Leaden Skies and South Easterlies

Back to Kimmeridge again, this time for some South Easterly action.  A South East wind is sideshore on the ledges and with a bit of groundswell can create some perfect wave riding conditions.

I’ve been here two days in the last 10 and the conditions have been small but fun. Yesterday the waves were smaller but the leaden skies broke for an hour for some misty, dreamy sunshine. It’s always great to be on the water at Kimmeridge – feels like home.

It’s dark by 4.30pm now and although still mild Winter really feels as if it has arrived. To compensate for this the forecast is looking good for more sailing in the next 7 days.

Kimmeridge Ledges, Timo Aerials

Ledges again

The Mexican Guillotine and Cornish Pasties

The Mexican Guillotine, otherwise known as the low tide top to bottom close out at Mexico’s (just upwind of Gwithian beach) was my destination this weekend.

Staying clear of the BWA competition at Gwithian a few of us headed for Mexico’s for some uncrowded 19s 3m swell. To begin with the wave was as described, but as the tide pushed back in the wave started to peel, leaving open walls in the cross off 4.7m wind. The waves weren’t too big – shoulder to head high on the sets, but were moving faster than I have ever experienced before here and with so much space between them and mirror smooth. A lot of fun!
 

BWA comp at Gwithian

Hopeful of more wind the next day Harry, Bill and I met up at Gwithian on Sunday morning to the ever building swell and thunderous sets but hardly a breath of wind.

Sadly as the day wore on it was clear that the forecasted wind wasn’t going to arrive.

Congratulations to Bill for coming 2^nd in the masters!

Mammoth swell on Sunday morning

The sailors wait in dreamy light

Gwithian ambience

Gwithian ambience

Gwithian ambience - the weather closes in

Pics

The weather closes in at the Bluff.

Kimmeridge Heroes

(and Heroines)

Autumn has come quickly, there is a nip in the air and at Kimmeridge many of the trees already look stripped of leaves (though this maybe more a function of the relentless wind rather than the seasons changing).

Tuesday 13 September was a little bit special in that lots of windsurfers from (or connected to) the boards forum made the trek to deepest Dorset, from as far as Camber, Maidstone, Guilford and probably further. All lured by the promise of force 6 plus wind combined with a pumping 2.4m 12 second period swell.

The waves arrived the night before, especially to punish me - I squeezed in a late sail until my rig-parted company with my beloved custom board a long way out in the bay. I was in the process of getting a good pasting by a set of waves after having dropped the landing on a rather too end-over-end forward loop.

Luckily a passing sailor spotted my board and grabbed it, holding station until I reached him. Swimming with a detached rig and board is hard work and getting out under the cliffs at Kimmeridge at high tide wasn’t much fun either, with wave after wave throwing me up onto a bank of festering, stinking seaweed at the base of the cliff, but it was nothing compared to what some unfortunate sailors would experience the next day… and twenty four hours later after watching a few other people land on the rock ledges (below) at high tide I was thankful for the smelling festering seaweed, which saved my equipment from being completely destroyed.

Kimmeridge ledges

Back to Tuesday; It was a mixed day with the usual wintery Kimmeridge style apocalyptic squalls and wind drops, but in the end we all scored some up to logo high waves on the ledges on 5m (or smaller) sails. Pretty good in the September sunshine.

Andy Chandler (yellow sail) heads out

Andy Again

Half a dozen people stayed out on the ledges until after 7pm and with the wind dropping found it too hard to get back round to the slipway, so with no alternative tried to land on the ledges at high tide. This isn't a problem at low or mid tide, but at high tide the shorebreak crunches onto tightly packed fridge sized boulders that seem to have been carefully placed there to destroy windsurfing equipment, life and limb.

The shorebreak is relatively small, but the boulders that will get you...

Most escaped unscathed – but not all…

Landing at Kimmeridge ledges at high tide....

This left Andy Chandler and Russ and one other sailor out on the water, underpowered but absolutely ripping in the half mast (and now nearly sideshore) conditions. Jason and I watched as Andy landed a perfect back loop of a solid half mast wave, whilst Russ raced down the wave putting in some stylish and turns and an absolutely spectacular top turn into the breaking lip. Breathtaking.

All capped by this sunset over one of the most beautiful windsurf locations in the UK….

Kimmeridge sunset

Epilogue:
More! It looks like it’s going to happen all over again this weekend…

Summer Waves

The South Coast of England has had some fantastic windsurfing conditions this summer, if you knew where to be to catch the wind and windswell.

I spotted that a small 9 second swell pulse would be racing up the channel for Monday August 8^th. A rare event for Summer. Combined with a WNW wind that could only mean one thing... Kimmeridge might work.

Dawn broke with calm seas and light wind, so after a leisurely breakfast looking over the bay with Jason and a few others we patiently waited.

Best place in the world to have breakfast - what a view

But would the sunshine and flat sea, bring any wave sailing conditions...? Or will the Moo stay dry...

And by 1pm both the wind and swell had arrived, so a beautiful afternoon of Summer wavesailing ensued. Even Timo Mullen (usually an eagle eye for any predicted swell and wind had got it wrong) – he appeared after we had been on the water for over 2.5hrs riding and jumping wave after wave.

Timo jumps, blog author turns

Blog author loop - Plenty of wind for some fun forward loops - this was a pretty clean landing

Timo backloop - I have a nice view from the wave I'm on

Wave after wave.... all afternoon

This was a rare summer treat, but the real story has been the endless fun wave sailing at Hove in Brighton.

Unlike Kimmeridge the backdrop at Hove (in Brighton) is a port and power station. The industrial scenery is atmospheric and makes a great sailing backdrop but more significantly the combination of the port and power station generate what has to be some of the best Summer wavesailing in the South of England.

Power stations

The harbour arm from Shoreham port protects the bay from some cross chop in the prevailing WSW wind and the hot water outflow from the power station has created a spit of shallow water protruding about 200m or more off the beach; this creates a regular windswell wave break, practically every time the wind reaches 20 knots (which has been often this summer).The cross onshore conditions are fun rather than challenging but great for perfecting loops and frontside wave riding.

Looking west toward the harbour arm

Windswell start to break off the pipes (poles) in the distance

July sky

The conditions here seem very special for this stretch of coast. Only 20 minutes west Worthing will be flat whilst head high waves roll into Hove breaking on the spit and sandbars 200m off the beach. I’ve sailed here some twenty times since May and it is never flat. May the windy summer continue!

4.7m sails rolled up after another great session

Another day 4.7 again...

Hove Sessions

Two solid days of wind at Hove in Brighton (28 and 29 May), under unusual grey skies turned into an impromptu looping session with friends Harry, Andy and Jason...

So to bring this blog back on topic is a bit of forward loop technique critique:

First up is a technically perfect stalled forward by Jason - he's being doing these for about 12 years so he should be good at them, at least that is what I console myself with...

The pictures don't do this justice; the rotation was late and whipped him round perfectly.

Next below is Harry. He did some perfect rotations on Saturday, I can't remember if this was one of them. As always this move looks better in a succession of images, rather than a couple of pictures. Watching him my observation was, that like me, he needs to speed up his rotation quite a bit (even though we are both landing plenty).

This is one of Harry's friends below (sorry don't know your name) who was also having a good crack at forwards. On this picture below you can see the classic beginners problem of his body blocking the rotation by not flowing forward, and he is not looking back. It's the physical equivalent of his brain saying 'you must be joking'... Read a bit more about the psychological mountain that beginner loopers need to overcome here: Lizards vs Civilisation

However he's taken off down wind and is sheeting in, even though his body is blocking the rotation (look back further round behind you, push the rig forward much more and keep the nose up) Also he's committed and is not going to hurt himself so the loop will be his soon...

Now Andy below - he is going to hate this picture as he is brilliant at forwards and was banging out back loops today with consistent landings. What to say apart from great to be sailing with you - we'll get better pictures next time.

And a few more of Jason, single images from different rotations, high and very clean given the small onshore conditions.

Now onto the images that Harry snapped of me (below):

At low altitude I'm quite pleased with these I really seem to getting the rotation reasonably fast and quite sideways (single images from different rotations):

The problem is when I get a bigger ramp and go much higher, my stall is ok but then I just don't tuck up into the rotation and don't sheet in; resulting in a death pole vault, which I sometimes land, but it's pretty ugly.

On the next two images you can see the rotation being initiated slower and less aggressively as I get higher. They are both different loops and the last one really resulted in a horrible end over end mess.

I know I need to sheet in much harder, much more aggressively, but somehow something happens up there that prevents me... Darn, any tips gratefully received.

Finally here is Basher from the boards forum doing one of his 'not' jumps. Nice.