With the weather looking pretty cold and no one to sail with the East coast was an unpromising prospect for Thursday. This was a bit disappointing because NE is a nice direction, at my local spot all be it a little cold. It always gives some good side shore condition and good swell.

I am not a big fan of sailing by myself in these conditions (I lost my rig last time!) so the prospect of discussing some projects with Adam Sims and his new brand Silte along with Turfdog development, sounded a convincing argument for a session in Kent.

Slightly upset I had left my home spot in some of my favourite conditions. I was not to fully convinced about the conditions Greatstone would have to offer. Sims was adamant there would be some good ramps for backs and pushes. On arrival I was pleasantly surprised by the decent size waves with a good pitch.

Sailing with Adam never disappoints. I keenly rigging up my 5.3 and was presented with the by a "beautiful" spectacle of Adam in a father Christmas hat and RRD Y fronts setting the tome of the session. I had one of the best sails for a long while, hardly being bothered by the cold and spending at least 3hours out on the water. All in all pretty good fun, trying to keep a Christmas hat out of my eyes mid jump.

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Not so nice Norfolk

Once again on Thursday conditions looked good in Norfolk so I decided to make the one and a half hour trip up from Suffolk. Checking out Waxham in North East Norfolk, we found the wind was not playing ball with 10mph winds dead off shore coming from the west with no swell. Not quite the predicted NNW 25 knots! After a little we headed up to East Runton only to find the wind had swung and was now NNW 25 knot, dead onshore!!! Should have seen it coming really, so back to Waxham where it was looking good. It was side on and windy, with the swell starting to fill in so I rigged my 4.7 and 82L only to find that the second I placed my board on the beach, the wind dropped to 10-15knots. After a brief float I decided to watch how Henry was getting on. I found him down wind with a fist size knot in his kite. Game over for him after just 10 minutes!! I was up for going home at this point but Henry persuaded me to rig my 5.7 and 90l. I floated out with the wind a little more side shore but was incredibly under powered. I was just heading in when the wind filled in, followed by sleet. It was not too bad and I got a couple of jumps and rides before the wind died again after about 15 minutes. Well you win some you lose some but some days it seems we were never were going to win - still a 15mnute session is better than no session, all be it a little cold on the face.

East runton

Thursday was a pretty good day at East Runton. I got down mid morning to find Steve Thorp and Dave white on the beach. After hearing the wind might be dropping, I rushed to rig up as I want another go on my new quad. I had a pretty good session with some jumping and wave riding befre the wind dropped off at mid day. Just had to try and avoid falling in, as you ended up with a white water ice cream headache!

Snowboarding

I may have been slightly annoyed at loosing my rig the other day. Waking up this morning to see my house looking like a postcard picture form the Alps soon put this out of my mind. If only I had a snowboard! Luckily windsurfers think alike. My mate Jimbo had no one to snowboard with. We quickly built a kicker and spent the later half of the day until dark having fun in the snow. If there's more snow tomorrow, I'm thinking of a turf dog prototype snowdog board!

Bye Bye rig

The east coast has been pretty cold and snowy for the last few days. Today there was a little break in the weatherand I managed to get out in the NE wind on my 4.2 at Felixstowe. It was pretty good fun for the first 20 minutes. I was pretty warm and there was a good period between sets, as the waves were being diffracted round the sandbank near the ferry river mouth entrance. I started getting pretty confidently into my jumping until, on the landing of a stalled forward, my board detached from the rig!!! There are quite a few rips on the east coast so after initially trying to save my rig I ditched it and paddled for the shore. I was back on shore in about 5 minutes and sweating, shows how good new wetsuit technology is getting. Sadly no sign of my rig!!!

I thought I would take a look a couple of miles down the coast towards Felixstowe pier. I spotted the rig in the distance a bit far to paddle out and retrieve in the cold weather. I thought I would wait to see if the waves would push it in shore, however the rip was not playing ball and I watched it drift out to sea again with the tide before it got dark!! I was really glad I did not attempt to swim, as I would most probably would have drifted off too!!

A pretty nice day in my garden before I left! Luckily it was a bit warmer on the coast!

Highcliff video

Re
MPORA Action Sports >>
cent video of SJ and my exploits on the south coast. Enjoy

Unexpected Highcliff with new boards

The UK has been proving pretty good this past couple of weeks. Having squeezed in a few first light sessions before work, me and Steve Jarvis decided to take Thursday off to sail K-Bay. The wind direction was south westerly moving round to west. Once the wind swung west, we thought it would be perfect for practicing starboard tack jumping and a bit of on shore riding.

On are way form Southampton we had a phone call for m Ollie woodcock, already at Kimmerage. To are disappointment it was still bolt on shore SW and hand not swung as predicted. We decide to make the best of the situation, swing off the A35 and head to Avon beach get a bit of side shore jumping riding.

Avon it was pretty windy. We quickly rigged up are 3.7s and headed out. This was not one of my favourite sessions as after about 5mimuntes the wind backed off, swing a little west offshore. This lefty me with a nice swim back to the beach, A little annoyed to say the least!

Not to hopeful of a decent session we decide head towards Highcilff. On leaving Avon we swung past spot on water. Mark being the importer of F2 was waiting for the new shipment of boards. Seeing lots of cardboard boxes outside I was pretty excited, having been waiting for my 2011 quad and freestyle board.

New F2 Barracuda 2011 quad

2011 Rave twin fin

and Rodeo freestyle board

A little more enthused about the sport, after some quick photos we headed to Highcliff. We weren’t expecting much, however to are surprise it was one of the best south coast sessions for a long time. With the wind shifting from side to side off and logo high. My new F2 Barracuda quad was as good as it looked. It surprised me how much the quad complimented my wave riding with its control and speed and drive though turns. I had some much fun I could no leave the water until it was dark. I then followed up with a half an hour constant chat about my new board was until S J told me to "SHUT THE **** UP."

Testing the quad

End of the year

Finally and good end to this years windsurfing events at Gwithian. Sadly no pics of myself but mast high cross off on the Friday of the comp. 11th overall was not to bad considering I had to miss the event in Tiree so overall am pretty happy with my years performance. The weathers been pretty good recently and I have managed to get on the water at least twice a week, with the weather still pretty warm. Hopefully not getting to cold soon!!

Hears a pic of Steve Thorpe on the Friday.

Hossegor France

After browsing for flights to Brazil (£800!!) I decided to take a much cheaper September trip to France. Before doing some Turfdog promotion in the North of France, my girlfriend and I decided to do some surfing in the south of France in Hossegor. This area at the bottom of the Bay of Biscay is famous for its long sandy beaches and barrelling waves which feature in the ASP Surfing World Tour in late September. I though it unlikely that it would be windy enough to windsurf, as this area is usually pretty light at this time of year, I was lucky enough to have 3 out of 5 days sailing. The conditions were windy enough to float and waveride, with some side/side off conditions making for some good windsurfing in the punchy waves and in a warm slightly less expensive location.

One of the best things about this place is the fact that even in very little swell the waves can be really nice and finally we had a day with 6.5 ft swell, giving up to triple head high faces at some of the breaks. I was pretty excited as in the last year I haven’t had the time to do much surfing and this was the first really good day. In one of my more special moments I decided to take off right on the inside and do a nice air drop wipe out then over the falls with the lip, all on my fist wave! This lead to a good pinning to the seabed followed by a board straight to the head (being too lazy to change to my longer leash) and a nice little gash in the side of my head!! Note to self: THINK!!!!

Bank Holiday Weekend

Finally after a 2 months wait I got my new shipment of 100 Turfdogs. I picked them up on the Wednesday before the bank holiday. In the process of this I discovered my vans breaks were a little warn (all the pads and disks were shot). This meant I spent Thursday and Friday morning figuring out how to replace them and building boards for my awaiting Turfdog customers! Finally finished by mid Friday, I set of for Worthing for the UKWA Freestyle and Slalom event. After half an hour suck in the usual bank holiday traffic for five and a half hours for a two hour journey!!



The Saturday of the event was pretty light for windsurfing, but perfect Turfdog conditions, so naturally spent most of the day demonstrating!!! the boards.


Team Rider Adam Sims Showing off his skill.

Sunday proved a bit better for sailing, with good wind for the first half of the day. It was quite interesting helping out with the judging off the freestyle event, seeing the perspective other than just a competitor. I also managed to get quite a bit of sailing done in-between heats.


Judging with the help of Nick and Ant Baker.

With the event over on the Sunday I was itching for a wave sail. The wind was filling in on the east coast I headed back home to Suffolk on the Sunday night. I have never sailed in Norfolk and with the conditions to off shore locally I headed a couple of hours up the road early Monday to North Norfolk, Cromer. I found this to be big, but to on shore with the wind was bouncing off the cliffs making it light. I was pretty gutted I had driven all that way for nothing until one of the locals told me to check out a place called Waxham down the road. It was a bit more side shore, windier and with some head to logo high waves. I managed a good riding session and a bit of jumping. I will defiantly make the effort to sail Norfolk more. The wave also packed a bit of punch unlike most waves further down is Suffolk and a lot of places on the south coast.
All in all a pretty good bank holiday weekend.


Testing out my new Gopro boom mount mid forward.

Felixstowe, just when you want it.

After being back from the Canaries I was happy to have a rest and get back to work. I have recently taken over Turfdog, the land windsurf board company, so have been trying to get my head around the paperwork and its future direction. As per usual (within a week), I was itching for my next sail. Luckily for me the wind was playing ball. The last 2 days have been Nothwesterlys, producing cross off conditions at my local spot Felixstowe. At first it was just freestyle, but later we got a few little waves. It's nice just to sail some cross off and sail my local spot. I also have some new sponsors, Chinook UK. I am really looking forward to using the new Chinook gear, as it is high performing equipment which is also really tough.



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Not much wind in Pozo

Not been to much wind or waves in Pozo the last few days. I even saw the wind turbines stop moving, which is pretty much unheard of at this time of year! Hears the Photographic evidence, the turbines dont even know which way to turn! Managed a little 5.3 freestyle session today and got my first few port tack Ponches so pretty happy all the same. Looking forward to the waves coming back.

Found this pic of me riding. Have been really practising as it seems most of the guys in PWA competition get trough on good onshore rides.

Pozo is windy again.

Pozo has defiantly Kicked back in again. With this the PWA wave event has started up in Pozo with Ben Proffit knocking out Kauli in his first heat and only just being knocked out by kid Kosta. Some sick wave rinding form Ben. Even better considering the guy spent most of the winter injured, nice one. With this happening we have been sailing at Vargas for the last few days. Its nice to sail somewhere a little more side shore . Will put up some pics soon as I get out when someone's on the camera!!!

Not to Much wind in Pozo for the start of the PWA which is a shame. The surf up north looks good, however I have been greedy an brought 3 windsurf boards with me and no surf board!!! Thankfully the wind looks like its starting to pick-up tomorrow. We have also sadly been left by Adam sims, but joined by Chris Murry and a car for the next week. We are all pretty excited about exploring some of the islands less well known spots. Will keep you posted.

Mike Archer Windsurf K728

Out in Pozo

Finally made it out somewhere with wind. Might not be many waves, but at least im out on the water.