It's been a while since my last blog.  Pretty understandable since I have been off the water for about a year now with various knee and ankle problems.  Unfortunately most of my preliminary sails have been in non planning conditions with no waves, including a trip to Fuerteventura!!  I went out with the Stephen Gibson Clinic.  Even with no wind we had a really good laugh.  Managing to amuse ourselves with plenty of golf, surfing and hot tub action!

I was starting to feel like a bad omen, until a good session today at my local spot Felixstowe.  

Cheers to  John, Farrell  and Ed at Moo Custom, Simmer and Chinook for getting my kit to me so quickly.  The board seems to perform really well in onshore conditions.  The extra volume (100L) seems to really help since I have put on a few pounds!  I'm really liking custom boards designs in the bigger sizes.  Generally speaking for myself,  the smaller tail to relative high volume production boards allows them to perform better on the wave amongst other things.

Having said that I am looking forward to the next few months once I am back up to strength, as I have some more new sponsors and projects on the go.  I am going to riding the PuraVidaCustom boards, testing them with Jim of  PuraVida Boardriders.  Pretty excited as I currently work as a Engineer so will hopefully put some of those geeky skills along with on water testing into the boards, to help fine tune them.  Not that Jim need 's much help, having shaped surfboards for years and tested most of the major production boards on the market though his shop .  Not to mention his new shaping set-up,  which I'm pretty jealous of!

  

 

The start of my new 90L custom PuraVida, CAD shaped for accurate dimension control.  Cant wait until its finished.  

BWA Cornwall and Monday session

Having stated to hobble around again after my knee operation. I was invited to come and judge the BWA Cornwall event. I was pretty impressed with the massive turn out.  Judging the pros, lady's and amateur fleet, the level and commitment of competors really impressed me.  I was please to see the new format of two sets of Judges implemented in this event. This allowed two fleets to be run alongside each other and will be the the best way to run BWA competition's at future events.

 Stand out sailors/fleets for me were:

Ladys Cornwall champion Lucy Robson.  With a top turn that could easily hold its own against many of the male competitors.  

The Lady's feet.  A massive turn out form all the girls, with a very high level. 

Lewis Merrony of the amateurs fleet. Not shying away form some wave tricks, to further his already high score's.  I look forward to seeing him in the Pros next year 

 Jamie Hancock and Timo's aerial battle in the first single of the Pro fleet.  Along side Adam Lewis's top turn  into taka.

 

Monday morning session 

While waiting for a lift home on Monday. I decided to take some photos of what turned out to be a pretty good session.  With Muzza and Jamie Handcock being the stand out sailors, pulling off some huge aerials in front of the gwithian lifeguard hut. Jamie later said they were some of the biggest aerials he had ever done.  Pity my I forget spare SD card and was taking photos like a bit of a specialist! Consequently I didn't get the hole sequence of most shots.  I have however put some of the best shot up on facebook.   Follow the link below. 

Monday session photos

Busy last few months of the water

The last few months have been lacking in windsurfing for me. After dislocating the top of my leg form the knee joint in Pozo, damaging there out of 4 ligaments in the knee I have been very busy couple of months physiotherapy! Thankfully the knee has recovered well, only needing one of the ligaments replacing, the ACL.

I am now recovering for the operation. This involved taking a couple of my hamstring ligaments to replace my ACL ligament and clean out some loose cartilage for the original damage. Recovery is going well, I am hoping it won't be the full 6 to 9months off games predicted after the operation!

The length of time before the operation has provided the opportunity to work on my company, Turfdog. A new prototyping workshop has lead to a new range of boards, coming out later this year. We have even been producing some custom boards at the request of the heaver users. These have reinforced tucks, carbon stringers and larger back wheels and trucks. See pics.

The longer wheel base also provides better high speed control and a smoother gybe. Combined with a dropped stance (lowered deck), giving a smoother feel.

We also with be shortly releasing some new equipment for other sports. Hopefully see you back on the water soon.

New Video about the 30th anniversary of F2. Enjoy

Pozo 2011, a short trip

I was pretty excited it get some training out in Pozo this year. Rather annoyingly after 5 days of marginal 4.7 Pozo weather, I bailed form an over rotated backy and got my foot stuck in a twisted front foot strap (Which I was going in to tighten after one more run!!!), leading to my knee getting bent in all sorts of wrong ways! Not being able to do much after this I flew back home to have it checked out. The results say I have at lest a couple of months off the water with ligerment damage, just waiting for a few more results to make there's not any more damage!!!!

While sitting with my leg up and Ice with a good old bag of Peas. I put together some clips I had on my computer of 2011/2010. Was hoping for a few better jumping shots but these will have to do.

Clips are form Hosseger France, Cape town South Africa and Pagham in the UK,Enjoy.

MPORA Action Sports >>

New sails

After missioning it back form the BWA with about a million people kit in my van. I got a phone call to say me new kit was in. I proceeded to drive back from the east coast down south and picked up my new sails super light and really nice.

Itching to get out I had a typical Sunday, usually family stuff then taken girlfriend shopping. I managed a cheeky little session at East witterings around 19.00. Conditions weren't amazing but was one of the best sails I have had in ages really good fun no pressure session.

After heading Back from ireland and evtually gett

Bank Holiday

It been a pretty good bank holiday weekend on the east coast, sailing Friday to Monday, with sunshine and not a cloud in the sky. Very strange UK weather? Managed to find some good waves up at Walberswick near my house, an added bonus of a short drive un-like my usual treks to the southcoast or Cornwall.

I also got to sail a new spot which I have been wanting to sail for ages, Bawdsey. It was really good with much bigger waves than the other spots near me. I have been a bit hesitant to sail it because of all the second world war debris, pillboxes and rather large metal spikes hidden by the lovely brown east coast water! No problems though.

Picture of Bawdsey on a lighter day

You can seee what I mean on this blog.

http://pillboxesinsuffolk.blogspot.com/2010_05_01_archive.html

After sailing for the last 5 days in row I am knackered, but ready for my trip up to Rossi and Ireland for the first of the BWA wave events. Hope the weather's as good for those trips.

More Pics of Bawdsey

Walberswick

Photos by Kate Hartley.