Last sail of 2012

As it was quite windy and wavy between Christmas and new year, I was hoping to get down to Cornwall.  Sadly my van was not  co-operating.  I still managed some sailing on the south coast, having my best session of the year, on new years eve, at Pagham near Chichester. Not hard as I can nearly count the the number of wave sessions I've had on one hand, due to injury and work commitments! 

Hear's a short video of my new years eve session before my go pro packed up. Happy new year to every one.  

New year resolutions; more windsurfing!

Cheers to Jim at Puravida for the loan of the board and thanks to Turfdog, Chinook, Simmer and K4 harness mount s for there support. 

New Years Eve 2012 from michael Archer on Vimeo.
   

East Coast

Like the rest of the UK the east coast has been pretty windy, with 3.7 and 4.2 weather at my home spot; pretty rare especially in summer. Having a full time job means I'm pretty rushed to get on the water .  I managed to get a few picks before heading back to work on one of the days.

 Felixstowe Ferry photos

 Felixstowe may not offer the greatest conditions, but there's a good core group of guys down at the locals who come down when ever there's wind,  sailing anything from the latest slalom gear to 1980s wave boards.  The sport is alive and well on the east coast.

When there's no wind it seem s to be pretty sunny.  It's given me time to test out some of the new Turfdog models freemove and freestyle.  Which both seem to work great for each discipline.   Hopefully some more photos and videos to follow soon.

 Testing the new freestyle board, with new improved tail rail and lightening.

 Dog checking out the local talent!

New Freemove mid gybe.  The new wheel positions make it a caving beast.

  Close up of the new freemove.

UK Freestyle at Worthing

I enjoyed heading down to Worthing this Saturday,  catching up with the UK freestylers.   Sadly we didn't have much wind.  Considering the light gusty conditions,  I managed to get a few shots of some impressive freestyle  form youths, armatures and Pros before the wind died completely!  Thanks again to Trevor Funnel ,  the UKWA  and the Baker's for organising the event.   

Photo Gallery by QuickGallery.com

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