Maui part 2

I've been in Maui for a month now.  There's been some pretty big days at Hookipa with the channel closing out. I've seen Jaws breaking, pretty cool to see it in the flesh.  Defiantly want to come back and try and sail it in the next few years, so long as I have a jet ski!

 The person out hear who has impressed me the most hast to be Katie McAnena.  Paddling off the rocks to sail Jaws was pretty ballsy.  Leaving the guy's and myself  feeling slightly emasculated.

Hookipa a trick place.

It's taken me quite a while to get used to Hookipa.  Very busy, if you make a mistake you miss your wave and or your kit ends up on the rock on bigger days.  Luckily I have only had to kick off the rocks!

I was getting to the point where I was wondering what the hell I was doing here until the break though.  I tried out a custom quatro, which i fell in love with instantly. It improved my sailing so much I had to buy it.  The guys at quatro were super cool and very helpful, even after I pretty much stole the board off them for 4 days.   Now just waiting for the wind to kick back in this week and get on it.

  'Borrowing' a custom quatro at Hookipa

Loved it so much I had to buy it. Sprayed and ready to go.

 Katie Going for it 

Katie going balls out putting a lot of guys to shame.  

Sadly ending up on the rocks., the price you have to pay.

Cape Town Cold UK and Maui

South Africa

Once again I have been pretty lucky to get away to cape town this winter.  It gave me a good opportunity to really test out my knee.  Hats of to my Physio and Surgeon for all the help.   I even found I was sailing better with out the knee brace.  Winner!

It was a very different trip to last time I was in cape town.  Slowly getting back into full power sailing, then light winds for the latter half of my trip.  This led to me exploring the cape, surfing, climbing and venturing into the city more.  I highly recommend  the place to anyone looking for a varied amount of traveling as well as enjoy some world class sailing.  In one of my better moments, I  managed to destroy my hard drive!  So excuse the lack of  cape town photos.

 Final Sunset session 

Sunset

 Cape Point

Climbing Lions Head overlooking the city

Back to the UK

The days before I got back to the UK I noticed there was a decent NE wind. I was pretty excited as one of my home spots goes off for jumping in these conditions. So on my last day after bashing some balls off on a South African driving range in shorts and T-shirt I got on the the plan back to the UK . I was greeted by a snow blizzard and a flat battery in my van!! Ever the optimist I headed to the beach a couple of days later.  Not being able to feel my hands after 5 minutes, I took the elective decision not to go sailing and wait for Maui. Where sailing in board shorts seems to be pretty standard.

My home spot Bawdsey.  Not so inviting once it starts snowing!

Maui

I've been in Maui for a week now.  One of the most chilled out places I've visited. No wind at the start of the trip but plenty of surfing.   My first day the faces at Hookipa were a little over mast and glassy, perfect for surfing . Being a little intimidated I elected not to go for a surf, as the inevitable beating  I would take along with jet lag would not have gone well.  Since then we have had  few medium wave windsurfing days at Hookipa by Maui standards - pretty big if you ask me!  The swells finally kicking in next week.  Hopefully I wont be visiting Hookipa's famous rocks.

Hookipa on the second day with a little less swell

Getting started at Hookipa

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