Warm up for the winter season

Still trying to get a full laydown gybe, I know I need to let go with the front hand but at 25+knots my balls are not big enough!

My rate of articles has decreased significantly over the summer, I originally blamed that on lots of sessions on the water and writers block. The TV has just been turned on, and tonight I am being forced to sit through 'Top Dog Model' followed by 'Food Hospital', I can now see a pattern. I had to suffer these all last Autumn, Winter and Spring, along with Kats favourite which is something to do with Embarrassing Bodies, or is that voices, songs or dancing? So the good news is I feel motivated to do something other than watch the crap that is currently polluting my living room, and this means get back to writing on here.

LtoR Myself (W4CR Trustee),
Nick Dempsey (GB Olympic Silver Medal Winner and W4CR ambassador),
Brian Roake (W4CR Chairman)

The past few weeks have been very busy, the new term has started at work and of course the National Watersports Festival was a nice reward at the end of the first week.  I will post a full article about our time there raising money for Windsurfing 4 Cancer Research. We hope to have raised over £4,000 in total once all monies have come in from the auction. Many of the big names in the windsurfing industry donated items for us to auction on the first night.

The Saturday provided glassy water and very little wind, which only came properly just as everyone packed up for the weekend. This ironically did not make the National Watersports Festival any less enjoyable. I cannot describe in words how good the atmosphere is, it needs to be experienced.

Over this last week I have done some experimentation again with different sail settings on my Hot Sails GPS 8m and 7.3m sails, along with trying different fins out. This will all go in a technical article I have planned. I think I have found the top end for me on the 8m which stands at just over 34knots with my Exocet RS4 (69cm 111l), I am yet to experiment with the RS2 and the 8m. The 7.3m I am no where near finding the top end yet, I expect it is well over 40knots and will get it there one day!

So far I have clocked more than 80 sessions on the water with 75 of them being full on planing sessions and only a few non planing or faffing with the SUP. I hear some people say about poor winds this year, I just think its poor effort on their part, but I do know how lucky I am to drive home every day past one of the best flat* water windsurfing spots in Europe. A couple of times last week with marginal winds I had already decided not to go for a session as I left work only to find myself half way through rigging up without thinking about it. Last year I remember clocking every single nautical mile I sailed in every article, this year I have kept a check on it and it now stands above 1,600. Only 200 more to go and 18 more sessions to beat 2011 which was the best ever windsurfing year for me.

*most of the time its not really that flat compared to a lot of speed strips.

Finally does anyone know of a gadget that can block crap TV programmes? I have tried the traditional method of using the off switch but it causes ear-ache!

Good speeds and winds

The Bus.