I was supposed to be mountain-biking at Afan today, the place where last year we went and ended up calling the air ambulance for Jon and I spent most of the night in casualty at Moriston with him!
As my family were still here and the wind was blowing I decided to have windsurf instead of making the long drive south the Afan. It was pretty hectic out there with a 4.5m and my little JP Wave board. I was the first out on the water with the tide a little too high. The others were pretty hesitant about going out because of the conditions but once they saw me blasting around out there started rigging up.
My Dad came over to watch with the video camera so hopefully I’ll have some good footage soon. It wasn’t easy out there early on with some pretty big waves and bumpy conditions but I was having a whale of a time. Well powered up and having fun. Simon and Andy joined me after a while but struggled to get out and ended up downwind after a few rinsings each time.
Simon - Off to Casualty
Then Simon managed to smash his head somehow and came wandering up the beach a little dazed and disorientated covered in blood. A quick look and it was obvious he was going to need stitches so I sent him off to our house with my Dad whilst I secured his kit and then headed across to the house as well.
After a little first aid, some photos and the odd bit of poking and prodding by the whole family Anna took him to casualty at Bronglais whilst I went back out for a a bit more of sail and the rest of the family came over to watch.
Once back at home Anna and Simon returned from casualty where Simon had had 3 stitches and a couple of steri-strips to keep his head together. He looked a little better by now as well.
A great day on the sea and a bit of excitement too.
Windy Miller
I’ve just got back from another windsurf session here at Ynyslas. Today for a change the wind was South-Westerly so we were sailing on the opposite tack. Much nicer for me as I prefer jumping on that tack.
Despite the high expectations the wind wasn’t quite as strong as we had hoped and was hovering around the 20 knot mark, so my big wave board (Naish Hybrid Freewave 85ltr) and biggish sail (Gun Nexus 5.6m) was the order of the day.
To start with it was perfect and I was able to blast in and out through the waves and even gain some ground upwind. After about an hour on the water Dave and Sarah came over to the beach and started rigging so I stopped for a rest and wandered up the beach to sea them. Once they were rigged and we got back on the water the wind had eased and it was a struggle to get going in the water-water for a while, but out the back there was still enough wind most of the time.
Thankfully after ending up a little way downwind the wind did come back and I was able to sail back to where I started from but it never quite filled back in to make it into an epic session. Still I covered over 30 miles and painted lots of red lines on the sea via Google Earth!
Painting the sea red
I had another really good windsurf session yesterday. The wind was NW at about 20 knots so I went out on my big board (104 ltr Starboard S-Type) with my 5.6m Gun Nexus sail from the seafront. That was perfect, just the right amount of power for some fast blasting but completely in control and comfortable.
Instead of the usual sailing back and forth over the same bit of water that I normally do, the fact that I was on a bigger board, with a bigger fin (30cm) and therefore had more upwind ability I decided to head upwind towards Aberdovey. The upwind stretch was nice and it meant that I had to contend with lots of different sea conditions on my way. 1-2 foot surf near the shore at Ynyslas, rolling swell and chop further out, then short sharp chop over the Dyfi Bar followed by the flat waters of Aberdovey.
Once over towards Aberdovey the wind eased off quite a bit. It was fine on the way there but once I gybed there was little wind to get going again until I was back out into the channel. I therefore had a couple of runs on the Aberdovey side before heading back on some mad downwind runs back over the bar to Ynyslas.
I didn’t have a huge amount of time as I had to go to circuits and swimfit so I only stayed on the water for an hour and a half, but covered over 23 nautical miles with an average speed of 15.76 knots. You can see my route below and as you can see I hit a maximum speed of 27.2 knots on the downwind run from Aberdovey, just as I crossed the flat water to the lee of the bar.
Windsurfing Ynyslas to Aberdovey
I do love living here sometimes – well, all the time actually - but now and then when it all comes together it is just perfect.
Thursday and Friday this week were just great. More wind than expected, warm, and even sunny on Friday so it was off to the beach windsurfing. Anna was at work, Morgan was in holiday club, I didn’t have much work on and being a freelance website designer I can choose what time of day to work anyway.
So, I made an early start, got some work out of the way and around midday on Thursday headed over to the beach. It was a little cloudy and didn’t look that windy but Simon was down for a couple of days and was keen to get out so I thought I’d join him. I even persuaded Dave and Sarah (from next door) to come out for windsurf on the seafront, and there were a few windsurfers from Bristol out too.
The wind was fairly light (by my standards) so I went out with my 5.6m sail and my big (85 litre) Naish Hybrid Freewave board. It was only just enough, I was able to stay upwind but a little more wind would have been good. Also, my achilles tendon was sore from a run the day before and the twitchy nature of that board didn’t help, so after a while I went back home and got a bigger board (Starboard S-type 104) which would get me going quicker and would be a little more comfortable.
I used that for a while and had some good blasts out through the choppy waters on it but then the wind picked up so I changed back to the smaller board and then changed down to a 5m sail. I then spent most of the day sailing perfectly powered up with a 5m sail and big wave board which is just about perfect.
Everyone seemed to be having a good time. Simon was out kiting, the guys from Bristol were having a good sail and Dave and Sarah were pleased with their progress in the ‘waves’. In the end I covered nearly 37 miles which is a fair way in choppy conditions.
Friday turned out even better though. The wind was stronger, a little more northerly and the sun was shining. Simon joined me windsurfing rather than kiting and Dave, Sarah and the guys from Bristol were all out too. There was no messing around with bigger kit, just my 5m sail and big wave board. If I’d had my small wave board with me I would have used that but the bigger one was fine.
GPS Track
Once again it was a bit of a marathon session covering over 40 miles of sailing and with a top speed of 31.77 which in the waves and on wave kit is pretty good. Click here for the stats.
I may not have got a huge amount of work done or earned much money, but that it the whole point of me living the life I live. Being by the sea and a freelancer means that I should (in theory) be able to get out for a windsurf and make the most of good conditions whenever they arise. I certainly made the most of them on Thursday and Friday and now can’t wait for more wind!
It was one of those days today where I spend much of it wandering backwards and forwards to the beach waiting for the wind to pick up. It was forecast to swing to the SW and maybe pick up a little later in the day, but then that forecast changed and it didn’t look so good.
By 4pm there still wasn’t any sign of wind – well, not enough for windsurfing anyway – so I decided to jump on the Turbo Trainer and do an hours ‘recovery’ session to burn off some calories and make me feel as though I’d done something.
The turbo trainer session went well but as I got off I realised that the wind had finally picked up. I checked the weather station and sure enough it was now 20-25 knots with the odd 30 knot gust and looking good.
It didn’t take me long to decide that it was time to go windsurfing so I loaded up my wheel-barrow and headed across to the beach. I rigged my 5.6m sail and Naish Hybrid Freewave 86 board and got out there. My ribs were still hurting from my crash a couple of weeks ago so I took it easy, but still managed quite a few nice jumps and some decent wave rides.
After blasting around in the normal spot and playing in the waves for about an hour I decided to finish the session off with a nice blast out to the buoy on the Dovey Bar and back.
It may have been a long wait for the wind today but it was worth it when it came!
It was pretty windy last night. We’re used to the wind here and it is quite often windier than you can imagine but it’s been so long since we’ve had any proper wind that it actually kept us a wake last night.
According to the Borth and Ynyslas Weather Station it hit 46.9 knots which is the biggest gust so far this year. Still quite a way off the 62.2 knots recorded on 12th Mar 2008. It’s nice having the weather station there so that I can check these stats and historic records from time to time.
I should really go windsurfing this morning to make the most of the wind that’s left, but I hurt my ribs whilst windsurfing yesterday and don’t think I’ll be able to manage it. The wind is beginning to ease a little now, once it’s dropped off properly my next job will be to get out in the garden and and check the damage done.
Phew, at last I feel like a windsurfer again.
So far this year has been pretty pathetic wind-wise. its been good for the garden and for cycling but I’ve barely been out windsurfing – Just 21 sessions so far according to my diary entries. Yesterday was good though with a 25-30 knots wind all day. I went out at around 9am just in case the wind eased off and spent 3 hours on the water, covering a distance of over 40 miles.
The weather wasn’t great whilst I was out with cloudy skies to start with and then rain, but the wind was perfect, I was perfectly powered up with a nicely rigged 5m sail and my little JP wave board and the waves were nice too. Nothing too big as far as the waves were concerned but some nice waist to shoulder high, steep faces to act as ramps on the inside and then some bigger rolling swell out the back. As well as loads of big jumps I made one fairly convincing back-loop attempt and had a few nice wave rides on the way in. A perfect 5 star session.
Of course, once I got off the water the sun came out and there wasn’t a cloud in the sky for much of the afternoon, and the wind kept blowing too. I was half-tempted to go back out for a second session!
This is what it looks like from a satellite above the earth – I nearly coloured a whole section of sea in red!
I had a great windsurf session yesterday when the wind picked up without warning.
I’d just been for a bike ride and when I got back the wind filled in beautifully so I headed across to the beach with my kit. It was windy enough for a 5m sail and my wave board so I headed out perfectly powered on smallish kit.
The wind was SSW so I was sailing out to sea and going a fair way out. Not only was I the only person on the water, but I was treated to some pretty extreme bird-watching too. Blasting along over the choppy waters I was surrounded at one point by loads of Manx Shearwaters flying just above the water all around me. Not only that but there were quite a few Gannets about too, some of them diving into the water just a few feet from me as I passed by. Quite impressive and a little more exciting than watching through a telescope from the shore!
I wish I’d taken my camera with me really as it would have been good to have stopped out there and got some photos of them. Although, if I had they probably wouldn’t have come so close.
The wind this year has been terrible so I’ve hardly been windsurfing. I nearly managed a session on Thursday night but the wind dropped so I blamed the lack of wind on the “curse of the new kit“.
Since then I’ve had a little more luck.
On Friday I managed an nice late afternoon windsurf session thanks to the sea breeze. I’d been for a cycle and a run before but the wind picked up so after the frustrations of the day before I just had to have a sail. I ended up Nicely powered with a 6.7m sail and my S-Type 104 – The biggest kit I have. The wind did drop after about half an hour on the water, but after the year we’ve had so far, half an hours windsurfing felt good.
Saturday was much better. There still wasn’t loads of wind but the sun was shining and a nice NW was blowing. At first it was only just enough for my big kit again so I went out on that, but the wind gradually filled in the whole time I was out there so that by the end I could easily have changed down to smaller kit. I didn’t, as I had to get off the water at 1pm in order to take Morgan to a birthday party, but I managed a good sail.
The sea was quite choppy and I wasn’t on my speed kit, but there weren’t any waves so blasting back and forth as fast as possible was the order of the day.
I’d noticed on one of the sites that I upload my windsurf GPS tracks to (SportstrackLive) that I was getting close to some of the records for the longer distance speeds. My top speeds are nowehere near the records, but my average speed over 1 nautical mile or more is good. This is probably because most people using these sites upload data from pure speed attempts and then have to get back upwind before doing another pure speed run. Their trip back upwind is slow, giving them a slow average speed.
In contrast if I keep blasting back and forth on long runs and don’t fall off then I can get a good average speed. So, that’s what I was going for and I managed to beat quite a few of my Personal bests. Here they are:
Admitted it’s not the 40 knots top speed that I’m after, but that was never on the cards whilst sailing such big kit on the sea.
Ever since buying my new windsurf speed kit way back in March, there just hasn’t been any wind. Not enough anyway.
Yesterday however looked liked the most promising day so far, NE’s and hopefully Ivor our katabatic wind would show up. Usually on such occasions he starts blowing early in the morning, sometimes around 4.30am and then builds until about 8am before dropping off, so I was all prepared for an early morning, first light start.
4.30am came and went without the appearance of Ivor, as did 7.30am. There still wasn’t a huge amount by Midday but the underlying forecast was for it to pick up again later in the day. At last, at about 1.30pm it started to pick up. I had to do the school run at 3pm so couldn’t get out yet, but by 3pm it was 25 knots, wall to wall sunshine and perfect for my bigger speed kit.
I collected Morgan from school and hatched a plan. Load up car, phone Anna and tell her to go straight to the estuary after work, go to the estuary with Morgan, rig up with Morgan helping so that I was ready to go when Anna got there and could take Morgan off my hands.
I did just that. When we got to the estuary the wind was in the 30-35 knot range with gusts to 40 knots. The speed channel was looking perfect, could today be the day? I rigged my 5.2m North Warp sail and thought I’d start with the bigger 80 litre board and then change down to the smaller speed needle if all felt good. All the kit is new and never been used so I need some time to get used to it but conditions were looking perfect for a proper speed session
Anna rushed home from work for me and was on the beach by 5.20pm. I handed Morgan over and walked to the water. Jumped on and all felt fine. There is always a little bit of apprehension when going out on new kit, especially kit so different from that which I normally sail, but it all felt fine. Straight onto the plane, I headed upwind to the speed channel, beared away onto a speed run, taking it easy just getting used to the kit. Halfway along, the wind dropped. Grrrrrr!!!!!!! I didn’t even make it to the end of the speed channel before it dropped so much that I fell in backwards and had trouble water-starting.
I got going again and had one or two more goes, but there just wasn’t enough wind. What do I have to do to get to use my speed kit!
Needless to say I got nowhere near my 40 knot aim so the challenge to hit 40 knots continues.
