I’m not complaining of course as it was a pretty good session, well powered up on small kit with decent winds and decent waves. It was shame there was no one else around but I guess it was mid week and fairly early in the day so that I could get in and out before the tide was on the pebbles.

I did manage to hurt my ribs / chest a little as well in a fairly violent coming together of body and boom in a big crash – All part of the fun I suppose but it’s pretty sore now.’m not the only one who’s been out either as there are plenty of people around the UK planning a session and a few are popping up in the Forces-of-Nature windsurf session diaries already – It’s good to see everyone getting out and having fun. I’m looking forward to ‘autumn proper’ now!

We all had a little surf, Morgan managed to stand up briefly and had good fun, as did Lotti, Yo-Yo, Emma and Guy. I even caught a few little waves.

Afterwards we had a BBQ and then the kids had a water-fight. Morgan seemed to enjoy getting wet – again!

A damp 5 year old!

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!

• 2x Scarce Footman*
• 1x Small Magpie
• 26 x Lackey
• 3x Wormwood Pug
• 2x Garden Tiger
• 6x Grey Pug
• 2x Small Seraphim
• 2x Elephant Hawkmoth
• 19x Heart and Dart
• 2x White Ermine
• 10x Dark Arches
• 3x Oligia sp.
• 1x Pebble Prominent
• 1x Double-striped Pug
• 2x Middle-barred Minor
• 4x Flame
• 1x Common Pug
• 7x Barred yellow*
• 1x Willow Beauty
• 1x Common Marbled Carpet
• 1x Shoulder-striped Wainscot
• 2x Broom Moth
• 2x Clouded-bordered Brindle
• 1x Large Yellow Underwing
• 1x Dusky Brocade
• 1x Common Carpet
• 1x Smoky Wainscot*
• 1x White-line Dart*
• 2x Lime-speck Pug

Of the new ones, the Yellow Barred is a lovely looking moth. The one I managed to photograph wasn’t the brightest of the bunch but still quite nice. The Scarce Footman, isn’t actually that scarce despite its name and the White-line Dart is quite common here too.

Time for a Stats Update:

Stats

2010

Number of species: 129

Moths: 1740

All time

Number of species: 147

Moths: 1939

Half a hour later, just as I put the meat on the Barbeque, from out of nowhere (and later than usual) the NW seabreeze kicked in. Before long it was 25 knots so I ate my dinner pretty quickly and got out there on the sea for a sneaky little windsurf session on my Naish Hybrid Freewave and a 5m sail.

It was the Boardwise Demo day in Aberdovey and I feared that as the wind had come through so late in the day they may have packed up and missed out on it. Luckily though I could see scores of sails sailing out from Aberdovey into the sea towards the bar so everyone over there obviously did manage to get out.

I had a good sail whilst Anna and Morgan had a sleep in preparation for our Nightjar and Glow Worm walk later that evening. It wasn’t particularly fast and no records were broken in that respect but it was good to be out on smaller kit in the sunshine. There weren’t really any waves either so it was just general blasting around on blue seas. Perfect.

It’s all fairly informal, just a get together to go through the contents of a couple of traps. Hopefully one from the dunes, one from the bog and my trap from the garden here. After that, we’ll probably have a little walk through the dunes to see if we can spot any day-flying moths, before heading off for a coffee or possibly a beer.

Feel free to come along if you’re interested in moth-recording, or fancy getting started. We’ll be meeting at the Nature Reserve Visitor Centre in the dunes at 10am. The weather looks quite good at the moment so there should be plenty to see in the traps.

We might see some Scarlet tigers and its been a good year for large heath butt too, so plenty to look out for. Bring boots and a butty.

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.

So far I’ve just been taking him out a little way, lying him on the board and pushing him onto waves so that he can ride them in. he seems to love it and does try standing up from time to time. His swimming isn’t really strong enough for much else yet so he isn’t going to be able to paddle out on his own for a while but no doubt the ‘surfing’ will help his swimming and the swimming will help the surfing too.

If he carries on like this it won’t be long before he’s better than me. Laird Hamilton – watch out!!!

Here are some photos from our last surf session.

There wasn’t much hope for today though and by school run time there was nowhere near enough. Dinner time came along so there was nothing for it but to have a huge curry and some cider. Then, later than usual the wind started filling in. Before I knew it the wind was hitting 25 knots so there was nothing for it but to give it a go. I was in two minds as I thought it would only drop as it had come through so late in the day, but if I didn’t give it a go I would only have sat there getting more and more agitated as it continued to blow.

I loaded up the wheel barrow with my Naish Hybrid Freewave 86 ltr board and a 5m and 5.6m rig and all of the usual spares. I rigged the bigger of the two sail, got on the water and there wasn’t enough wind. Great, it was going to be one of those wasted attempts yet again. I don’t give up that easily though so gave it another go and as I did the wind filled in. I got going and was soon blasting along nicely powered up as the wind continued to pick up. Before long it was a solid 25 knots and I was perfectly powered up and having a good sail. It continued to pick up, getting closer to 30 knots and then PING I snapped a footstrap screw as I carved into a turn.

Had it been anything else that I’d broken it would have been fine:

Harness lines? Yep, I had spares on the beach

Downhaul? Yep, I had spares on the beach

Outhaul? Yep, I had spares on the beach

Boom? Yep, I had spares on the beach

Fin? Yep, I had spares on the beach

Fin bolt? Yep, I had spares on the beach

Mast foot? Yep, I had spares on the beach

Mast extension? Yep, I had spares on the beach

The wind was now around 25 – 30 knots so I even had a spare sail and mast on the beach, but a poxy little footstrap screw? Nope, no spare! I could have ran home and got one but it was now 8pm and the tide was on the pebbles so I thought it was best to pack up and vow to always put a spare footstrap and screw in the wheelbarrow.

It was OK whilst it lasted, but I had hoped to be out for longer than 25 minutes.