Windsurfing in Wales
I think I’m right in saying that most of the UK has been experiencing some unseasonably nice weather over the last week, with temperatures in the 20’s and gorgeous blue skies and blazing sunshine.. Here in Wales we certainly have and for me it has been as good as it gets.
We have a local wind known affectionately as ‘Ivor’ which funnels down through the dyfi valley in a E-NE direction, and at this time of year can be particularly strong. Often he is blowing when all else is still, but if everywhere else has a NE wind then Ivor can blow your socks off!
It started on Friday last week with a fairly relaxed windsurf session in the Ynyslas estuary, and then things really livened up on Saturday when Ivor got his act together. Impi turned up here at around 5.30am and we were on the water by 6am. We both had our GPSr’s with us seeing how fast we could go. At first it was too choppy for any real speed, but as the water flattened off we both beat the 30 knot barrier, but Impi beat me with a top speed of 32.2 knots. Around 10am the wind eased a little from the 35 knots max that it got to and we started to pack up, just as Steve arrived. Luckily for Steve the wind did fill in again, so after Steve had had a session on the estuary I headed off to the seafront with him for another session on the flat waters with offshore winds.
Sunday dawned in a similar fashion to Saturday, sunny, warm and very windy, although we weren’t quite so keen today as we were aching a little from the previous days activities. We were however soon out on the water having another excellent windsurf session on the seafront.
With the weekend over, Ivor really showed his true colours with 40 knot winds in the estuary on Monday morning and boats ripped off their anchors – I had to contact the coastguard in order to save the boat! I was out windsurfing on my own in the estuary today and once again getting some good speeds, with a record breaking (a local record!) top speed of 33.2 knots.
Tuesday was the same and this time I increased my overall top speed to 33.8 knots… It may not sound that fast but it is, and scary too!
All in all it has been as good as it gets for flat water sailing and with the sunshine and high temperatures it has felt as though I’ve been sailing in more tropical climate. I’ve been able to easily dry my kit out and it is quite a luxury being able to put a dry wetsuit on for each session. When it works here, it can be as good as anywhere in the world, and there are no corwds to contend with.
