Wild and Windy Windsurfing
It was another wild and windy day here in West Wales, so just a short windsurf session for me today as I was a little tired after a long mountain bike ride yesterday and the conditions weren’t exactly easy.
I walked over to the beach with my kit and met Tom and Sam there. I was soon rigged up with a 4.5m sail and my little wave board and headed out into the white-water. I was powered up OK but the waves were pretty big. Not huge, but some of them packed a punch and there seemed to be white-water everywhere. With a SW wind meaning we were heading out into the waves as well, they weren’t easy to avoid so I had to hit them head on and hope for the best.
I managed fairly well though and had a few nice runs with the odd big jump, but the conditions weren’t really conducive to trying anything other than staying on. Tom had decided that it was too much for him and he was off to the estuary, so Sam went with him. I had a few more runs in and out, but by then the wind had picked up properly and was hitting 40 knots so I was a little over-powered. I stuck with it for a bit but then decided that perhaps enough was enough and it would be a good idea to call it a day whilst my body and kit were still all in on piece.
As a taster of what it’s like out there, here’s a quick video clip of one cautious run out and back. Although it has to be said that the wide-angle lens and camera angle make the waves seem a lot smaller than they actually are.
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Excellent sesh report, thanks for posting. Even with the wide-angle lens you can still see some big waves, esp. at 0:45 and 1:05.
Have you tried mounting the camera on the clew?
Glad you enjoyed it…. I have tried it with the camera on the clew, but never quite liked it as much as helmet mounted. I have seen a few people using mounts that come off the harness on a little pole and that looks quite good… I guess the best thing would be to have a few and then mix up the camera angles when editing the final video…. Can’t afford that though.
Al.