One up for Mother Nature

by Alan Cole · Published Tuesday, January 3rd, 2012 · Updated Tuesday, January 3rd, 2012

The winds woke me up at 3am this morning and then at 5am I had to give in, get dressed and go outside to see what the banging was. A shed door had been wrenched open by the wind and there was all sorts of debris flying around the garden. I made things sound and then checked on the weather station which was showing gusts to 43.5 knots… Pretty windy by anyone’s standard.

So, after a quick 3km swim in the pool there was only one thing to do, and that was head across to the beach with my windsurfing kit for the 3rd windsurf session in 3 days – 100% record so far for 2012.

I rigged my 4.0m sail and little wave board and ventured out. Despite the 40 knot winds, all was OK, I was sailing fine, making my gybes and landing a few little jumps. Nothing too extreme as it was pretty wild out there and with no one around I didn’t want to risk hurting myself.

The sun was shining and I was coping well with the mad conditions.

But…. Mother Nature and the gods of wind decided to get one up on me. Within seconds I was hit by a massive squall with stinging hailstones and 50 knot winds. My kit was just ripped out of my hands and there was no chance of holding onto it. I did recover it and managed a few more runs but jumping was now impossible – or at least landing was as I couldn’t hang on and gybing became quite a wrestle during the rig flip too. At times the rig was thrashing about so much in the wind that I felt more like I was wrestling a crocodile than windsurfing. And yes, I have wrestled a crocodile – a 14 foot Nile Croc to be precise – so I do know what it feels like!

After a few runs like this I decided enough was enough and it was probably time to head back home. Easier said than done though in 50 kot winds with a thrashing sail to carry back to my wheel-barrow. Even walking back to the house with a fully-laden wheelbarrow full of windsurfing kit was quite an adventure.