High Tides, New Quad Fins and The Joys of Windsurfing

I managed to get out windsurfing again at the weekend. Friday looked set to be windy in the afternoon and the red sky in the morning heralded a ‘sailors warning’.

Sure enough, the wind picked up but I didn’t have time to get out. It looked set to blow throughout Saturday though and Steve and Chris were coming to the beach as well.

Lawrence was on the beach early teaching someone to kitesurf and Chris arrived reasonably early too. I was going to wait for Steve but with the tide rising fast decided to head over and join them.

New Quad Fins

It was looking good so I rigged my 5.0m sail and decided to once again try the Severne Nano 87 that I’d had issues with. This time I had borrowed a pair of rear quad fins from Simon so that I could sail it as a quad fin rather than a thruster.

I set the fins up so that the front fins were towards the back of their slots and the rear fins were towards the front so as to get them as close together as possible. I’m pretty sure it felt much better straight away. Whereas before the tail would simply spin out as soon as any weight was put on my back foot, that wasn’t the case now. With thruster fins there was no rear-end grip at all. Now it felt as though there was. I was only just powered up though so it was a little difficult to get a really good feel for it. I managed a couple of runs back and forth amongst the waves but then decided there wasn’t enough wind so came in to change up.

Rigging

Steve was on the beach now as well so I told him I was changing to a 5.7m so that he could rig right the first time. Chris who had been on a 5.4m sail and 104ltr board sail was also changing up to a 5.7m. I didn’t take long to re-rig so was soon back on the water. There still wasn’t enough wind with the smaller board though so it was back to the beach for the bigger board.

The tide was getting quite high by now and the shorebreak was getting difficult to deal with. I got going nicely on the bigger kit and headed all the way down to the mouth of the estuary. The gaps between the waves were larger here so I was able to head upwind against the directly onshore wind. After a couple of runs I was out beyond the majority of the breaking waves and able to blast along without worrying about the proximity of the pebbles.

Chris didn’t quite make it out the back and Steve was still on the beach rigging. I sailed up and down for a while but then decided that the tide was starting to get a bit too high and I didn’t want to risk damaging my new board on the pebbles. I had one last run and then headed back in at full speed.

The Joys of Windsurfing.

I’d had a good session albeit relatively short. Steve was now just about ready and gave it a go but never quite got going. He just couldn’t get out through the shorebreak. Having driven all the way from Telford he’d managed to be scuppered by the tides. That’s the problem with windsurfing, getting a decent session is all about timing and being in the right place at the right time. Not to mention being on the right kit at the right time. When it does all come together it makes all of the frustrating sessions worth it.

Steve should have waited really as the tide dropped off quite quickly after lunch and the sun came out. The wind remained as well. I was quite tempted to go out for a second session myself but decided I needed rest instead. Steve had headed home to try out his new bike. Anna and I did go for a walk along the beach, through the dunes and into the estuary later in the day. And it did include a stop to buy some cakes too, but other than that the afternoon was a chilled affair.

It would have been nice to try the smaller board with its new fin configuration a little more but I can save that for the next session. It is autumn after all, so it should be windy season!

Tags: Windsurfing