{"id":9450,"date":"2012-01-03T14:28:17","date_gmt":"2012-01-03T14:28:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.alananna.co.uk\/blog\/?p=9450"},"modified":"2012-01-03T16:46:44","modified_gmt":"2012-01-03T16:46:44","slug":"one-up-for-mother-nature","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.alananna.co.uk\/blog\/2012\/01\/one-up-for-mother-nature\/","title":{"rendered":"One up for Mother Nature"},"content":{"rendered":"

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<\/a> which\u00a0was showing gusts to 43.5 knots… Pretty windy by anyone’s standard.<\/p>\n

So, after a quick 3km swim in the pool there was only one thing to do, and that\u00a0was head across to the beach with my windsurfing kit for the 3rd windsurf session in 3 days – 100% record so far for 2012.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

The sun was shining and I was coping well with the mad conditions.<\/p>\n

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!<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n