Wednesday June 16th

Desperate times...

Drove all the way to St. Mary's Bay in E Kent as NElys blow a good bit stronger there in the Summer. Took about 1 hour 40 minutes, which is not too bad really.

Conditions were South Coast - but with a nice sandy beach and wind from the left.

It was 4.7m weather really but a friend's new sail enthusiasm for his 4.0 5 Oceans got the better of him - and me so I rigged 4.2

2 forward attempts over the back of waves on the way back in - wierd plus a bonus .5 which I changed my mind on at the last minute and just did a hop when i landed stuck my fin in the sand and catapulted spectacularly - that was the end of the loop attempt...

Wednesday 31st March

Feeling exceptionally lazy about writing sessions up, but it hardly matters as there haven't been any.

One at Paggers on Dec 6th, then nothing til end of Feb when had a decent 4.2 session at Shoreham power station.

Then finally got to sail K-Bay! And it was really quite good and firmly overhead. Hurrah! It may be a shit year but at least one objective achieved. Now for looping...

Like I said feeling lazy and Gregg has already done a decent write-up here.

Thursday 26th November

Great session at Lancing in WSW wind (just ever so slightly cross-off). Wind was a bit up and down at first but it was nice to get out on the 78 and a 'huge' 5.0. Although the waves were reasonable size (shoulder-head) with a gusty wind and a rip I thought the extra float and looseness of the 78 was a better choice. And so it was. Had a few tips from Guy about linking the two sections of the wave and got some sweet rides, chucked quite a bit of spray and some very satisfying late re-entries bumping and sliding around in the whitewater.

Absolultely cream-crackered now, putting the kit in the shed for a few days.

Tuesday 24th November

'Disappointing' waves after the last few sessions, but in comparison to usual, still not bad. Well-powered 4.2, with a decent angle on it, meant that you could sail much less conservatively than eg Monday. Even got a few aerials. However one attempt coincided with a gust and the subsequent crash meant a dead arm, gratitude to Gath, and the end of the session.

Plenty more wind and waves on the way though.

Monday 23rd November

Bonkers windy session at Pagham. Decent waves in the head to half-mast region but ridiculously windy, gusting F9. With 4.2 as a smallest sail was well overpowered, but still managed to get some decent long rides in. Up the near spit there were some nice clean, almost bowly (for the S Coast) sections, if you got a lull when one of these came through pure joy to smack it into the middle of next week. If it coincided with a gust it smacked you, or you got blown out the back. Really good fun, perhaps a bit surprisingly, as I thought I had grown out of silly conditions :)

Friday 20th November

Some decent headhigh+ waves at Pagham in a flukey cross-off wind that faded away as we sailed. Scored some sweet clean waves, even if at the end I was having to take off really late and so not really in a position to do much with it. Only took the small board when clearly a bit more float was needed...

Thursday 19th November

A bit onshore but great fun at Pagham with some reasonable mid-sized waves to bash. Sailed on the push with 4.2 and was stacked at first, but underpowered by lunchtime. Really sunny, mild, nice people about - excellent session.

Lee from LAR was ripping on his new Quatro Tempo - I want one.

Same again tomorrow please!

Monday 15th November

Cracking sail at Littlehampton. Went to Paghama at first but it was a bit offshore and choppy - got better later apparently.

Went to LA instead, rigged 4.2 but then some bigger guys on 4.5s came in in a lull, rigged 5.0 instead. Got mullered in the shorebreak, then got out and wind came up honking. Good fun at first if a bit choppy and hectic, then tide dropeed the required amount and and it cleaned up and with a WSW wind had some great clean riding. Eventually the wind came a bit more onshore which made riding the short period waves frontside a bit harder as they were alwas behind you, but still loads of fun.

Thursday 12th November

After a week in the Alpes-Maritime cycling and eating cheese and drinking wine I returned to find October style low pressure in charge of the weather and the forecast looking mild and windy FOR WEEKS :)

This session was a quick warm-up at Shoreham on 5.0 and 78, bit of a rip running and SSW very onshore there, but some fun backside riding.

Forecast for loads of wind and accompanying swell.

Bring it on!!

Saturday 24th October

What a rubbish Autumn it's been - six weeks without a sail. It has been possible to sail on a few days which have coincided with me doing other things, and if you were prepared to drive 3 hours to Kent to sail in a NEly. But those days are long behind me.

Hit the water feeling very rusty, but was reasonably powered on 5.0 and 78 and was psyched enough to go for a forward first ramp I hit. It was probably the worst attempt I have done :) I was really scratching around for ramps and gusts to coincide but managed another 4 attempts. The first three were equally as bad as the first, but for the final one I scissored the board quite well and then just failed to sheet, or sheeter so feebly it didnt add anything to the rotation.

I really have to work out a way of sailing where I can hit a ramp with my hand far enough back down the boom that I can sheet hard enough to get some rotation.

The next time I go sailing, whenever that is :( high pressure now back in charge.

Friday 4th September

After getting put off making the trip to K-Bay then spent most of the morning driving along the S Coast looking for somewhere worth launching.

Eventually ended up at Hove, downwind of Hot Pipes, at the beach referred to as Buff Point. Was mid-tide and flat but windy and it looked like a small wave might form as the tide dropped. Sure enough it did, so had a fun couple of hours blasting around then committing crimes against wavesailing.

Gareth of the Shorekipa Chronicles took some pics, fortunately I managed to avoid shorebreak humiliation.