New website, Rhosneigr, and SWA
Firstly, welcome to my new website! I hope you like it. I thought it’d be a good idea to have my blog and website at the same address rather than separately as before.
I’ve been getting a decent amount of wind in South Wales over the last few weeks, so I’ve had a few good sessions in.
A fun freestyle-wave session at Newton on my 5.0 Rock and 86 Kode. Video on my facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/louisgbr730/videos/690262187780388/
I’m now using a 3-sail wave quiver: 5.0, 4.2, 3.7, and 5.2 felt too big for my wave board, but the wind and tuning range of my Tushingham Rocks is so big, that I still get plenty of power from the 5.0, and can be in control until I’m ready for my 4.2.
Last weekend I headed up to Bangor with Sara Kellett and Ben Bulson to take part in the second event of the 2015-2016 Puravida SWA wave series at Rhosneigr. On the first day, the southerly wind gave us side-side-on conditions, nice for wave riding as well as jumping. It had been a while since I sailed in port tack conditions like this, but after a few runs, I felt more comfortable. Between heats I worked a lot on my back loops, and came close to a few of them. I feel like I’m mostly improving my control, although some go a bit crazy and turn into a badly crashed pushloop.
Jumping fun! Photo by Jim Brooks-Dowsett.
I was nicely powered up on my 4.2 Rock, and the Kode 77 gave me a lot of speed and acceleration for jumping. I made some stalled forward loops, and linked together some good wave rides, so made it to the final against Tom Bennett-Lloyd, Sara Kellett, and Matt Cox. All three of them were riding really well, but I think I just about had the edge when it came to jumping. In the end, I won the single elimination, with Sara second, Tom 3rd, and Matt 4th.
Working the waves. Photo by Jim Brooks-Dowsett.
We went straight through to a double elimination, which gave me a bit of time, as my single elimination win automatically put me through to the double elimination final. Ben Bulson (University of Bristol) fought back through a couple of heats, before being stopped by an on form (and very overpowered) Leo Calnan (of Southampton). However, Leo couldn’t take down Matt Cox, and so the top 4 stayed the same. Since the tide had dropped, wave selection became very tricky, and Tom Bennett-Lloyd was using all his local knowledge and waveriding skills to devastating effect, stopping Matt from making the top 3, and defeating Sara, before finally meeting me in the final. As the wind had picked up, we were both on 3.7, but the gusty nature of the wind meant that for much of the final we were pretty underpowered. A few gusts gave us both pretty equal scoring forward loops, and I had a couple of small, but multiple turn waves. Meanwhile, Tom caught some nice big waves on the outside. I was sure that he had beaten me with his superior wave selection, but it turned out that he was too underpowered to make good turns on the relatively powerless Rhosneigr waves, letting me win the competition by the smallest of margins.
Found a bigger one... Photo by Jim Brooks-Dowsett
Final results:
1. Louis Morris (Tushingham/Starboard, Bristol/Cardiff/Bath Uni)
2. Tom Bennett-Lloyd (Simmer/Patrik, Bangor Uni)
3. Sara Kellett (Tushingham/Starboard, University of the West of England)
4. Matt Cox (GA, Tabou, Plymouth Uni)
5. Leo Calnan (Southampton uni)
6. Ben Bulson (Bristol uni)
Can’t remember the results beyond this. Sorry!
Top three with event host Bucky from Funsport.
On Sunday, the waves were bigger, but the wind was very onshore, making both riding and jumping pretty tricky. An overall impression supersession was run. It was a lot of fun to have everyone pushing each other on the water together rather than waiting for shorter heats, and I think we were all surprised at how much fun we had in pretty un-appealing conditions! Congratulations to Ben Page for sailing really impressively to win the supersession, with some nice rides, big forward loops, and a couple of push loops.
I’m really looking forward to competing at my local beaches in South Wales for the next SWA wave event, hosted by Cardiff University.
More photos, by Jim Brooks-Dowsett, and Ellie Dixon.
Just this weekend, there was more SWA action, this time hosted by Bristol and UWE, with tuition, racing, and freesailing for all abilities at Bowmoor Sailing Club. I didn’t do much windsurfing myself, but did quite a lot of instructing, and helped with setting kit up and organising the beginner racing. With the help of Sport England, Boardwise, and Sam Ross, the University of Bristol Windsurfing Club has recently obtained 6 Starboard Rios and some Tushingham Start rigs, and it was really cool to see all this kit in use, with beginners and improvers working on their tacks, gybes, upwind sailing, and steering, with a lot of enthusiasm despite the 5 °C air temperature! The SWA has also just got a new fleet of Tushingham Concept sails, so it was great to see so many people blasting around on the 6.5’s and 7.5’s when the wind arrived on Sunday.
Tushingham Concepts in the fun SWA races. Photo by Lizzie Delva.
A lot of the windsurfing public might not be aware of the SWA, and if they are, they probably think that we spend more time partying than windsurfing. But, the place it has in the windsurfing community cannot be underestimated, as it introduces a very large number of young people to the sport, as well as giving the opportunity for students who wouldn’t otherwise be able to afford their own kit, or have their own transport, to get out on the water and have a ton of fun. The fact that all these keen beans travelled hundreds of miles to windsurf in freezing cold February to windsurf says it all!
