SWA Liverpool and Pompey wave

After experiencing the epicness of last years SWA Liverpool event, there was no way I was going to miss it this year, even with an interview in St Andrews the same week!

It was worth it, and despite a small turnout from Bristol, I had an incredible weekend, we even had some wind on Sunday morning! Saturday saw light winds - suiting the beginners, who I spent the day instructing. After Saturday night, I was surprised so many people made it to Crosby lake by 9am to make the most of the insane wind that was set to drop throughout the day. It was proper windy, and after battling it out on a wide 120 board, the wind dropped and Boardwise turned up with some freestyle kit. The competition got under way  and I gave my best shot in my first ever freestyle competition in Planing conditions. I didn't exactly make any big moves, but made plenty of 360's and tried what was supposed to be a forward loop. Anyway, 6th place, not last so all good.

The individual racing looked like it would go the usual way as I convincingly won my heat, but a poor start in the final put me down to 4th in the end. With only two of us from Bristol, Jan and I hijacked Pete from UWE for the team racing, and we managed 4th I think.

Photos by Mark Whitfield

A big thanks to Boardwise for providing loads of demo kit including the RRD Fireraces for the racing, and a Tushingham Rock 4.5 and JP Freestyle 98 which I used in the Freestyle. Also thanks to all the Crosby and all the guys from Liverpool who made it happen.

This weekend was the first of the SWA wave trilogy, hosted by Portsmouth Uni. Blue skies and sunshine coupled with a mirror sea saw a bit of golf on Saturday, but the wind arrived on Sunday, and despite the tiny waves, competition got under way early that morning. The wind was a little gusty, but I had plenty of power in the gusts with my 5.0. With the waves so small, the judges were scoring 1 ride and 1 jump, but most of the emphasis would be on jumps - not my forte on Starboard tack! I landed some tail kick jumps and crashed a forward, which got me 3rd in the heat - not enough to advance, but enough to get me joint 9th in the event. I spent the rest of the day free-sailing and had a great time! Thanks to Puravida for sponsoring the wave series, and Fanatic/North for providing some demo kit - I spent most of the day on a 2013 Fanatic Quad 81 - awesome board!

So far in the SWA series, I'm leading the Racing by 0.5 points after two events, 4th in the Freestyle after 3 events, joint 9th in wave after 1 event, and I think I'm leading the overall ranking by 0.5 points.

I've got a 12 month Industrial placement in St Andrews starting in July, a very long way away, bit cold during the winter, but it's not going to put me off competing in the UKWA this summer. Keep an eye out for my plans for next season.

Looks like the xmas holidays have timed themselves for a week of warmish weather and strong south-westerlies in Cornwall - revision could be interesting!

BrUWE Wet Dreams IV

Through the winter, the racing season takes a back seat, and I go to University and study. However, there is some relief: the SWA series!

Last weekend, it was the turn of Bristol and UWE (BrUWE) windsurfing clubs to host 200 student windsurfers from around the country, for an amazing weekend.

Picture by Will Jones

A huge amount of organisation went into the event, and it payed off big time! There was instruction for all the beginners (who are now not quite beginners after Aussie Kiss), who could also get there RYA Start windsurfing certificate for no extra cost, as well as freestyle and racing for all levels. (oh, and two mental parties...).

There was very little wind, I got planing for a few seconds on Saturday with a lot of pumping, a 7.8 Tushingham Lightning, and an RRD Firerace 120, however, that didn't stop the action! The light-wind freestyle competition was good fun, I didn't quite reach the same level as I did at AK, possibly a bit too underpowered. However, Ollie Acton, and Chubsie from Solent had all the moves, and took 1st and 2nd with Dan Lytton from Exeter in 3rd.

Unfortunately Chris Guest was unable to join me in the Team racing, but Bristol managed 5th I think.

I won the Advanced racing, shame it wasn't windy, as last year saw some exciting planing slalom, anyway, can't complain!

A huge thanks to all the SWA sponsors, and all the Bristol and UWE committee who made the event happen.

Busy times for me now, with Industrial Placement interviews, but next stop is Liverpool for their core event: Northern Monkey 2 + 2 = 5. See you there!

Aussie Kiss!

It's that time of year when UKWA competitions make way for SWA madness!
Aussie Kiss is the Student Windsurfing Association's big festival which happens every October at Roadford Lake in Devon. This year I was instructing on the Saturday, and competing on Sunday. Unfortunately a run of bad luck in the Team racing final resulted in a poor result for Bristol, who are last years SWA Champions. The wind was onshore, making the beach start difficult with 8 people in a line, the positioning of the mark relative to the pontoon meant that I (who started downwind of everyone) had to complete two tacks to make it rather than one, and my fin got stuck on the beach, then the boom slipped... oh well!

The lightwind freestyle was awesome fun, and I got 3rd place! I sailed well thought out heats, stayed focused, and had awesome fun to make it to the final.

Photo by Supersaturated

A big thanks to Roadford lake for putting up with 500 odd students turning the place into more of a mud-bath than usual, the SWA committee for organising an amazing event, and all the SWA sponsors for making it possible, and providing nice shiny demo kit!

Three Raceboard wins in a row, and some Slalom fun.

Haven't updated for a while, but since then I've competed in two events.

The first was BSA Slalom 6 at Christchurch. Saturday saw ok wind, but it was very offshore and consequently too uneven to run any races, with lulls below planing. Never mind, plenty of wind on Sunday! I don't have any slalom (or freeride, or anything between 5.0 and 8.4 sails or boards between 85 and 295 liters!) so Nik Baker kindly lent me some 2013 demo kit from Fanatic and North, I was pretty powered up on the new RamF13 7.0, paired up with a 120 Gekko (wider than you'd think with that volume) which was very interesting in the bumpy water! Anyway, my starts seemed OK, and my gybing consistent, so dispite getting more and more out of control as the day went on and the wind picked up (untill the last race when I managed to trade the Gekko in for a 111 hawk), I managed to string together a fair few 3rd places. Not quite enough for the podium though! I got 4th, but it was super fun. Would love to see what I could do if I had some slalom gear of my own! The Results still aren't on the Website! Thanks to Nik Baker for the kit (and for not even expressing any annoyance at the broken boom!).

Picture by Dave White

6-7 October was the RYA Youth and Masters, and Stena Line Cup 6 at my favourite racing venue of all time - Portland Harbour! The wind was easterly (or there about  all weekend, with some nice light wind planing conditions on Saturday and Sunday morning dropping to marginal/non planing later in the day. 6 races were completed for Raceboards, and I had my most successful event ever, recording results: 1, 2, 2, 1, 1, 1! I am getting more and more in tune with my Starboard Phantom 380, and seemed to find some fantastic speed and a high angle upwind, which coupled with some solid starting and some good board on fleet positioning, usually saw me arrive to the windward mark first. Even when I had a bad start (which happened once), I managed to pull back some places and and arrive to windward in the top three. Downwind, my light weight and my fat board was the perfect combo to get planing, point deep, and stay planing (with a lot of pumping), I still think I could be faster downwind off the plane though - a bit of fitness work called for I think! Anyway, congratulations to Mark Kay for his second place - he has been pushing me every step of the way the last two events, and to Tom Naylor for his 3rd place - always up in the top 5, regardless of the winds strength. Thanks to all the event organisers and sponsors Stena Line. Hopefully I can make it to some more events next year!

1. Louis Morris, (Tushingham XR Race, Starboard Phantom 380)
2. Mark Kay, (Demon VG7, Starboard Phantom 377)
3. Tom Naylor, (Tushingham XR Race, Starboard Phantom 380)

Full Results here: http://results.ukwindsurfing.com/2012/StenaLineCup6_Youth-Masters.html

Stena Line Cup 4

Last weekend was Stena Line Cup 4 at Christchurch, and I won! That makes it two events in a row!
A big thanks to event sponsors Stena Line, and also to all the UKWA team that make it possible.

It was an awesome weekend racing in the Raceboard Fleet. Saturday morning was overcast, with light westerlies giving gusty and shifty conditions. I had a great start in Race 1, but dropped to 4th on the second beat in the unpredictable conditions. With the wind becoming increasingly unstable the race committee postponed until after lunch.

After lunch, the sun appeared, and we were greeted by a consistent cross onshore wind of 9-11 knots SW, which built to 12-14 knots during the afternoon, my favourite conditions! Comfortably planing, but not too overpowered for 9.5. We managed to complete 4 more races, I continued to have good starts, surprising myself with my acceleration off the line, and won race 2 and 5, with a second place behind Mark Kay in race 4. I was leading Race 3 until I over-stood the mark on the last downwind, allowing Mark Kay and Marc Carney to overtake. I felt like I had really good speed upwind, and pumped hard downwind to point deeper than anyone else, but Marc Carney was flying upwind on his Mega Cat, and I felt I lacked a bit of straight line speed from Mark Kay.

I started on Sunday in 2nd place, trailing Mark Kay by only 1 point. With overcast conditions, and drizzle, the wind was not able to increase to the strength we had yesterday, but there was enough wind for close racing, and more wind than on Saturday morning. I won the first race, I was just on the edge of planing downwind, so pumped hard all the way to stay planing and put a sizeable margin between myself and Mark. This put me on tied points with Mark Kay. The wind dropped below the planing threshold, and it was neck and neck until I squeaked past Mark after he misread the number of laps. Mark needed to finish two places ahead of me in the last race to win outright and looked comfortable after my shocking port tack start due to the strong tide flowing up the course. I managed to claw back a 2nd place in the race to take the event win.

Results:
1 - Louis Morris 8 points (Tushingham XR 9.5, Phantom 380)
2 - Mark Kay 9 points (Demon VG7, Phantom 377)
3 - Tom Naylor 21 points (Tushingham XR 9.5, Phantom 380)
Full Results
Official Event Video:

New (to me) board! I now have a Starboard Phantom 380, super fast board, can't wait till the next event! 1-2 Sept, UKWA Stena Line Cup 4 at Christchurch.

I won!

UKWA Inlands 4 at Whitwell saw light non planing winds on Saturday, and gusty marginal/planing winds on Sunday. With a borrowed Starboard Phantom 380, I found a level of performance I didn't know I had, and won 5 races out of the 8 race series. It was a fantastic weekend of racing, with some physical, tactical, close racing. My starts seemed particularly good this weekend, and I was flying upwind on the new board, which with its bigger fin and fat tail allowed me to plane earlier and head deeper downwind. I think I need to find some money to  buy one!                                                                                               

Results:

1st Louis Morris (Starboard Phantom 380, Tushingham XR 9.5)

2nd Rob Kent (Starboard Phantom 377, Tushingham XR 9.5)

3rd Jamie Ingram (Starboard Phantom 380, Tushingham XR 9.5, RSX 9.5)

Photo by Andy Watkinson

June 18-19th was event 3 of the UKWA Inland series at Oxford Sailing Club, and I got 3rd Raceboard! So happy with my first UKWA podium result, some fantastic racing. Only one race was completed on Saturday, with 25 knot gusts, it was pretty hard work but felt confident on my 8.4, just had to hold my gybes together! Sunday was very different, and 5 gruelling races were completed in very tricky, shifty marginal conditions, there was some really close racing which was fantastic, with several different people taking race wins - sadly not me, but I managed to be pretty consistent over the series of races, with the exception of the disastrous last race! This weekend it is off to the Midlands for the next event of the Inland series on Rutland water, looks like light wind Saturday and marginal Sunday - hard work!

Farmoor results:

1. Rob Kent, Starboard Phantom 377, Tushingham XR

2. Mark Kay, Starboard Phantom 380, Demon VG7 

3. Louis Morris, Fanatic Cat Class X, Tushingham XR/North Ram F8

Picture by Andy Watkinson

Last weekend 28-29th April, The forecast was looking amazing for Weymouth so me and some friends headed down there. The OTC was hosting the second round of the BSA (British Slalom Association) series 2012. I entered for a bit of fun, found my self some shiny demo kit from JP/Neilpryde and finished 4th in the Amateur fleet! Saturday was really fun, we ran 3 races, the wind was ENE so it was quite choppy out there but I felt comfortable on the JP Supersport 109 and Neilpryde Fusion 6.7. I was a little underpowered to start with, but come the afternoon I was fully powered and loving it. I really wanted to race on Sunday as I was only one point off the podium. Unfortunately it was too windy for most of the day, with 50 knot gusts recorded! When the wind finally dropped, it did so with a huge shift, by the time the course had been relayed for the pro's the wind still wasn't settled, so there was no more racing for any fleets. Still, it was such a fun event, I did better than I expected, and I'm pretty keen on entering another BSA event when time and money allows!

After two weekends away, I think it's time to get some revision done!

Picture by Dave White http://www.davewhite.me/

On the weekend of 21-22nd of April it was the BUCS windsurfing nationals at Calshot near Southampton. It was an awesome event with a variety of wind conditions, some amazing demo kit from the sponsors, and of course, the legendary boat party!


Saturday saw individual racing. Division 1 raced on the Solent, and the first couple of races went fairly well for me in the light shifty wind, choppy water and strong tide. The wind then increaced and I strugged for control on the old longboard I found - mainly because the daggerboard got stuck! In the end I finished 6th. Sam Sills from Southampton Solent won it.


Sunday was Team racing day. We raced in the flat water of the lagoon, away from the tidal currents, and Bristol managed 2nd place which is pretty awesome! At the time I was pretty gutted that we missed out on 1st place by 1 point from Southampton Solent.


After some fun freesailing in the stronger winds that afternoon, and the amazingly impressive freestyle competition, it was time for the prize giving. I did rather better in the overall SWA series than in the event itself, winning a boom and a Spartan xtr wetsuit for 1st place in the Tushingham/Starboard/Spartan Individual racing series, Bristol won the RRD/Boardwise Team race series - collecting an RRD Firerace 120 from Boardwise. Bristol also came second in the overall University series, which won us a demo day from Tushingham and Starboard!





That was the last event of the SWA season unfortunately, but there is a whole new one after the summer!

Hey, welcome to my new blog.
I'll try and keep it updated so that you can find out how I'm doing in my windsurfing competitions, and what I've been up to.