University: year 4, term 1

It's been a while, maybe I'll summarize it with photos, rather than my usual rambling words!

I'm president of the University of Bristol windsurfing club this year, so spent a bit of time running that with the rest of the committee, we've got lots of keen members so that's good.

Went to Stokes Bay for the last event of the UKWA National Championship series and got crowned Raceboard National Champion. Thanks to Tushingham Sails and Starboard boards for supporting me, and making the best allround raceboard kit. The only sail I used this season was the Tushingham XR Race 9.5, in winds of 4-20 knots.

2014 UKWA National Raceboard Champion and Inland Champion! Photo by Ross Morris

Fun wednesday afternoon wave session at Lyme Regis, full power 4.7, practicing table tops.

Went to Aussie Kiss XIII (Student Windsurfing festival), and had lots of fun! Bristol got 3rd in the Team racing, I got 2nd in the Freestyle with a bit of flat water looping.

University of Bristol Windsurfing club at AK13. Photo by Adam Shoreland

Vulcan in the Freestyle final at Aussie Kiss. Photo by Claire Glasby

Photo by Antonis Kyparissis

Competed in the BWA Cornwall Classic wave competition at Gwithian.

Photos by Mel Splashography.

Did pretty badly in the competition but had my best ever session downwind of the competition area, logo high down the line, perfect on my 4.7 Rock :)

Done a bit of race coaching with the Cornish Techno team. They're getting faster, watch out world!

Bristol and UWE hosted an SWA event: took a bit of organising, but worth it, amazing weekend and everyone had fun, it wasn't that windy though. I got 3rd in Freestyle, 1st in Racing, and Bristol got 1st and 3rd in the team racing.

Light-wind freestyle with the Tushingham Bolt 4.5. Photo by Lizzie Walsh

Won the first event of the SWA wave series!! Really happy to win my first wave contest in really tricky onshore conditions. Landed a forward in the final, got a few nice backside and frontside waves, a few floaty jumps and almost killed myself with a one-footed tabletop.

Then there were two windy lecture free wednesdays in a row, had some amazing starboard tack down the line conditions in South Wales.

Photos by Ben Bulson

Then the week after, the forecasted wind didn't turn up to Bigbury, but still had some fun.

Played Saxophone at a "wake-up" early morning rave in Bristol.

Had a really fun 4.7 freestyle session at Weymouth, getting my vulcans pretty consistent on both sides, looping of flatter water, landed my first spock. Decided I like freestyle, the Starboard Kode FSW 86 is a great board for learning these kind of moves: fast and compact but funner for blasting and easier in chop and better at carving than a real freestyle board.

Then came home, windsurfed a lot. Freestyle at Torpoint, landed my first grubby and got close to some spocks, looped off even flatter water. Cross on starboard tack jumping and riding at Bigbury. Port tack wobble and ride sideshore logo high Gwithian. And finally got out on my raceboard, feeling so motivated for the 2015 racing season, I might even take it to uni with me and do some training!

Tomorrow looks like perfect Siblyback conditions for freestyle and high wind race training, can't wait!

There is more to life than racing longboards...

Thought I'd put a few photos up from my recent wave and freestyle fun times (that kind of makes sense right?).

Photos by Mel Splashography

Photos by Antonis Kyparissis

Stokes Bay – Raceboard report.

The UKWA National course racing championship is a series of 5 events, the final one was at Stokes Bay (Gosport, on the Solent) last weekend.

Photo by John Liddy

Photo by Louise Mills

The forecast looked pretty windy for Saturday, and sure enough, it was very windy whilst we were rigging, but after a lot of rain and a 90° wind shift, we had about 12-14 knots. To avoid the shipping channel, the course was set quite close into the beach, which was great for spectators, but also meant that the inner loop of the course had very fluky wind, with a big hole by the windward mark. Add some strong tide, and you have some interesting racing!

During the morning, the tide was going opposite directions (or at least, much stronger inshore), which meant that left paid best. The wind was strong enough to plane all the way round, and I had good speed and was tactically strong enough to win by a comfy margin whilst Mark Kay, Rob Kent, and Lewis Barnes were in close combat. One of the leeward gate marks drifted leading to some confusion and disqualification those who went through the gate the wrong way  (including Lewis).

Lewis Barnes by John Liddy

The wind dropped a bit for the second race, demanding a bit more downwind pumping. And this time the racing was very close with a few lead changes as people got the right gusts and shifts and played the tide correctly or not. I was leading, but after the last upwind, Rob was hot on my tail, and had a better downwind to win the race (I had a stinking cold and just ran out of energy, that’s my excuse anyway!).

Mark Kay, by Paul Wyeth

Race 3 was no less exciting and very very gusty as the wind started to swing a little more offshore. The tide was very strong now, and even stronger on the left, so it was a case of trying to get the shifts right without heading out into the channel. Mark had a flying start and a perfect first beat, but then tacked on a header at the leeward mark, sending him out into the strongest tide and allowing 4 people to overtake! Myself and Rob got a good shift by the shore that allowed us to leebow the tide and get a crazy layline to the windward mark, so again I won with Rob 2^nd and Lewis in 3^rd.

The race officer tried to change the course to a windward/leeward further out in cleaner wind, but the wind dropped by the time we started and it had to be abandoned.

There was no wind until about 1pm on Sunday, and even then it was about 2 knots, some people just went home, and lots of people started packing up, but then at 3, we had a great finishing race in 8-10 knots. The tide wash pushing upwind very quickly, but miraculously nobody was OCS on the start. I had a good start but gave myself some work to do by heading too much up the middle of the course; luckily I got the craziest long distance with tide layline ever and won the race ahead of Rob and Lewis again.

Photo by Louise Mills

So I won the event, with Rob Kent 2^nd, and Lewis Barnes finally converted his crazy speed into a super consistent set of 3^rd places. Mark Kay was as fast as ever, but just didn’t manage to put together a good enough set of races to displace Lewis from the podium. Annette Kent had a really good event and finished 5^th overall, first lady by a long way. Jenna Gibson was also very impressive, managing to finish ahead of Harriet Ellis, proving that a skilfully used old Mega cat is still as good as anything!

Full Event results

National Championship series results:

1^st Louis Morris (Tushingham/Starboard 377)

2^nd Robert Kent (Tushingham/Starboard 377)

3^rd Mark Kay (Demon/Starboard 377)

1^st Veteran (4^th overall) Tom Naylor (Tushingham/Starboard 380)

1^st Lady (6^th overall) Annette Kent (Tushingham/Starboard 377)

1^st Supervet (7^th overall) John Pete (Demon/Starboard 377)

1^st Youth (10^th overall) Rebecca Kent (Bic OD/Mistral Equipe)

2014 RYA/UKWA National windsurfing Championships (Inland Nationals, Junior Youth and Masters championship, Team 15 Champions Cup): Raceboard report.

For 2014, the RYA Youth and Masters were combined with the National Junior Championships, Team 15 champions cup, and UKWA Inland nationals to form one massive event at Rutland Sailing club. There were 220 windsurfers and it was pretty busy on the beach and on the water, but thanks to some good organising, the event went very smoothly! There were 27 raceboards entered, of which 6 were youth: the highest youth entry for a long time.

Myself: focussed mid gybe (photo by John Liddy)

On Saturday, the wind was quite light and very shifty, which lead to lots of shuffling up and lead changes during the race which was pretty exciting stuff. It was the kind of conditions which Rob Kent and Guy Spreckley excel in. Rob got it wrong in the first race (and Mark Kay got it even more wrong) allowing me to win with Guy in 2^nd, but in the next 2 races, he sailed brilliantly to take the win, whilst I was playing catch up having ended up on the wrong side of some shifts. By the last race, the wind had picked up to about 10 knots or so: enough for me to plane all the way downwind and be faster than most upwind, with a good start and a tactically sound upwind, once ahead I just had to play it safe in the middle of the course and won comfortably. Myself and Rob ended the day on tied points, with Guy in 3^rd.

Guy Spreckley (photo by John Liddy)

On Sunday, there were some gusts up to 15 knots but still lulls of 8 knots or less. It was still shifty, but with the wind slightly more easterly than Saturday, there was usually a big gain on the right side of the course. However there were a few shifts and gusts that undid this gain, and there were a few times when I had to dig myself out of a bit of a hole. Having a sail with the power to keep pointing and railing through the lulls yet convert gusts into acceleration rather than drag really helped me to keep my speed up through the gusty conditions and capitalise on shifts to recover some sticky positions. Like the last race on Sunday, my downwind speed was best than most, and I managed to win all of the races.

Tom Naylor giving it some power downwind (photo by John Liddy)

Mark Kay found another gear and was fighting back with 3 2nds and a 3^rd, he was certainly a lot quicker than on Saturday, and it sometimes felt like he was attached to the back of my board by a 50m bit of string! Rob Kent did just enough to keep his 2^nd overall, Guy Spreckley didn’t quite have the speed to keep up his amazing performance from the first day so slipped into 5^th overall behind an outrageously consistent Tom Naylor. Tom was flying upwind as usual, and put some effort in downwind to get 9 4^th places and a 5^th: enough to get him 1^st veteran and 4^th overall.

Annette Kent (photo by Andy Watkinson)

With 8 sailors racing on 8.5 (youth + ladies) there was some noteworthy battles there as well. Lewis Barnes usually races as a heavyweight 9.5, but borrowed an 8.5 to win the Youth national title by an impressive margin. Annette Kent was first lady: only two points ahead of Lewis and 3 ahead of Harriet Ellis. 2^nd and 3^rd youth was too close to call, with Jenna Gibson having the edge on her XR-Race 8.5 over Robin Mcallister on Saturday. Robin fought back in the stronger winds on Sunday to finish on tied points, but ended up in 3^rd on the tie break rule.

Robin McAllister (photo by Andy Watkinson)

I have to mention Phil Hards, who had some of the best starts in the business as well as some serious upwind speed, all he needs now is a Starboard Phantom and he’d keep up downwind too! Also well done to my brother Ross who borrowed my 8.5 Lightning and ancient Megacat in his first National contest since Team 15 cup in 2011 (on 5.8) he was very quick upwind, especially when it got windy.

Ross Morris (photo by Andy Watkinson)

Full results here

Raceboard Results summary:

1^st Overall - Louis Morris, 1^st Lightweight (Tushingham/Starboard)

2^nd Overall – Rob Kent, 1^st Master (Tushingham/Starboard)

3^rd Overall – Mark Kay, 1^st Heavyweight (Demon/Starboard)

4^th Overall – Tom Naylor, 1^st Veteran (Tushingham/Starboard)

1^st Lady – Annette Kent, 6^th Overall (Tushingham/Starboard)

2^nd Lady – Harriet Ellis, 8^th Overall (Demon/Starboard)

3^rd Lady – Jenna Gibson, 12^th Overall (Tushingham/Fanatic)

1^st Youth – Lewis Barnes, 7^th Overall (Demon/Starboard)

2^nd Youth – Jenna Gibson, 12^th Overall (Tushingham/Fanatic)

3^rd Youth – Robin McAllister, 13^th Overall (Tushingham/Starboard)

Pwllheli race report

August bank holiday weekend this year, like last year, meant venturing to the Lleyn peninsular in north Wales for two days of racing in the fantastic venue that is Pwllheli. I've written mostly about the Raceboard fleet because I know a bit more about what happened than in the other fleets. Unfortunately, there were only 9 raceboards, why don't all these inland sailors come to race with us on the sea? It is so much fun!

The UKWA camp at Abererch Sands Holiday Park

Moderate NW winds were forecast for Saturday, and we ended up with a rather gusty and shifty 11-18 knots all day (and sunshine, which makes all the difference!). This made for some really fun high speed planing races, with lots of tactical decision making as the shifty gusts came down the race course from the beach.

As usual, Mark Kay and Tom Naylor were flying upwind in the Raceboard fleet, but my upwind speed seemed to have improved since Weymouth, so I managed to hold them off most of the time. One person that nobody stood a chance of holding off upwind was Tom Dryden whose devastating speed, combined with solid tactics and good starts made him the one to beat upwind. However, we also have to race back downwind, and it was myself and Mark Kay who had the best overall speed around the course, taking 1st and 2nd in each race respecively, except for the first race, where Tom Naylor took 2nd (+ a 2 point penalty for forgetting his tally). Rob Kent was fast and consistent as always, but not quite fast enough to finish higher than 3rd in these planing conditions. Every time I saw Lewis Barnes on the first beat, he was flying, and his downwind sailing is improving all of the time, all he needs to do now is string some solid races together. It was difficult to get tactics right, sometimes a nice gust would come the course by the beach accompanied with wind shift that could be advantageous both upwind and downwind. I pulled tonnes of distance off Mark on one downwind by going there, yet on another upwind, Lewis almost overtook me with a broken harness line because I went that way! The shifts also made laylines difficult, in one race, me and Tom had to get the daggerboard up and reach to the windward mark!

Mark Kay, by Andy Watkinson

Sunday morning was rather relaxed, as we waited for the light easterly breeze to become race-able. After a load of rain, the wind swung to the south and quickly built to 11-14 knots: perfect, if choppy. It was still a bit shifty, and the start line turned very port bias during the last minute, allowing Tom Naylor to make a killer port flyer, with the rest of the fleet who started by the boat sat behind me on starboard. I won the first race, then Mark Kay then put his boom a bit higher and sailed a perfect race to win the next, before the wind dropped in the last race allowing me to win again. Rob was looking forward to a lightwind race, but didn't do enough to get ahead of Mark, crucially allowing Tom Naylor to take 3rd overall in the Raceboard fleet by just 1 point.

Pic by John Liddy

In the RSX fleet, Matthew Barton was the only 9.5 and won all the races, but not without a fight, as the 8.5's snapped at his heals, especially in the gusty shifty conditions that make upwind legs really tricky when trying to go off the fin formula style. Lewis May convincingly won 1st youth, only letting James Hatcher and Henry Bloodworth past him in a couple of races.

It was a close battle at the front of the Techno Fleet, and in the end, it was Andrew Brown who edged ahead of Josh Carey, who was racing on 7.8 for the first time. James and Ben Barnwell were racing in the new "Techno+" 8.5 open class, and took 3rd and 4th, whilst 5th placed Adam Phipps was 3rd 7.8. Isaac Lines was 1st 6.8. It was impressive to see such consistent results from the top techno sailors: not easy in such gusty shifty conditions.

Jason Clarke sailed an impressive series of races to win the formula fleet ahead of Jamie Ingram (former RSX and Raceboard star), who was impressively fast despite rarely racing at all these days. It looked like a fantastic weekend for formula racing, and Gustavo Takiguchi was 1st youth in this his second formula event.

This event also saw a masterblaster fleet enjoying 11 races off the beach, with Mike Blackgrove taking the win by just 1 point from Ted Kay.

Full results
UKWA National Championships, ranking so far...

Results summary:

Raceboard

1 Louis Morris (1st lightweight) Tushingham/Starboard
2 Mark Kay (1st heavyweight and 1st master) Demon/Starboard
3 Tom Naylor (1st veteran) Tushingham/Starboard
7 Harriet Ellis (1st lady) Demon/Starboard
8 John Pete (1st super veteran) Demon/Starboard

Formula

1 Jason Clarke Patrik/Severne
2 Jamie Ingram (1st National 11m) Gaastra/Starboard
3 Dave Coles (1st veteran) Starboard/Severne
4 Chris Bond (1st master) Point-7 sails/Gaastra board
7 Gustavo Takiguchi (1st Youth) North/Starboard

Techno

1 Andrew Brown (1st 7.8)
2 Josh Carey (2nd 7.8)
3 James Barnwell (1st 8.5)
8 Erin Watson (1st 7.8 girl)
16 Isaac Lines (1st 6.8)
18 Mollie Densley-Robins (1st 6.8 girl, 3rd 6.8 overall)

RSX

1 Matthew Barton
2 Lewis May (1st youth 8.5)
3 James Hatcher
8 Natalie McWilliams (1st lady)

Master Blaster

1 Mike Blackgrove
2 Ted Kay
3 Marcus Round

Mountains, Bridlington, Polkerris and Weymouth

I've not been so good at updating my blog lately, but a lot has happened.

For a start there was the second round of the UKWA national championship series at Bridlington. The forecast was looking pretty awful to be honest, but we got two good races in on Saturday morning; one in fairly strong wind, and one in marginal wind. I'd been doing a little bit of training before the event, and I felt a lot faster upwind than I did at Whitwell. Combined with some good downwind speed, I won both races by quite a margin. Another race was started, but the wind disappeared completely and although it teased us on Sunday, it was never consistent or steady enough for racing, although good light wind training.

Bridlington results:
1. Louis Morris (Tushingham)
2. Robert Kent (Tushingham)
3. Mark Kay (Demon)
4. Tom Naylor (Tushingham)

After that I finished off my placement in St Andrews, and went on holiday for a week, hiking in the west of Scotland (Knoydart, Skye and Glen Coe).

Then I came home to Cornwall and resumed work as a watersports instructor, now at Polkerris Beach instead of Siblyback. Got out for some fun freeride and freestyle.

Photo taken by Bob Shillito

Photo taken by Chris Bilkey

Then I went to Weymouth for the 3rd event of the UKWA national championship series. The conditions were almost perfect all weekend, with sunshine and 8 races in 10-20 knots. I hadn't been training since Bridlington, and felt slow upwind in the gusts, but fast downwind, and occasionally fast upwind (in the lulls). However Mark Kay and Tom Naylor really put the pressure on and frequently sailed straight past me upwind. In my efforts to regain the lead, I made lots of silly mistakes: got my laylines all wrong, dropped a gybe, crashed into Mark and broke his batten at the windward mark etc. The event win went right down to the last race, with me and Mark on tied points. I got a good start, but tacked a bit too early then caught
some weed, then tacked too early again, then my hand slipped off the boom gybing downwind and I couldn't catch up! I settled for 2nd (the first time I've lost a national event since June 2012), but I have plenty of time before the next event to do some training and get my racing head back on. I also plan to rig my sail correctly if it is windy next time (I'd forgotten how long my boom should be and didn't have enough outhaul).

Photo by Paul Wright

Tom Naylor was super quick upwind on his Tushingham XR-Race, Rob Kent was super quick downwind on his, and I was quick enough on mine to almost make up for my mistakes! Well done to Mark for winning, I'll be back on top next time!

Weymouth results:
1. Mark Kay (Demon)
2. Louis Morris (Tushingham)
3. Tom Naylor (Tushingham)
4. Rob Kent (Tushingham)