A Great Way To Start 2014…….

So its the 1st January and Team QSW riders Andy Holland, Steve Chatten, and myself headed up to Hunstanton to take advantage of the first storm of 2014. With the wind due to increase to 40+ mph during the day and the offshore made for not too many sailors braving the 8 degrees temperature and long walk out to the speed strip 1 mile off the beach (The location for our Windsurf The Wash event thats failed to take place event after 8 scheduled dates! – Hopefully we’ll host the event in 2014).

I rigged my Severne S1 5.0, a sail I am really getting to love for its mega light feel in transitions and its power via its 4 batten design which delivers its power with a slightly higher centre of effort allowing the multi-fin boards (Fanatic Freewave Textreme 96/86 and Fanatic Tri-wave 81) to release earlier onto the plane. Andy (Our S-1 Guru!) has been aiding me fine tune the sails as we are finding they need a touch more downhaul than previous years – too little downhaul results in going over the handlebars when sheeting in!

Andy rigged his Severne S-1 5.0 and RRD Twintip and Steve his Severne Gator 5.3 and his Fanatic Freewave Textreme 106 (a little big for the day in my opinion). We joined Penny – she is SUCH a trooper always out whatever the conditions, Keiron  – making freestyle look easy and pulling a beautiful flat water forward right in front of me……jealous …Grrrrrr!!, Little Jeff Parnell – on his Severne SWAT.

The wind just kept picking up until we were so overpowered it got silly. Saying that it  always good getting out in overpowered conditions (in a safe environment) as it really fine tunes you rig control and makes you commit more to gybing and jumping – great when it comes off but I went for one off a small wave and forgot to sheet out rocketing into a half forward loop – not pretty!

Our ION Fuse drysuits performed excellently and my NEW ION bobble hat kept what brains I have left warm! Oh, for those who sail Hunstanton watch out for the 2 large bins which were swept out in the big storms 2 weeks ago. They are about 200mtrs out and are exposed at low tide.

Categorised in: News

This post was written by James Connor