Windsurf
Past Perfect
Harty ponders if history lessons in our sport should be compulsory for all windsurfers?
4 min |
Issue 386 - June 2019
Windsurf
Photoventura
Flo Jung reports from behind the scenes as the Gunsails team explore Fuerteventura during their annual photo shoot and gives us a mini guide to some of its main windsurfing.
4 min |
Issue 386 - June 2019
Windsurf
BWA Contest Quivers
From cross-off to dead onshore, competing on the British Wavesailing Association tour can take in all the conditions a UK wave sailor can expect to face on home shores. The pros have to be equipped for all conditions and all weathers; so how do they plan, choose and tune their quivers - John Carter investigates.
10+ min |
Issue 386 - June 2019
Windsurf
2019 - Iberia & Canary Islands Travel Guide
The coastlines of Spain, Portugal and the Canary Islands have long been a draw for UK windsurfers. The combination of a short travel time, good value and an abundance of wind is hard to beat. Add in good food and great people and the reasons to go get even longer. Check out our guide to this popular windsurf holiday area with advice from Jane Faughan of Sportif Travel and Marcus Bull from Planet Windsurf and micro guides to some of the best windsurf centres in the region.
6 min |
Issue 386 - June 2019
Windsurf
Youthspiration
2016 and 2017 UK Youth Wavesailing Champion, Ruaraidh Somerville, is an up-and-coming young gun with ambitions to be a pro windsurfer. Based in Glasgow, his water time is limited but he has an interesting take on how to stay motivated. Read on as Ruaraidh gives us an insight into the world of an aspiring fifteen year old wavesailor.
6 min |
Issue 385 - May 2019
Windsurf
Under Starter's Orders
This is the first occasion we’ve had an entry-level freeride sail category in our test schedule, which left our test team asking the most basic question, “What is required of an ideal first-time freeride engine?” And if the parameters are agreed and set, which of them should be prioritised? Ease of rigging and ease of use? Cost and affordability, or durability and range? Over to the team to expand.
10+ min |
Issue 385 - May 2019
Windsurf
Stormy Dreams
Harty sings the praises of the storm chasing shenanigans in Donegal.
4 min |
Issue 385 - May 2019
Windsurf
Seavets
Seavets is a UK based senior and veteran windsurfers association, vice-chairman Ruth Tracey tells us more about their merry clan.
3 min |
Issue 385 - May 2019
Windsurf
Other Voices
It’s a paradox of the vast array of communication tools of our modern age that still some of the most interesting voices are those least heard.
4 min |
Issue 385 - May 2019
Windsurf
Move On Up - Gybe Exits
This month we look at the gybe exit. It requires us to be very efficient and consistent in handling the rig in a clew first position, and also challenges our early planing skills. The best news is you can really nail many of the clew first skills at slower speeds in light winds on bigger boards. And we can improve our speed out of the gybe by working on our early planing skills. If we have a strong and ‘active’ getting planing position then the nirvana of a planing gybe exit is so much closer! We can be working on this even before we learn to gybe, so we have our gybe endings already nailed before we attempt to carve!
7 min |
Issue 385 - May 2019
Windsurf
Miriam Asmussen
Norwegian racer Miriam Rasmussen was a late starter to windsurfing, but that hasn’t held her back. From competing around the world to setting national speed records, Miriam has forged her own path in the sport from a challenging beginning. Learn more about Miriam’s inspiring path as she tells us in her own words, “The story so far, …or how I stopped worrying and learned to love windsurfing!”
9 min |
Issue 385 - May 2019
Windsurf
Invasive Species Week 2019
The RYA tell us about the ‘Check Clean Dry’ initiative to help stop the spread of invasive species and diseases.
3 min |
Issue 385 - May 2019
Windsurf
Gunsails Bow Concept
One look at the Gunsails BOW sail tells you it’s different, very different! It has a specially developed mast to go with its radical head design and in contrast to established modern designs, doesn’t have a loose leech. To get the lowdown on the BOW and find out more about its design, we caught up with designer Pieter Bijl.
5 min |
Issue 385 - May 2019
Windsurf
Freestyle King
Born in 1989 in Porlamar, the largest city on Isla Margarita, Venezuela, “Gollito“ Jose Estredo grew up in the windsurfing playground of El Yaque, home to fellow PWA freestyle champion, Ricardo Campello. At the tender age of 13 he entered his first professional competition and won his first PWA freestyle world title in 2006, his ninth world title in 2018 and the smart money is on number 10 for 2019! In the ever-changing world of freestyle, one thing remains constant, Gollito winning! So what is the secret of his success, we ask his peers and the man himself.
10+ min |
Issue 385 - May 2019
Windsurf
Francesco Cappuzzo
Italian windsurfer Francesco Cappuzzo has a few strings to his boom. He competes on both the PWA freestyle and wave tours, no surprises there, plenty of sailors dabble in both, but how many do you also know compete on the Professional Kitesurfing GKA tour?
7 min |
Issue 385 - May 2019
Windsurf
Exploring Israel's Windsurfing
Boasting 275 km of coastline with access to the Mediterranean and the Red Sea, Israel enjoys solid wind statistics all year round and offers everything from flat water to waves. It has a buoyant windsurfing community, but outside of the country relatively little is known about it as a windsurfing destination; Eric de Cruz made a trip there with PWA slalom sailor Benjamin ‘Babou’ Augé and Esteban de Cruz to find out more.
9 min |
Issue 385 - May 2019
Windsurf
Defi Wind Japan
Miyako island in Okinawa Prefecture played host to the inaugural Defi Wind Japan last month and interestingly the City of Miyakojima, which includes not only Miyako Island, but also five other populated islands, is twinned with the island of Maui! Japanese windsurfing culture is one of the most interesting in the world and combining it with the DéfiWind concept was always going to be an interesting mix; we talk to some of the athletes and organisers to get a flavour of the event.
10+ min |
Issue 385 - May 2019
Windsurf
All In Good Time
Harty this month suggests that improvement may lie focussing not so much on ‘how’, but ‘how long.’ It’s all about time and timing
10+ min |
Issue 385 - May 2019
Windsurf
The Magheroarty Mission
After a three year wait, the Red Bull Storm Chase finally found the weather system they were looking for, storm ‘Gareth’, to green light the event and in keeping with the Storm Chase’s history, produce one of the most spectacular wavesailing contests ever! Rain, hail, snow, an 8 metre swell and force ten plus winds tested the riders to their absolute limits at Magheroarty, county Donegal, NW Ireland; John Carter caught up with the competitors and contest organiser Jobst von Paepcke to find out how it all went down.
10+ min |
Issue 385 - May 2019
SUP International
Go Big & Go Easy
Surfing must be one of the hardest sports to learn. But learning to surf on a SUP is probably even harder.
10+ min |
Spring 2019
SUP International
On Europe's Amazon
The Danube Delta is one of the wildest corners of Europe. A labyrinth of jungle-like waterways bedecked with climbing vines that hide kingfishers, pelicans and floating islands leading into a mystical world of deep forests and rivers. Sadly like any paradise, it is under threat.
10 min |
Spring 2019
SUP International
The Great Route
Data can only tell us so much. Environmental researcher Michael Walther wanted to make a more qualititave invesgitation into the effects of the anthroposcene on the remote west coast of Greenland. As he saw, climate change is altering not only the extent of the ice, but more crucially the way the ice behaves. The impact on the people that live there was profound.
8 min |
Spring 2019
SUP International
Small Minded: Wiping The Slate Clean
A few years ago I wrote about a perceived ‘eddy’ of lower and lower volume surfing paddleboards spinning away to the side of the sport’s mainstream. A veritable closed shop of elite riders chasing shortboard surfing-esque performance atop pieces of equipment that increasingly resembled just that: a surfing shortboard.
4 min |
Spring 2019
SUP International
Practical Progress
Progress in our modern world is a given. We innovate more, we advance – it’s the human way. But sport is cruel, progress is not always a linear path, more a zigzag, back and forth towards the next level. Finn Mullen offers some practical tips for an aspiring SUP surfer looking to keep their progress on track.
10+ min |
Spring 2019
SUP International
Prohibited Items
I’d almost forgotten about the weariness with which airport staff– from check-in personnel to baggage handlers look at you when they see you bumbling your way through departures with a large board bag.
2 min |
Spring 2019
SUP International
Paddle Science #14 - Blood Testing
We can be doing all the right things: for example eating a low carb diet, following a training program, but it is not easy to know if our blood glucose levels are in the right range, or if overtraining is leading to chronic inflammation.
6 min |
Spring 2019
SUP International
Lost In Koh Chang
If the newly crowned world champion sup racer gives you a tip-off to visit a place, it’s probably worth more than a casual glance. Daniel Hasulyo has just taken the technical race title at the ISA event in China, and if you’re wondering what his training schedule runs like, it looks a bit like this…
3 min |
Spring 2019
SUP International
Composite Or Inflatable?
A great polymath once said, if N is the number of boards you need, and S is the number of boards you own, then N = S +1. This month, we’re going to look at your next board purchase, and how to zero in on the construction that you need.
4 min |
Spring 2019
SUP International
Ten Years After
When you’re having a good moment, say on a trip somewhere you thought you’d never get to, or after the best surf you’ve ever had, or finding yourself at last planing with a foil, or perhaps even better - getting a new dog or addition to your family, do you ever think about what your ten-years-younger self would have thought if they knew it would be coming up?
2 min |
Spring 2019
SUP International
Logging In
I am sitting in a tuk-tuk carelessly sneaking through the chaotic traffic of Colombo way faster and way more dangerously than it should be. All around me I pass by thousands of people looking busy with their everyday lives. Drivers, beggars, porters, passengers, policemen with white gloves, buddhist monks dressed in orange, schoolboys in uniform, street food sellers, and hordes of ordinary people just going somewhere. I wonder what they do all day. I wonder what their reality is like. I came to Sri Lanka to experience first hand the spirit of a country in which everyone these days seems to be interested in.
8 min |