A New Breed Of Windsurfers

The RYA give us a guide to the RS:X windsurfers of the British Sailing Team due to compete at the World Championships in Denmark this summer.

Ezzy Hydra

Ezzy Sails have released a dedicated foiling sail with a unique design; we get the lowdown from designer David Ezzy

Fanatic Jag

Fanatic describe their new “Jag” board as “A freerace board set free from the racecourse!” Fanatic brand manager Craig Gertenbach gives us the lowdown on the concept.

Loftsails Skyscape

Loftsails have introduced a well developed foiling sail to their range, the Skyscape. We get the lowdown on their foil program from test pilot Fernando Martínez del Cerro Delgado and designer Monty Spindler.

Pre-Flight Checks

As Harty has already noted in the mag, getting your foil set up correctly is key. Not knowing whether the challenges you’re facing are down to user error or kit setup can make progressing quickly a challenge. Here’s a quick look at making sure you’ve matched your foil well to your board and how to get the most out of your ‘first flights’, and beyond.

RRD WH Flight ALU 85 & Fireride V1 LTD 155

RRD WH Flight ALU 85 & Fireride V1 LTD 155

High Flyers

Foil racing is all go for the 2018 PWA calendar and after a successful start to the season in Yokosuka, Japan it was clear the new racing discipline has a bright future ahead. Old dogs are having to learn new tricks, so we quizzed the pros about their foil racing setups and technique and hear from the PWA race director on the challenges of setting foiling courses.

Reasons To Windsurf

A suggestion of quitting windsurfing was the best motivation reader Michael Fairrie ever received. Read on to find out why.

Olympic Aspirations

Did an extraordinary Olympics for team GB give you Olympic aspirations? There’s no harm in a little dreaming.

Road Tripping

What is it about the agony and ecstasy of a windsurfing road trip that makes it such a quintessential part of our sport? It’s a weirdly alluring combination of pleasure and pain, (with usually more emphasis on the pain) where you leave your comfort zone at home and head out in search of adventure. John Carter muses on the pros and cons of road tripping in the company of Timo Mullen, James Cox and Jamie Hancock as they venture to NW Ireland in the name of research as to what makes the perfect road trip.

The Fatal Lure of Greener Grass

Harty muses on the multi headed beast that is travel. 

Far North

The Faroe Islands are an archipelago between the Norwegian Sea and the North Atlantic that lie 200 miles north-northwest of Scotland and about halfway between Norway and Iceland. Self governing but part of the Kingdom of Denmark, the Faroes are little known for windsurfing but Jamie Hancock, Nic Hibdige and Kenneth Danielsen made an explorative trip to discover more about the islands of the far north.

Happy Days

Does combining a family trip with the chase for epic conditions make for a stressful holiday or enhance the experience. Klaas Voget has been making the journey to Chile for many years and the recent addition of his two small children hasn’t stopped his desire to score the perfect ride on Chile’s rugged Pacific coast. Read how he ensures his annual South American sojourn is happy days for all.

Isonic Man

 Rémi Vila is the man responsible for the design and development of some of Starboard’s most successful boards, most notably, their world championship winning slalom board, the Isonic. No stranger to the podium himself, Rémi is also a world champion windsurfer and his competitive streak transfers into his work “to make the best boards possible.” Read on as Rémi tells us more about his life and craft.

Inside The Fish Bowl

Sofie Louca and Paul Karaolides A.K.A. Fish Bowl Diaries are award winning photographers, recognized as some of the top shooters in the windsurfing industry. Until very recently, the couple have been based in the UK but have just moved to Maui full time to be closer to the island that has inspired so much of their work. To find out more about the talented duo, we caught up with Sofie to learn about their life, photography and how they came up with the ‘Fish Bowl’ moniker!

Focus

“Athletes Who Are Able to Stay Completely Focused in Pursuit of Their Dreams Are the Ones That Are Most Likely to Become Champions.” - Steve Backley Obe, Former Javelin World Record Holder. as the Competition Season Closes, We ‘FOCUS’ on the Champions and Podium Placers Who Were Successful in Their 2016 Pwa Campaigns. What Was Their Focus, How Did They Maintain It and How Will They Carry It to 2017? Read on for Some Motivation for Your Own Season Ahead.

Race, Ride, Rage, Repeat

Windsurf culture flourishes in the festival type atmosphere of common gatherings like NWF, Defi Wind and the long running Lancelin Ocean Classic. Combining competition with a healthy social scene, the Lancelin Ocean Classic (LOC) or ‘Lano’ to give it its colloquial name, kicks off the windsurf event season in style. With Western Australia enjoying one of its best seasons in years, the stage was set with an epic forecast for the battle of bragging rights to Lancelin’s crowns. John Carter and an ensemble of competitors give us the lowdown on the action on and off the water.

Cowboys And The Indian Ocean!

With Perth experiencing its coldest winter for at least two decades in 2016, the wild men of Western Australia based brand Severne knew it was time to round up the horses and head to sunnier climes for some warm water wave rides and R&R / R&D in the Indian Ocean waters of Mauritius. Along for the ride with the posse, was our very own ‘gun for hire’, John ‘Shooter’ Carter and his trusty Canons, primed to capture the Cowboys on tour. Long serving Severne rider Scotty McKercher tells the tale of their adventure and shares his memories of an epic trip.!

Operation Barzan!

Sharp eyed readers of Windsurf magazine may have noticed that our intrepid correspondent John Carter has a mild obsession with shooting windsurfing next to large ships, well actually massive ones to be more precise! Back in 2014, in our ‘Pirates of the Solent’ feature, ‘JC’ and his accomplice Scott Gardener tracked down the Marco Polo, which at the time was the second largest container ship in the world. This issue our senior ship spotter has been at it again with the mighty ‘Barzan’, 400 metres of steel and deadweight of a whopping 199,744 tonnes! Read on as Captain Carter tells his salty tale!

Forgotten Paradise

Sarah Hébert explores the small island of Barbuda in the eastern Caribbean, part of the sovereign Commonwealth nation of Antigua and Barbuda. She finds a paradise resurrected after hurricane Irma and perfect conditions for foiling. Read on as Sarah tells us more.

K - 700

Nic Hibdige, K-700, leads the UK charge on the PWA freestyle circuit and his 9th place finish at the Sylt leg of the 2018 tour shows he has the ability to break into the top ten in the world. We learn more about the 23 year old sailor from the south coast of England this month as he talks with Loris Vietoris about scoring, finance and future plans.

Movement

“Movement is life; and it is well to be able to forget the past, and kill the present by continual change.” Jules Verne.

Jem Hall Technique

My technique pieces mainly reflect on how best to go about nailing a certain move or employing a strategy to ‘move on up’. This month however we help you identify the barriers to your improvement. The most important insight I have is you have to WANT IT! I will go onto identify the main areas that may not be maximising your potential and then look at the key moves and where I see frequent mistakes. I am drawing on my 25 years of coaching and also what I observe on many beaches around the world. Understanding much of this will help you become better at self-coaching, which is one of the key ways to improve and enjoy your windsurfing more.

The Gentle Art Of Being Coached

There are good and bad teachers. But there are also good and bad pupils. With the holiday season upon us and many heading to centres home and abroad, Harty, with a few thousand coaching hours under his belt, offers much advice on how to get the most out of tuition.

The Black Rock Yacht Club

Summer is here and festival season is well underway, and if you like your festivals eccentric, few come weirder than ‘Burning Man’ in northwest Nevada. So what does a desert rave up have to do with windsurfing and what is the Black Rock Yacht Club, Kevin Pritchard tells tale.

La Palme Speed Challenge

Les Salins, La Palme, France was the location this spring for a world speed sailing record attempt from March 12 - April 30. Sanctioned as a private record attempt by the WSSRC (world speed sailing record council). World and national speed sailing record holders and a select band of invited sailors made the journey to the South of France to try out a new canal by its designer, UK speed sailing legend, Erik Beale. We caught up with Erik and fellow Brits, Zara Davis and Farrel O’Shea to learn more about the new addition to the speed event calendar.

All Or Nothing

Known for his all or nothing approach, Antoine Albeau needs little introduction. Multiple world titles and an icon of our sport; he is and always will be a windsurfing legend. Last year saw him lose his PWA world champion crown but gain a son. At such a significant time in his life, a reflective Antoine shares his thoughts with John Carter on the current state of slalom, foiling, winning and family.

Quick Learner

It’s a popular public misconception that learning to windsurf takes a while. Reader Elise Gire shares her own rather faster track approach of learning from up-hauling all the way through to short board sailing, water start, harness, footstraps and jibing in 50 days on the water! Granted this was in Maui, but it still shows with some dogged determination what can be achieved! The story doesn’t end there; Elise is now sailing in the waves and planning to enter her first wave competition. Read on for excerpts from the diary she kept during the first fifty days of her windsurf journey and an inspiring tale!

Getting Kids Hooked

Can you remember the first time you stepped onto a board? As a wind surfer seeing your children taking their very own first steps into the sport can be magical - those moments that plant the seeds we hope will blossom into a future love for windsurfing. With equipment, instruction and clothing developing all the time for younger children, knowing where to start can be a bit of a minefield. Fortunately the RYA have it covered, here are some fantastic opportunities which will make it easy for you to get your little people out on the water and loving it.

Nostalgia Ain't What It Used To Be

Harty warns against the imagined joy of the good ol’ days of the travelling windsurfer.