Looks like a Cold Week Ahead

Feckin Freezing!

No sailing for me this week. I have decided to rest the strained muscle in my foot. Don't think I missed much due to the drop in temperature and lack of wind this weekend. Check out the picture of my car roof this morning.

Brrrr!

More sail Spinning from Caesar

Freestyle training on the beach, O'Neill Surf festival. Caesar Finies shows us some sail spinning freestyle tricks. Estonia, Rohuküla 2008

Worlds Longest Windsurf Board

Check this out. Oisin mailed me the link today. Crazy! Think this is the trial run. Rumor has it that they managed a spock a couple days later, ha ha!

Sleep like a Baby Tonight

Feel a bit like an old man tonight after a great day at Malahide. I sailed on my 5m combat well powered up a lot of the time. There was a lot of heads on the water and plenty of cold hands at the club house. Oisin had a new 'Hero' helmet mounted camera for some on the water action. Later in the day I done the camera man thing which was a bit of fun. Not so easy belting along while looking backwards for a long period of time trying to catch someone else's move. At one stage while sitting in the water filming , Oisin decided to jump over my board! Cheeky bugger. John Kenny was out getting some seriously fast runs. Kidge and myself were busy dredging up the bottom of the estuary on failed vulcan/spock attempts next to the slipway. Great to see so many people out giving it socks on a cold Novembers day.

Goodnight.

On the Eight Day he Windsurfed

I went for a sail this morning at Malahide. I had an ok session. Landed a few vulcans and tried some more boomerang gybes. I only managed one and after a bad dose of the re-heats and failing wind, I decided to call it a day. It looks good for tomorrow. Root out your flask. Could be a cool one!

Waiting for the Weekend

No exercise or bike riding the last few days. Looks like i strained something in the arch of my left foot. I think i got it from standing on one peg of the bike while learning to scuff. It's not too bad and wont stop me windsurfing over the weekend. I'm looking forward to trying more boomerang gybes. This is a good move for anyone who can carve fast into a gybe. It doesn't seem too hard to learn and the crashes are not bad.

Nailed my first Boomerang Gybe

I went out for a quick sail this evening at kilcrea and completed my first boomerang gybe. I had no plans on trying this move until i let the sail slip on a planing gybe and it hung in the air for a moment. This gave me the idea to try a proper boomerang gybe. After four attempts i nailed one. The trick seems to be to carve fast downwind, throw the sail forward with a little more strength in the back hand. Keep carving with your weight kept forward and over the inside rail. If all is going well the sail will swing around and come back up to you. Cool!

(This is the only pic I could find on the net for a Boomerang gybe)

Who said you have to get wet?

Came across this clip of Andy Brandt doing some cool sail spinning stuff on you tube. Looks like light wind tomorrow. Maybe i'll give it a go.

Check it out

Red Bull Athlete - Terry Adams

Here is a cool Vid of Terry Adams who is probably the top Red Bull Pro Athlete, disciplined in BMX Flatland.

Check it out

TERRY ADAMS...Red Bull USA Pro Athlete from Captured Life Productions on Vimeo.

Bill lands his first Niagra!

My brother mailed this to me today.

Andre, I borrowed your windsurf gear last week when you were out on the bmx, I hope ye don't mind. Thought I'd skip trying to land vulcan's (they're old school) instead I landed my first Niagra....check it out.

Tom lands his first Vulcan

Congratulations to Tom Slomski on landing his first Vulcan over the weekend. Tom started trying this move in the summer and after plenty of vulcan head dips has finally landed one. Way to go Tom. Take your time with your spock attempts as i want to land one first!

Good day in the Waves

I had a good session today in Rush on my new twinser. Jonas, Oisin, myself and a few others were out. I sailed on 4.5 first and then changed down to a 3.7 The board is very forgiving and has great grip due to the twin fins. I feel like I'm making some progress sailing in waves at last. Tonight I will be dreaming mainly of waves, waves and more waves!

Tailwhip Footjam

I landed my first tailwhip footjam tonight on the bike at last! I am trying to do a half hour each night. Most nights I notice a small improvement and it fills the void of not windsurfing so all is good. Rather than explain the tailwhip footjam, check out the vid of this guy on you tube showing the process of learning the move.

Flatland Update

I started scuffing on the back wheel of the bike this week. It's a bit scary as your facing backwards with one foot on a back peg and scuffing the back tire with the other foot going backwards on the back wheel only with the front lifted. I have had some interesting falls and so far have only managed to scuff the tire four times before coming off. Also you can't use any brakes with this move.

Here is a cool flatland vid i came across on global-flat.com of Michael Sommer showing his style in Vienna.
Check it out!

Fluere in Autumnum - Michael Sommer video 2008 from sevisual on Vimeo.

Christened new Twinser Today

I had a fun session today on the south strand in Skerries. I was on my 6.1 firefly and JP 90l freestyle. The tide was in with some small waves to play around on. I even got a short spin on my new 84l twinser, but the wind was not strong enough so that didn’t last long.

Congratulations - It’s Twins

After a long wait the twins-er arrived today weighing in at 6.1kg hand delivered by Oisin. Father and 84l twins-er are doing very well. Hope Helen doesn’t mind sleeping on the couch!

20th December 2008

The Summer is Gone.

It looks like the summer is truly gone and the winter is on our doorsteps. It is hard to get motivated when the temperature outside is 3 degrees! Here is a little slide show of my summer. Time for another cup of tea.

How Was it For You?

Boards mag was way better this month! Carlos, Trish, Fionn and myself had our mugs printed on page 128 as part of an article written by local sailor Sue Honan. Here is a small segment of the article.

The great thing about windsurfing is that everyone has a different experience of the same day at the same sailing spot. There you are having a survival session while someone else is just grooving along enjoying the view. It makes for good conversation afterwards while you're having a smoker and a strawberry Yop (THE best sailing food) in the van. Maybe later in the pub you can compare more notes with others who were out. Windsurfers love to recount their session to understanding souls, and we listen and feel your joy -and sometimes your pain! Sailing on your own (yes, we all do it at some stage) obviously reduces the opportunity to share. This is a problem if you have a non-windsurfing partner (NOWP), because NOWPs simply do-not-understand-you. It's a windsurfing fact. You come home massively excited about a session and start gabbling on about how it was the best sesh ever and you should have been there "cos it was mast-high [okay, over my knees] and it was really windy - at least Force 5 in a couple of gusts maybe - and I caught this in-cred-ible wave [all 30cm of it] and I sailed so fast and made three gybes and all my tacks were dry".