Funautical: 4,7 AND SOME WAVES

Rigged up and ready for some action

I am sitting in my nice warm home listening to the powerful wind blow against and around the house, breaking branches and tossing my neighbour's garbage all over my lawn.

The first battering of the season will be arriving courtesy of an Atlantic low pressure system winding itself up to the south west of Guernsey tomorrow. Autumn opens it's doors with strong winds sweeping the islands, fast ferries cancelled, fallen trees and possible structural damage. It's time to break out some new toys and hit the beach. Surfers.....There isn't any! Hooray! Awesome! Most excellent!. Lumpy, junky slop, wind swell about waist to head high. Nothing to it. But heah, we can't complain. Last week my new 2012 Ice HD's sails and masts arrived from North and it was time to break them out of their wrapping and put the 4.7 to the test. Here's what North have to say about the Ice......

One happy owner of the 2012 North Ice HD
"Ice Age"

Numerous changes are hidden in detail. E.g. the shorter luff has a very positive effect. Everything feels more compact and at the same time more neutral making the ICE easier than ever to handle. The handling has improved significantly, without loosing any planing power of its predecessor thanks to a modified luff curve and optimised profile distribution. It is unbelievable how just a few centimetres can make such a change!

Enough of this advertising and time to put it to the test.
The forecast for today read:

Weather : Bright or sunny periods at first this evening with the slight risk of a shower, then becoming cloudy with a little rain or drizzle by the morning.

Min : 15 °C

Visibility : Good, locally moderate to poor by the morning.

Wind : Southwest fresh F5 to strong F6, increasing strong F6 to 7 after midnight.

Open Sea State : Rather rough becoming rough

Haven't been on the water in 20 days. After many weeks without any really good conditions, it looks like the next few days will finally deliver some serious action. It is worth the wait because today was sweet! Wind and water wasn't too cold and I was on a 4.7 with an 80L board. Jibing was lush on the inside but a little bumpy on the outside with some nice ramps to be had even though the waves were a little confused down on the beach, the hunger for better waves needs to be cured. Hopefully that will come tomorrow. With tomorrows forecast looming many a desperate Guernsey windsurfer is looking to take a day off from work to get a day of perfect conditions. After about four hours out in the waves I was hungry, exhausted and very pleased with myself after pulling off a few sweet forwards and some nice bottom turns in the confused surf.

My sailing buddy Matt was also out with his new kit, a new Carbon Art wave board fresh out the costumes shed and nicely finished off with a new Hot Sails fire. Carbon Art's total focus and vision is on designing and building the best windsurf and surf boards. Headquartered in a small and somewhat hidden factory near New Plymouth in New Zealand, Carbon Art manufacture precision windsurf and surfing boards for the world to enjoy. The founder, James Dinnis, built his dream business from a surfing lifestyle to become one of New Zealand's most industrious brands.

Carbon Art New Zealand
Matt and and his new stick.
The big man was super stoked to get his hands on his new piece of carbon

Nice, warm afternoon, with heaps of people on the water and a general good and relaxed vibe. I guess for us Donkeys this was the last sunny day of the year.....and of course everybody wanted to enjoy it, cause our summer sucked, weather wise. Great session to break my drought.