Wednesday 24 February 2010

The Storm Before The Calm..............


Well, the storm has passed completely now, and we are left with clear blue skies and total calm again, time for a wee breather. I reckon the northeasterlies will be along pretty soon to signal the start of spring (probably the best season here for wind and waves) so I´m going to rest this aching old body now (at the beach, haha) in preparation! In the meantime, check out some pics I got from the last day of SW wind at Punta.......

Sunday 21 February 2010

Air Flaka.



I´ll huff n I´ll puff......................


Check this out- on Wednesday night the storm we´d been expecting built to almost hurricane level (the second time in two years that this has happened, definitely feeling the climate change!). During the night, the wind got so strong it blew the roof of our apartment block and deposited big chunks of it through the shop windows and on top of the parked cars in the front street! The town was pretty well flooded on Thursday morning and there was a lot of storm damage around, and the wind was still howlin´! A few people managed to get out sailing at Rocky Point again later in the day when the wind dropped, but they were still pretty overpowered on 3.7s and 4.2s by the looks of things, more survival than classic sailing. I was kept busy at emergency community meetings etc, trying to sort out the slight waterproofing problem that some of my neighbours are now faced with!
Anyway,looks like the wind will drop a bit and should get a good session in at Punta or La Caleta before it disappears for good, watch this space, hopefully I´ll get some pics...........................

Tuesday 16 February 2010

Stormy Waters.


The storm is upon us! Sunday was great port-tack Punta with smallish waves (see pics), great fun for both jumping AND riding. The pics are of my wee mate Victor who was rippin that day. Hopefully it´s his turn to hold the camera for a while today.................

Yesterday the wind swung more true west so the action shifted to Rocky Point, with logo high sets and winds gusting up to 35 knots. A bit chaotic but good stuff nevertheless, the bigger sets were a bit choppy on the face but the smaller ones cleaned up nicely on the inside for some sweet down-the-line riding. No pics unfortunately as the action was a bit far away.

Today is looking windy again and could be good at Punta or La Caleta if this bloody rain ever stops! Watch this space...........

Saturday 6 February 2010

Pumpin´...........


It´s been a great week here on Fuerte- last Friday and Saturday saw strong SSW winds, perfect jumping and port tack riding at Punta Blanca in head-high waves- bliss! Punta is sooo good with wind from the left, it´s so clean and well-spaced, total joy. On the way back home after my session there I passed by "german right" and I have to say it was going off there with some of the local wave rippers getting some great rides and big aerials in mast-high perfection! Great to watch............

Yesterday was absolute perfection (for me) in Majanicho- head to logo-high sets and perfectly sideshore eastwind. So many times here the wind has too much south in it and is too offshore but yesterday was primetime Majanicho. The wind was pretty fickle on the inside so I took my 5.6m Combat Wave and the 98l Freestyle and had an epic session! Don´t be mislead by the name "freestyle", these boards are just incredible fun to sail in just about any conditions, NOT just for freestyling! With a 19cm fin in it turns just great and for aerials it´s probably even easier than with the waveboard as it keeps up speed and has more surface area to launch off the lip. Everyone should have one of these boards in their van!

Today the forecast was good but the wind was probably a bit lighter and the swell was pumpin´! A couple of the lighter guys tried their hands, wobbling out and catching some huge set waves for a while before the wind died altogether(see pics), cool to see. On the way back this morning I stopped off at Lazy´s where a couple of guys were surfin some nice, powerful head-high barrels and took some more pics, check em out in the slideshow............




Welcome to the site!
Aswell as regular features and news updates from Fuerte, I am going to be using this site to promote my windsurfing clinics.
After 15 years on the island,having competed in the PWA freestyle world cup and now representing Fanatic Boards and North Sails, I have decided to give something back to the sport which has given me so much over the years.
My aim is to provide clinics "tailor-made"for each individual, with a strong emphasis on practical in-the-water instruction, backed up by on-the-beach tuition and video analysis. The consistent conditions here in Fuerte make learning so much easier and, perhaps equally important, more fun than the typically inconsistent, cold UK - why not come over for a week and improve your windsurfing by a year!!!

I can help with any manoeuvres from carve-gybe through to advanced jumping and freestyle, just email me with your wish list and we'll take it from there! Over the next few months, I am going to be video-chronicling manoeuvres which you can check out on the right in my tricktionary sections. This will give you some idea of the things we can work on, or, if you can't make it over here, you may find them useful to help understand and break down a manoeuvre you would like to learn (hopefully, the slow-mo will help in this respect!).Just click on the trick and scroll down..........
Anyway, keep checking it out as I have loads more in my bag of tricks and will be updating as and when I get the footage.
If you're interested, e-mail me on gibboinfuerte@yahoo.co.uk
See ya in Fuerte?
Stephen.............