Tuesday 20 September 2011

Freestyle Heros?

I got down to Punta early doors yesterday morning, to catch low-tide and try out my new North Heros and Fanatic Skate 100 before anyone else arrived. I´ve struggled to enlist anybody to do photos or video of my new kit up until now so decided to try and video myself.... I wedged my camcorder in the rocks upwind of the flat water section on the inside and tried to guess more or less where I´d be coming in, set it rolling and hoped for the best. Conditions were fantastic- superflat water on the inside (it´s about a foot deep where I´m sailing there) and perfectly powered up on my new 5.3. The sails are really light in the hands yet much more powerful bottom-end to get me up and running, I think I´m going to enjoy these babies this year.
I videoed for 40 minutes then the battery ran out, but I managed to get a few things on there (note: I may have new kit, but I don´t have new tricks, haha)- check out the suicidal snorkellers in the footage; 25 miles of unspoilt coastline along the northshore and they decide the only place to catch octopus is exactly where the one, lone windsurfer is. Funnily enough, they decided to try their luck further downwind after I´d slalomed through them a couple of times....
When I finished with the video camera, I changed boards to my 93 Twin and had an epic sail in the waves. Great for jumping, I landed some nice backies which is good after a pretty bad summer patch where I seemed to have lost most of my jumps, and nice for riding, too, got my takas dialled again- wicked. All in all, a good solid day´s sailing, 4 hours in the water, no injuries and some nice stunts in the bag- mustn´t grumble.
Anyway, here´s the best of the footage I got, enjoy, and check out the swimmers- crazy!!!!

Wednesday 7 September 2011

Is it 2012 already?





It is for me! After almost a month of travelling around and mainly partying (naughty), I finally arrived back on Fuerte with my new 2012 kit. It looks amazing and sails even better. I did a four-day clinic in Sotavento with Mark and Sidoney and put the new 100 Skate through it´s paces and was superhappy with it- very quick and, with more volume in the tail and under the straps than its predecessor, very forgiving in freestyle manouevres, making those double rotations that bit easier. It was also my first time out on the new four-batten North Heros. As promised they are much more powerful bottom-end than the Ices I used last year and incredibly light in the hands, perfect for a heavier sailor like myself who sails alot in marginal conditions. All in all, I couldn´t be happier with my new kit and the clinic was a massive success with both Mark and Sidoney planing around in both straps for the first time ever! Well done to you both, there´s a whole new world of fun waiting for you now...
Yesterday I got my new 93 Twin out at Punta for the first time and am equally happy with that new toy. The extra volume is ideal for me (last year I had the 86 which was great when the wind was up but I struggled a bit in lighter winds and often reverted to my freestyle board), and it still turns great on the wave. These new multi-fin boards really do sail like smaller boards than their volume suggests and make it possible to have a floatier board which can still be thrown around in waves- I can´t wait to get it out at El Martillo this autumn....



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.............