Sunday 8 July 2012

Windy, Wavey Surfdock Week.

Although it finished almost a week ago, this is the first chance I´ve had to sit down and write a report on the Surfdock summer wave clinic. Wind-wise, it was by far my most successful clinic to date, with wind from first light til dark on every single day of the boys´one week stay. Without going into too much detail and writing a blow-by-blow account, we sailed at Sotavento and Glass the first day, then Glass and Punta the second and Punta every day for the remainder. We also had the good fortune to have Irish wave wizard Oisin Van Gelderen along for the trip, to help out with tuition (and motivation!), so the pressure was certainly on the boys to step up. Although the lads outlined their goals at the start of the week and everyone had slightly different aims, the one common factor was that old demon the forward loop, and with conditions at Punta so totally perfect, it turned into a 90% forward loop clinic- some of the boys learning it for the first time, and some others perfecting their rotation with the aim of stalling them.
I´d like to congratulate everyone who took part as they all gave it 110% for the entire week, and were looking decidedly jaded when they left for the airport....
All in all, a huge success- 6 solid days of sailing in waves, 3 meals out (and a couple of nights out I suspect), and a tongue-in-cheek award ceremony (hope you´ve all still got those "trophies", you earned them), and of course tons of craic! I can only hope they enjoyed it as much as I did. Thanks and well done (and I hope your ribs heal soon, Peter).
Ryan.

Andy.

Peter.


Phil.


Cormac.



The instructors hard at work.




So that´s it for what looks certain to become an annual event, a huge thanks to Colin from www.surfdock.ie for organising everything at his end (with probably more than a little help from Nina, I´d imagine), the legendary OVG for his help, Ryan for his inspiring sailing (well done on the backside 3s, youngster), and of course all the boys- see you all next year if you´ve recovered by then...
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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.............