Sunday 9 December 2012

Crocked...

Well, here I am sat on my sofa with a lot of time on my hands. While SUPing on Friday I took a bit of a tumble (check the photo above) and wrenched my neck and shoulder. Not too bad, I could still just about paddle so I donned my cloak of invincibility the next morning and went back in at 7.30. Bad move. I think the combination of strained neck and shoulder muscles, chilly morning air and lack of warm-up (oops) combined and conspired against me and my back went big time while I was out the back. Brilliant. I managed to swim in and get back to the van, then get home and I've been bloody stuck here, almost completely immobile since then. I. Am. Bored. Anyway, it could be a good few days before I'm up and about again so I'll leave you these photos of 'the day before' to peruse in my virtual absence.


Also, check out this short clip from Punta last weekend. Typically, we didn't get any video on the better days but waited until it went onshore and messy. I videoed Lucy when there was no wind then she videoed me when it was rubbish- what a team! Anyway, from the 20 minutes of video, I managed to scrape together this short something or other. If you fancy a bit of that, but in the sunshine and boardshorts, have a look at this... http://puretourism.co.uk/blog/learn-pros-windsurfing-clinics-fuerteventura and you could be blasting back and forth with us next year. Imagine...

1 minute at Punta. from Stephen Gibson on Vimeo.

Thursday 6 December 2012

Wind, waves and sunshine..

Yeah, we've had a great couple of weeks over here with a perfect  mix of wind and waves meaning I've been busting out the windsurf kit and the SUP in fairly equal measures. Last week we had five days of strong northeasterlies meaning some nice sessions at Punta in very large but messy waves. Check out the pictures. The last few days have been sunny and windless so it's been out with the paddleboard and down to Majanicho at first light to (futilely it turned out) attempt to beat the crowds. It's getting so busy there with surfers and SUPers that it's a bit dangerous when it gets big. I caught some nice waves but I think it's time for me to head to some more secret spots now for the rest of the winter before I lose an eye or something....



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