Thought so.

The wind certainly did materialise yesterday, as I thought, and the big swell made a trip down the east coast to Puerto Lajas the call for the day. It was pumping, a bit too big for the bay really with some sets closing out the entire width of the bay out to sea. I realised yesterday just how a) out of shape I am and b) how rusty I am. Thought so. No surprise really after a lengthy lay-off and a big operation, but I was a tad disappointed with my sailing and know now I need to do some serious training in the new year to get my fitness back if I want to get back to anywhere near full speed. I had a couple of big swims from the outer point after losing my gear, and Lucy had the biggest swim of her life after losing her kit for almost an hour, finally being rescued by a local miles out to sea! After all that drama I went back out and sailed the smaller town wave with the locals (still pretty big and gnarly) and had a slightly better session. It was my first time out on my 2014 Fanatic Quad 89 and it went great, although the choppiness of the wave and my pathetic performance made it impossible to really tell what the board's performance is like compared to last year's model...

Today it looks almost certainly like Majanicho, I got up early to catch it uncrowded but at the moment the wind is light but building so I'm nursing a coffee and waiting for an hour or so...

First day back at Punta...

As I mentioned in the last post, the wind has arrived and I ventured out at Punta today for the first time since the op. I took it very easy- no jumping, just riding and freestyle, and was totally overpowered and overboarded as soon as I hit the water, but my hip held up great and I may just up the ante a little tomorrow and try some little jumps...check out the pics from Hobbsy's new waterproof housing (thanks for swimming about in the cold, Si), and a couple from the land taken by Lucy, who braved the cold and wind to stand on the shore taking pics as I basically sailed in and out without doing anything :/ . Hopefully, more to come tomorrow...

Merry Christmas from the rock.

Well, that's Christmas over and done with. No wind so far but there were huge waves and the lack of wind made for some epic SUP conditions- check out the pic below of Rocky Point on Christmas Day!!!! Wow! Great fun. Today is a rest day as the wind has picked up a bit, making it too breezy for paddling but still not windy enough to sail. Tomorrow is looking good for Punta and Sunday is going to be nuking, followed by Majanicho on Monday and Tuesday, before dropping on Wednesday for more SUPing. Hard life. Should have some photos to post very soon...
MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

Back on the water. At last.

It's been four months plus since my hip resurfacing and I've been a very good boy so far- no sailing at all, although I must admit I've been very tempted a couple of times but was let down by the forecast, phew! I always promised myself I would rehab properly and wait 4-5 months before attempting to sail again. The hip has felt great for ages now but I've been hanging on trying to stick to my original plan, paddleboarding as much as possible and generally just taking it easy. Yesterday the wind turned east (I reckon Majanicho must have been firing :( ) and meant the bay was windy and flat so I decided to bust out my 2014 kit and go for a 45 minute spin to see how my leg would handle it. Although I felt very rusty and incredibly out of shape, the session went well, I can still gybe, and today I have no pain in my hip so I reckon I'm ready to get back into it. I'm planning on easing myself back in, maybe no jumping for another month or two, but I should be able to get out when it's windy somewhere. At last. Again, I would like to thank all the fantastic staff at the Nuffield and my surgeon who helped me all the way through from beginning to new beginning...

Back to work.

How can a guy with so much free time be so busy? I don't know, once again I've left it a couple of weeks before finding time to post up the pictures of my first post-op clinic! (Cue rap on knuckles). Jim Patterson, a Kiwi ex-pat, now living in London but soon to return to his native home (and who can blame him?) came over for a week hoping to score a couple of half days with tuition and struck gold. We had a full 7 days of wind, two nice days at Flag, port tack with head high waves on the reefs, and four big days at Punta for starboard jumping and riding! He had a great week, obviously, and improved the rotation on his forwards during the last two sessions at Punta once he got fully dialled into the fairly extreme conditions. I did my tuition from the beach with the aid of my camera and video camera and it worked really well as I could show him the things he was doing well and things he needed to change during his sessions. All in all, a great week and a very happy customer! Enjoy your new kit (and the cold) back home Jim...

Getting there...

Two months now since the op and the hip feels great! I still need to work a bit on flexibility but I could probably be sailing again already. However, I made an executive decision to not order my new windsurf kit to avoid the temptation to get back on the water too quickly so I will have to wait until it arrives at the end of next month before I get my feet back in the straps.
I've been out most days on my SUP though and have started venturing out into waves again without any problem whatsoever. Check out this little video of Majanicho from last week...

Good fun. Well, the wind has finally returned to our little island after a couple of months' absence so it's off down the beach fro some tuition with Jim from NZ today, looks like Flag Beach with a decent swell. I'll see if I can get any pics to post up...
Birthday/Rehab Session, Majanicho October 2013 from Stephen Gibson on Vimeo.

On The Road To Recovery.

Well, that's been a long, strange summer! I spent the whole summer back in the UK getting my hip resurfaced and am now back in Fuerte recovering. The op was a huge success (phew!) and my constant hip agony of the last five years is now but a memory, as is my equally everpresent limp. I won't lie, the first couple of weeks was agony and it was difficult to believe the promises of the doctors and nurses that I would eventually be free of pain and be able to walk without the aid of crutches. Eight weeks on and it's all good- I am SUPing every morning in flat water to rebuild muscles, then doing 10km on my cross trainer before stretching. I have a way to go before I'm ready to sail again (I want to be fully fit and shed the excess kilos my ma's fantastic cooking provided me with, cheers ma ;) ) but I am totally confident I'll be fighting fit by the start of December. To be honest, once I got through the first couple of weeks my stay in the UK was fantastic! I haven't spent much time there over the last 17 years or so and it was great to catch up with old friends, spend loads of time with my amazing little brother (thanks for everything Paul) and my family, without whom I don't know if I could have even organised all this, never mind get through it all. Lucy and Marina came up to visit and we spent some great weeks up north caravanning, sightseeing and fishing on my brother's boat. Good times.

I'd like to thank everyone who has helped me through this tricky time- my ma and pa, my brother and his family, my amazing girlfriend, and all my friends for their support and encouragement. Also, the security staff at the airport for helping me on and off with my shoes after I set the metal detectors off ( best get used to that I reckon). Right, where's that yoga mat? 

Airtime.

The Surfdock Clinic starts tomorrow with all the boys arriving at midday here in Fuerte for what promises to be an action-packed week. It looks like we'll be chilling tomorrow afternoon, maybe a little session at Glass late on, then heading down to Sotavento on Wednesday after a lazy breakfast. After that the wind is hitting us big-time and we'll be heading to Punta for the remainder of the week to work on forwards, back loops and push loops. I can't wait!

Meanwhile here are some pics from the past week at Glass...

Locals only (video)....

With the Surfdock clinic almost upon us, with 8 guys soon to arrive bursting with enthusiasm I'm saving my energy and resting up my poor broken hip so I can sail as much as possible next week with them so yesterday I took my video camera down the east coast and filmed my mates at a spot we sail quite regularly in N/NE when there's a big swell in the north. This place goes off when it works well but unfortunately the swell was small and the wind was on the light side yesterday but I videoed anyhow and the following video is the result. It was actually quite nice just sat there on the rocks in the sun for a few hours watching all the action. Obviously I managed to miss the best bits- Dany's huge stalled forward bail and Jerman's fully planing goiter back into the wave but it's hard to keep an eye on everyone at once. Good practice for next week though as I plan on doing a lot of video analysis with the boys. Check it out...


Just another day...Fuerte 21 June 21 2013 from Stephen Gibson on Vimeo.

The time has come...

Well, after 5 years of increasing pain it's finally time to bite the bullet and go for long-awaited surgery on my buggered hip. I'm pencilled in for my hip resurfacing in the middle of July this year so am going to miss the summer wind here but am looking forward to getting on with my rehab and being back on the water in the New Year if all goes to plan. Fingers crossed!

In the meantime I have been ekeing the last dregs out of my broken, cartilageless joints and have scored some great sessions at Punta (see pics below) and, more recently, Glass (see above pics), albeit that I can only sail for half an hour before the pain forces me off the water. Next week I have the Surfdock Clinic with the boys from Ireland which is a blast and I'll be teaching as much as possible on the water but this year with much more on-the-beach tuition and video analysis. I can't wait, the forecast is epic and they're a fantastic bunch so let the good times roll...keep an eye on the blog as I will have loads of pics, reports and video to post up while they're here.