Wednesday 26 November 2014

Rocky Point rainbows (video)


On Saturday the wind reappeared and the remnants of the huge storm swell were still just about coming in to Rocky Point. It was blustery with the occasional torrential downpour, which made rigging not so much fun, but it was pure bliss once I got in the water. Perfectly powered on 5.0 (except in the squalls) with head high waves peeling downwind along the reef it was fantastic for both riding and jumping and we all had an absolute ball. It was a bit like being back in the UK but loads warmer :) .To cap it all off we sailed under a beautiful rainbow for about half an hour after a front pushed through - Maui eat your heart out, haha. Anyway, I'd stuck the (borrowed, thanks Basti) GoPro on my mast to try and get some pics and ended up with the following footage which I edited together with my new van music...

Rocky Point 22/11/14 from Stephen Gibson on Vimeo.

Tuesday 25 November 2014

More storm pics.

I just got sent these photos from our session at el Hierro, seems there were photographers hiding in all the bushes! I think these were taken towards the end of the session as it looks like the wind is getting pretty wild in a couple of them. The first two were taken just as I left and give you a good idea how windy it got...










Monday 24 November 2014

Storm's a brewin'...

Last weekend saw the Canaries on 'orange alert' for an approaching Atlantic storm and it hit us, in a disappointingly mellow fashion, on Saturday. I say mellow but it rained really heavily for a couple of days and the wind did actually get up to a very strong 60 mph just after I finished sailing at el Hierro. In fact, it picked up to that while I was derigging and I've still got some of the Saharan dirt in my ears. Probably. Anyway, to cut a short story even shorter, we rocked up to the northshore on the morning of the predicted storm and  had a quick look at La Caleta, which was small and a tad too offshore then had a spy at el Hierro, a renowned surf break which can occasionally produce the goods in a WSW or ENE and were fairly inspired by the conditions there. Last time I sailed there it was massive and I was overpowered on 4.0, but this time was nice little head-high sets and wind for 5.0 (in the beginning at least). Great, fun session with the wind and waves building all the time until, like I said, it fully kicked in while I was derigging to the point where I could only see about 2 metres on the track on the drive home. Wish I'd taken a photo actually. Luckily for me, however, a friend of mine Gwenael Marche was on hand to get some nice pics of the sailing before all meteorological hell broke loose and we retreated to the shelter of our little house to hide from the fury of the ensuing storm...






 

Sunday 16 November 2014

A different view...

On that last windy day at Punta a good friend of mine Wieberen (Bert for short) took out a GoPro and shot some slightly different footage. Inspired by recent online documentation of surfers using a new-fangled 'mouth mount' he went out with his precious camera grasped firmly between his teeth and attempted to follow a few of the boys around at close quarters and film us. It has to have been more fun for us than it was for him, sailing for an hour without swallowing and spending the entire session with a chin covered in drool but he did get some shots of us in action. One of the main problems with third person GoPro shooting is the need to be super close in order for the footage to be anything but a speck on the horizon but he got as close as he dared and just about got away with it. In true Gibson tradition of never wasting any footage whatsoever, I edited the 3 clips into a short vid so you can get an on-the-water perspective of the action that day (although it will almost certainly lose all its quality when I upload it onto here)and also took some snapshots to flog that horse completely to death...






Wednesday 12 November 2014

Flash in the pan.

Well, the wind did indeed come but for a very quick, one day special. I woke up to the sound of wind howling round the house one morning, sailed and then awoke the very next day to utter calm again! Never mind, it was nice to get out on the windsurf kit again after such a long rest and, although I was very rusty to say the least, I enjoyed the session powered up on my 4.0 North Hero and 89 quad. The tide was quite low so the waves were a touch on the messy side but we still managed to get a few jumps, mainly on the smaller reforms on the inside. The wind was super strong which meant that Lucy didn't have a small enough sail so she sat on the rocks and took a few snaps until the relentless wind got the better of her and she was forced to seek shelter in the van. Here they are...












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