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.

Jump n bump (Video).

It's been a hectic few weeks for me with visitors and it looks set to continue with friends, family and fellow windsurfers arriving all at the same time this weekend. Nevertheless I've still been getting some sailing in, mostly at Flag Beach funnily enough, a place I normally avoid nowadays because of the k**e plague. It's a shame really as I enjoy sailing at Flag when it's good and I spent many, many days there as a relative newcomer to the island 17 years ago when my old Seat Ibiza couldn't get through the sand to Punta and left me with no choice except to sail at Flag. This week we had some great sessions there and there weren't too many k***s, some of them even stayed in their area which was nice. Lucy is finally getting some smoothly rotated forwards (Punta next) which is well-timed just before the competitions in May and I shot a bit of GoPro footage on the last day... check it out at the bottom of the post.

Flag Beach 06/04/2013, Bump n Jump... from Stephen Gibson on Vimeo.

....and relax...(video).

The wind has finally abated and the island is basking under a cloudless sky again. Beautiful. Time to kick back, SUP, and recharge the old batteries- not bad. In the meantime, check out this video of some of the sessions we had over the last six weeks or so at Punta, Majanicho and one day in La Caleta. Thanks to Lucy for standing on the beach filming when she evidently wanted to be in the water! (The favour was returned, I assure you).

Stephen Gibson Winter Sessions 2013 from Stephen Gibson on Vimeo.

What? Wind from the left????

We had our first real stormy SW wind last weekend, tons of rain and superstrong, gusty winds accompanied by a decent swell (although not as big as predicted). This is the first port tack riding we've had since last June (Puerto Lajas) and before that was a year ago as we had no SW and no rain at all last winter! These pics were taken on Sunday, well powered up on my 4.5 Hero and still loving my 87 quad, although I should probably have taken the 79 Thruster out, to be honest. I didn't sail too great, but I blame that on lack of practice, hehe, and the pics came out OK...

When we finished sailing at 5pm, a massive front came through and blew a deluge of sand and dust across the whole of the north shore (see top pic). We couldn't even see the sea from the beach, and shortly after the heavens opened and kept the whole island indoors til Monday morning.

It's all passed now and gone pretty calm after four days of howling winds. Phew! Business as usual...

Batten down the hatches.

We have a huge storm headed our way which should hit us on Sunday or Monday, with howling SW winds and a monstrous swell! However, after 17 years on the island I also feel comfortable in predicting that torrential rain will accompany the wind and waves, probably making the northtrack impassable by late Sunday and leaving us to retreat to Rocky Point. Let's see...

In the meantime I leave you with a photo of myself and a short clip of Lucy waveriding on our last day at Majanicho. I'm off to build an ark...

Short clip from Majanicho from Lucy Robson on Vimeo.

Majanicho pics...

I won't bore you with details....some more great sessions at Majanicho- I love my 87 quad!!!!!

More Action...

The wind has stopped blowing for a couple of days so time to rest n recuperate before it comes back (handily) at the weekend. We've had loads more sailing, you'll be pleased to hear (check out the gopro still from Flag Beach yesterday above), and we're still getting some video footage together, mainly for training purposes. I'm sitting on mine until I have enough for a half-decent video but Lucy had loads of footage so she chucked together this little gem where you can see how much she's improved already in the short time she's been here, she really is ripping, especially at my beloved Punta. Check out her waveriding and her full-on forward attempts! She's landing them now since we shot this video...In the meantime, enjoy...

Lucy Robson January 2013 training Fuerteventura from Lucy Robson on Vimeo.
And while we're on the subject of video, check out this wee snippet from Punta a few days ago. With only a few weeks left before the Easter Clinic (places still available if you're interested), I'm getting as much freesailing in as possible.... Yep, I'm still addicted to takas...

More pics from our windy isle.

The wind hasn't really stopped blowing since my last post, the SUP is looking slightly forlorn in the garden as we head off to Punta and Majanicho every morning to get a couple of hours on the water before work. We're still shooting video so I have some frame-grabs to post up, although the light has been shitty so the quality is not so good- not sure if we'll be able to use the video footage for anything other than training purposes. It's been really useful to watch the footage, though, and my sailing has definitely improved as a result. We will be using video analysis a lot this year on my clinics for sure. The wind has dropped off today but should return tomorrow for some Majanicho action so the video camera is on charge...

Windy...

 

It´s been a good windy spell over here and we´ve been sailing a lot! Loads of big days at Punta and some good Majanicho sessions (check out the pics taken from some video that we shot). Yesterday myself and Lucy tried to sail Martillo at low tide, something I´ve never tried before and I realise now why! It´s definitely a high tide only spot as we suspected as there were semi-dry rocks peeking out as I bottom turned on logo high sets! After I threaded through two bubbling boulders on a set wave I decided it was time to head back to the van and spent the next 20 minutes picking my way across the razor sharp lava rock. Never again at low tide! 

The forecast is epic for the next week and we´re going to continue videoing the sessions with the aim of getting a wee video together by the end of the month. That´s the plan anyway, but it´s not that easy to stand on the beach with a camera when it´s going off on the water so let´s see...

Late late update.

 It's been absolutely ages since I last posted anything on here and I apologise profusely. I still have no internet at home and have been fairly silent on here and facebook since before xmas. However, there has been loads of action on the water between SUP and windsurf.
Just before the joyous yuletide season we had some got good easterlies and I got a couple of decent sessions in at Martillo (see pics below) and Majanicho. Over Christmas things went a little quiet with too much for paddling and not enough for sailing on most days. Probably because Hobbsy was over. When he left things got going again and we've had some cracking days at Punta and Puerto Lajs (pic above). The forecast is looking great for the coming week, got a feeling I'll be visiting El Martillo mid-week and I hope to get some photos if possible, or maybe even some video.