Injured. Bugger.

Yeah it´s true, I´m out of the game for a couple of weeks I reckon. There´s actually been no wind here for the last couple of weeks so no sailing but I´ve been playing a lot of padel (a south American mix of tennis and squash to those not in the know) and I´ve done something to my knee so it´s elevation, hot n cold treatment, loads of anti-inflams and, unfortunately, TOTAL REST. Grrrrr. Hopefully, this sunny, calm period will stretch on another couple of weeks, hehe and I won´t miss too much... I have to get myself fully fit again before June as I´m looking pretty busy with clinics again this summer!

 

Anyway, as I sit on the sofá with my leg in the air I leave you with a few pics of my last sessión at Punta before the wind dropped...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What a winter!

Still got no internet in the new house so I´ll keep this brief as I´m sat in a cold, draughty internet café. This winter has undoubtedly been the best I can remember for sailing, the wind just hasn´t stopped blowing since November! Amazing!

Last weekend we sailed four days at Puerto Lajas, which is one of my favourite spots on the island now. On the last day my good friend Gilbert Bara came and took some photos, which explain far better than any words I could write just how much fun it was down there...

 

 

 

 

 

 

Taka time...

As I may have mentioned in my last post, I managed to squeeze in a couple of nice sessions at Punta over my Xmas holiday in between all the amazing down-the-line days so was back to training takas, among other things. On this day the wind was a touch on the light side so I took my Skate 101 and had a great little sail. Here are a few GoPro shots and a bit of video from the session...

 

 

 

 

 

New Year freestyle session Jan 2015 from Stephen Gibson on Vimeo.

The best Christmas ever?

Yep, definitely the best one I can remember anyway. I was off work for three weeks and sailed every day except three, and mainly in firing starboard tack down-the-line Majanicho or Martillo, with a couple of fun days at Punta thrown into the mix for good measure. As most people settled down on their comfy sofás in overheated living romos across the UK we were out in amazing conditions, in fact as the Queen delivered her Christmas speech I was probably bottom turning on a mast-high bomb at Martillo (or swimming around looking for my kit).

 

I won´t bang on for eternity about the sailing (the sessions have all become a bit of a happy, hazy blur anyway) but I´ll leave you with a few choice pics and a short GoPro edit I put together which gives absolutely zero perspective of the size and quality of the waves we rode over this amazing festive period.

 

Happy New Year indeed!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Season's Greetings!

Must be one of the windiest Christmases I can remember! Going off at Martillo for four days now and still windy today - just done the present thing and it's off to Majanicho for a quick dip before lunch then refreshments...merry Christmas, hope 2015 will be a sunny, windy one for everyone out there (if anyone even reads this).

Lost and Found.

I know everyone is pretty fed up with GoPro videos (me included) so I apologise in advance but I just had to make this one. Scored a fantastic session in Lobos this week but my GoPro came off the mast mount after about 20 minutes and it was gone in the blink of an eye. I thought all was lost (for the 2nd time this year) but Lucy spotted a yacht moored off Lobos harbour so I sailed downwind and promptly borrowed some snorkelling kit, sailed back upwind to the main beach and left my kit there. I swam out to the reef, through the break and started searching and finally after about 45 minutes of being bashed about by the waves I saw it lying down there in 3m of water! What a bloody drama!Checking through the footage I had a little bit of windsurfing, but, more interestingly, the GoPro had chronicled its entire journey across the reef until I found it so I stuck it all together in this little video. I have since stuck a float on the back of the waterproof housing so would like to think that this will be the only 'lost and found' video I ever make...


The adventures of a GoPro in Lobos from Stephen Gibson on Vimeo.

Ding ding, round 2.

No sooner had the last storm abated than the next one was pushing it's way towards our little island. We had 3 days of relative calm before the winds picked up to 50 mph and the rain was lashing down on us once more. This was all accompanied by monstrous surf which made the entire northshore unsailable so we headed back to Rocky Point for the second time in a week or so. The waves were huge so they cancelled all the inter-island ferries (the airport was also closed because of the gales) but on Sunday a ferry tried to make it from Lanzarote and was forced to turn back when it couldn't land at this end. Check out these crazy pics as it made its way back around the harbour wall!

Wow, wouldn't want to have been on that trip!
Meanwhile, back at Rocky Point the wind was strong but gusty and I rigged up 4.5 and headed out - super overpowered in the gusts but struggling in the lulls, not very nice to be honest. The swell was so big that it was reforming in Waikiki Bay and I sailed the two reefs there for an hour before I headed out to the big stuff just as the wind decided to go ballistic! I caught some house-sized waves out there but couldn't even attempt a bottom turn as I was so overpowered, still it was impressive to be out there and experience the fury of the ocean as enormous sets rolled through closing out the entire length of Rocky Point. We later found out that some guys had sailed Entubadera just past Flag and I saw this picture from Jules Denel there, looks awesome but I think there was a lot of broken kit there that day as they struggled to get back out through the mast high barrels...

They got some incredible shots though.
As for me, I sailed Friday on 4.5 and Saturday on 3.7 but didn't have the greatest of sessions either day as the wind was so up and down with the squalls and I struggled with sail size. I even managed to snap a mast at T**t Rock (yeah, that's right, where the beginner surfers go). Still, I got some nice photos (I like the fact that you can see the seafront of Corralejo in the background) and looking back it was pretty good to be sailing different spots instead of the usual, and also to be out in totally different conditions to what we're used to. Here are a selection of shots from the two days, Friday first then Saturday...