Wave clinic 2017

In conjunction with www.windjunkie.co.uk I will be running a wave clinic here on Fuerte next summer from 12th-19th July 2017. Visit the website for a full lowdown and for bookings. It'll be an amazing week but there are limited spaces available so be quick!

Harness mount

Incredibly, the wind is still blowing here on Fuerte, kind of an indian summer I suppose, and we're getting some pretty decent sailing in. I had a second attempt at filming with the K4 harness mount after I videoed mainly my head on the first effort. This time I got the angle better and got some decent footage, although not quite as good as the 'head only' action, typical. I took a couple of grabs from the video too and they came out awesome with people confused over how I got the pics, haha...

I said they were taken by a mini-drone manned by a diminutive Chinese pilot :)

The rest of the footage I edited and compiled this short vid...


Late summer session from Stephen Gibson on Vimeo.

Summer catch-up

It's been a long summer but a good one for sailing and teaching. Unfortunately I haven't kept my blog very up to date (to be honest most of my stuff gets put up on my facebook page these days as it's easier  and it doesn't diminish the video quality like on this page https://www.facebook.com/FuerteWindsurfClinics/ ). Over the next couple of days I will try to catch up as much as possible with the main events of my summer sessions, both freesailing and training.

In July, my good friend Oisin was back in town and he was kind enough to kit me out with a K4 harness mount to try. After a couple of mishaps as I was getting used to it I eventually managed to get a couple of clips- I still need to sort out the camera angle slightly but the footage is quite unique. Here are a couple of clips from that day. First up are a couple of shakas...

And next, a big back loop on my freestyle board!!!

Happy days. I have more pics and photos on my pc which I will put up in the next couple of days. Now, I'm off to Punta as it would appear that summer has not yet breathed its last breath ;)

Push Loop

Push loop filmed at Punta a couple of weeks ago. Looking forward to this weekend for more wind and waves there. My first clinic starts on Thursday so not much freesailing but it looks perfect for the guys...

Getting started again

Looks like summer has started in earnest now, had quite a lot of sailing in the last couple of weeks and starting to get back into it after a lengthy lay-off. My clinics start next week so I'm glad to get a bit of water time under my belt before I get into my 10 hour days :) .

I have quite a bit of video footage and photos to stick up on here as I've struggled with internet again recently so I'll be posting pretty regularly over the next few days, with both new(ish) and old stuff.

For the first instalment, I stuck the GoPro on last Sunday and Punta and had a fairly amazing session so edited it into a short clip which you can watch above....

It's been a while

Understatement of the year perhaps, but it has indeed been a while, both since I posted and since I windsurfed consistently! It has been the worst year in my time here in terms of wind (thanks el nino), and I've literally sailed maybe 10 times in total since the end of last August. Incredible :( . Anyway, summer is almost upon us and the good news (for me) is that the wind is finally kicking in, albeit mainly northerlies and with small or no waves on the east coast. I can hear it howling outside the house as I write this post :) so it'll be off to Glass this afternoon just to get my feet back in some footstraps and try to get sailing fit for when the real conditions arrive.

I managed to get a session in last week one morning before work and Lucy videoed for a bit. Not surprisingly, I sailed a bit below par but still got a few nice takas and backloops so pretty happy really. Looking forward to getting a few days on the bounce to really get back into it though. Here's a pushie from that morning...

And here it comes...

Yup, after the longest wind drought I can remember it looks like the wind is finally back, and for a good while too. Hopefully it´s the start of an epic spring/summer! The last couple of days have been on 4.5 down at Puerto Lajas with smallish surf but still great fun and from today on it´s looking even more promising with the wind due to swing through to NW with the chance of maybe a Lobos sesión! Fingers crossed...
Last weekend was due east and really light (again) at Majanicho so I drove upwind to Rocky Point where it was blowing a steady 25 knots and grabbed a half-decent bump n jump sessión. When I checked through my GoPro snaps I realised that on almost every jump I had Lobos as the backdrop, which looked pretty cool I think. Check them out...

 Anyway, now that the wind is making its presence known hopefully some photographers with 'real cameras' will start to appear and I´ll be able to post up some proper pics (not from Lobos unfortunately) but in the meantime this will have to do :-)

Belated Happy New Year!

Welcome 2016, and good riddance 2015, autumn and early Winter 2015 anyway. Yeah, 2015 was a big letdown from a windsurfing perspective and normally I would start my post by apologising for the lack of updates but there really has been nothing to report at all. I have windsurfed a paltry 4 times since August (new kit still looks nice and new though) and the forecast isn´t looking any better for the next week or so but I´m expecting big things from this coming spring. We are owed a lot of wind! Especially taking into account the amount of wind the UK has had this Winter so far- the tables have been truly turned as I sit in my windless garden looking at photos of my UK Facebook friends flying around on 3.5m sails. Grrrrr. Looks cold though, haha, it´s been 30+ degrees here for the last six months I think. Oh well, every cloud blah blah blah.

Anyway, I did manage a little windsurf sessión at the end of last week and got these shots from my GoPro, so here you are boys n girls, this is the sum total of my windsurfing in the last 4 months and this is what windsurfing in January in the Canaries looks like...

It´s a new record!

No, I´m not posting about Antoine Albeau´s crazy new world speed record (although it´s very impressive indeed- well done) but apologising for what must be a new record in laziness on my part, having neglected my poor old blog for an amazingly long time. I recently met up with a good friend of mine (hi, Mike) and he gently slapped my wrists for not keeping more up-to-date with my blog entries. Oops.
In fairness, not much has actually been going on over here since the end of August windsurfing-wise. We always have a wind drought between summer and Winter and this year´s has been extra long so far- we´ve had one day of wind since August and that was a SW storm with tons of rain so I elected to stay in the confort of my own home with the curtains drawn :-) . The weather has been incredibly hot and still until last week really when the rains started, signalling the end of summer and, hopefully, the onset of Winter and the accompanying winds...
So, as there has been no windsurfing action, I´m forced to leave you with a couple of pics from a days´ SUPing at Rocky Point last week until I get some real news/photos... I have to say it was quite nice to be back on the Prowave again after a lengthy spell (last Winter was so windy I didn´t SUP after November!), and even more so to be out in just boardies in the blazing sunshine.

Freesailing again...

It´s been a long, very busy, but great fun, month of virtually non-stop clinics so it was fantastic to have a layday yesterday and get out for a freesail at Glass. Conditions were tricky with the wave difficult to read and the peak so far up the reef meaning most rides ended up with a swim or a visit to the rocks :( . I have to say I am now very much in love with my new North Sails Hybrid Hero- it proved to be very powerful and stable at Punta last week and waveriding at Glass is a joy as it is so light in the hands, powerful in the bottom turn yet switches off exactly when needed during the cutback or aerial. I love it. Can´t wait to get the rest in a couple of weeks...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2015 kit for sale

I´m selling some of my 2015 kit at the start of next month- Quad 89l, Skate 101l and a 4.5 North Hero. Email me for prices...

Hero Hybrid

Lucy zipped back to the UK last week and came back with a couple of new sails (we get the rest in August). I got mine out the other day for the first time at Glass and realised it´s the new North Hero Hybrid- an interesting concept where you can remove one of the 5 battens leaving you with a 4 batten sail which feels very similar to a 3 batten! I was a little sceptical at first but after a couple of (tiny) waves I started to really enjoy it. I rigged it as a 4 batten and found it to be very powerful but light and easy to depower at the top of the wave during a top turn or aerial. Most impressed. I´m looking forward now to trying it out for jumping tomorrow as it does feel quite grunty and I think it´ll be great for jumping. Watch this space...in the meantime here are a couple of pics of the new Hero Hybrid in action (plus a couple of Lucy).

Freetime.

Inbetween all the teaching I managed to squeeze in a day of freesailing (well, actually just an afternoon as I´d baan teaching in the morning already) and made my way to Punta to be greeted by fairl ferocious winds and decnt waves. The general consensus on the beach was for 4.7 and, as I have the choice of 4.5 or 5.0 I opted for power (as always) and rigged up my 5.0 Hero. Halfway through my first run out it quickly became apparent that 4.5 or maybe even 4.0 would have been the order of the day but I just stuck with it and sailed very overpowered. Made for some great jumping though...

Backloop? No problem...

Next up were Andreas and Thomas who wanted to dial their forwards and start stalling them more. Punta delivered once again (although the spring tides were a bit of a nuisance cutting down the optimum sailing times) with good size swell and wind for 5.0/5.3s. Almost immediately the forward class turned into an impromptu back loop clinic as the ramps were so perfect for backward rotations. A bit of theory, sound effects and van diagrams followed then it was back on the wáter to put it all into action. I just happened to look over my shoulder as I was heading out behind Andreas to see Thomas land a perfectly rotated dry back loop after about 15 minutes! Amazing! Thomas is the same guy who learnt forwards on his first run with me a few years ago and now he learns backloops in 15 minutes? Hahaha, he is now elevated to ´most legendary student´status.


To top off a fantastic day, Andreas also landed his first ever back loop a couple of hours later in the afternoon, and this one I caught on camera when I was filming the boys. Great work both of you!

From Norway to Fuerte

Next up on the summer clinic front was Elin, who came all the way from Norway to have an introduction to wavesailing. Where she sails at home is predominantly flat wáter so she was keen to get into small waves and Fuerteventura was the place she chose. During her stay we managed to sail at Glass (small waves, just like she wanted but I think she was a little nervous at first, having never really experienced any kind of down the line waveriding), and then some glorious days and evenings at Punta Blanca, with much bigger waves than she would have wanted at the start of her holiday, and I have to say she dealt with it magnificently! We sharpened up all aspects of her sailing, from turning and waterstarting to quicken her up and spend less time in the wáter, to jumping and riding. The improvement in her sailing was a joy to watch, especially from a coach´s perspective :) and I think she had an absolute blast! She´s already planning next year´s trip! See you then...