Action! (with video)

Loads of action this past week. The wind has continued blowing non-stop and we've been sailing Punta almost every day- mornings before work and gloriously long sessions at the weekend! The first bit of news is that I won't be posting any more GoPro pics on here for a while as we lost it at Punta last week. Bummer. It mustn't have been clipped into the flymount properly and feel off the mast after a forward crash from Lucy. I went snorkelling the very next low-tide (in mast-high waves, interesting) but obviously there was no sign of it. I didn't find that missing jumbo jet either. I did see a lot of fish however.

Last Sunday I did a one-to-one forward clinic with Domenico from Italy at Punta and am pleased to report that it was a resounding success and he was sailing away from forwards after only two hours of tuition! Fantastic! Check out his photo here..

Not bad, eh? Check out his face by the end of the day...

The clinics are on a bit of a roll actually, as I had Michele, another Italian, on Friday morning for three hours and he learnt vulcans from scratch in that short time! He was a very quick learner, super sporty, a bit gung-ho and a good listener which I think were the 'secrets' to his rapid success. Looking at the forecast we could have another similar day on Wednesday, it was incredible for jumping that day at Flag Beach- slightly overpowered on 5s with perfect ramps between 1 and 3m on the reef to the left. Perfection. If we get that again, I am going to teach Michele forwards on Wednesday I think, reckon he could be sailing out of them in a couple of hours.

On the last day at Punta, my little mate Victor jumped in the water with his camera and took a load of photos which I will share very soon once I've had a look through myself. They look incredible though, well done Victor for swimming around in 30 knots and waves and current! At the same time, Lucy had cricked her neck the day before and wasn't able to sail so I managed to convince her to video me for an hour (she sill owes me looooaaaads from when I was injured, hehe). I am busy compiling an instructional DVD for my upcoming clinics at the moment and I needed a couple of push loops and some tacks and gybes for it so Lucy videoed the first hour of my session and I got quite a lot of footage which I made into the short video below. I still need quite a few more clips for my tuition DVD (not push loops obviously) so hopefully I'll be able to twist her arm again in the very near future. In the meantime, check out the action from last Wednesday...



Push loop practice, 25th March 2014 from Stephen Gibson on Vimeo.

Stepping up.

    I had some cool sessions at Punta last week. The wind has dropped now after blowing constantly for ages- it might actually be quite nice to have a breather, dust the cobwebs off the SUP and just cruise for a bit. I have been getting more and more comfortable jumping over the last month or so, last week I attempted (and landed, I hasten to add!) my first push loops since the operation, and probably since a good 8 months or so before that as I had been too injured to sail/jump since before Christmas 2012 really. Pretty happy to be back on the water at all, never mind doing all the stuff I could do before and I feel now as though I am getting back to the level I was at a couple of years ago, although I still have a way to go.

   On the last windy morning at Punta we hit the tide just right and there were great ramps on just about every run so I decided to try all my jumps one-handed for half an hour to see how it went. I had the GoPro on the mast and got some great snapshots but it seemed a shame to throw all the footage away so I chucked it together into a short video for the blog. I must say it was nice to feel that familiar nervous feeling you get before you try a new manoeuvre for the first time (even though I've done these in the past, it was a very long time ago and I never really practiced either move), reminded me of when I learnt air chachos many moons ago! The back loops went surprisingly well but I really struggled with nailing the landings from the one-handed forwards as you can see in the video, although they are kind of landed so I maybe shouldn't be too disconsolate. Video footage is a fantastic tool for learning which is why I use it on all my clinics, and I think I have sussed my shortcomings from watching my GoPro footage back and am fairly certain I'll be landing them cleanly next time out, watch this space...

Back to full strength?

The wind has kept on blowing here, been sailing every single day for as long as I can remember now! We've been mainly sailing at Punta and it's been generally pretty good although the swell has been a bit on the large side so it's been mostly messy whitewater sailing. Yesterday morning was perfect though, we caught the tide just right and had a wicked jumping session. My hip feels great and I'm starting to feel more comfortable jumping now- did my first push loops a few days ago, pretty high, and also started relearning one-handed forwards and back loops! Another great piece of news is that Lucy landed her first ever dry forward a couple of days ago so she is ecstatic! Her sailing is improving daily and she's looking forward to kicking some serious ass at the upcoming UK comps (check out her GoPro pics below)! All good...