Last weekend saw windsurfers swarm to Worthing, for the latest round of the BSA and UKWA freestyle competition.

Light winds did not put off the competitors, although the freestyle competition struggled to get underway a great weekend was had by all and the slalom fleet managed a few rounds of close racing.

Andy ‘Bubble’ Chambers: 

“A few gusts came through which was enough to pump into a few moves but not enough to run a full heat unfortunately.  Great turn out though and lovely weather! Top weekend!”

UKWA Freestyle Worthing

Mike Archer took part in the freestyle event and managed to score some brilliant images before the wind died. Check out Mike’s blog for the full gallery http://mikewindsurf.blogspot.co.uk/2012/05/uk-freestyle-at-worthing.html

Gallery Images: Courtesy of Mike Archer and Ant Baker. 

Picture 6 Picture 7 Picture 8 Picture 9 Picture 10 Picture 11 Picture 12 Picture 13 Picture 14 Picture 15 Picture 16 Picture 17 Picture 18 Picture 19 Picture 20 Picture 21 UKWA Freestyle Worthing Picture 23 IMG_1666 BSA Worthing IMG_1693 IMG_1663 pastedGraphic BSA Pro Results BSA Amateur Results BSA Amateur Results

Boards caught up with Ant Baker to find out exactly what happened at the slalom event organised by the K66 team.

We had port tack conditions at Worthing, wind from the east, which is not ideal for building a sea breeze but we were still positive the wind would come through.

Saturday morning we awoke, hoping that some of the wind from the night before would have stuck around. First thing it was relatively calm, but through the morning the wind built to approximately 13-14knots, light but solid slalom racing conditions.

A five buoy downwind course was set, this was a little tricky in the light winds but we all wanted to make the most of the conditions. We made it onto the water at about 12.30pm and started son after.

The start was a little upwind of the beach, some finding it tricky to make it to the start in time in the light winds. But the first pro heat was set to start, before having to momentarily postpone due to unforeseen circumstances, just before the green flag. Some sailors, including Weymouth winner James Dinsmore, did not see that the start had been abandoned and sailed the full race. When the race was then actually started a few minutes later, this meant that James along with some other top names could not make it back upwind in time.

The second round of the pros then took place, with myself taking the win followed closely by Simon Cofield. I was using a 9.4m Warp and 140litre board with 50cm fin, and just about finding the speed he needed to win the first round.

The pros final then took place, with some more confusion and additional riders taking part. At the first gybe mark I was in the lead, but struggled to maintain my speed over the first reach and was overtaken by Simon Cofield. Cofield kept his lead throughout the race, proving he still has the speed in light winds. I finished in second, with Starboard/Tushingham main man Paul Simmons, finishing in third.

The amateurs got through two rounds, plus the losers final, but didn’t make it to the winners final in the light winds.

BSA Worthing

Saturday night saw a great evening for all racers, with a BBQ and movie played. Unfortunately the wind did not transpire on the sunday, it picked up and generated some excitement for 10minutes but unfortunately faded as quickly as it had come in.

The next BSA event is at Aberdovey at the end of June, and the next freestyle event will be held at Herne Bay this coming weekend. Check out the full UKWA calendar http://ukwindsurfing.com/events/

Lea Spencer of Red Surf Bus and Mike George also report from the event on their own blogs.

Red Surf Bus

Mike George

FULL BSA RESULTS 

AMATEURS

BSA Amateur Results

PROS

Pro Results

C3 Fins in the UK
C3 Fins are fast becoming established as THE performance fin in both slalom and speed circles. Designed by Boogie Vierth and Dave McPhee from Wildwinds in New Zealand, they are precision milled G10 fins that will rival anything else on the market. The proof is in the pudding, with both Dave Garrel and Kevin Greenslade using them at Weymouth Speedweek this year and claiming the top two windsurfing spots for the event. And take a quick look down the year’s GPS Speed rankings and you’ll see the who’s who of speed are using C3 fins. Many of the brands’ test teams use C3 fins in their R&D programme, whilst the reputation for control of the Venom freerace fin has led to Starboard replicating the fin for their Futura range (albeit using a less accurate moulding technology).

The Official Test Centre (OTC) in Weymouth are very pleased to say that they are the UK importers, so go to their centre in the grounds of the Weymouth and Portland National Sailing Academy (WPNSA) and try them out for yourself. For more information get in touch with them on  0121 2889965 / 07817 717904, or email info@otc-windsurf.com.

OTC website: www.otc-windsurf.com

The Fire Storm line is the latest addition to our great freeride family. Based on the scoop –rocker line of the hugely successful X-fire boards, the thinner volume configuration and narrower tail allow these designs to be highly competitive with burning acceleration after gybes, yet also fantastically comfortable freeriding machines! The real Gran Turismo line of windsurfing!

The FIRE STORM LTD features:
Each board has a different length and width to accommodate the appropriate balance of the average rigs you are going to use on them. A simple V with double concave bottom, and a slight flat vee tail release, simplifies the water dynamics and creates a very effective, sharp feeling, compact and fast board in all conditions. Thick 8 mm deck pads with extra moulded grip smoothen up the ride. The Firestorm Limited Edition is equipped with a fast G -10 CNC RC 2 Maui Fin Company fin with a Power Box base and superior Da Kine Primo straps to complete the package!

LTD Technology:
EPS/ Full PVC 3mm top and bottom/ 80 grams UD 80 on Deck + Glass / 160 grams glass Bottom / Custom Made technology

Sizes: 111l, 120l, 138l

Download the PDF here – www.robertoriccidesigns.com/WOL

Keep up to date with their news on facebook here – www.facebook.com

…….of windsurfing and partying found what they were looking for last weekend in the midlands. Pondlife VIII hosted by Nottingham University and Rutland Water gave the students of the UK a weekend to continue the SWA antics they had discovered just a few weeks ago at the National Student Windsurf Festival Aussie Kiss.

The light winds on Saturday morning provided the high volume of beginners, religiously attending all SWA events, with a gentle introduction to windsurfing. With Uni’s pooling kit and demo gear provided by Mark Hammond from Boardwise and Adam Sims from RRD there were plenty of boards and sails to choose from.
The usual inter Uni competition was alive and well. The students vented their boiling competitiveness with a tug of war competition (and some extreme inter Uni banter). A fierce fought battle with lots of sliding in the mud but it was Liverpool who turned out to be the strongest pullers (and it has to be admitted the most creative in the banter off, definitely the loudest).

Despite the light winds the competition continued onto the water with a SUP relay race. The rulebook (if there was one) went out the window, many Uni’s quickly opted for the tactic of slowing their rivals rather than going for all out speed. It was a race of furious paddling with a few tactical shoves. Having battled through a series of heats Southampton clinched first place in the final.

Throughout the day tuition was run for beginners and intermediates. The now legendary Matt Yeates expertly ran clinics for the more advanced sailors focusing on cracking those carve gybes. Any with more complicated moves on their wish list were directed to Adams Sims who’s always more than happy to offer advice.

At the end of the day the students headed back to Nottingham where they were kindly accommodated for the weekend by the Nottingham Students. Some hot drinks and pizza re-energised the windsurfers for the night ahead in Nottinghams favourite night club ‘Market Bar’. As at all SWA events fancy dress was compulsory, this time with the theme of children’s TV programs. The outfits were creative, the dance moves even more creative, the music was filthy, the drinks were flowing, the night was epic!

The next morning stacks of bacon sandwiches were produced to rouse the party goers and it was back to Rutland. The wind had filled in and the days competitions kicked off with the inter Uni team racing on the RRD Firerace boards kindly provided by RRD and Boardwise. These new design boards made intermittent planning possible in the light conditions. It was a tactical race with teams pumping hard to catch those all important gusts. Remember at the end of the year the overall winner of the team race series will take one of the RRD Firerace boards back to Uni with them!

Immediately following this ran the individual racing. With a Spartan wetsuit up for grabs for the first boy and girl in the advanced racing at each of the SWA events this year the competition did not slow down.

Racing was also run in the beginner and intermediate categories. It was very encouraging to see beginners who had only their first taste of windsurfing since joining the SWA a few weeks ago competently and competitively, sailing the out and back course.

Last, but by no means least, was the freestyle competition. All competitors were entered into one big 6 minute expression session where they used their best selection of sail spinning and rotating moves to impress the judges (Adam Sims and Mark Hammond). Extra points were awarded for the most creative dismount to conclude the routine (Matt Yeates full monty definitely scored the most points here).

Rounding up the weekend prizes were awarded, kindly provided by Boardwise and Robinhood Water Sports. Students could go home with their windsurf cravings satisfied and happy in the knowledge they only have two weeks to wait until their next fix of SWA brilliance comes to Bristol. More details on the:

> SWA website: www.swa.co.uk

> Facebook page: www.facebook.com/studentwindsurfingassociation
The results for the weekend looked like this:

Team Racing:

1. Bristol
2. Nottingham
3. Newcastle

Beginner Individual Racing:

1. Leo Halsey – Cardiff
2. Chloe Botting – Liverpool
3. Charlie (surname unknown) – Birmingham

Intermediate Individual Racing:

1. Tom Brophy – Exeter
2. Tris Gibbons – Liverpool
3. Jamie Richardson – Liverpool

Advanced Individual Racing:

1. Louis Morris – Bristol
2. Charlie Money – UWE
3. Jonny Price – Cardiff

Freestyle

1. Matt Yeats – UCL
2. Kirsty O’callaghan – Exeter
3. Will Jones – Cardiff

Thanks for an awesome weekend Nottingham.

Thank you to all the sponsors of the SWA this season, especially those that found the time to attend this event. The 2010-2011 SWA sponsors are:

Thommen windsurf boards are to be imported again into the UK by Maui Windsurf Distribution. Peter Thommen has been designing windsurf boards for the biggest names such as F2 and JP, but now designs his own exclusive brand of very high quality boards.

Thommen boards are a class of their own both in RevoXskin technology they use in construction, through to the unique ‘Bamb02’ finish on the board. The range consists of the Maui WaveX – a traditionally shaped waveboard which can hold its speed through the turns for UK conditions, the Cross X – a crossover board designed for rewarding bump-&-jump to super-slick gybing, and the Fast X – the fastest freeride on the beach but with a smooth gybing shape, and the Free X – a freeride board with the Thommen qualities but a smaller price tag.

Cross-X

Thommen also plan to bring out the Style 105 ‘Superlegge’ (superlight) freestyle board later this year. All the range come with a three year warranty, and the bragging rights of owning what the importers are calling “the supercar of windsurf boards”.

All the Thommen range can be seen every UKWA Slalom event in 2010 or visit one of only four Thommen UK dealers which are Boardwise (West), H2O Watersports (South), Surfstore (North) and Quayside Windsurfers (East).

———————

For more information visit www.thommen1.com

Maui Windsurf Distribution – Neil Greentree

Tel: 08700 347414.

Email: neil@quayside-windsurfers.co.uk

Finian Maynard and his X-Fire

The 2010 X-Fire V2 slalom board range is a selection of no-compromise racing machines designed with one purpose in mind – winning. A strong development effort between the RRD team in Italy and Vice-Slalom World Champion / Speed World Champion Finian Maynard and his testing partner Tine Slabe has yielded clear improvements from the 09 / V1 generation in every size. More than 15 years of racing experience is directly incorporated into this new range keeping every aspect in mind in terms of creating a complete product. These boards will please even the most critical customer through their ease-of-use, stability, acceleration and blistering top-end speed. With all new designs for the 80, 102, 120 and 135, alongside improved versions of the already very successful 90 and 112, they will be the market leading brand for the upcoming season in the high-performance category. You must try and then you will believe from their performance on the water. RRD is once again ready to challenge for the top rankings.

Features
Each board has a different sizing template: Wide and short outline on the 135 and narrower and longer on the 90 and 80. Proportionally related scooprocker lines in order to create a perfect balanced racing machine and a new vee-to-flat release concept makes this new shape faster and in more control than the 09 generation. Real thoroughbred racing machines for the experts and great high-performance boards for the advanced-intermediate sailors.

One of the fastest, smoothest, easiest to gybe and most stable Slalom / Race boards out on the water! Check out this months test on the 112. More details on www.robertoriccidesigns.com and check out www.seaspritesports.com for your list of retailers.

RRD WaveVogue

New into the UK this season, RRD sails from those fine Italian purveyors of windsurfing kit are beginning to turn heads. Not least as John Skye has signed onto 100% RRD kit. These second generation WaveVogues certainly look the part – although quite why they opted for brown against black on this press release remains a mystery…

More from www.robertoriccidesigns.com / www.seaspritesports.com – and if you’re that way inclined, check out RRDs filthy new range of stand-up paddleboards while you’re at it…

Bic Beach

Want to learn or teach windsurfing, but never quite found the right mix of stability and durability? Well, look again because Bic think they have the solution to make windsurfing even better than before! With Bic’s latest water-baby – the Beach.

Bic Windsurf has launched a brand new range of boards, meaning it’s now easier than ever to learn to windsurf.

Over the years, beginner level windsurf boards have made considerable progress when it comes to stability, but are nevertheless frequently a bit fragile for the kind of intensive use they get. Responding to this need from windsurf clubs, Bic Windsurf has come up with a new solution. The Beach is the result of an innovative mix of technologies already to be found on BIC surfboards and kayaks, and the end result is a board that offers top balance, whilst maintaining strength and stability.

The outer skin of polyethylene is the same as that used on Bic Sport Kayaks, proven to be a strong and durable material, while the internal construction borrows from the Bic ACS surfboard, providing massive knock-resistance and creating a better beginner’s board overall.

The shapes have been developed with maximum stability for beginners, but are still very maneuverable to help with learning progression moves.

Tamzin Hurley, of Ultra Sport Europe, says: “Taking all the factors of the Beach into consideration, there’s no doubting that this new Bic baby will definitely be one for all the windsurf schools up and down the country who are looking for good, solid, modern and easy to learn on boards.”

The Beach is available in two volumes – 175L and 225L, both come with a retractable daggerboard system and RRP is £649.

For more information, and to find your nearest retailer, visit www.ultrasporteu.com

Starboard is reintroducing the legendary Carve. The board that for many defined freeride in windsurfing is making a comeback this season, plugging the gap between the racing-inspired Futuras and the progressive GO.

According to Starboard, the new Carve is all about plug-and-play easy freeriding. They’ll continue to be comfortable, manoeuverable and a joy to gybe. However, what was especially important for the Starboard R&D team were the ‘magic touch ride’ and the easy planing aspects that made the original series so iconic. Tiesda You explains, “The hardest part in the R&D work of the new Carves was to bring that magic touch ride that people love. Sometimes an exciting, sensational ride is more important than more quantifiable parameters like top speed and static weight. The gybing aspect was obviously also very important in our R&D process, so we made sure that all three designs really do carve beautifully. The third key design parameter was the easy-planing aspect. If you look at the length-to-width ratio of the new boards, they are pretty much the same as the original Carves. The feedback we received from the market, from shops and distributors worldwide was that we needed a line of freeriders that were exciting and easy-planing machines. Just like the Carves, we asked? They said, yes, just like the Carves. So how about bringing back the Carves, we asked? And they said yes, why not? And so here it is…”

Three sizes are available: a 121, a 131 and a 141. The new Carves are available in Wood Technology and Tufskin. The Carves are also on a two year product cycle, hence their designation as 2010/2011 Carves. For more product information, visit the dedicated Carve website: www.starboardcarve.com

Two new freeride boards from Naish for 2010 look set to make an impact on the water this year.

The Global Freeride is the high wind blaster which combines a slalom rocker line with a rounder outline. The result is an early planing go-fast board. Ideal for those wanting the best of both worlds when it comes to gybing and speed (sizes: 85L, 95L, 105L, 115L, 130L, 145L)

The Freewide is the ultimate light wind machine which combines features such as reduced tail area behind the footstraps and a slight tail kick rockerline for easy gybing and tail wingers and cut-outs for maximum control. The result is an easygoing stable ride with ultimate low wind potential. Ideal for those who want to maximise the amount of time they spend out on the water (sizes avaiable 120L, 130L, 140L, 160L).

Available in stores now from £1049 complete with fin and boardbag.

For info contact kubussportsuk@gmail.com or phone 0845 6975697.

www.naishsails.com

RRD are now heavily involved in PWA Slalom with their top racer, Finian Maynard, placing second on the World Tour last year on his black-and-white X-Fire bullets. The feedback on these shapes has been excellent and in response to this RRD have bought them out in a wood and glass technology that will allow you to race, cruise or burn off your mates and enjoy a performance feeling yet with a more durable construction technology.

Each board has a different size and outline to perform in their given conditions. From short and wide on the 135 to progressively narrower and longer on the 120, 112 and 105, with respective widths of 85, 75, 69.5 and 65cm. The boards feature proportionally related scoop-rockerlines in order to create a perfectly balanced racing machine with no compromise on their speed potential. They are also very controllable and even relatively easy to gybe. Get ready for some serious action, make lighter winds exhilarating, fire up your racing or just enjoy going very fast. More details on www.robertoriccidesigns.com and check out www.seaspritesports.com for your list of retailers.

]]> http://boards.mpora.com/news/rrd-firerace.html/feed 0 http://boards.mpora.com/brands/naish/4358-sp-135.html http://boards.mpora.com/brands/naish/4358-sp-135.html#comments Wed, 27 Jan 2010 21:41:10 +0000 admin http://boards.mpora.com/brands/naish/4358-sp-135.html/feed 0 http://boards.mpora.com/brands/drops/4328-transx.html http://boards.mpora.com/brands/drops/4328-transx.html#comments Wed, 27 Jan 2010 21:41:02 +0000 admin http://boards.mpora.com/brands/drops/4328-transx.html/feed 0 http://boards.mpora.com/brands/naish/4357-sp-128.html http://boards.mpora.com/brands/naish/4357-sp-128.html#comments Wed, 27 Jan 2010 21:41:02 +0000 admin http://boards.mpora.com/brands/naish/4357-sp-128.html/feed 0 http://boards.mpora.com/brands/drops/4317-style-102.html http://boards.mpora.com/brands/drops/4317-style-102.html#comments Wed, 27 Jan 2010 21:41:01 +0000 admin http://boards.mpora.com/brands/drops/4317-style-102.html/feed 0