BSA Weymouth results BSA Weymouth results

Name: Ross Williams

Sail No:  GBR 83

Where did you finish?  1st

What kit did you use for most of the weekend?  8.6m Gaastra Vapor and Tabou Manta 81

How were the conditions and how did your equipment work in them? Condition were very changeable but my gear felt great, really easy to hold down in the strong wind as well as having power for the lighter patches.

Best start…. I think I saw Kev have a great start at the pin mark.

Best gybe… not sure, I didnt look behind me. I had a good one to over take Kurosh at the first mark!!!! Maybe that’s worth a mention?

Best over take…. Sam Latham over taking Simon Petitifer

Worst crash…. I think it was simon cofield smashing into Kurosh’s deck and leaving a nice whole!!!

Best victory celebration….. Everyone was very level headed

Worst behaviour on saturday night... All of us for not going out a partying the night away!!!!
All images credit Dave White.

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Name: Kurosh Kiani

Sail No: D13

Where did you finish? 2nd

What kit did you use for most of the weekend? I only used my Simmer SCR 8.6 throughout the whole event. I was using my Fanatic Falcon 132 until it got damaged in the second race and had to race my medium board until I got it repaired and was then back on it again.

How were the conditions and how did your equipment work in them? Flat water and gusty wind (I think the wind wasn’t in its usual direction). The gear was working great in these conditions. I´m really liking my 8.6/132 combo. It has a huge range so you don’t have to mess around too much on changing.

Best start….Kevin Greenslade. He got several of the starts spot on and rolled the rest of us who were seconds late. Nice work !

Best gybe…Ross did a great PWA style gybe on top of Kev which came out in his favor. It was definitely entertaining to watch!

Best over take….Must have been myself overtaking Sam Latham and Simon Pettifer from behind as they were doing some sort of upwind battle while the gybe buoy was way downwind. Had to chuckle a bit for that one.

Worst crash….I´m not sure who it was,, but someone came in at full speed and hit the bottom just in front of the slipway. That one must have hurt in every sense haha.

Best victory celebration…..I saw Sam Latham claiming couple of his battle victories when crossing the line ahead of the competition.

Worst behaviour on saturday night…Hmm, I´m not sure if this is the usual UK standard, but the worst behavior must have been us discussing whether we should have a look down at the pub or not. I guess that one could have gone both ways.

Words from event host, Tris Best: 

“The forecast at the beginning of the week for this event looked ominous, but true to form Weymouth produced the goods yet again! There were some notable omissions from the entry list – Ant Baker being the obvious one (wishing his son a speedy recovery), but with the addition of a couple of PWA stars the standard of sailing in the pro fleet visibly upped the anti for the other fleets as well. 32 entries in the amateur fleet was a great turn-out … and even the people on the tasters we provided throughout the weekend were noticeably inspired! Thanks to Bob and the UKWA team for running such a good event once again.”

BSA slalom action.

Venue

The Hayling Seafront is primarily a shingle beach above the high tide mark, with long stretches of sand below this line. About a third of the beach is protected by groynes. West Beach is Haylings most popular beach, and designated a windsurfing area. At high tide the waters can get deep quickly with the shelving of the beaches, at low tide the waters are usually shallow.

Directions

• From the A27, take the Havant/Hayling exit.
• Head south on the A3023 on to Hayling island.
• At Mill Rythe roundabout (approx 2 miles from bridge ) take right exit.
• At Beachlands roundabout (approx 1 mile) take right exit After approx 1/2 mile, left just west of the bottom of Staunton Avenue.

Parking / Camping

This is a Pay and Display parking area.

Please note:

“Overnight parking is not officially permitted by Havant Borough Council so our advice, as with the National Windsurfing Festival, is to use your own discretion and common sense. Considerate parking and behaviour hasn’t attracted attention here before.”

Hayling Island Tourism tel: 023 9246 7111; or go to havant.gov.uk For campers you can try ‘The Oven’, Manor Road tel 023 9246 4695. Another useful site is haylingisland.net.

Facilities

The action takes place from the ‘INN on the BEACH‘ where the race office will be based. Many thanks to our hosts at the INN! This building is right on the waters edge with a large deck for spectators to watch the racing; also bars and conservatory upstairs, with fantastic views of the Solent.

Tourist Information / Accommodation

Hayling Island Tourism tel: 023 9246 7111 ; or go to havant.gov.uk For campers you can try ‘The Oven’ ,Manor Road tel 023 9246 4695. See also theresort guide, tourist information, and haylingisland.net

Check out the action here and head to the OTC Puravida website for the latest info on further events.

Pre-Season Slalom Training Camp ’13 from The OTC on Vimeo.

New video from the weekend, thanks to rising star Sam Latham!

K15 Sam Latham @ OTC Weymouth winter slalom training from Sam Latham K15 on Vimeo.

The start of the competition calendar is quickly approaching and many sailors are getting serious about the pre season training now. Down in Weymouth over the weekend, Si Pettier showed the others exactly how to nail a start! Remember, Ross Williams will be joining the guys in Weymouth very soon for his pre-season training weekend.

Are you thinking of competing in the BSA or any other UKWA competitions this year? Have you started setting some on and off water goals to get you ready? Even sailing with a group and challenging each other could add that vital speed you’ll need to race to the front of the pack. If you’re looking for an active group of windsurfers to join, check out Project Windsurf UK and see what’s coming up in your area!

BSA racing

If you haven’t entered an event before, why not make this year your first? Check out the calendar of events below and head on over to the UKWA events section here for full information. 

In this third part we will cover tuning, training and why people compete. 

BSA slalom action.

Tuning and Training

Simon Pettifer: When I go for a sail I try to have some sort of aim, this could be gybing practice. I’ll find two buoys close together (easy in Poole harbour), and gybe a lot, keep going until I cannot gybe any longer, this is the only way to improve – keep doing it! It’s also good to do this exercise with other sailors, if you make the two buoys really close together it makes for some fun sailing.

As for tuning I just try different things, maybe try a couple of different fin combinations to see which is faster; you need someone else to judge your speed against, or a GPS unit where you can go home and download your tracks from the day and see at what points you were going fastest.

It could be the downhaul, try a little more or less see and what happens. Once you find the sail at its best for you try to note where your downhaul is set to, so that next time you sail you can rig it just how you like it. The outhaul is the easiest to play about with, the adjustable outhaul systems let you sail around changing the settings all the time, letting you see where you want your outhaul for the appropriate wind strengths.

Sailing on your own is great for some things but to improve your speeds I think you need to sail with other people. We all know it sucks to be passed by other people so we try harder, if you get passed by your mate, go in pull on an inch of downhaul go back out and see if you can beat him; if doesn’t work try changing your fin – put a smaller one in – it’s all about finding out what makes a difference.

Simon Pettifer

Simon Cofield: Sail – I use a lot of downhaul, this allows you to accelerate in big gusts whilst the sail twists off. It’s important to have an adjustable outhaul. When the wind is up and down I’ll be adjusting my outhaul between heats, so I’m fully powered in the race. Board – You need a good fin, I have my straps as far apart as they go for control, deck plate position as above.

I do a bit of fitness training in the winter, on the water I do some practice racing around some of the marks in Poole harbour with Si Pettifer.

Kev Greenslade: Downhaul I rig dependent on the wind but always enough to get a nice amount of twist in the sail, I use very little outhaul until I get completely stacked but by then probably thinking about changing down. It’s also really important to find the right fin for you, your board and the conditions.

It’s really hard to replicate the conditions whilst racing as you would almost never sail that fast that close to that many people, when it comes to gybing you have wakes going in all directions space to find etc etc. So the best form of practice is to race. There are fun slalom series being run at Hayling, Poole and Weymouth now so get involved, and if they are too far away get your own going, it’s so easy. There is always a buoy to race around and if you do it in pursuit style, kit and ability doesn’t matter, everyone has fun.

Ant Baker. Image credit Dave White.

Ant Baker: As a chubber I like lots of downhaul and not much outhaul, this means I get great twist and a nice full body to hold my board down.

As I have to work pretty much everyday I get very little time to practice, in fact the last year I have only sailed slalom boards at events

James Dinsmore: When it comes to tuning your sail the single most important variable is the amount of downhaul you put on. It is really important to experiment and try to learn to feel what it is like to have too much or too little downhaul. If you have too much downhaul the sail tends to feel heavy and too powerful and when a gust comes you may feel as if you are getting lifted uncontrollably onto your toes. With my current iSonic board and Severne Reflex sails combination I notice that if I am under-downhauled it feels as if the nose of the board is being pushed down into the water. It feels ‘sticky’ and as if it might catch on chop. If I put a small amount of more downhaul (may only need as little as 5mm) the nose rides higher, the stickiness completely disappears and the board feels like it will make it’s way over even the nastiest bit of chop. When you have cranked on too much downhaul the sail starts to feel gutless and has poor acceleration. You may feel yourself over sheeting and the sail tending to drop backwards. Ideally with each of your sails you need to spend a session during which you start with the sail under-downhauled and then incrementally increase the downhaul until the sail is over-downhauled. It is a useful exercise as you will learn to recognise too much or too little downhaul and you will also be able to find the sweet spot of your sail.

If you don’t have one already then do get an adjustable outhaul. They are very easy to use and put at your fingertips the ability to massively increase the wind range of your sail. You will enjoy your sailing much more if you have one. Try to work towards sailing kit big enough that means that you are powered for the lulls rather than the gusts. An adjustable outhaul allows you to sail much closer to your limits. It may be more beneficial to have a very physical 30 minutes session quite over-powered than 90 minutes of cruising. It is a key skill to learn to get round a course while overpowered Make use of any buoys that may be in the water to practice gybing and starts. You will be forced to gybe whatever the water state is like at the mark, which is the same as on the racecourse. Otherwise it is only too easy to choose to gybe where it is flat and you will struggle in competition.

Racing at Weymouth. Image courtesy Dave White.

Why I Compete

Simon Pettifer: I compete because it keeps me keen, always trying to do a bit better than the previous event. The feeling I get when I’ve had a good heat and beaten someone that usually beats me feels great, you can’t get the same feeling from sailing down the park. When you do one slalom heat it may only last about three mins but it’s knackering, so much is packed into three minutes and the whole time I’m fired up, it’s hard to explain, something you’ve got to try.

If you want to try it, get down to your local spot and do some light hearted racing with your friends. Poole have a Poole slalom, Weymouth have the same thing going on, as do Hayling Island, all these places are ready for newcomers to turn up and give it a go, all abilities are welcomed. Any gear can be used, at Poole we do a handicap system where by the person that wins the first race starts last in the next one, the person that finished last starts first and so on, this means that the racing is good for all, there is always someone to catch up with or try to stop passing you.

I would encourage others to give competing a go because it will improve your sailing,  it’s definitely the best way to get better quicker, improve your gybes and go faster. Also you meet great people at events, all with the same thing in mind, windsurfing and maybe a couple of drinks – if there’s no wind of course! I’ve met some of my best friends at windsurfing events over the last 20 years even with a 15 year break in the middle.

Simon Cofield: I enjoy the challenge of racing against the top guys.

Kev Greenslade: I have been very fortunate to have been racing from a very young age, I have travelled the country and some of the World with my best mates doing what we all love. Doing well is just a bonus (a nice one though).

Ant Baker: I love the feeling of winning! The race course is a great place to practice your skills and gain some bragging rights over your mates!

Check out the other parts of the series here:

BSA Slalom pro fleet results 2012

The top level slalom fleet in the UK is full of some very impressive names; James Dinsmore, Si Cofield, Kev Greeneslade, and the young Sam Latham all proved themselves as incredible racers again this year, but it Ant Baker was that took the British title in the Pro fleet, counting only first and second places he proved that consistency is key. Boards catches up with Ant to find out more about his successful year:

Ant Baker

Name: Ant Baker

DOB:  09/11/75

Sail number: K77

Years competing: 27

Best previous results:

Top 10 in the world for freestyle, slalom, waves and course racing; British champ lots of times too

Title you have won this year:

British Slalom Association Champion, British Speed Champion.

Why and when did you first start competing?

I was nice when I first competed in the Bic worlds and came second, as my parents owned a windsurfing shop it was pretty easy to think I would make the world tour!

What equipment have you used on the UK tour this year?

Fanatic Falcon Slalom and speed boards with C3 fins powered by North Warp 2012.

Why do you use this equipment? 

Simple, it’s the best!

Ant Baker. Image credit Dave White.

What is it about your set up in particular that you like?

As we have the best control from our kit it makes it easy for me when the conditions change, also I received my 2013 boards before round five, which made a huge difference!

Who else would you recommend a set up like this? 

Our 2103 Falcons are the easiest boards to go fast on, and if you’re not first… your last!

How and where have you trained for the series this year?

Well I don’t get too much time for training as my coaching business, Baker Academy takes most of my time. I teach windsurfing, kitesurfing and paddleboarding, and have now opened a gym called Fitlab, so I will do a lot of my training there

Ant Baker

Have you just trained on the water, or what do you do off the water too?

I only use my race kit at the race events, I didn’t do too much training, but as my kit is so fast and easy to use it all went well!!

What are your plans for winter? Sailing here in the UK? Or heading abroad anywhere?

As I just opened Fitlab I will be taking martial arts and fitness classes most of the winter

What are you aims for competitions in 2013? UK and international events?

I plan on competing for the UK slalom and speed titles again and would love to get back out on the PWA tour again soon. Last year the PWA wouldn’t give me any entries, which seems silly as I was british champ last year also!!

Follow more on the UK slalom and  speed right here on Boards, and for more news and features on Ant Baker click right here!

Check out the other Champions of 2012 features:

No wind on Saturday but today we completed eight rounds in decent 15-20 knot winds. The sea state was challenging and it was very competitive in both fleets. Pro fleet was very close between Ant and I with 4 bullets each, but I won overall on countback as I had three second places as opposed to his two.

BSA racing

1. James Dinsmore (Starboard/Severne)

2. Ant Baker (Fanatic/North/Ion)

3. Simon Cofield (Fanatic/North/Ion)

The amateur fleet was big (25 racing at once) and first-time entrant Charlie-Stobart-Hook just won overall ahead of Simon Langley.

Stay tuned for further news!

You might also like to read:

Aberdovey, Wales is for me the furthest BSA destination from where I live on the south coast, so I always plan on travelling up the day before. With Nik away till late Friday, I was tasked with driving the ‘Black Mamba’ which is our technical and demo support vehicle. Inside the ‘Black Mamba’ are 25 of the latest Fanatic boards, geared up with 30 North windsurfing sails and that’s just in the back! Up the front we have a lounge/bed/meeting room where all our ideas are made, we take this vehicle to every comp and demo.

So, as I am such a push over, a fantastic husband and father, I let the wife (Natalie) come with me. We drove for over eight hours and eventually arrived to the beautiful town of Aberdovey, which is located on a water inlet on the west coast of Wales. Up to this date I have only ever been there when the weather has been perfect….. for sun baking and with the forecast looking good I was getting excited, so we checked into our little house that Boardwise has rented for us and went to sleep.

Slalom racing at Aberdovey. Image credit Dave White.

Saturday brought sun and wind, so great racing was going to be the order for the day. I rigged everything from 9.4 down to 7m, as the wind was supposed to build and because Dovey is on an inlet, the current is sometimes up to 10knots, so I imagined I was going to use the lot. Briefing done, suit on and gear at the ready we started full fleet, three bouy down wind slalom, for which I used the 7.8m North Warp12 and 113 Fanatic Falcon and C3 34cm fin. With beach starts I managed to win the first ahead races ahead of Fanatic/North team rider Simon Cofield, we had such a blast as the course it was nice and small so we had some awesome close racing. The following race was mental with All Action Jackson taking the win, he loves the strong choppy conditions!

After race three the tide changed and started to rush out, making it hard for the crew to lay the marks, so we had lunch where we all got to have a laugh about the racing we had had. Following the break I changed to a 8.6m and 140L Falcon and got back out on the course where things were heaps different, as it was now nice and flat. We started racing and the UK speed champ Kevin Greenslade who had a shocking morning took two bullets, just ahead of me but then in the last race he was over the line early ending he chances of winning this event. Against all my efforts Simon won the last race making my overall lead after two discards just one point!

I had an early night as there was a chance of wind the following day. This didn’t come to much, although we did get out on the water for some nervy light wind starts the wind never came and the sun stayed out. Lucky for me I did enough on Saturday to take the Boardwise/ NP / JP round four prize

Slalom racing at Aberdovey

Full results - 

All images courtesy of Dave White. 

What if there’s no wind?
Even if there’s no wind you can have a go at Stand Up Paddle Boarding there will be loads of boards to try out on the water. There’s loads to do around Aberdovey town and in the area there’s: amazing mountain biking, golf courses, climbing, walking, fishing etc. etc. So you won’t be short of something to do if it doesn’t blow!

Stay over for the party
On the Saturday night it’s party time with live bands, a bbq and usually far too much beer! Parking is right next to the beach and as long as the correct fees are paid, camping in vans overnight is allowed on Friday and Saturday nights. If your looking for somewhere to stay check out the Aberdovey website for a list of guest houses or cottage rentals in the area. There are also several campsites along the coast road with the nearest one being just 5 minutes up the coast road towards Tywyn.

BSA Slalom 4
Sponsored by Jp/Neilpryde the slalom event is always great fun with classes for all levels of sailors and a prize fund of £500 (courtesy of Aberdovey). More information or to enter see the UKWA website here.

Aberdovey is a beautiful town with loads to do so bring the whole family along for a great weekend.

James Dinsmore rigging at Reggio Calabria. Credit PWA/John Carter.

Name: James Dinsmore

Sail number: GBR659

DOB: 01/06/1975

Years windsurfing:  23

Disciplines: Slalom

Home town: Born in London

Current residence: Hayling Island

Sponsors: Starboard, Severne

Boards: What is your history in windsurfing? When and where did you learn and first compete?

Dinsmore: My first memories of windsurfing were as a kid on a gravel pit lake. My father had an original F2 Lightning and I vividly remember the excitement when he bought a clamp-on boom for the first time.

However, it was not until after I got a job and a car in my twenties that I really got hooked. Windsurfing started to dictate my movements and soon I took a job in Australia in search of wind and sun.

My first experience of racing was at the Lancelin Ocean Classic in Western Australia. At the time I only owned wave gear and whilst the front-runners disappeared over the horizon I slogged on and off the plane for 25 kilometres. It was a frustrating business, but gave me an appetite for more racing. Several years later it was a lot more enjoyable coming back and finishing in 8^th place just ahead of Scott McKercher.

Boards: Do you consider yourself a professional windsurfer? If not what is your profession?

Dinsmore: No. Windsurfing is a rather expensive passion for me and I have to work hard as a hospital anaesthetist to save money for the gear. I used to do a lot of night-shifts with the benefit that I could get out on the water in daylight when I wasn’t working.

James Dinsmore at Defi. Image credit Dave Strudwick.

Boards: What made you get into competition and what are your plans for this year?

Dinsmore:  When I moved back from Western Australia to England, I wanted to keep my windsurfing exciting. On the South Coast more often that not the winds are quite light and there are no waves. It would be easy to get lazy and bored sailing big gear out and back aimlessly.

Racing gives you a focus and pushes you to always be trying to get more out of you and your equipment. Even when I go out in a light 12 knots seabreeze I push myself to sail at the limit and stay on the plane through every gybe. I constantly ask myself ‘would I go faster if I put on more downhaul, put up my boom or if I try a different fin?’.

Every time I go out I aim to learn something new that will mean I am better prepared for the next race. When competing you go outside your comfort zone and in doing so become a better sailor. This year I am doing the BSA series, PWA events in Italy and Costa Brava and the Defi event in France. Unfortunately neither the PWA event in Italy nor the Defi wind had good wind. I have my fingers crossed that Costa Brava will be a better event in a couple of weeks.

James in front, racing at Weymouth. Image courtesy Dave White.

Boards: What is your best competition result to date?

Dinsmore: The highlight of my racing career was making one of the losers finals at the PWA slalom event in Aruba last year. I remember starting at the boat end of the semi-final next to Antoine Albeau and I am sure he was thinking ‘who the heck is he?’ I was PWA Sailor of the Day, which was pretty unbelievable as a career doctor from the South Coast.

More from James on page two…

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