Instructor courses are run all around the country by various windsurf trainers, take  a look at the RYA website for more info and for dates check out this link.  Trainer and well known coach, Sam Ross, has recently released the dates of the courses he will be coaching in 2013, it looks like he’s got a rather full calendar!

Boards would especially recommend the courses run at the OTC Puravida Centre in Weymouth, Lagoon Watersports in Brighton and Bray Lake Watersports in Berkshire. So check out the links and get involved!

Want to become an instructor in 2013?

For just £20 you can have unlimited use of the demo kit on offer, and gain some priceless windsurfing tips from the World Champion himself.

The day kicks off at 10am and the centre will be open until dark.

For more information, get in contact.

OTC Wind Chill

Ross intorducing Gaastra/Tabou in OTC Weymouth

Throughout the weekend of the 10th-11th windsurfers will have a chance to try all the latest 2013 Gaastra sails and Tabou boards, along with an opportunity to receive a clinic and tips from Ross all FREE OF CHARGE! It doesn’t happen often that the World Champ will tune your kit and tell you what to improve, so don’t miss out!!

After a successful year of competing on the PWA tour and winning the Formula World Title, Ross is now getting to grips with becoming the main man behind Gaastra/Tabou in the UK. His professional approach and dedication are perfect ingredients to ensure the long term success of the two brands! So get down to Weymouth this weekend!

Ross in full gear

Kev Greenslade runs us through the first windy BSA event of the year:

The waiting was over, after a windless Hayling competition, the forecast for Weymouth promised to deliver.

It was time for the questions would be answered, would Ant Baker’s dominance from last year continue? Who had been training hard? What difference would people’s new gear make? How would the sailors moving up into the pro and amateur fleets fair?

Can Ant Baker reign supreme in 2012?

The new and improved OTC, powered by Puravida Boardriders, were event sponsors with a free hog roast to all competitors, free party and the opportunity to settle any differences on the water, with a gladiator style pugle stick arena, this event was sure to be great fun for all both racing and spectating.

On Friday evening it was hard to imagine what the weekend would bring. Sitting outside the OTC enjoying a chinese, whilst the sun went down over Chesil beach, who knew this would be far from an option come the following morning.

71 competitors woke on Saturday morning, to driving rain and a solid north easterly 14-18 knots. Race officer Paul Sibley set a five buoy downwind slalom course, whilst Brian Tilbury got the master blast fleet underway, making the most of the conditions.

In the masterblaster fleet, with the Page Possie moving up to the race in the amateur fleet there was a new kid on the block in the form off pro kite surfer Dan Sweeny. Obviously having Ant Baker as a boss and windsurfing mentor is paying off for Dan, as he only started windsurfing last year and after a grueling day of 19 races, Dan came out on top in front of Charles Milner and Rob Duggan  (nice one Dan!).

I would also like to congratulate the local T15 team, with Joe Adams finishing fourth in his first ever event, Emma Stevenson first lady and second overall,  plus Scotty (the legend) Stalman finishing eighth overall at just ten years old, well done team, good work!

All images courtesy of Dave White

The amateur fleet is looking fiercely competitive this year, once everyone gets familiar with the heat system etc this is going to be a hard fleet to call, with several sailors capable of taking top honours.

Simon Langley started where he left off last year with a bullet in the first, only to be overhauled by Lee Marrs in the next two finals. Tony Attfield came good at the end to take third. Well done to Kate Strange, finishing fifth overall and first lady, as well as local Weymouth U17, Tom Wells (OTC/Puravida), both of these youngsters will be ones to watch for events in the future.

All images courtesy of Dave White

Lee Marrs’ two wins meant he took the top prize of the weekend, with one weeks free hire from the OTC in Tenerife, well done Lee!

There has been an obvious absence in the pro fleet so far this year, with Alan “all action” Jackson missing the events, for a good reason though, congratulations to Alan and Caroline on the birth of your son, Rory. Big love from everyone on the BSA circuit, we all look forward to seeing the Jackson family soon.

Close racing at the top of the Pro fleet

The pro fleet kicked off with a bang, with most of the usual suspects progressing through to first final.

Everyone was completely on it from the first start, unfortunately yours truly was out in front when the fleet got recalled. On the re run it was James Dinsmore, who would take the honours, with Si “the Hulk” Cofield hot on his heels.

In the second round, I again found myself out in front, but this time a sloppy gybe gave Ant and James the opportunity to slip past. Round three saw a RS:X star, Sam Sills smoking off the start line, managing to hold his nerve with James and Ant breathing down his neck the whole way round, this left James the overnight leader followed by Ant, then Sam in third.

On to the party, a massive thanks to “party Steve” Howlet who spent his whole Saturday getting the party zone ready for action. At 7pm the pig was ready and the beer began to flow, some chilled tunes were spun on the decks from party Steve, whilst everyone ate. Then the local rock band, The Cheap Shots, got the weary limbs of the racers moving and limbered up for some Gladiator action.

All images courtesy of Dave White

With Mark Steen (from Bustinskins) on the mic, myself and Mistral Simmer team mate Simon “Willie Wonka” Pettifer opened up, but wasn’t long before I found myself on the canvas walking off with my head held low. Si continued to dominate, until he came up against Dave White, who finally beat him in three rounds.

The random name generator then selected Reece White, which made for the Gladiator bout of the evening, with the younger of the mighty Whites coming off best. The band and party continued late into the night. Anyone heading off early for an early night was bitterly disappointed, as outside it blew 50 knot plus and chucked it down with rain, which made sleeping well in a van almost impossible.

Jim Crossly FB quote “Omg shit nights sleep in the van! Now got to rig in 40 odd knots and rain, and slip into a wet wetsuit. Here goes 3 2 1″ 

The next morning sure delivered wind, and lots of it, with the forecast to drop and swing, the race crew gave the pro fleet the choice of figure of eight in 40-50 knots or wait for the wind to swing and drop a little. The grim prospect of rigging lots of sails in these conditions meant that the majority voted to sit it out and wait.

All images courtesy of Dave White

At 11.00am the decision was made to race regardless, as the wind showed no sign of subsiding. But sure enough, just as the first race was about to start the wind swung and dropped, to nothing. Shortly after this the decision was made that there would be no more racing this weekend, what a way to end great weekend!

I would like to congratulate everyone that took part over the weekend and thank all those who were involved in making it all happen.

See you next time, Kev.

Kev Greensalde is sponsored by OTC, PURAVIDA, SIMMER, MISTRAL, SPARTAN and C3.

James Dinsmore’s view on the weekend and full results on page two…

We will have a full report online very soon, from none other than slalom supremo and new centre manager Kev Greenslade, but in the mean time we caught up with the men in charge of the OTC and Puravida respectively, Tris Best and Jim Brooks-Dowsett, for their thoughts on the weekend.

“This was the fifth time we’ve hosted the BSA at OTC UK … and the fifth time we’ve had enough wind to get a result! The event keeps getting bigger and better and was a great way to celebrate our union with Puravida here in the UK.

Got to thank Steve “party man” Howlett for all his help in organising the evening’s activities and Kev Greenslade for instigating the pugil sticks ents – definitely going to be more of the same in the future. Exciting times ahead…and then there’s the Olympics!” Tris 

“Despite some challenging weather the number of competitors and guests was amazing!  It was a fantastic weekend with credit to all who helped, we were stoked to host the event and have three team riders in the to 10″ Jim

 Full results will be available soon, but here are the top three from each fleet:

Pros

1st James Dinsmore

2nd Ant Baker

3rd Sam Sills

Amateurs

1st Lee Marrs

2nd Simon Langley

3rd Tony Attfield

Masterblaster

1st Dan Sweeney

2nd Charles Milner

3rd Rob Duggan

Want to improve your slalom skills?

Check out the Boards technique section, in particular:

Sam Latham sharing his slalom secrets  and Ant Baker guiding you through the perfect carve gybe

Images courtesy of Dave White, click here for a full gallery.

Carbon Art 2010-11 line-up

2010/11 Carbon Art Wave. New Shapes, New Graphics, 2 Year Warranty.

Carbon Art is excited to announce the release of our 2010 wave range. An extensive amount of work, testing and tweaking on the waves of Taranaki and Maui has gone into our entire range. All three of our wave shapes have been fully refined to give you better performance and more benefits than ever before. The sheer smoothness of the Wave Vee (WaveV) puts you in control 100% of the time, the power and responsiveness of the Wave Single Concave (WaveSC) is more than impressive and the varied style of turns the Wave Thruster (WaveTH) offers is a huge amount of fun.

Along with the shape refinements we’ve been researching and testing new materials to give you the best possible performance and value for money. The end result is the integration of Innegra fibre into our leading edge composite construction. Innegra has delivered amazing results in our testing, especially in the form of increased durability, allowing us to now offer a 2 year warranty on all new waveboards! There’s also an added bonus, it’s made from recycled plastic using a green manufacturing process; an important issue for us here in New Zealand and worldwide.

We’ve learned a lot about the thruster fin setup over the last few years with the development of the WaveTH and other prototypes. This experience and understanding has enabled us to now offer thruster box setups as an optional extra on the WaveV and WaveSC. It gives you the ability to fully personalise your board, tuning it to your sailing style and local conditions, and expand your sailing experience by exploring the multi fin concept without going to a specific multi fin shape.

To coincide with this year’s big developments we’re also introducing a completely new look exclusive to the wave range. The new graphics range combined with our 5 different board colour options really gives you the freedom to individually customise your style on and off the water.

Here’s a run down of each of the 3 models and the refinements we have made.

Wave Vee

Wave Vee

This is our most versatile of the wave range and will perform well no matter what conditions are thrown at it. A true pedigree and at home anywhere.

(1) Refined nose rocker + increased volume under load bearing area =Earlier planning

(2) Refined rocker = Faster + better control at speed

(3) Softer rails forward of the mast track = Smoother initiation into turns

(4) Refined rail and vee profile =More drive thorough out turns.

(5) The introduction of super tough Innegra cloth to replace glass = better dampening, flex properties and ding resistance = stronger and a 2 year warranty

(6) Optional thruster boxes = more personalisation and tuning options

(6) New Graphics plus existing choice of 6 base colours = more customisation for you

Wave SC

Wave Single Concave

Our down the line specialist, really lets you go anywhere on the wave at short notice. Get into the critical areas and crank some powerful turns, lends itself to a real surf style of riding.

(1) Lower nose rocker + increased volume under load bearing area =Earlier planning

(2) Refined rocker and + increased concave between fronts and back feet = Faster + better control at speed

(3) Softer rails forward of the mast track = Smoother initiation into turns

(4) Deeper concave and refined rail profile =More drive thorough out turns.

(5) The introduction of super tough Innegra cloth to replace glass = better dampening, flex properties and ding resistance = stronger and a 2 year warranty

(6) Optional thruster boxes = more personalisation and tuning options

(7) New Graphics plus existing choice of 6 base colours = more customisation for you

Wave Thruster

Wave Thruster

Our multi-fin specific board. It offers new school style of riding, making the most out of smaller mushier waves with super fast explosive turns.

(1) Refined nose rocker + increased volume under load bearing area =Earlier planning

(2) Reduced tail width + increased concave between front and back feet = Faster + better control at speed

(3) Softer rails forward of the mast track = Smoother initiation into turns

(4) Deeper concave and refined rail profile =More drive thorough out turns.

(5) The introduction of super tough Innegra cloth to replace glass = better dampening, flex properties and ding resistance = stronger and a 2 year warranty

(6) New Graphics plus existing choice of 6 base colours = more customisation for you

More at Carbon Art