With the end of another academic year it’s time for some changes. Sadly, at the end of a second epic year in charge Sarah (Arts) has announced that she is stepping down as SWA president. Sarah has done a fantastic job during her time as president, growing the SWA to record new numbers and imposing a much more professional method of operating on the organisation.

Over the past year I’ve had a blast as Head of Media for the SWA. I’ve really enjoyed every aspect of my involvement with the SWA committee. It is therefore with a mixture of apprehension and excitement I am happy to announce that I am going to step up and attempt to fill the big shoes Sarah leaves behind, taking the reins as SWA president with immediate effect.

I’ve announced this new position to a few people already. On doing so I’ve been met with the following questions:

1. Why did you decide to take on the role as president?
2. What other changes to the committee are there?
3. OMG, what’s going to happen with the amazing SWA Monthly articles on boards that I love so much?

I’ll try my best to answer these.

The reason I decided to take on the role as president is simple enough: because I am passionate about windsurfing and developing the sport.  I genuinely get a kick out of getting new people involved with the sport and at the moment I think there is no organisation doing this better than the SWA. Further, I think the SWA is in a position where I can use my knowledge to help evolve the organization further. I hope to use my extensive instructing experience to progress the way we run beginner tuition and use my experience of competition to help develop our race, freestyle and wave series’, providing the talent amongst the SWA with the recognition it deserves.

There have been several other changes to the committee. Sadly a few people are moving on (such is the burden of the real world) but plenty of exciting new editions join us. Watch out for a ‘Meet the Committee’ feature appearing on www.studentwindsurfing.co.uk very soon.

As for the SWA monthly articles……well first of all, I just want to say thank you to all of you who have been reading them and giving your feedback. Some of the comments have been genuinely quite touching and made writing the column an absolute pleasure. My monthly contribution is going to end now, but the articles will continue in the very capable hands of the new SWA Head Of Media; Duncan. I now hand over to him….

Duncan Dumbreck

Well, I guess that proves that all good things must come to an end. Over the past six months I have really enjoyed reading Will’s column, and it has made me think a lot more about my own windsurfing.

The great Levi Siver once said “when we started this sport we had no idea where it would take us” and if you had told my parents that their dyslexic son would be writing a monthly column, I bet you they would not have believed it.

So here I am taking over Will’s column and I have been thinking why I liked Will’s musings.

To start off I thought I’d throw in a few facts about myself, much like Will did in his first article here, back in January.

Duncan Dumbreck

Name: Duncan Dumbreck

Occupation: Just finished being a student at Bangor University studying Marine Biology (now looking for jobs)

Number of Years Windsurfing: Had a terrible experience of it when my dad tried to teach me on holiday at age 11. Then saw a friend planing when I worked in Greece aged 19 and decided to try again.

Favorite Discipline: Wave

Favorite Spot: Rhosneigr (an obvious choice given the proximity to Bangor Uni.)

Sailing Ability: Currently sitting in 7^th position on the amateur BWA tour (more a reflection of my ability to turn up at events, than of my wave sailing.) Landing tabletops and the occasional loop.

SWA Involvement: Re-started the Bangor Uni. Windsurf Club, Assisted Will in the Media Role last year, now taking the reins of the Media team.

BWA Involvement: Competed on the tour for the first time last year, now joining the committee to encourage younger people to get involved.

Other Interests: A bit of photography/videography, mountain biking, sailing, fishing, shooting.

So now you know a bit about me, and to anyone who already knows me Hi!

I thought for starters I would talk about why I love the SWA.

I’ll start off with what is very obvious, I love windsurfing, and by extension anything that has any remote link to windsurfing generally appeals to me. But I’d be ignoring the bigger picture if I were to say that is it.

I’ve come to realise that the SWA is a brilliant proxy for my travels around the country. I’ve been to places and windsurfed where I generally wouldn’t have bothered if it weren’t for the SWA. As a university student I would say I have visited (and partied in) more cities in the country than most other students. In each of these cities I have made friends, who I now windsurf with very regularly. It is useful having friends from all over the country who love to windsurf, as if you are travelling somewhere there is normally a floor or spare bed you can crash on, and someone to go drinking and sailing with.

SWA Team hard at work

The cool thing is that everyone loves to windsurf with friends, and through the event series I get to meet up with my friends once a fortnight and go windsurf with them. We windsurf no matter how much/little wind there is. We don’t cancel because the forecast is for 4knots and the temperature is 1 degree. We go out and learn light wind freestyle moves (and believe me you learn a lot faster when the cold water punishes you for getting it wrong).

There is an awesome sense of community in windsurfing and especially the SWA, where the majority of presidents of the university clubs know each other well. How many other sports clubs at universities can say the same? In Bristol there are two universities. Bristol Uni. and the University of West England. In the windsurf world the two clubs have hooked up to make one awesome big club that has an amazing social and windsurfing scene (and is affectionately known as BRUWE). I don’t know of any other sports that do this. In fact most other sports teams in Bristol have extremely strong rivalry. By training and working together both clubs are a lot better off than they would be otherwise, and this boils down to the ability to see the bigger picture, and the good vibe that windsurfing has.

So, when I think about the bigger picture, and why I love the SWA it is because it encapsulates all that is great about our sport. The sense of community, dedication, willingness to help and unfailing enthusiasm for foul weather that we all share.

Follow the SWA Monthly and all the SWA news on Boards here. 

The SWA can confirm their plan for BBL:

Windsurf coaching from the legendary – Andy ‘Bubble’ Chambers, Sam Ross, Jim Brooks-Dowsett and Joe O’Callaghan.

SUP coaching from Pro fanatic SUP riders, Jay Manning and Tony Peters.

SWA at Beach Break Live

Make sure you get involved – SWA HQ based on the beach everyday, look for the silver ION teepee.

SWA camping area – head for the SWA flag & pitch up.

Saturday day jamming in the SWA HQ with Sam Green (acoustic guitarist from AK).

Saturday evening - SWA camping area – Sam’s Jam Sesh – tune up your instruments and warm up for vocal chords…

PIMP UP THE SWA CAMPING AREA:- 

Lets get creative & make the SWA stand out! BBL domination is our game! SWA numbers may be thin on the ground vs snowsports but we can make up for it in style!!

Feel free to bring/make: 

SWA bunting – click here

SWA banners

SWA flags

Tinsel

Solar lights etc!

See you there! 

Find out more from the SWA on Boards or on the SWA website.

After SWA Nationals I felt a little bit down. Nationals marked the end of another fantastic student windsurfing year and meant having to say goodbye to a lot of good friends.

Pretty quickly however, I realised I was wrong. Wrong to feel down and also wrong in fact that it’s the end of the student year. I had almost forgotten this year the SWA calendar has one more fixture on it; for the first time we have teamed up with Beach Break Live to form part of the Student Extreme Games. This promises to be an awesome event. We will be running freestyle competitions alongside snow sports, wakeboard and kite surf competitions during the day.

Will Jones

Then in the evening, we will be able to see some of the biggest musicians, bands and DJ’s in the world performing live. Epic! On remembering this, my sadness suddenly turned to excitementand I realised I was being ridiculous in the first place. I shouldn’t be sad, just excited about the future.

There are lots of events coming up over the summer where I’ll see all the usual faces again. National Windsurf Festival and Windfest are just round the corner, the BWA/UKWA seasons are already underway and it’s really not that long till Aussie Kiss 11 (I don’t think there is anything wrong with me already being ridiculously excited for Aussie Kiss, even if it’s not until the last weekend of October).

In general I’m stoked for the new SWA year. It’s always great to meet new people and awe-inspiring to see new talent come through. I wonder if at Aussie Kiss 11 we will be as blown away by the freestyle as we were at Aussie Kiss 10. I definitely hope we will be as blown away by the Vass girl’s outfits at Aussie Kiss 11 as we were by their X-rated interpretation.

Nationals overall, were a wicked weekend, truly amazing parties on both nights. The Saturday night boat party in particular never disappoints. All the competitions ran smoothly and I had great fun competing in them. The weekend’s competition in fact led me to a slight epiphany. It was during the freestyle competition that this particular moment of insight hit me, but what I’m about to discuss really applies to any sort of competition or situation where you are challenged to push yourself to sail at your best.

Will Jones

The wind for Nationals had been a bit on the light side overall, Saturday morning had started very light. Thankfully by the afternoon it had picked up a bit and people were on and off getting planing on big kit. There was even about a half hour where a few people took the chance to go out on their freestyle gear, but sadly that didn’t last long.

Sunday started much the same as Saturday, with very light wind. Fortunately, the afternoon’s wind started to fill in just a little bit earlier than the Saturday. The morning’s team racing event was a battle of who could pump onto the plane. By about 1pm, the wind had really started to pick up and it looked like we would have what we needed to get a proper freestyle competition in. Hastily, all those keen to compete ran off to rig their gear and re-group on the beach.

Phil and Danielle from GetWindsurfing.com were judging the competition and gave a short briefing on their point scoring criteria. Heats would be eight minutes and points would be awarded for variety and quality of moves, but also to those who didn’t just play safe and went for some bigger moves too, even if they didn’t quite land them. The SWA scoring system aims to encourage as many people as possible to compete and make it as entertaining as possible for the audience, hence the marks for attempting bigger moves.

With that made clear, we were divided into heats and the competition got underway. I was in the first heat which gave me time to do literally one test run out and back to check my kit was all ok before I had to start my heat.

SWA Aussie Kiss 9, by Javier Choi

The megaphone sounded, we were off. I sailed upwind, tacked and came broadreaching at full steam towards where the judges were sat. Flying along, I reached back down the boom, popped the board out of the water, extended my front arm as high as I could, sheeted in hard with my back hand and looked back over my shoulder for a forward. Now, the outcome of this forward is frankly irrelevant (ok I crashed). But my point is, I know if I had gone out just to sail it would have taken me at least 20 minutes to warm up before going for a forward.

I waterstarted out of it and sailed back away from the beach. Knowing I was eating into my eight minutes I immediately found myself going switch and bearing off to pick up speed. Again, in a normal session there would be a fair few moves I would normally try before I started trying anything switch.

The entire eight minute session continued like this. I think I tried a different move on every run, sometimes more than one. After eight minutes of that, I was exhausted. As I collapsed back on the beach to catch my breath I realised that I probably tried as many moves in the eight minute heat, as I sometimes would do in an entire afternoon of sailing.

About 10 minutes later, I was forced to do it again in the next round. The message I am hopefully getting across is that whatever your ability, competition drives you to push yourself. For that reason alone its worth taking part.

I have felt over the last few months that my sailing progression has kind of stalled. I’ve got a selection of moves that I can do well and consistently, and then a few that I can do occasionally but they’re not getting any more consistent.

I have found many excuses to justify my lack of progress; mostly having a job and not getting to the beach as much as I’d like or maybe not having the best possible set up on the day.

Hidden Talents is a series of interviews, by SWA media man and Boards columnist Will Jones, uncovering both UK born riders, and those talented youngsters that now reside here. Originally, this series was on our sister site www.boardseeker.com now on Boards, we will use the series to showcase the best of British.

Our May Hidden Talent is Nic Hibdige, a future star on the freestyle scene who, who at the age of 16, is already busting out the big moves.

Nic in action

Name: Nic Hibdige

Age: 16

From: Lymington, South Coast

Years windsurfing? 

I think I first got on a windsurfer when I was about eight, but probably started to get into it properly when I was 11.

Favourite discipline?

Freestyle

Local Spot?

There’s a few around, Avon beach, Mudeford Harbour and just two minute drive away is Tanners Lane, which is pretty good if the winds the right direction.

Nic in Bonaire

Occupation?

I’m currently in my last year of secondary school, with my GCSE’s coming up. Starting my A-levels next year in biology, psychology, business and economics, and sports science.

Sponsors?

Simmer sails,  Mystic and 24/7 Boardsports. Also Starboard helped me with a board.

Nic Hibdige Bonaire 2011

How did you get into windsurfing?

My whole family windsurf and I was lucky enough to first start in Bonaire. I had been on a board with my dad a few times, he has been windsurfing since the beginning.  At first in Bonaire, I wasn’t that into it but when I met the locals out there like Kiri and Youp that got me into it massively.

My parents have a house in Bonaire now, I think when we’ve finished school my parents want to move out there. I’m pretty lucky, the house is right on the beach and we normally go out there twice a year. It needed quite a bit of work on it when they bought it, but now it’s nice. We normally go in the summer for about four weeks and Christmas about three weeks. 

When I came home after that first trip I tried a bit of racing with my local club but that wasn’t really my thing. I then got into freestyle when I was about 13, I got some more kit and started sail in the UK.

What do your school friends think of windsurfing?

Most don’t really know anything about it! I got a few friends to come and try, they quite like it and one of them has even started coming to Bonaire with us.

Nic ready for the competition

Tell us about your UKWA experience?

Last year was my first main year competing, the year before I went to a couple of events. Last year I missed the first one, then we were going to the second but the van broke down. I managed to compete at the other three though!

It is always great to see more people that are into windsurfing and it’s good to get to know people who you can windsurf with.

My first competition was at Windfest in 2010, I got third (age 14).

First 2011 event was Mumbles in Wales, I came second (beaten by Oscar Carmichael). Also that year, I got second in Worthing and at Poole Windfest I came first in the under 17 category.

This year at the first event in West Kirby I got first place in the flow style, and third place in the tow in amateurs.

Sam Sills Flying

…the final stop on the SWA tour 2012. Which was in a word, EPIC!

Taking place at Calshot Activity Centre, on the weekend of the 21st of April, hundreds of students, the biggest brands and many more enthusiastic part goers turned up for the last event in the student  calendar.

Having spent the week checking the forecast and preparing their fancy dress outfits, Friday couldn’t come quick enough for most. The vans stuffed with kit, packed cars and fully loaded mini buses invaded Calshot. Turning a blind eye to the weather, the students pitched their tents and got straight down to partying. The music pumped and the drinks flowed the way the SWA does best. The dance floor kept moving until the early hours.

Kit from Boardwise

On the water, the weekend was packed with racing, freestyle and freesailing on an abundance of demo equipment. After light winds to start with, the strength picked up over the weekend which provided some tight racing and freestyle competition at the top.  In the guys fleets, Southampton Solent were dominant in the racing, as well as taking the glory in the freestyle with Nicola Terenezi and Ollie Acton taking first and second respectively. For the girls, familiar faces at SWA events showed their strength; the Exeter girls Jo Wright, Kirsty O’Callaghan, Alex Powell and Rachael Ince set the pace.

Exeter ready to party

The weekend was a fitting end to an amazing SWA year, for the full report and results head to the SWA website.

For more SWA news and views on Boards why not have a look through the SWA Monthly features by Will Jones, last month he was discussing how a little bit of support goes a long way,  as well as the windsurfing industry and asking is it worth it?  Wonder what he will  have in store for us this month?

Here are some extra words from Sam Burnett the SWA Marketing Manager:

This year the industry has really risen to the challenge of supporting the next generation of windsurf enthusiasts.  We saw four new boards, two sails, loads of masts and booms, flymounts, loads of Spartan wetsuits, event tickets for Beach Break and the National Windsurf Festival, the list goes on.

It’s great to see the newer companies get onboard like Puravida, who are making a bespoke full carbon waveboard for our 2012 wave champ MC Yeates.  Last years headline wave sponsor was K3d who have once again been involved, offering affordable 100% carbon masts to the student populous, it’s really great to be on the forefront of breaking these newer brands into the industry.

MC Yeates Freestyling

The relationship we have with all of our sponsors is excellent, but this year all hats go off to Starboard and Tushingham.  After meeting with Dave Hackford and Sam Ross to discuss the development and needs of student windsurfing, we came up with the winning formula of providing prizes to clubs which can be used for years to come by all of the members, rather than just providing prizes to already kitted out advanced guys.

Starboard and Tushingham provided a wealth of prizes to each of our core events this year (also Boardwise/Spartan) ensuring that everyone on the podium went home with something inspiring.  This continuous support came to a climax when I had the opportunity to unveil the overall series at the end of series prize giving.  No one knew about this rogue series and everyone went nuts for it.  Liverpool has been an excellent club this year, they don’t necessarily get first spot but overall they dominate on and off the water.  It was a privilege for the SWA to be able to tell these guys they were leaving Calshot with a £1300 Starboard Rio.  No doubt this board will see countless enthusiasts follow in their glorious footsteps in years to come. Bristol also get a prize for the whole uni, they get to show up to a lake and a wealth of Starboard Tushingham experience and kit all rigged and ready to go.  This makes it super easy for the club committees to get maximum people on the water.

The SWA are getting more people on the water every year than any other windsurfing establishment.  This would not be possible without the continuous support from all of our industry partners. Big, big thanks to all who make our goals achievable.

I was prompted to write this just last week when I arrived at work for a perfectly normal Monday morning in the office. My colleagues and I exchanged the normal Monday pleasantries; ‘what did you get up to over the weekend?  It had been a windy weekend and I, currently based in Cambridge, and Dave Williams, a student at Cambridge University, had set out early on the Saturday morning to catch the best of the forecast at Brancaster on the Norfolk coast. I told my colleagues of this little venture who immediately replied with bemused comments such as ‘you must be mad’, ‘did you not freeze?’ and one question that many people ask at this point ‘was it worth it?’

This is not an entirely unreasonable question. What my colleague was really asking was ‘is it worth getting up early on a Saturday morning, driving for 2 hours to go windsurfing in freezing conditions in the rain to then have to drive back another 2 hours?’ I can understand why this seems a very unusual thing to do.

I’ve been asked this question before many times; when I go into a lecture on a Monday morning in Cardiff and chat to the person next to me about what we got up to over the weekend. If I then tell them I got up at 6am on Saturday to drive 2 hours to Pembrokeshire to go windsurfing for the day it’ll blow their mind. And then comes that question, ‘is it worth it?’ all that effort, going all that way. Or maybe they will ask ‘why do you do it?’

Despite having been asked these sort of questions many times I always find them tough to answer when put on the spot. How can I explain to this person who knows very little about windsurfing why I want to drive all over the country to go windsurfing in the freezing cold? Sometimes I even start to question myself. Why do I do it? And is it really worth it?

On this particular Monday morning in the office I now had to explain to my colleagues, in terms they could understand, that Dave and I had scored a sick session at North Norfolk in the surprisingly warm conditions for February. It had been a full power 4.0 day, with glassy flat water close to the beach and nice ramps out the back to jump off. I was stoked to have been sailing well, pulling some pretty big loops and Dave had casually busted out most of the switch moves in the trictionary; some sick funnels and switch chachos as well as some big air flakas and massive floating shakas. All in all a pretty epic day, topped off by some chicken wings to warm us up. Definitely worth the effort! I tried my best to enthusiastically put this in laymen’s terms for my colleagues but they really couldn’t get it. When I returned the question and asked what my colleagues had got up to over the weekend what did they have to say? Well very little. If I hadn’t been planning to get up early on the Saturday I probably would have stayed longer at the usual Friday after work pub session, all the more recent graduates where I work gather there each week, and the evening would have probably resulted in Saturday morning being a complete right off. The expense it cost me to get to the beach on Saturday probably would have gone in the pub instead. So really the option to go windsurfing cost me no more, was much more enjoyable, much healthier and left me buzzing for the next week back at work. I definitely think I picked the better option.

It’s obvious to point out that there are plenty of things I could do as an alternative to windsurfing that would be cheaper and not involve going in the ice cold North Sea. Just going for a run costs nothing and will leave you buzzing with endorphins. So the question still remains why do we do it? Is windsurfing worth it?

Sometimes these questions come up around SWA events. Is it worth going? For example when I’m at uni in Cardiff and the forecast for Porthcawl or the Gower is good, what’s so special about an event in Exeter, Nottingham or Liverpool or any of the other locations where the Student Windsurf Association host events, that a group of us from Cardiff will drive all that way, leaving a perfectly good forecast behind, to sail there instead. Well, I think it’s because there is more to SWA events than a windsurfing competition. There is no more conclusive proof to this claim than the recent Cardiff event. With a forecast of zero wind and absolutely no waves along with minus temperatures the call was made in the few days running up to the weekend to abandon the competition. Despite this around 60 students still came from across the country over the border in to Wales just to party and catch up with good friends in Cardiff. Windsurfing was replaced by paintballing and an epic weekend was had by all. That’s not to say the windsurfing is an irrelevant part of student events and it’s just another excuse for a piss up. I’m sure everyone there would have been even more stoked if we had been able to roll down to the beach to 25knots of wind and some nice waves and I reckon throughout the weekend about 90% of the conversation was to do with windsurfing.

Perhaps all this strange behaviour can be explained by something Will Rogers spoke about in his most recent article on Boards; FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out). This concept was introduced to me a few years ago by mutual friends of mine and Will. For example if you hadn’t come to Cardiff you would have missed out on two epic parties, you won’t understand why at the next event everyone keeps mockingly describing things as ‘next level good’ or where the nickname Mr Mugatu came from and you won’t be doing endless mental arithmetic to try and work out if you can afford that new board you fell in love with in Puravida (I can’t decide if that last one is a positive or not). Check out the Cardiff report here.

So add FOMO to the possibility that each time you attend an SWA event you have the chance to win some awesome prizes, you’ll have a great time with mates, meet new people who you’ll stay friends with for life and you’ll have the chance to get some tips from some of the best windsurfers in the UK, then I think that explains why an SWA weekend cannot be missed.

Even with all that said I’m sure there are plenty of other university sports and societies that you could join that offer just as epic parties and an equally great network of people along with the chance to be coached by some of the best in the business. So still we haven’t really answered the question that prompted this article. Is windsurfing worth it? Why do we windsurf? I’m sure some people will never understand this but I think the late great Andy Irons summed up the reasons I windsurf when he explained why he surfed. In his words ‘I surf because I’m always a better person when I come in’.

So there you go. If Andy Irons doesn’t inspire you to get out on the water I don’t know what will. If you’re a student and you’ve never been to an SWA event before, then make sure you come along to the next one. Come Monday morning you’ll know a whole load of new people, you’ll be able to join in the banter that will spill over onto facebook and you’ll feel like you spent your weekend well. Or if you’re looking at the forecast wondering if it’s worth going to the coast this weekend, ask yourself what you would do instead? Chances are the alternative won’t be half as exciting.

Upcoming SWA events

Now that the weather is slowly beginning to warm up the SWA is really getting going again. Students seem to be occupying the coast line every weekend. The SWA still has several huge events to come. Northern Monkey II – Medieval Mayhem (http://www.facebook.com/events/381465861880484/) and the legendary Nationals at Southampton.  Check out this video from Nationals a few years back.

Also this year the SWA has joined forces with the Extreme Games at Beach Break Live, check out the video here. It’s our first year running a competition at the event. Student Winter Sports and Kiting have been doing it for a few years and I guess Beach Break have decided they are finally ready for the SWA.

Then as if that wasn’t enough there’s the SWA Vass trip. It’s pretty much going to be Aussie Kiss but a week long and in the sun. I can’t really think of a better recipe for success.

So that’s plenty more opportunities for Taffy to flail his arms mentally and then claim he won a dance off, even if no one else knew a dance off was happening. Plenty more opportunities for the girls from Exeter to excite the minds of many of the SWA’s young men, and then crush them! And plenty more opportunities for all the students out there to get involved with windsurfing, push their personal ability to the next level and send it SWA style!

Will Jones - The SWA Media Dude

Who Is Will Jones

Age : 22

Occupation: Student, studying Mechanical Engineering at Cardiff Uni and Head of Media for the SWA.

Number of years windsurfing: Had my first taste of windsurfing when I was on holiday with my family aged 7ish. Then maybe a week or two most summers until about 5 years ago when I got my own kit and started sailing as often as I can.

Favourite discipline: Wave.

Favourite spot: Newgale, West Wales.

Sailing ability: Got forwards pretty good trying lots of backloops and pushloops, water starting out of lots but sailing cleanly out of very few at the moment, would love to have them consistently.

Involvement with the SWA: I got involved with the SWA through the Cardiff Uni windsurf club. Went to my first SWA event which was Aussie Kiss 8 and been hooked on SWA events ever since. At the beginning of this year I got involved with the SWA committee helping organising events and handling the media side.

The SWA Monthly

What an awesome opportunity! Boards have only gone and given me my own monthly feature with the brief to write about anything I like, as long as it links vaguely into the world of student. So what am I going to write about? Well, I want to get under the skin of the student windsurf community and show the world just what we’re really about. I want to shout about all those undiscovered talents that deserve to be shouted about and send the student gossip global, after all rumours are meant to be spread. For my first entry let’s just get some perspective with a look back at the first half of the academic year and a look forward to what the remainder has instore.

There is no doubt that first half of the SWA 2011/2012 season has been sick! What has struck me the most about this year is that the level of windsurfing amongst the students has really stepped up a notch. Just a few years ago if you pulled a Vulcan at an SWA event you were almost guaranteed to get some that night. To stand out from the crowd and attract the opposite sex you now have to have something really special tucked up your sleeve (and I’m are not talking about the wizard’s kind). At Aussie Kiss this year we saw konos, ponches and burners being pulled in the freestyle event. This year so far in the race series I don’t think anyone in the top 10 has dropped a gybe. Let’s just pray for some wind in the wave series, how long will it be before we see students doing double forwards?

Aussie Kiss - Bigger every year

There is no official chart to back this up but I think it’s safe to say that the SWA is now the biggest active windsurf community in the UK if not the world. Other than the PWA I can’t think of anywhere else where there is such a dedicated regular following to a calendar of events throughout the year. Around 700 people attended Aussie Kiss X making it possibly the biggest windsurf event in the UK during 2011, and putting it on the worlds windsurfing calendar as a highlight of the year. Just in case you have forgoton how awesome Aussie Kiss 10 was here is a reminder filmed, edited and produce by Matt Farrant, Josh Gajewski and Carl Davis:

It’s been great to see the student influence on the wider windsurfing world. Over the summer there was a big student presence at National Windsurf Festival and Pool Windfest. A particular mention should go to Ollie Acton, one of the top SWA freestylers, for winning the amateurs fleet at Pool. At the BWA Cornwall event earlier this year there was a huge posse of students (and ex-students) from Universities far and wide. Bangor, Bristol, Bath, Cardiff, Southampton and Exeter all represented teams of over 25 in total.

Students push into the UKWA/BWA scene

The SWA ladies were particularly successful here with Jo Wright from Exeter Uni taking third place and Sarah Bibby formerly Southampton Uni taking second and the overall series title. Hopefully in 2012 we can get a big group of students up to North Wales and across to Ireland for the BWA events (if only they didn’t fall slap bang in the middle of the exam period), and even the long trip up to Tiree (Scottish Students be prepared to have some guests crashing on your floor for a night).