Jo Wright

Jim from Puravida had given the call for all wave sailors to head to the Bluff for 11am on Saturday, whilst everybody else headed to Siblyback Lake. The wave sailors were met with an overcast sky, low winds and no sign of any descent swell, so this twinned with everyone’s hangovers resulted in a pretty low mood at the beach. However, spirits were lifted when Jim, Sarah Bibby, Stefan Hilder and Ian Manuel Ross provided an interesting talk including board design, fins and kit choice, which we all found extremely useful. With the wind showing no sign of improving, Sam Ross and Luke Green from Tushingham stepped up to the plate and tempted everyone into their wetsuits with the promise of a one-design windSUP competition with prizes provided by Tushingham.

17 competitors took to the water and with the help of the increasing sized waves, an enthusiastic commentary from Sam Ross and a bit of friendly competition; everybody was having a great time. Due to the incoming tide, we moved the completion round into the river mouth where we were met with some pretty meaty waves. Shapes were being thrown left, right and centre on the SUPs and the final came down to Louis Morris (Bristol), Tom Firth (Cardiff) and I. However, at the end of my semi-final I suffered a knock to the head from the SUP, and therefore struggled to make any sort of impression in the final. So it was a two horse race between Tom and Louis. Tom caught the bigger waves and impressed the crowd with some death-defying moves to clinch the win.

During the ladies final, argued by some to be highlight of the competition, the biggest sets of the day came through. Rachael Ince (Exeter) risked all to catch the wave of the day, even slicing her lip open in the process to take the win, with myself finishing 2nd and Charlotte Stokes (Southampton) coming in 3^rd.

Sunday offered a much more promising forecast, so everyone travelled back to the Bluff for 10am. A similar set of conditions to Saturday morning greeted us but Jim and Ian promised better conditions were on the way and ensured we were all rigged and ready to go. At around 12.30, the wind finally came and with the in-coming tide the waves were improving too, so the heats were drawn and everyone took to the water.

The judging team made up of Sarah, Stefan and Ian commented on the high level of skill shown by all sailors. Due to the onshore conditions, they were judging two wave-rides and one jump. The girls were thrown into the mix with the guys; I really enjoyed competing with the boys and found it really pushed my level. After some last minute deliberation, I opted for my 5.2 Rock and Flare 90 as the wind was very onshore and kept changing. I felt I did some good backside riding but my jumping was quite up to the mark (in hindsight I definitely should have gone for my 4.7!). In the end the women’s result stood with Charlotte Stoke taking 3^rd, Rachael Ince 2^nd and I took 1^st.

The overall result was an extremely tightly fought affair with Will Jones (Cardiff), Mike Ellis (Southampton), Jony Price (Cardiff) and current tour leader Ben Page (Southampton) all making it through to the final. Will was competing on Starboard’s 2013 87 Quad, putting it to great use, nearly landing a few back-loops. However, he couldn’t quite find the consistency he had shown in earlier heats, so took 4^th in the final. Mike showed how all his recent time on the water is paying off with a great forward off the lip and some solid wave riding to take 3^rd. Jony who has just returned from his storm-chaser mission to Ireland, stole the show when it came to wave-riding, achieving the highest wave score of the day to take 2^nd. Ben put in a stellar performance throughout all of his heats and after pulling off the forward of the day in the final and showing some great wave riding skills, he took a much deserved win.

I’m already looking forward to the next SWA wave event hosted by Cardiff University (22^nd -24^th February) see you there!

Jo Wright

There was a large amount of chat going on during the week, particularly through the Windsurf Plymouth Facebook page, as to where the best conditions would be had: 

https://www.facebook.com/groups/windsurfplymouth/?fref=ts 

Josh and I decided to head to Mothecombe for a cheeky Saturday afternoon session. This spot really is a the gem of the south Devon coast and offered some nice waves to ride in slightly underpowered 5.2 conditions.

Sundays forecast just kept getting better and our choice was between Marazion, the Bluff and Daymer. Eventually we opted for Daymer, as was a much shorter drive from Exeter and offered the potential for some freestyle too (we may have chickened out of the 5m waves at Gwithian!). We were not disappointed, as we enjoyed 2 and a half hours of 4m freestyle in the morning followed by a nice wave sail in the afternoon, I was pretty happy to get my first aerial off a top turn. Tushingham was well represented with Will Rogers, George Shillito and Luke Green all making it down during the day.

It was great to get back out on the water, and by the looks of the forecast should be able to squeeze in another session this week!

See you on the water!

Jo Wright