CATEGORIES

The Spinny Gybe

It goes by many names, but the basic pivot gybe is not only a practical ‘get out of jail’ card, but also introduces technique elements that should take your regular carve gybing to another level. Harty elucidates.

Two Big Onions!

This month Harty sings the praises of Tobago, a very special island.

Foil Gybing

There’s a reason the pages of this magazine have been long populated by carve gybing articles. It’s the benchmark move of our sport, a measure of how far our technique has progressed if we can blast into the beach and leave again with almost no perceptible drop in speed. So there is no surprise that with the advent of foiling the goal posts haven’t moved that far, just a little higher up. However this time we’re not alone, whether you’re a kiter, moth sailor or Ben Ainsle’s America’s Cup team, the new measure of success for any form of wind foiling is can you gybe without touching down.

Summer Solace

Whilst the UK is enjoying a warmer, more stable period than most of our European cousins, we felt it a good time to ask our test team to investigate the windSUP options of 2018. After all, they’re likely to be the most appropriate option for summer adventures to the seaside if the June heatwave continues. And now that we’ve put the test in print, sod’s law is we’ve probably cursed the country for increasingly windy, unsettled conditions.… you can thank us when you see us at the beach!

Firing Range

‘Broad Bench’ in Kimmeridge Bay is one of the south coast of England’s wave sailing gems, but extremely rare to catch, not least because access to it is controlled by the Ministry of Defence! When the elements do combine though, waves rifle down this point with sniper like consistency. With a huge storm firing up the southwest approaches, a green light was given to mount an attack on the ‘Bench’! John Carter assembled a troop of sailors last autumn to launch an assault on the iconic wave and following declassification of the files, now brings us an account of the mildly daring raid!

Mast Matters

Slalom racers are obsessive about every part of their equipment setup, so when it comes to masts, what are the secrets of the pros? We lift the lid on the mysterious world of slalom masts as the pros reveal what lengths they go to in finding, testing and preserving their very best ones!

Late Call

Pe’ahi / Jaws on Maui had a slow start in 2018 for wave sailing, but a late season swell in spring gave a skilled group of sailors a shot at its respected waves. The grateful crew who scored give us a rundown of the session.

Aquaventures

My neighbour’s trampoline is clearly sick of being the nail, not the hammer, and has just vaulted 2 fences and back-flipped into a shed.

Be Like Water

Kuba Gasiewski is a skilled all-round waterman, originally from Poland, but now based in Mauritius, where he is the chief windsurfing instructor at ION CLUB in Le Morne. Kuba rips on any kind of board, from windsurfer to surfboard, kiteboard to SUP, but what he is quickly building a reputation for is challenging the conventions of learning how to windsurf. We’ve featured before his innovative methods for teaching windsurfing to children, but now Kuba has turned his attention to the very basics of windsurfing instruction, which he argues haven’t changed in line with the breakthrough design changes of modern boards and sails. He advocates a more fluid approach to learning and our stance, encouraging us to embrace Bruce Lee’s saying, “Become like water”, arguing that windsurfing is easy if the correct method of instruction is used. Read on as Kuba opens the debate on the methods of teaching windsurfing in the modern age.

Corsica

Only a few hours from mainland France by boat, the Mediterranean island of Corsica lives up to its name as the “Isle of Beauty”. It offers a range of accommodation to suit all tastes and budgets, from public campsites to 5 star hotels and perfect conditions for slalom and freeride windsurfing. This year, PWA slalom sailor Benjamin ‘Babou’ Augé took 3 young sailors, Julien Mangel (15), Antoine Tavan (14) and Esteban de Cruz (13) on a trip to the island to explore its southern shores and offer them some coaching at the same time. Eric de Cruz tells us more.

Wave Sailing The Sticking Points

Fresh from a season of wildly windy wave courses around Atlantic shores, Harty has much advice for all standards of wave sailor on how to overcome the classic stumbling blocks.

The New ‘Go-To' Size?

Another season starts and another crop of the latest and greatest wave boards land on our doorstep to try. There are certainly worse jobs in the world! After what has seemed like an eternity waiting for the winds to return this summer, at last the high pressure broke and low pressures rumbled in from the Atlantic, giving the team and I the chance to put 2019’s 90 litre wave boards through their paces on UK shores.

RYA Safetrx – Improving Safety At Sea

The world-leading app has been designed to improve safety at sea and potentially cut vital minutes off the time taken to pinpoint a casualty’s location.

Jono's Mediterranean Summer

Navigating the coastlines of Spain, France and Italy, Jono Dunnett continues his intrepid round Europe windsurf expedition. In this issue, he updates us on his progress in the Mediterranean under the relentless heat of summer and muses on his travels, global warming and plastic pollution with poignant observations from his voyage.

Pop Tips

Aerial freestyle windsurfing is now at a staggeringly high level, but whether you’re doing a double culo in the PWA or a cheeky chop hop at the weekend, it all starts with a ‘pop’! So how do you ‘unglue’ your board from the water? Finn Mullen speaks to Fanatic, Duotone and Severne for design insights, while John Carter asks the men and women of the PWA for their ‘pop’ tips.

Peter Hart Masterclass - Mixed Up Gybes

The big enemy of gybers is ‘sameness.’ The best continually adapt every element to compliment their kit and the situation in front of them. In part 2 of his gybe mastery series, Harty suggests yet more ways in which you can mix it up.

Jem Hall - Move On Up

ENHANCE YOUR STANCEPeople come on my coaching clinics to nail targets like better gybes, tacking and jumping, wave ride smoothly or even learn to loop, but the main skills they learn on their first few trips are from my oft quoted ‘Trinity’ of skills – planing early, sailing fast and getting upwind. This month I will look at the top tips to improve these areas, with the aim of producing a better stance that is both effective and efficient. A good stance ensures you enjoy your ‘Effective time on the water’ more and are in the best position to improve in a huge range of moves, so let’s get started on enhancing your stance!

Home Score

He may be known for his onshore skills and incredible ability to make the most out of decidedly average conditions, but Philip Koester loves to score down-the-line riding just as much as the rest of us. Fiji, Western Australia and Mauritius may be his usual haunts to get his cross-offfix but his latest score was a lot closer to home, about 20kms in fact! We all know 2018’s summer has been exceptional in temperature, but the unusual weather threw a favourable curveball swell wise to the Canaries and a juicy south swell lit up rare spots to the south of Pozo in Gran Canaria; Philip breaks down the resultant epic sessions.

2018 Winter Wet Suit Guide

With the cold and windy season approaching, insulation is key and if you’re considering some new neoprene then read on as we speak to Marc Burhans, ION’s neoprene product manager, who gives us some expert advice and talks through the new ION range and check out our 2018 winter wetsuit buyer’s guide, where a selection of brands show off their latest product.

Chop Tips

Chop, it’s part of windsurfing whether you like it or not, and how to deal with it is a challenge almost all sailors have to face. Slalom racing at Sotavento is one of the most extreme chop scenarios in windsurfing, John Carter asks the racers who fly over it on the brink of control for their tips on how to keep board and sail in check and Finn Mullen finds out from RRD, Gaastra and Tabou on the design tweaks for chop management.