DONEGAL WAVES - AUGUST 2009
NI WINDSURFING E-NEWSLETTER
CONTENTS
Donegal Waves - Vote Early, Vote Often
Recent Outings
Pier 36 GPS Challenge
The Usual Stuff at the End
DECISION TIME NOW - DONEGAL WAVE CLINIC OCTOBER - CAST YOUR VOTE
DONEGAL WAVES - VOTE EARLY, VOTE OFTEN
Now how often you get to vote on something to do with windsurfing? Well changed times in NI and now's your chance.
For the past 3 years we've been running a week long wave clinic in Donegal in October. Jim Collis, top notch coach and frequent contributor to various magazines, has been our main man, our professional coach. However Jim is busy branching out in various directions and this year was uncertain if he could give us a full week. We were so keen on him that we advertised it anyway and indeed some of you have signed up.
Only now has Jim been able to confirm - and he can only do 2 days. He's explained and we fully understand, but it does leave us a problem. The original plan was to run the course 12th - 17th October. We now know we can only have Jim for 2 days Wed/Thurs 14th and 15th. So what do we do? Well this is where the voting bit comes in. There are 3 options :
- You only book and pay for 2 days tuition and 2 nights hotel. This I know will suit some of you with little free time to take off work
- You book and pay for 2 days tuition and most of the week at the hotel. Again I know some of you with less flexible jobs who will just want to book and go. There should be enough of us that this will be viable and we can windsurf as a group - we just won't have the Jimbo tuition all the time. Let me make it quite clear we will still have the abuse, banter and mickey taking. - we don't need an instructor for this!
- You only book and pay for 2 days tuition and 2 nights at the hotel. But you hang loose and come up before and/or after the official days based on a forecast. Note with this option, you can't guarantee a room in the Loch Altan on the other days
- Option 4 - you decide not to bother at all (and yes, I know my maths is bad)
Approximate costs will be £80 for tuition (2 full days) and the hotel is likely to be E40 per night B+B (to be confirmed).
So we need to know what you want to do. I'm not going to ask you to commit right now, but if we don't get enough people coming then the whole thing is off.
So whatever you do - reply to this e-mail and tell me which option is likely to suit you. If you don't bother, you risk there being no wave course for you to join later.
Even if you don't want to go, a reply would be helpful. And as soon as possible as there's much to organise if this course is going to happen.
So just e-mail me with Option 1, 2,3 or 4.
If we get enough people to pay for Jim, then it's on and I'll be back looking for money PDQ.
We'll let you know how it turns out when we see the response.
RECENT OUTINGS
No - not a catalogue of your favourite local windsurfers who's just announced their gender preferences (although Guy and Harry have been spotted recently, but not together). Instead, but just as exciting, a brief round up of the local action recently - I mean windsurfing action, not Andy's love life.
First off a big thanks to all who came down and supported the Try Day on 1st August. Despite very mixed wind we put 27 bodies on and in the water and many are now in the process of taking further lessons and also joining the club. Paddy was the main man to made it all happen, but on the day Andy and Wookie took charge on the water and Bin Laden cooked up a great fry on the balcony afterwards. We also made around £300 for the club and for Marie Cure in memory of our good friend Ronnie Miller. We were pleasantly surprised that seemingly strong wind and the threat of rain did not put off our hardy try recruits. Indeed there was a welcome high proportion of women on the water - I mean real women as different from some of the 'big girls' we see windsurfing sometimes. And just as the flow of visitors eased, the wind picked up and we all had a nice hour or two on the water on 6-7m sails before our favourite international terrorist burnt his buns for us. All in all a very good day!
Now talking of the man from the hills of Pakistan, I got this from our Hairy Correspondent -
Just back from Donegal where we had an interesting time with Robbie BL and 8 x 18 year old girls. Shame on your Mr Wookie and you with a fur-ball in the oven (Alan).
It gets worse. There was also a rescue, a bent clothes line and an offer of a bed and then a couch and then finally a floor to sleep on.
Cheers
Wookie
Now this begs a number of questions :
- Who rescued whom? My money is on the 8 18 year old girls rescuing Robbie
- Who had the offer of the bed?
- And who finally got the bed when poor old Wookie had to sleep on the floor (although to be fair he's used to that, or sleeping in his basket)
Answers on a postcard to Robbie Bin Laden C/O a cave in Pakistan.
Last weekend we got some wind and a number of us headed down to NSC only to find it bunged with hungover sailors. I know that's not unusual, but there were loads of them and many in tents on the rigging area. It turned out that the Irish Dingy Racing Association event was being held there and it was so crowded that some of our windsurfers chose to slum it and sail with the cheapskates from the car park. Since Mr Tourettes was one of those so displaced you can imagine that the air was fairly blue. A good crowd were on the water including Russell who was as usual flying around on an impossibly small sail. Not realising what a weed Russell is, Ali took this as a guide and went out on a 6 and promptly sank. Real men rigged 7.5 or so and had a great sail. Guy, Sarah, Shipman, Gary, Paula and myself all enjoyed good sun and nice wind.
This week also saw wind and a very motley crew went wave hunting in the north. Ali, Wookie, Lorraine and Mr Yeates found what they were looking for at Benone. Now many of you will not be familiar with this so here is the official tourist description :
Benone beach, located on the north coast forms part of one of Ireland’s longest beaches with 11 kilometres of golden sands stretching from the mouth of Lough Foyle and Magilligan Point in the west to Downhill in the east. A backdrop of majestic cliffs overlooks the beach and out to the Atlantic with panoramic views to Inishowen and along the north coast.
Our team certainly found what they were looking for - amusement, while Mr Wookie found the 11 kilometres of golden sand and promptly drove his van up the axles in it! After the hoots of derision had died down Mr Yeates pretended to be a farmer and pull the Wookie out, not by hand but with the aid of his trusty Toyota. Those of you with long memories will know this van has a sordid history here - not unnaturally since it used to belong to Andy. And it was the same Andy who stuck it in up the axels at Achill while being deafened by the roars of 'it'll sink Andy' from all of us. Once the Wookie had been extracted and after he'd reduced Ali to a bloody pulp (Ali had assured him that the sand would take the van), they found a fabulous wave beach. On a mixture of 4.5-5m sails they had really good half mast waves. The general opinion was that while Magheroarty is the real deal, this was a much better place to learn and improve on waves without the constant threat of performing the rinse cycle (think washing machine). All had a great down the line day, especially Lorraine. Mind you, the rest of us are still struggling with the concept of Mr Yeates pulling Mr Wookie...
Meanwhile at NSC it was a lovely 7.5m day. Paula, Gary, Sarah, Phil and myself all sailed with various degrees of success. I found myself racing with Hern Dog who was slumming it from the car park. Does that make him a Hern Dog Millionaire? I doubt it. Paula really looks like a windsurfer these days, with a really good stance and gives the impression that she's really motoring. However she was fed up to see her GPS only recording 19 knots and so asked me to wear both it and a club GPS as she was convinced hers was reading low. I had great fun blasting and recorded 26.1 on both. Hardly setting the scoreboard alight (but nearly a PB for me), but she was gutted. When I first arrived I saw Harry Doorknob going out with a ridiculously small 5.2m sail - 'he'll sink' I predicted and Harry duly sank. To be fair he did get going later on the gusts. .
Shipman was supposed to join us but then -
Walked out the front door and it was blowing 25+ and 'someone else' was using My Lough to windsurf and so I had to go out and sort him out.
Love and kisses (and hyperdermics)
Tony
For those of you who don't know, Shipman lives on Belfast Lough and often jumps over his wall with a board. Sadly he usually only jumps at high tide otherwise the fall might kill him. So now we know that he regards all of Belfast Lough as his personal property. And given his reputation with needles (we are not talking knitting here), you might want to think twice about sailing on the Lough. Come to think of it I hope the Tall Ships fleet manages to get past without getting pricked.
And finally today the wind was due to drop so the Hairy Alarm clock rang at 8pm (on a Sunday!) and we were on the water by 10. In fact New Zealand Tim was already well into his runs as we drove up to the club - I mean he was blasting, not suffering the ill effects of last night's curry. 7m and he was soon doing 32 knots. Pity he hasn't entered the Pier 36 Challenge yet - he could give Ming the runs too. Wookie and I had a good sail on 7.5m before the wind died at lunch time as the forecasts said it would. And so we were feeling rather smug when David Brown and David Mijnders rocked up as were leaving - because we knew the forecasters couldn't have got it wrong and they'd missed the wind. So of course the wind came back up, they had a great sail and we missed it.
Don't you just love weather forecasters....
PIER 36 GPS CHALLENGE
There's been a lot of huffing and puffing but little to disturb the leaderboard recently. People like Wookie and Pat who have tried to buy their speed with a new board have done well, but still no biscuit.
Ming the Merciless has remained out in the lead. But now he's overtaken himself by setting a very hard to beat 34 knots! That's just a spit under 40 miles per hour. Even the man with the titanium spherical objects was scared. He said he doesn't ever want to go faster. However if NZ Tim or Mr Wookie would stop being mean and pay their £15 and enter - and then over take him, I think you'll find he'll go for it.
So come on guys, this is your chance to get him to kill himself....
THE USUAL STUFF AT THE END
This e-newsletter is aimed at anyone with any interest in windsurfing. Mostly it's about what goes on at Newtownards Sailing Club but it covers anything vaguely related to windsurfing in NI.
We welcome comments and of course information on what's happening, who's made a total fool of themselves and anything else where we can distort the truth in the name of a good story and a good laugh. So if you've got a story, let us know!
If you want to get into windsurfing, NSC provides excellent facilities, top class beginner's kit, RYA qualified instructors and particularly good venue. For details see www.newtownardssailingclub.co.uk