Windsurfing General Pre 2013

MARK TWAIN

What's this I hear you say - why is Alan rabbitting on about Mark Twain - was he an early windsurfer? Well actually, not as far as I know. However it was he, who on reading his obituary in the paper, came out with the famous line - news of my death has been greatly exaggerated. And given the near total lack of e-mails from me - some of you may indeed have been scanning the births and deaths section for news of my demise. Indeed of course some of you were living in hope of just this event. However here I am back, large as life and twice as ugly - full of excuses about my new job, 2 skiing holidays, cold snaps and simple bad luck in missing most of the sessions. However my spies have been out and here are a few updates :

First off there was Mother Sunday, something I don't believe in partly because I hate buying cards and partially because I'm not as far as I know a mother. However Pat the Pole Dancer was on the job - and he was windsurfing too, so here's wot he rote -

Just for you write Saint Patricks day turned out not bad Richard and i both sailed for a couple of hours late afternoon on 7.8M sails and had a ball until wind dropped. Good time worth watching the trees at home for.

Also a small crowd sailed yesterday ignoring mothers day. Started big i on 9.8m and gary 8m and William blowing the winter cob webs away 6M formula board. I got blown of the water after 30mins lucky to make it back actually. Then changed to 7m on 104ltr S-type Speed time Yeha. Gary eventually changed down to 6.5M how he held 8M i will never know. Paula sailed really well, Well it was mother’s day 7M and she was going really well.

Later as i was de rigging New Zealand Tim arrived and went out with Raptor Both seemed to be having a ball. I recon newzealand tim will have a GPS score to submit.

As for Gary and i.  I Got 27.9Knotts , And Gary got 25.9Knotts. So too good scores early in the Year Let the games commence!.

Paddy

P.s Alan can you maybe check the Awful grammar and punctuation and Submit this into your write up.

Thanks.

And Paddy, don't worry I did the check the grammar and spelling and it was awful. However since you didn't ask me to correct it, I didn't....

However Pat is getting better and this is his next installment, based on Bank Holiday Monday 5th May :

Since he asked so nicely, I did correct some of the errors.

And I also heard from Bin Laden :

So now you know what happened on the bank holiday at NSC - but where were the real windsurfers? The answer of course was Donegal. Wookie and Raptor held hands all the way up together in Wookie's van and indeed they stayed up for a couple of days - we don't know the sleeping arrangements but I do know they were both knackered when they got back. Apparently Sunday was great on 5-6m from around Downings. But Monday saw a bigger crowd of motley vehicles assembled on the sand dunes at Magheroarty. As well as the love birds, Lorraine Kelly and Big Robert (another celebrity fixture these days) and a whole dose of locals were on the beach. It was a bit grey looking - rather like some of the windsurfers - and then suddenly we all needed our dark sunglasses. Yes Timo Mullen has appeared and with his hair colour - I won't use the term style - he'll have no problems getting rescued if he ever gets lost at sea. The waves were on the slightly smaller side, wind cross on from the left and I counted 12 sails out. I went for 5.5m but by mid days it was too much and I went down to 5. Others were down to 4.5-5m. A few headed for the reef in search of glory. Instead Timo got catapulted and smashed his boom so badly that he had to 'body surf into the harbour and climb up the steps with the remains of my kit'. I'm glad the pros get nailed occasionally as well as the rest of us.

I spent a happy day chasing waves but as usual not catching too many of them. With so many sails out and as the tide came in fewer waves it actually got a bit crowded and there was some muttering in the ranks about 'dropping in' going on. But with Timo, Finn and others out there some serious wave thrashing  going on and some great jumps and loops.

We haven't seen Herne Dog (Mark Herron) for a while. So it was the ultimate irony that while he was stood eating his sandwich with us, a large dog came up and grabbed it and ate it. Mark just stood and starred in shock. It's dog eat Dog at Magheroarty.

And finally to bring you right up to date, I missed most of the good wind this week. I heard stories of good sails as the club and elsewhere but come the weekend it was almost over. However the hairy alarm clock called me early on Saturday and Tyrella was the location. We arrived 10ish - still in shock because we've finally found a worse McDs than the one in Newtownards. Downpatrick were so slow in serving that a row and then a fight broke out in the queue. Still I suppose it brightens the awful experience up a bit - having a floor show like this, maybe it will catch on.

We found a very happy John Bedford on the water, hanging onto 6.5m in the cross on in the nice waves. Raptor too was doing things on, and for all we know in, the water. A huge squall went through and it got really silly. John went for a jump and found himself doing an involuntary back loop. When I asked him if he'd landed it, he said that he did land, but with an awful smack - he thought the boom had gone - but it was only his neck, so nothing important. Of course, as soon as the squall had passed the wind changed direction (cross off) and died. I thought my entire weekend's windsurfing was going to consist of 1 wobble out and then a thorough pounding in the waves with no wind to waterstart.

So bad was it that Wookie, John and Tourettes Todd all went home. Raptor and I stayed and our patience was rewarded by some wind. Raptor came off the water 2 hours later with a big grin, claiming one of the best sails he'd had for ages. Certainly he looked great, cutting up the waves, I also saw him get a huge 1 handed jump with a clean landing. And in a squall he claimed a massive jump which just hung and hung in the air for ages. Certainly I never thought I'd be writing that Raptor is well hung ..... I caught a few waves and had a nice sail, but was desperately underpowered most of the time on 6.3m/100ltr.

VIDEO COACHING

.hmmessage P { margin:0px; padding:0px } body.hmmessage { font-size: 10pt; font-family:Verdana } Hi Alan

DONEGAL UPDATE

2009 PIER 36 GPS CHALLENGE

As you know this year's GPS challenge is under way. Same rules as last time ie handicapped and open, £15 to enter and you've got until October when we all have far too much to drink at Pier 36 - who are generously sponsoring this again. Prizes aren't sorted yet, but will of course be wonderful. And the club has 2 GPS units (thanks for Pier 36) which members can book out at any time.

One witness required at the club, 2 (members) if you're sailing somewhere else. And 4 year old son's don't count Trevor.

The current leader is Ming the Merciless. We can't let the Titanium man win again - so sign up and get speeding!

The table is on the NSC website, but the current positions are :