SHOULDERING THE BLAME - LACK OF RECENT NEWSLETTERS
CONTENTS
Shouldering the Blame
Gems from Trevor
Pier 36 GPS Challenge - The Results
Donegal - Not Much of a Result
The Usual Stuff at the End
PUT 27th/28th MARCH IN YOUR DIARY - IRISH SLALOM COMES TO NSC
SHOULDERING THE BLAME - LACK OF RECENT NEWSLETTERS
It's like buses really. You don't get a good windsurfing shoulder injury for years and then two come along at once. You'll have read the exciting tale of Shipman totally dislocating his in Egypt, but the much less dramatic victim was me a couple of weeks later. While he did the full works and had the Sinai consultants sucking air through their teeth like motor mechanics, I just crashed a modest gybe at Ballyturd. To be honest I was more concerned with the black eye than the fact that my arm had been bent back a bit. I could see various so called windsurfing friends all claiming they'd been the proud one to give me the black eye. It was only when I got home and found that cleaning my teeth was a problem did I realise I'd done more damage.
Anyway, the result has been 3 months off the water, a nice blonde physio and some of the most foul smelling breath you'll ever come across. But I'll be back soon ....
This has meant though a serious lack of windsurfing newsletters because reports as to what's been happening haven't been reaching me. All I know is that I missed the windiest autumn for some time. A few literary gems have come in, so here are a few plastic imitation pearls of wisdom from the troops.
First off you've heard of Fanta Pants, well now we've got Santa Pants. Pat the Pole-botherer gave us this report :
Hi Alan
It was cold and getting down to the club was a mental struggle as a warm house has much appeal at 7 degrees C. Well I promised to meet Richard (man in tights) Bowman. We had new gear to test and that is what we were going to do.
I arrived at the club at 12:30pm to find Paula and Ali Tourettes rigging up. It was blowing 18-25 MPH. Santa had come early for Ali as he was fully kitted up with a new Ezzy sail and RRD board NICE!.. I Decided to rig my 7m with my RRd 112Xfire probably a bit much under the circumstances. Due to a very high rising tide and punishing chop to boot.
After a few hairy runs i came in to see if Man in Tights had arrived. He had and was rigging with Wookie and Robbie. Now the obvious chat was Wookie’s new addition to the Wookie clan. And there where many congrats passed on and also a few “who is looking after the new born Chloe”. Paternity Leave looks like a 3 week windsurfing fest for a certain club member. Now the santa pants part. Well Robbie's trouser selection is the answer. He approached the rigging area in the Brightest Reddest Cords you have ever seen. To many a comment about “what will santa do without his trousers” and “that he was too early as Santa wasn’t due to come to the club for the kids party until later”. Hilarious I nearly wet myself. Shame i needed some extra heat.
The strangest thing was that the real Santa (not the hot slacks terrorist one) was actually due to come and molest the children at the club that day.
Paddy also tells me that we can officially announce that NSC will be hosting the first Irish Shalom Series Event in March on 27th, 28th. So stick that in your diary and hold tight for more news. There is even a rumour of some vintage entertainment being laid on. You can find a little more detail on http://www.irishslalom.ie/ .
From this you'll have gathered that the Wookie household has been expanded by the arrival of the delightful Chloe - or the 2025 female windsurfing world champion as Wookie prefers to describe her. In fact she's already been photographed with a windsurf board - and indeed a better stance (and nicer smile) than her dad. Now that's he's a dad, Wookie has promised to get a pipe and slippers and take things easy. However he's never been a man of his word.
He did contribute the following highly detailed description of how his paternity leave is going :
Had an awesome day at Kearney on Tue, really nice waves for riding - 4.5 and 74 L.
For Wookie that's the equivalent of a full thesis - remember his normal conversation is a grunt.
Further correspondence came in from Raptor and the wee bollox has done annoyingly well - again!
HiAlan. Got 3rd place overall for 2009!! Here’s a copy of a short article on how I got on over the weekend.
I am just back from the final wave sailing event of the IWA (Irish Windsurfing Association) in Belmullet Co. Mayo. Competition started on Saturday morning with extreme conditions. Winds where in excess of 60 mph and everyone was holding on for dear life! I fought my way through to the final and managed to get 4th place overall for day one. Day two saw the sun shining on the crests of perfect waves and wind. Everyone was sailing to a very high level and pushing for a win. I managed to once again make it to the final and score a 4th place. With the conditions so good everyone took the vote (even though we were all knackered at this point) that round three should be run on the Sunday as the forecast was not good for Monday. Round three started and I knew that I would really have to push to make a top three position so I tried my hardest and managed to take home third place.
Overall Results: 2009
- Finn Mullen (Lurgan)
- Oisin Van Gelderen (Dublin)
- Alex Dugan (Portavogie, Co Down)
Alex
GEMS FROM TREVOR
You all know that gentleman of leisure and collector of antique (but excellently looked after) windsurfing equipment - Trevor Pollen. Trevor's stuff may have been sailed by Queen Victoria, but it's always in excellent condition - unlike some of his clothes (think Arthur Daily coat).
So the following must be great value and are looking for a home :
PIER 36 GPS CHALLENGE - THE RESULTS
A big thanks to the crowd who came down to Pier 36 for the end of term dinner and piss up. It was yet another great night very well organised by Pat. Once again I provided some vitriolic 'entertainment' and the ritual humiliation of various windsurfers seemed to go down as well as Pat's gybes.
The official excuse for the evening was of course the handing out of prizes for the Pier 36 GPS challenge.
I'm sorry to have to tell you that once again Ming the Merciless won the open challenge with an excellent 34 knots - that's a spit off 40 mph in old money!
He was pushed all the way by Tim Moore with 32.8 and Pat himself with 32.3.
We also gave out a special prize to Trevor - bang on the head - Gabbie who reached an amazing speed of 37.4 knots - but unfortunately outside the official rules of the competition. He really tried to get 2 club member witnesses amidst the desert sands of Dahab, but even signed affidavits from the hire centre wouldn't allow us to bend the rules.
And it's all going to run again for next year. Mad Pat has the details and you'll be hearing more about it soon.
DONEGAL WAVE CLINIC - NOT MUCH OF A RESULT
Once more we had the duracell bunny Jim Collis giving an excellent 4 day wave clinc in Donegal. We had a big turnout of people, lots of sun and great craic - but very little wind. Not that this stopped Jim who was relentless in putting us through our paces.
With so little wind, a lot of time was spent surfing. Some people turned out to be better than others .....
As usual with this type of thing, we all improved in so many ways, but surely 2010 is the year when we'll actually get some serious wind.
On the plus side, the soup was excellent and once more many thanks to Alan Soup Dragon Yeates for service above and beyond the call of duty.
Nice soup, shame about the wind.
