Newgale Chicken (clip)

Had a sneaky session @ Newgale last week.

• Wind was NNW, but ranged almost zero at times and then F5+ so lots of swimming after kit, attempting to get out.    Should have been on bigger board (was on twin 84 + 4.7).
• Waves were quite tasty at times, but it was super choppy for some reason with a strong current running. 

Usual suspects - Lew, Alf, Ping, Neil in attendance.

Alfie Hart caught this clip of me - suddenly straightening out on a top turn when it was about to close out ......Chicken!!!

Newgale April 2012 from northy on Vimeo.

Float-n-Ride Whooper

A quick vid from Saturday 24th March by Newgale local Neil - out on his tod mid morning, using his light 'wind wave weapons' of choice: Syncro 103 (i think) and Duke 5.9.

Listen to the "Whoop" at about 1'40".....Classic!

Pembrokeshire - Little Maui beyond England !!!

The swell in Pembs has been pumping the last week, and we've been blessed with consecutive days of waves with cross off winds, sunshine galore and blue skies.

What is more surprising is that despite the E (offshore) light winds that have been forecast, at Fresh and Newgale the local wind has been stronger, and more SE / ESE...ideal DTL!

Unfortunately ive been busy / away, but Lewis has been "pigging out" in Fresh on Sun, Mon, and Tues...and Neil got in again in Newgale - despite not a flutter in my garden a few miles in land.   

OK - its been light float n ride stuff....but this IMO can provide THE best rides you can get in the UK beachbreaks, with smoooooth glassy waves.

I got out Saturday 24th @ Newgale....wangled it that depsite being busy with school / family stuff in the morning, we went in the van (which happened to be loaded with kit, haha) so was able to drop into Newgale for a picnic lunch with Mrs Northy,kids and Flora (puppy) in tow - Team Northy in full effect!!!

To be honest i sailed like a muppet in conditions that i found hard - port tack, light non planing, with largish sets rolling in, and dumpy low tide shore break.    Neil, Alfie, Ping, and Lewis also in - with Lewis and Alfie being waaaaay standout.

Neil took a couple of snaps from the car park before he left:

Alfie

 

Me

Back to the Future! (newgale Sun 18th March)

Well - after over a year off the blog, im gonna try and restart!

Why? Mainly because my windsurfing 'mojo' has returned and i feel fully stoked to be back on with "all things windsurfing" (caveat - work and family life allowing).

Newgale
Sunday 18th March saw six of us Pembs locals @ Newgale to be treated with cross off winds, super clean swell, sunshine and DTL perfection.

OK - so it wasn't as big as we would have all liked (typically waist and then maybe shoulder / head high in the bigger sets) but it was a great fun size for super easy riding and getting stuck in.

In fact I'm not sure Ive ever caught so many DTL rides in a single day...great practice for the "weekend warrior".

One thing i need to work on is controlling the top turn better, so that i can directly determine a slide v gouge...twins love to slide!

All in all - a great day; lots of smiling faces, and i spent 4 hrs on the water in the sunshine, so no complaints.

"Quite whackable" was Lewis Merrony's summation - far more eloquent than my long winded ramblings!


GoPro
I am also going to try and use my GoPro more this year (i couldn't really use it any less if i tried) - but on this occasion the battery wasn't charged enough so no good - Duh!

However Newgale regular Neil did catch this ride - ok so the wave looks invisibly small - but i can assure you there were decent, long waves that day.....honest guv!

Take a look:

Neil Windsurfing Newgale from neil alexander phillips on Vimeo.


Thanks!

Best windsurfing pressie ever?

Question:

What does Father Christmas bring a fast approaching 40 yr old windsurfing duffer (except wind, waves and sunshine)?

Answer: 

Something to help him remember one of his best ever sessions!

Newgale November 2009

 (need to find out / credit the original photographer)

As well as Santa, huge thanks goes to Mrs Northy, Lewis, and Ross Grieve Photography.

Full power!

Quick splash-n-dash session in what has to be said are not my favoured conditions - Super windy!

Paul even spotted a couple of water spouts (wtf - mini tornados?!) flying across the bay!

 

Amroth

Heading out:

Alfie looking good on his 4.1  - but became overpowered:

Me on my new 4.7...way too big, but wanted to get it wet:

Ahhh...new sails!

After quite a few years with Ezzys, I decided to try something new - and at last got both the time and the lack of rain (its Wales, right!) to get my new 2011 Simmer Icons (5.3  & 4.7) out of their bag.

Rolled out, first time:

Padded foot, and built in pulley, with elasticated cord for wrapping it up:

Batten end protection,  and Simmer badge on boom cut-out to keep mast sleeve open:

Button on the batten pocket  - presumably to provide some minor protection when rigging:

Radial stitching around the clew

Lots of protection on the top of the mast sleeve

5.3 all rigged up:

Then the 4.7:

Nice!

Double Nice!

 

First impressions (albeit from the garden) are good:

• They seem well made (perhaps not quite as solid as my Ezzys...but feel lighter)
• Some good little features (eg a "cleaner" mast pad rather than all the straps im used to on the SEs, the elasticated bungy, the badge to keep the mast sleeve open, very good protection at top of the mast sleeve)
• The new material in the head of the sail feels incredibly light when you're rolling it up (hope it lasts)  

 
Of course, the real tests will be on the water...hope to get them wet very soon, and report back!

(FYI - rigged on a Ezzy 400 RDM).

Waay off Tuesday!

Whilst some of us were enjoying the delights of London transport, others (skivers!) enjoyed a waaay offshore session at Newgale.

Words from Jim, Pura Vida:

"Got in early to find it was too offshore, but battled it out anyway and the odd ride was amazing, holding up for ages and well worth the effort!  After a break for lunch it went more cross and was sweet, packed in just before dark..."

The scene

Alfie

Dave

Jim

Lewis

 

Me

Local boy done good!

Hats off to Pembs local ripper Lewis for entering the BWA PuraVida Cornwall Wave Classic  held last weekend, driving down to the event @ 5am in the morning, after coming back that evening from his Honeymoon!

Not only was Lewis in the winning Amateur team (with brothers Rob & Duncan Sheldon) but he also had the balls (read: Stupidity) to venture out on 'Big Friday' at the other end of the beach along with the likes of UKs keenest windsurfer Steve Thorpe.  Lewis reckons they were the biggest waves he's ever sailed in the UK - "mast and a quarter plus"!

A quick sample pic of Lewis from later in the comp:

From all reports it was an truly awesome event  - check out Alfie's  Day1 video on Boardseeker, with more footage to come.

PS
Back to local sessions:  
Unfortunately I missed big-n-clean cross-off Broadhaven in the SE, but managed to score a really fun cross-on shore sail @ Amroth (as the wind turned more SW) with Paul.

OK, so we didn't get a lot of wind (5.2m) but did manage to catch some of that giant swell that was hammering Cornwall - providing a much better than expected session in pretty easy-going, but still sizable (head high) waves. 

Oh, and as usual - the Mistral Twinny 84 just keeps on giving  - it really is so good in these kinda conditions...its like having a down-the-line autopilot!

Autumn gold

Well, the wind failed to materialise - but a beautiful weekend none the less

The garden still delivering:

 

And even squeezed in a paddle in the dying swell @ Fresh, still in the summer suit. Dodgy pic from inside the van:

 

Escaping Wind?

This time yesterday the forecast for the weekend looked solid –  very strong W all day Saturday and 25mph N Sunday

Roll fwd 24hrs, and the forecast has died off, with a moderate W moving NW on Sat, and a very weak N for Sunday:

  

FYI

• West is pretty much bang onshore at Newgale, Fresh, BroadHaven

• N is offshore at Pendine, Amroth and Tenby.

I did score an amazing DTL session at Pendine some time back in a NW (cross off) when the waves just went on forever…but it was with a stronger wind and a proper big ground swell running (had to blob about 1 mile down the beach get any wind – blinded by optimism that there had to be something further along the 7 mile stretch of sand)

                             

So, back to this weekend:

• Try a bump-n-jump session @ Pendine on Sat, and hope it doesn’t move N too soon?
• Wait another 24hrs and opt for a dawn session @ Newgale, and hope there’s some wind juice left + small swell for DTL?
• Dont rely on hope – that lawn's gonna take 3hrs to cut!

Decision, Decisions!

PS

Flakey forecast? Must be my new sails on order, haha!

First post - Whetting the Appetite.

Not very many people windsurf around Pembrokeshire (aka Pembs) - hence not much in the way of photographic evidence (who wants to take pics when you can be out on the water, right?!)

However i can assure you, it does "go off" on its day!

Here's a few sample pics to kick things off...and now this blog has started, I will endeavour to try and capture a bit more of the local scene.