Santa Maria RRD worship and Jinxed Rig

14/09/2010

Finally some wind arrived, some friends wanted to go to Santa Maria beach for sunbathing, so I thought I would give it another try as John had been singing it’s praises for so long I thought 3^rd time lucky!

I rigged the 6m Naish Amp and 110L RRD FSW and found I was nicely powered up so changed to the 91L board.  I couldn’t believe it, this was some of the best sailing I had here getting some really high jumps on the ramps and there was only one other person sailing there. 

Obviously the effect of the new 91Litre RRD Freestyle waveboard Ltd Edition had an effect on the viewing public on the beach and I put my kit down and managed to get a photos of some admirers – see below.

I am not sure quite whether the kit was jinxed after this but with the next events due to happen started to evaluate if the pleasure/pain balance was restored??

I headed out sailing on a port tack out to sea and under 1km out I heard a crack and landed backwards in the water, further investigation showed me that my new Neil pryde X6 Boom mast clamp alloy section had broken by what look like fatigue facture.  I still had one good side to the boom so tried to sail back with that but then heard the second crack with the read carbon section breaking now.  Considering my options I opted for swimming back holding nose of board with the rig trailing.  I thought this would be the best option as the current and wind was luckily with me and I would have risked losing parts of the boom is I tried to derig. 

Making it to shore I took the following photos.  I generally like the rigidness of the NP boom in comparison to my previous my boom but think that maybe because there is no give in it that this would have cause the facture with all the jumps I have been attempting recently.  However I don’t I think this is a part of windsurfing and if it is not meant to be used so rigorously it is not fit for purpose.  Luckily the boom was new and under guarantee.

15/09/2010

New Golden Beach, rigged 5.3m + 91L in flukey conditions, later on between 3pm -6m  the lulls filled in and had a great sailing session with Chris from Whiltshire.

16/09/2010

Light wind session down at New Golden, gave some friend’s an introduction to windsurfing for an hour or 2.

No Wind - Let's go on a Horse Trek! and Maybe try Yoga???????

9/08/2010

With not much wind I decided to have a look at other activities to do on the Island so went on a Horse Trek at Thannis near to Naousa , Ambelas which was a very nice Trek for 1 ½ hours with a horse called Easer.

Here’s the link:  http://www.parosriding.com/

12/08/2010

Still not much wind, went to New golden beach and rigged 9.4m, this was probably one of the most unpleasant sails yet, as the wind was very light and would not keep the board planning easily at all.

13/08/2010

Still no wind.  After meeting someone a yoga teacher from Maui at Tao’s, a  Thai restaurant /car in Ambelas  a few days ago. She talked me into attending a yoga class as she said it would help reduce strain injuries (with which I had previously had problems) and that all the top surfers/windsurfers in Maui do it.  After the persuasion I attended the class and was pleasantly surprised how much stretching is done and how relaxing it felt at the end and would recommend it to anyone.

Here’s the link  www.lapierra.com

Kite Surf Rescue - Mat said I'll burn in Windsurf hell :)

8/09/2010

Headed to Poundta for some lightwind practise 4m/128L. Whilst out there were many Kite surfer trying to make the most of the light winds.  The wind totally dropped and a few of their Kites dropped in the water with no possibility of trying to get them flying again.  I offered my help to one of them (Hanus from Italy) the rescue involved flip the kite over so it no longer caught what wind there was them both swimming towards each other whilst he wound up his lines.  Once wound up it was possible for him to hold the rear foot strap and get dragged to shore.  As there was no wind I felt we were both going down wind with some current as well so we abandoned and the rescue Jet ski did the rest of the work.

Later on I rigged the 9.4m and was powered up nicely.

The Travellers Part

7/09/2010

We headed down to new golden beach, there was no wind to bother with there.  Mat had previously enquired about purchasing a used hire board from the centre there and due to it being the end of the season everything has to go to make way for the new kit.  After some umming and arring he decided to go for a 96L RRD FSW LTD for the great price of 600 Euros which seemed a bargain really compared to the UK prices.

Due to Mat having to get back to some Design work he left on the Hispeed ferry to Athens that evening – so after 2 ½ months of travelling it was time to par company whilst I stayed in hope of more wind and Mat headed back via the Netherlands for some cold water sailing.   Bon Voyage!