Feeling Alive is my latest video from Maui, Hawaii. I spent there almost 2 months, to compete in the PWA Aloha Classic and train in Ho’okipa. I really wanted to push my level in waveriding and this time I also enjoyed some really good vibes with all my friends and my travel buddy Daiki Itoh.
Hope you enjoy it! Big thanks to West Coast Visuals for putting together all the clips, I love the edit!
Reigning UK Slalom Champion James Dinsmore joins the Point-7 UK Black Team.
Point 7 UK said: It is with great pleasure that we welcome James to the team. As reigning UK Slalom Champion his speed and consistency is something that no one can argue, and we hope to see that continue domestically and internationally on his new AC-ONE sails! We look forward to supporting him into the 2017 season on both the BSA and PWA circuits, and we are excited to have him as part of the UK Black Team – a team renowned for its un-rivalled support from the top.
Here’s what the main man Andrea Cucchi had to say; “I’ve raced against James for the first time at some of the PWA events. This was the first time we met with his family as well. He then joined our winter training in the Canaries, and always had wished for charm, passion and speed, to use our Black Sails. For 2017 he has decided to do so, and we at Point-7 are very honoured that he will be part of the Black Team, and he will now join us at our Lanzarote Pro Slalom training the next month. I will be more than delighted to support James in the tuning of his AC-One, and in combination with his talent, we all wish him a great racing season.”
Polish young gun Adam Warchol shows his incredible talent in surfing, windsurfing and skating – he already impressed us at the PWA Pozo world cup and certainly looks to be a name to watch out for.
Consider the subtleness of the sea; how its most dreaded creatures glide under water, unapparent for the most part, and treacherously hidden beneath the loveliest tints of azure. Consider also the devilish brilliance and beauty of many of its most remorseless tribes, as the dainty embellished shape of many species of sharks. Consider, once more, the universal cannibalism of the sea; all whose creatures prey upon each other, carrying on eternal war since the world began.
Words FINN MULLEN, CHARLES ‘CHARLIBOY’ VANDEMEULEBROUCKE //
Photos TIM MCKENNA, BEN THOUARD, CHARLES ‘CHARLIBOY’ VANDEMEULEBROUCKE
Consider all this; and then turn to the green, gentle, and most docile earth; consider them both, the sea and the land; and do you not find a strange analogy to something in yourself? For as this appalling ocean surrounds the verdant land, so in the soul of man there lies one insular Tahiti, full of peace and joy, but encompassed by all the horrors of the half-known life. God keep thee! Push not off from that isle, thou canst never return!” – Herman Melville, Moby Dick. American author Herman Melville saw Tahiti as paradise, literally and metaphorically, but what is it like to actually live and windsurf there. Charles ‘Charliboy’ Vandemeulebroucke is a French physiotherapist/chiropractor and windsurfer that moved to Tahiti’s famous break of Teahupo’o four years ago. He tells us his reflective tale of life at his adopted home.
“I wish I was not working today, I would even say that today I wish I wasn’t living in Teahupo’o. Living in ‘paradise’ isn’t all play and no work; it just makes those working days harder! It’s 7am, on my way to the office …one of those days you just don’t want to go, as like most of the days here, heaven is just a mile away. The pristine waves are thundering on the reef, I can hear them and I can see them behind every tree. Crystal clear blue water with a wash of white on the reef behind. I wish I didn’t have 12 patients this morning and the same in the afternoon. I wish time would fast forward to my lunch break; I would drive back home and prepare to battle the waves like a gladiator before his fight.
Every 20 minutes I’m tracking and checking the wind and waves on my phone, trying to predict the weather and figure out the best options to sail. I wish my heart could calm down. I wish I could sail Teahupo’o today but I know I have to wait for the conditions to be right. Swell too west and you’ll get swallowed by the west bowl. Wind too light and you’ll be stuck in the impact zone. I wish I could sail Teahupo’o and survive and my brand new gear survive it too!
I wish I could have a clear sunny sky and trade winds to go with that perfect swell. Get back home, get in the speedboat to take me out and have the spot to myself. I wish I could rig my one and only Goya Fringe 5.0 and my Quatro Quad, my best tools to knife into the glassy bowls. I wish I could have the best session of my windsurfing life. And hopefully I’ll get pics from Master photographer Tim McKenna to remember it by. And if things go well I wish I could get back to work on time without bloody cuts. I wish I wasn’t dreaming. I wish I was living a perfect day. I wish I was today!”
“ Living in ‘paradise’ isn’t all play and no work; it just makes those working days harder! ” CHARLES ‘CHARLIBOY’ VANDEMEULEBROUCKE
Markus Marsand drops a video showing some super good style in the ‘real world waves’ of the Baltic sea on the north coast of Germany, telling us – “The weeks around the turn of the year provided some good Wavesessions in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. Here is some footage of two days near Rostock.
On the water: Markus Marsand (Sailloft, Flikka), Flohrian Behringer (Neilpryde, Flikka)
Behind the camera: Lydia, thank you for that!”
Matteo Romeo I-493 – “Here my new video from Lago Grande in Tatajuba not so far from Jericoacoara, a cool spot perfect for training in freestyle!
The wind was always strong for 4.0 or 4.4 meters with a super flat side or chop in the middle
I wanna thanks my friend and travelling companion Mattia Fabrizi and also Dario Troiani for filming
European champion 2016 and a long, winning history in Raceboard championships qualify the Loftsails Raceboardblade beyond question. Watch how the 9.5, 8.5 and 9.5 LW are the pet project of designer and founder Monty Spindler More at: www.loftsails.com/windsurfing/…
Modern life is all about the reboot, version 2.0. From movies to cars to design classics, icons are being brought back to life with a bang. Neil Pryde have a rich legacy of windsurfing design so when we heard they were relaunching the legendary V8 (last seen in 2009!), we needed to know more and who better than designer Robert Stroj to give us the lowdown!
WS: What were the goals of the new V8 design? RS: The basic goal and idea behind the V8 was to create a sail which allows you to use a bit smaller sail size, that you don’t need to go with a huge sail like in racing sails and also like with the Hornet. And that you can get not only super early planing but also as good acceleration as possible. So when you are almost planing or just planing and you get a little gust, the V8 really always has this power on the front hand and pulls you forward.
WS: How much influence came from your Racing sails? RS: I would say a lot of the design came from the race sail, for example, the way we treated our leech and the shape in the middle of the sail. So you can see there is a very very smooth release through the middle without the head being too open.
WS: Can you explain in a bit more detail what you mean by release? RS: OK, so basically you have two ways to control the leech. In this case release means how the sail opens. One way is that you reduce a lot of luff curve in the front and the sail actually opens through that. Or the other way is that you do it with the seam shaping. So you basically open the sail through negative shaping. Negative Shaping means the leech does not build a belly, it literally is cut a bit back behind the top and the bottom. And this is where the things are going with the racing sails, how the development was influenced and where it has headed to in the last couple of years.
The V8’s new clew.
WS: So is the V8 more of an alternative to the Hornet than to the racing sails for most customers? RS: Yes. Absolutely it would be an alternative to the Hornet. The difference is mainly the following: in the same wind, you would probably take 1 square metre less then you would take if you’d go with a racing sail or the Hornet. The performance of the V8, with one batten extra and all tube battens except the foot batten, is really a remarkable performance upgrade compared to the Hornet. The Hornet will basically get a good low end but will top out when you get into gusts and so on, but the V8 can really hold…better, easier control, less backhand power in strong winds and more top speed.
WS: Top speed is achieved by the more open top or…? RS: Correct, but not actually the top, it is more the leech part from the middle to the top. That’s what we call a good release. It gives you acceleration instead of lifting you up. When the gust comes, you can actually lock the sail, sit down and the sail gets going. But the really important thing on the V8 is what you can see very clearly if you look at the profile. There is this really really good forward pull in the sail and that’s why the profile in the front, just behind the sleeve, starts very deep and then we made sure that in the back the sail is actually pretty flat, like you can see the batten above the boom is very flat, almost ‘S-ing’ (showing an S-Shape), it’s immediately releasing, so that you really avoid that backhand pressure overload.
WS: Is this also due to the tube battens, as the Hornet had just one or two tube battens? RS: No, the V8 has tube battens everywhere, except in the foot where the Hornet only had tubes in the middle. In the foot, it is not a tube batten, simply for the reason of durability. Because that’s the one which hits the board and stuff. But all the rest are tube battens. The top three battens are small diameter pure tubes. So they are tubes with the same diameter all the way forward and this keeps the sail really light also in the head because you don’t have any heavy G10 battens.
WS: You have a special clew construction, can you tell us more. RS: Yes, we reduced the cut out on the compact clew. Due to the cambers, to put the boom on you just need to release some downhaul and then the sail shortens and you can put the boom on and off. And what is new now, which also comes from the racing sails, is the dual boom length clew. Before, on the racing sails we had two grommets, one on top of the other or on the free ride sails just one. But we learned, that you could actually get a lot of tuning range by using this dual boom length. That means the two eyelets are not just one above another, but also one in front of the other. That’s also why you see two different boom lengths printed on the sail, with 5-7 cm difference. The lower one gives you better acceleration and control. And the upper one is clearly closing the leech, which gives you upwind and low-end performance. I suggest everybody to try these different settings, because it is a very noticeable difference and worth tuning around a bit with these options.
WS: If you compare this V8 to the former V8, what is the difference? RS: Our goal really was to make sure that we didn’t sacrifice this pool of low-end power, which the V8 was really known for. Main thing to expect as a difference is the huge wind range, the control and the top end the new V8 is equipped with. And this is the benefit of learning from the development in past years, from all the improvements in racing sails – this leech that releases and that does not hold on you. So the old V8 would definitely feel more of a handful size for size in the same wind.
New Zealand summers have something special to offer (..especially if you are freezing your plums off watching this in the northern hemisphere!).
No matter where you go, the water surrounds you with a variety of ways to enjoy it. Short compilation of some water sports Laurence Carey does over two weeks.
Is there anything better than sharing a good windsurfing day with friends ?
Bolonia / Tarifa, waves, amazing scenery, beautiful colors, good vibes on the water. Nice cllip from Fred Bonnef
I invented this move when I was 14 years old, full of the fearless stupidity of youth. After a series of painful crashes—landing upside down and on top of the gear—I stopped going for no-hand pushloops. Recently, I forced myself through the fear. Windsurfing is full of moves that are scary: forward loops, shove-its, double forwards, no-hand pushloops. For some of these moves, I conquered the fear by isolating the main movement of the manoeuvre and practicing it over and over. Forwards can be learned by catapulting yourself while out of the footstraps on a light wind day. And you can learn shove-its in a similar way by balancing on your board and falling forward onto the sail until that motion feels natural. Unfortunately, with the no-hand push-loop, the scary part is inimitable. So other mental tricks are needed.
Words Graham Ezzy //
Photos John Carter
Originally published within the September ’16 edition.
Requirements:
When learning any new move, you should be neither over nor underpowered. I think the easiest sail sizes for learning new moves are the ones between 4.2 and 5.0. The smaller the sail, the faster it wants to rotate; and the bigger, the slower. Control is key.
Setup:
Be smart with the ramp that you pick. Don’t fly so high that you’re scared. But don’t go too low or you will risk not having enough room to rotate. Hunting for that right ramp – a wave on the smaller side of medium sized – gives your brain something to think about other than how scared you are. Use this trick anytime you’re scared; for example, if you’re scared of the waves, just focus on doing a good bottom turn.
Photos 1-3:
Hit the ramp heading as upwind as possible without losing speed. By steering into the wind on take off, not only have you completed the first 20% of the rotation, but you also better position yourself to rotate without hands.
Soon after launching into the air, take your front hand off the boom and then the back hand. Twist your torso upwind and downward, leading the rotation with your front shoulder. Think about trying to reach back and touch the water with your front hand. The aerodynamics take over, and the whole kit will spin automatically once the leading edge of the sail (the mast) goes through the eye of the wind. The rotation will start quickly once your throw your body, so be ready.
Don’t:
Don’t hit the ramp going downwind, on a broad reach, or any direction other than into the wind. Taking off into the wind makes it almost impossible to under rotate, which is the worst kind of crash for a no-hand pushloop. Don’t throw your head back if you don’t feel comfortable. Pushloop rotations don’t require the head throw—but it does add style points.
Photos 4-5:
Keep your hands off the boom as long as is comfortable. If you feel out of control, get your hands back on the boom as fast as possible. I try to get both my hands back on the boom at the same time, but often the front hand finds the boom first. The order does not matter. If your hands miss the boom, don’t panic; just try again. Keep your body leaning back, into the direction of rotation.
Don’t:
Don’t curl forward with your torso when you try to grab the boom; this will stall the rotation.
Photos 6-7:
Once your hands are back on the boom, push with your back hand against the sail to sheet-out and backwind the sail, which will throw you and the rig upright. Keep your body weight forward and over the sail.
Don’t:
Don’t lean back or you risk over-rotating.
Photo 8
Once upright, pull the boom towards your body and sheet-in to finish the rotation and regain control of the sail. Look down to spot your landing, and extend your back leg to softly land on the tail of the board.
Still scared?
Go for the one-handed pushloop instead of the no-handed. The technique is exactly the same except only the front hand comes off the boom. You can use your fear of no-hand pushloops to conquer the one-handed ones, which, in comparison, are much less scary.
A nice cold windsurfing morning with friends .. super gusty off-shore wind from 15 to 20 kts
equipment rrd firemove 122 and 140 with goya nexus 6.9 2016.
