Archive for October, 2009

Tushingham/Starboard Dealer Conference

Saturday, October 10th, 2009

Wednesday saw myself and Linz drive down to Devon for the Tushingham/Starboard annual Dealer Conference.

This was our first visit to their new warehouse and it was stuffed full of new 09 boards and sails.

Starboard are to make a few changes to the range next year but most will be small improvements, in essence all remains very similar.

The big changes are the disappearance of the Kombat – a “love it or hate it” kind of board which has been replaced by the all new Kode which is everything the Kombat was and wasn’t, and some. I’ve now had a chance to sail both the 94 and the 86 and love them. They will definitely become part of my permanent quiver over the 08/09 season and both are available for demo.

There were small tweaks to the Futura and Isonics but no majour changes and we now have 09 Futura available to buy and demo. See Shop.
Tushingham, like Starboard there are very few changes to the Tushingham sail range and those changes are small tweaks rather than anything dramatic. It’s hard to better what is already an awesome product both in performance and value for money and the only real notable changes to there range are the Storm. Still in essence the same sails the look and shape has evolved. The bigger sizes giving earlier acceleration in the lighter winds an emphases on making the sail more manoeuvre orientated with the smaller sizes maintaining there awesome high wind freeride potential.

Following the Starboard/Tushingham brain washing Linz and I along with the other retailers went for a paddle on their new SUP’s up the river Avon followed by some food and beer at the local pub in Bantham. If anyone is interested in the new SUP board phenomenon we now have five demo boards and are planning a trip along the Thames.

Manic Monkeys Rock at Poole

Wednesday, October 7th, 2009

The final Team 15 event of the year for the South Region took place at Sandbanks, Poole on Sep 12th. This coincided with the Animal Windfest weekend and so the four Manic Monkeys competing had Manic Monkeys holding Bray Lake flatthe oppportunity to rub shoulders with some big names in the windsurfing world. Joining the Monkeys were competetitors from seven other teams from the region in what turned out to be a record fleet of 53 boards. The T15′s sailed on the harbour side on a lovely sunny day with a gentle NE wind that held out for all the four races of the day – also perfect weather for the Manic Monkeys supporters gathered under the Monkey flag on shore!

Harry Tanner and Alexei Murphy competed in the 3.5m class in a fleet of 20 sailors. Alexei started the day badly, going the wrong side of the finish boat and being penalised with an additional lap! He recovered well to win the remaining 3 races, ending the day the fleet (and Techno) winner with a minimum 3 points. Harry competed fiercely and finished in overall 10th place. His competitive showing was justly recognised with a Merit award in this class.

Award ceremonyMiles Hewitt Jones and Nick Hemsley competed in the 4.5m class. The full fleet, apart from the 3.5′s, raced together and with 35 sailors the starts, on an upwind leg, were always going to prove difficult. The Monkeys had mixed fortunes at the starts with some excellent and some not so good but battled hard with Miles finishing 9th and Nick 10th in the series.

The Oxford Zoomers continued their success with another victory in the team competition and so had a clean sweep at all four T15 events in the region this year.
Top windsurfing personalities Olympic Bronze Medallist Bryony Shaw, four times World Windsurf Slalom and Race Champion Antoine Albeau, and Pro windsurfing stars Jamie Hawkins and Robby Swift were on hand to give out the prizes.
Winning medals
With all T15 events of the year now complete, the Manic Monkeys will be honing their skills at Bray on Thursdays after school with some racing planned for Saturday mornings. Who knows, having now met Antoine Albeau in person, the Monkeys may get some strong winds and tackle his 49.09 knot world record!