A passion for water sports

The extract below is from Phil and Danielle’s (ex-Bray staff) blog,  click here for the full story.

Phil and I arrived in Fuerteventura on the 4th July, following our time in Lanzarote for the Freestyle competition hosted there, Phil’s debut on the PWA world tour. With 18 days spare to train for the next event we were both really excited to get on the water and check out the conditions. Our first day on the water was a bit of a shock, arriving at Rene Egli centre 2 to find our friends from the UK and Austria, welcomed by a sand storm in the car park and enough wind for even the bigger guys to be easily overpowered on my 3.3! Little did I realise this was the only sail I would be needing for the next 2.5 weeks as Fuerteventura delivered its relentless conditions exhausting all windsurfers who had come to play.

An important part of our training became days off, as we struggled with sore muscles, shoulders, tennis elbow and bruises from all sorts of wipeouts. Early nights became mandatory, as did a large supply of food in the car to keep us energised and help us maximise our sessions. We aimed to train at the competition location as much as possible to get good practise in the sailing area ready for the event.

This area, at Rene Egli Windsurf Centre 1, has mostly cross off wind, small swell coming in with waves breaking close to the shore and on the way out swell and the most amount of chop I have ever known to test us on port tack. For my spocks on the outside it became a learning game as I began to feel like a complete beginner at freestyle in the difficult conditions.

Phil, as all of the other guys who had come to train for the competition, found it hard to make moves which normally were very easy to them also and sessions were kept short and intense to try to get used to the area. Some days we would move location to a beach upwind, where the water was very flat in comparison and so we could have ‘easier’ sessions to enjoy ourselves and also allow our bodies some rest from the chop! Still this location would be incredibly windy, gusty and 3.3 was generally always full power for me!

With the event approaching, the forecast began to drop off, which was quite a relief although worrying it would drop off too much also, as we both really wanted the event to go ahead. When the days arrived, the wind and swell was low, but fortunately each day Fuerte delivered us wind enabling heats to go ahead in the afternoons, usually putting me on my 4.5 or 4.0 which was perfect!

Continued….. full story

Contributed by: Danielle Lucas