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And representing Manic Monkeys…

Tuesday, September 7th, 2010

This year’s National Windsurfing Festival at Hayling Island on 4/5 Sep included a new junior element called Junior Turbo 15. Alexei Murphy represented the Manic Monkeys, racing in the 4.5 m class.

The event was organized by Chris Lewis, of Pryde Group UK and Team 15 South Zone CO, who did a fantastic job as usual. The junior windsurfers had a super 2 days of ‘master blaster’ racing off the beach in demanding conditions. There was a great setting with a big crowd of spectators, a run to the finishing tunnel and post-race interviews – so the young sailors had a real taste of the event! With 5 races on Day 1 and 2 more plus coaching on Day 2 it was a very busy weekend. Alexei did well, competing against larger sails in the over 4m group and received some great prizes for his efforts.

Catching a wave

There was a special Team 15 Clinic on Sunday where the tutors were Boujmaa Guilloul and George Shillito – so the juniors were rubbing shoulders with the pros! They were introduced to the starting point for learning loops by being taught how to catapult on demand (!!!)…and were joined on the water by the pros for practical coaching.

A Manic Monkey with George Shillito

It was a super event – huge numbers in the senior races and some great freestyle competition too. A really tremendous experience for the Junior Turbos!

Hayling Wind Fest

Contributed by:  Noel Murphy

Posted in Bray Lake Community, Team 15 | No Comments »

Hamworthy Journey

Tuesday, August 24th, 2010

I never seem to get round to any UK coastal sailing, Bray is conveniently close and easy – the sun and wind in Egypt or Greece always seems more tempting… However, following our recent (very enjoyable) club trip to El Tur I got myself a nice new board from the Bray shop and at 100 litres no further excuses to put off that trip to the coast.

Candice’s round robin emails to get coastal (contact her if you want to get on the distribution list) provided the right opportunity. Hamworthy F5 forecast on windguru, grassy rigging area and cafe close by seemed to be perfect.

A terrible three hour holiday traffic drive later I arrived in Hamworthy Park (Poole) where it was chucking down rain and looking very gloomy indeed. I was wondering if this really had been such a good idea, but there was no denying it was very windy.

From beach to waterAs the first to arrive I rigged up my 6.1 and got some tips from a friendly local, a windsurfer gone over to the dark side (kite surfer) and after a few tentative runs realised that even in the rain UK coastal sailing is definitely worth the effort. The sailing is straight off the beach, the first bit fairly flat, more chop further out. The day bought a consistent strong wind and great blasting.

As the rain disappeared the rest of the Bray contingent (Candice, Claire, Gavin and Lynn) turned into the car park and rigged up. Everybody got some pretty good runs in throughout the day, all having a good sail. Lynn not having done a beach start for a while, also got some practice in with a helping hand from Candice. Claire sought to perfect that jibe and Gavin went for a blast between messing about with his harness lines. My new board felt faster than I’ve ever been, thanks for the advice Simon and James, the new toy is great!

I left a little before the rest. Gavin I hear was last off the water as usual at dusk. Despite the slightly longer journey, I think all had a good sail. I certainly did and hope for more wind soon, in the mean time I’m off to Turkey for some sunny windsurfing.

September diary busy with the National Windsurfing Festival and the Club Trip to Dale, West Wales, so I understand Candice is planning the next trip for 16/17 October, hopefully I’ll see you there.

Contributed by: Jeremy

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In the face!

Monday, August 16th, 2010

Apologies for the lack of news, trips into town have been few and far between normally involving some sort of wild goose chase like fixing the generator – again! I have spent the last 6 days of the water after wiping out during a punetta attempt – smashing my face on the boom and earning myself a two hour visit to the hospital for stitches. The large posse of doctors were great if a little overly banterful and a little stingy on the anesthetic. Promises of “No more pain Mister Tom” were an outright lie. I am personally blaming Jack for this as it was his idea to try switch on one of the windiest days we’ve had so far. Opinions vary on when I’m allowed back on the water but I’m currently going stir crazy and may try windsurfing tomorrow. Jack and Ricky have plans for some kind of Hanibal Lecter mask, made from old wetsuit accessories and Ding. I think they are more concerned with making me look like a prat than protecting my stitches.

Last weekend we had a little disagreement with the Dakhla attitude kite center over the position of our tent. They were running a beach safety day for the local kids, our tent stood proud in the middle of the beach with Bray Lake stickers in full view so expect some orders to Western Sahara. Jack was not such a pushover this time and managed to argue our way out of moving the tent which was a massive relief.

The wind conditions have been 50/50 over the last week with it either blowing not at all or nuking everyone on the water. There seems to be a direct correlation between our dental hygiene and the quantity of time out on the water. Jack – who is fastidious about brushing his teeth spends as much time out as possible, Ricky on the other hand has brushed his teeth, once, twice, YES, three times, your talking bollocks! My teeth brushing isn’t the best but I do have an excuse for not being on the water although I have earned the nick name of “rest-day Gold”.

The wind wasn’t about this morning but it should be back this afternoon. The low tide is in the morning so Jack has been sailing in the chop in the afternoons and been doing some huge flakkas. When it is blowing full 3.7 it can be pretty gnarly out there. Ricky hurt his elbow yesterday but fingers crossed it is not too serious.

Looking forward to good tides and wind this week.

Thanks for reading

Contributed by: Tom

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Shark, shark…I don’t think so!

Friday, July 23rd, 2010

It has been super windy here.  We need smaller sails and Gold needs new underwear!!!  We’ve been on our 3.7s overpowered since we last blogged and we have some serious new move news!  Tom has learned Spocks and Clew-first Spocks and Ricky and Tom are starting to man up and try forwards.

Wednesday was OTT windy. Only clew-first moves and forwards were possible as far as I was concerned but Tom and Ricky kept trying Spocks and have some berr grim bruises to show for it. We have got some pretty good overpowered footage for our video now.

Yesterday was still 3.7 full power but not quite so mental. I windsurfed rather badly but it will forever be remembered for Tom’s over reaction to a couple of small dolphins. I was on the bank and saw the dolphins about 15yards from tom and shouted shark! Tom, when he saw the fins, entered serious crisis mode, quickly and efficiently up hauled and sailed as fast as he could to the bank. Apparently he was scared of his board being mistaken for a seal.  Ricky and I tried to go and windsurf with them but Ricky was incapacitated by laughter at Gold’s gullabillity.

Ricky is happy because our generator is back online with a new spark plug so our evenings of lounging can start again.

There is a kite-surfing competition being run from our beach this weekend. They are trying to make us move our tent but we are standing our ground against the spread of teabaggers.

Thats all for now. Keeping it Real!

Contributed by: Tom

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The Dakhla adventure continues

Friday, July 16th, 2010

Hi all, sorry for the lack of news but the laptop broke last week which makes blogging a little tricky.  We have resorted to writing the blog in the internet cafe which is at present about 45 degrees, smells of sewage and we are surrounded by people watching suspect video footage. It has been an eventful few days, the generator broke then was fixed by Jack and a team of locals, only to cause a power surge which, since the Morrocans pulled apart our surge protector to try to get it working again, we had no protection against surges. Subsequently we managed to fry the laptop transformer box.  Fortunately we have been pointed in the right direction for a replacement and are hopeful we can get everything fixed.

As far as windsurfing goes it has been an unsuccessful couple of days…the tides have meant that the freestyle spot is not working at the moment.

On Friday myself and Ricky arrived back at the beach late in the evening due to the slow slog back, Ricky had also managed to put a large hole in the bottom of his foot during a impressive catapult on the sandbar!

On Sunday we tried a wave spot down the road.  Whilst unpacking the car Tom’s board decided to blow across the car park, making a nice new hole to join the others! Jack and Ricky bobbed out, both coming in again after ten minutes due to a complete lack of wind, Ricky’s fin having also been a victim of a large rock beneath the water line.  Since then we have had no wind and have slowly been driven crazy by our flapping marquee!

Windguru is predicting a good week but we have learnt from experience that any prediction made by them is completely worthless so fingers crossed for tomorrow.  In preparation for the especially windy day tomorrow we have brought some camel for tonight – our first bit of real meat since the trip began.

More soon!

Contributed by: Tom

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