Seven years ago that was me, now however, it still serves as a relaxing weekend break away from my workload, and a great venue to remind myself some of the skills learned that I’ve let lapse a little in recent months for the house, or the garden, or the … blah, blah (you get the idea).

After news of friends ripping it up in Ireland the previous week, the forecast lagged slightly from what was promised to blow through, but there was still enough to play with.  Kit was packed up for a Thursday night arrival in Dale with enough time for a bite to eat and a pint in the pub on arrival and making the most of it.

Friday saw a bit of a shoreline dead zone and interesting swirl in the bay due to the wind direction, but those brave or foolhardy enough to brake the cover of the headland managed to get some good runs in on a sizeable sail.  I know I did, and I knew it.  Man did that hurt – how long had it been?  Longer than I had initially thought by the feel of it.  Come dusk though I was last off the water (as usual), but eventually made The Griffin to recharge the batteries, or so to speak.  A new landlord and new menu made for a welcome change, and plenty of banter to entertain.

We’re never short of a story or few amongst the diversity that comes with being a Bray Lake Member.  And whilst hopes were high when checking weather apps, Saturday conditions saw more of the same so no rush out onto the water was needed.  Some choose to head out with the walking boots in search of the latest arrival of seal pups, or went to check out the nearby prep for the film shoot rolling into town, whilst the rest of us headed to the café for more banter, coffee and maybe a cake before all getting together again for an afternoon on the water.  Still a bit achy whilst hanging off my 7.5m, so obviously still need to get more time out on the water when back home or maybe it’s just my age catching up with me.  Having hit 40 the previous week, and Candice doing the same the following, our 10 strong party roped in old friend and West Wales local Annie to head to Dale Yacht Club for a good meal and a spot of champers (thanks all for the champagne) in celebration or commiseration for the night.

All of a sudden Sunday was here, last chance for a few hours play before loading the car again and hitting the M4.  So long Dale, we’ll be back again in Spring.

Contributed by: Gavin Lambourne

It has been super windy here. 3.7 full power every day!

We now have dream list of what we want to achieve, a bit ambitious? – maybe, but we will try our best.

My list is:

• Shaka Flaka (done)
• Triple Flakka (done)
• Ponch
• Burner
• Switch chachoo
• Air funnel

Ricky’s list is:

• Clew First Punetta  (done)
• Flaka Diablo
• E Sider
• Switch Chachoo
• Funnel
• Shove it

The forecast is looking great although we both quite want a rest day!

Also the world has turned upside down and Richard managed to beat me upwind. It happened a few days back but it brought to an end my unbeaten run stretching back to the first year. So well done to Richard. I would just like to add that I have regained my crown of upwind overlord since. For those of you who don’t know how to get to the speed spot (where we freestyle) you have to sail around a spit so we usually race downwind and then back upwind around the spit. It is not normally close though.

Other than that I have learnt triple flakkas from my list and nearly done a switch chachoo. I think i will get them net time out. It is full moon at the moment so there is no wind today. It is a badly needed rest day because we have not had one yet. Hugh has some savage blisters on his hands so he is especially grateful.  Tomorrow my or may not be windy but after that its looking great again.

As we head towards the end of our visit, it continues to be really windy here.  Hugh has arrived and it has been a bit of a baptism of fire for him with full on 3.7 winds.  Ricky and I, as is Dakhla tradition from the first year, gave ourselves 6 moves to learn.  We have both learnt only one of them so far!

Contributed by: Jack

This was then followed up by even more good news that Simon and Lindsay had booked the following couple of week,  with the addition of Rich and Lyn, who were coming to play too!

So, what did the ‘escapees’ get up to.  The fortnight with James and co was great fun!  We even saw the party animal in James come out to play – more than I have seen in the 4 years I have known him.

Not only that he fully threw himself into his windsurfing, trying freestyle moves with some epic outcomes…and no I don’t mean he mastered any, but we did enjoy the comic (if a little painful looking) crashes, usually right next to me as James definitely likes the camera!!

Phil and Laura took advantage of their stay, and put in a huge effort on the water, enjoying all the unusually good wind at a less than predictable time of year for Egypt (so lucky!).  In fact on some days Phil was so illusive, once he was gone on the water he didn’t like to come off, must be something in the name?!

During this visit, the political situation in Egypt took a worrying turn making the remainder of stay somewhat interesting!  Highlight of the week for James was our (top-secret) ride home in an Egyptian police van, during the peak of the riots in Cairo and problems in Egypt, after many a gin, vodka and tequila.  But don’t panic, it was in fun, not because we were in trouble!!

We took a photo of us in the back of the policevan afer we’d enjoyed a glass or two, this was a big mistake as the officer in charge panicked and made us delete the shot immediately… He obviously would have had a slapped wrist for being a  taxi driver for some inebriated tourists.  James was so excited by all this he insisted on phoning Frostie at 2am, luckily we saved Simon from this only to find James still managed a text to tell him all about it.  All in all, a really good time had by all.

The following 2 weeks when Simon, Lindsay, Rich and Lyn joined us, were equally fun. During the evenings, we managed to replace the dancing till 4 am and shots of tequila, with many a night on local gin, shisha and enjoying the fantastic range of local restaurants.

During the day we all played hard on the water and a good time was had by all. Simon was seen working on his aerial moves with Phil, while Linz and I messed around with old skool tricks and, of course, Linz got the Isonics out to play too.  Richard found a love for the Serenity after a first week of planing around on the Futuras when the second week brought less wind. The Serenity was perfect for keeping him flying across the bay.

Lyn had a great week of coaching with Neilson’s Heather and Jamie and impressed us all by getting comfortable in the harness and achieving footstraps at some points too, and most importantly enjoying the experience. The second week was much more chilled, with an opportunity to do a bit of SUPing and snorkelling to keep busy in the lighter moments.

Things in Egypt at this time were troubled, and we want to thank all our friends for sticking to their plans and coming out.  As they found out the situation in Dahab was ‘business as usual’, except a fraction of the other nationalities here and so the water was blissfully quiet.  The local businesses all appreciated the British not being put off by the volative situation in Egypt and still supporting the local tourism industry during such a difficult time for them all.

For Phil and I, we are working hard now catching up on sleep, detoxing a little, and of course working hard coaching,  photographing guests and training, in the lead-up to our next clinic, starting on March 5th in Moon Beach.

This should be a great week, we still have spaces too so if anyone is interested in a last minute deal please be in touch, flights are cheap and, the water is quiet, warm and the wind is up! Take advantage of a Moon Beach trip

Contributed by: Danielle Lucas

In the evening a group of 10 of us headed into the local town for something to eat and the odd beer / glass of rum as well.  After a very nice meal at Funny Mummy’s we wondered to a local bar where the Neilson staff tried and failed to get Frostie up on the karoke – it was left to Andy C and Andy (Neilson instructor) to hold the forte with a redition of “Blue Suede Shoes” which sounded more like cats being strangled!!

Day Four

On Thursday we were given the day off from instruction and if we wanted, could try new things.   Some took the opportunity to out for a sail in the morning however the wind dropped off by the afternoon – for me (Fiona) I took the opportunity to visit the pool and finish my book saving my hands as already have blisters.

In the evening four of us decided to allow Neilson to take us to the Thai resturant which was very nice, if fairly expensive for Dahab.  This was followed by the weekly quiz for about 5 of the party, the rest of us all had an early night.

Day Five (Friday)

Andy C, Vincent, Jean decided to take a morning cycle ride which I hear was rather hot work as the temp was already on the rise.

For Neilson this was coaching day which meant that those of us who wanted to work on our beach starts, including me, could do.  Unfortunately after a rather painful sail back to the beach bar for lunch the wind died completely.  We did experience causalty number 3 and our first blood as Lucy managed to kick some coral resulting in a bandaged foot for the afternoon.  The rest of the group headed off to snorkle – I didn’t join them as I had come out with a heat rash – doh!!  Everyone met up again in the early evening to watch Windsurfing II movie on the beach.

Contributed by: Fiona

The first week was all work, honest.  With 8 students on an advanced instructor course for Neilson and a good forecast Sam Ross (Neilson Dahab manager) and I knew we had our hands full. So just to make sure that I was fully acclimatised I postponed the course for a day and went sailing. After all is was 4.7 weather and it was a shame to waste it.

The course went well, once we started, with wind everyday bar one, theory day! The course was made up of Neilson staff including a couple of their Egyptians staff and Phil and Danielle (ex Bray Lake) working freelance (Get Windsurfing) check out their web site and a guy from Ardingly Reservoir.

Despite the hardship of having to talk windsurfing everyday and spend most of the day on the water we made it to the end of the week in one piece and with 8 new Advanced instructors.

While Sam and I were working hard Linz managed to keep herself amused, scaring all the freestyle sailors on their 4.5′s by buzzing them on her favourite Isonic and 7.5!

With an epic forecast for the following week we eagerly awaited the club trip (made up of members from Bray, Burfield and BTYC) with another free day on the water this time fully powered on 5.0′s. An awesome way to finish the first week and it looked good to continue for the next!

And then Crocker arrived! Since his arrival the promised wind has failed to materialise, we have managed to sail every day but it’s been very sedate. Crocker has done his best to keep us all entertained with a succession of incidents of which I’m sworn to secrecy and have promised not to say anything about the bathroom incident ending in him getting a black eye, or the attack from a sea badger that resulted in Andy having to defend himself with his fin before it was lost to the depths.

I gather you may now have more info but at least it wasn’t me that told you. And I also never told you about his karaoke debut last night! We have photos and will try and get them to you soon.

For further info on the Sea Badger type into Google!

Fingers crossed the wind will return before we leave or I may have to make a wind sacrifice!

Contributed by: Frosite

After a fairly lengthy flight with a few bumps, drunks and children screaming we arrived at the hotel to receive a warm welcome from Simon and Lindsay who were already out here.  Monday evening was a quiet affair with most of us heading straight for food and a few beers.  Unfortunately it appears Andy C might have had a few too many beers as while a group of us sat outside chatting he pointed out with great enthusiasm the goat behind us! Upon closer inspection (from the same tables it has to be said) it was discovered the goat was  a dog, maybe Andy C needs to get an eye test or we put it down to a very long day.

Day Two – The Sea Badger that took the fin!

Tuesday was our first day of sailing and after meeting at 0930 to be put into our groups for the week we all ventured out onto the Red Sea for a sail.  The wind was fairly light – 12knots – so everyone was able to have a good time on the water.  The more advanced group sailed round to Baby Bay to try their luck at a few freestyle moves.  Unfortunately the first casualty of the week was experienced here by Andy C who met a badger that attacked the board and removed the fin completely! For those who are unsure about the existence of sea badgers we think that Andy C might just have found a bit of coral to hit – still the board, sail, mast and boom were all ok…..

Day Three – Black Eye

On Wednesday we had very light winds which meant only the beginners and improvers and very keen intermediates went out in the morning and afternoon.  For those of us (Vincent, Justin and Fiona) that decided to give the sailing a miss a trip to the local island to go snorkling kept us occupied… OK island might be a little bit of a leap..but we all enjoyed the trip.  A few others also decided to take a boat out for a change.

Unfortunately the second casualty happened on this day – again to AndyC who was seen be sporting a very nice black eye – apparently obtained whilst going to the toilet!

Day Three

List of casualties….. (all of one – namely Andy C)

(1) Fin due to hitting coral – oops sorry I mean the sea badger called Bob

(2) Black Eye

Contributed by: Fiona

The next day we binged on Cornish Pasties in an attempt to feel up to going windsurfing and headed for Daymer bay. It was really windy. Most people going out of 4.5m sails, I went out on a 3.7m and planed almost all the time. The new board was amazing and surprisingly on starboard tack so was I. I landed a couple of shakkas and loads of flakkas in the flat water the far side. The Twin fin makes it very easy to carve up into the wind quickly for shakkas. On port I was not quite so hot but is was very choppy and there were loads of people launching. When I did get a chance to try anything that side the board felt really nice, punchy when popping and slidey when going backwards. It really doesn’t feel like and 88litre when you’re riding it, it feels much bigger and has great early planning for such a small freestyle board. It however does feel really light on your feet so you feel like you can throw it over your head easily, if that what your into. I think that everyone else had a good sail even James.

After a quick pub meal in Polzeath we had to go fancy dress shopping because Ricky and Aimee (Ricky’s girlfriend) hadn’t got sorted yet. SWA fancy dress parties are infamous. The theme was “999”. I went as Jack Bauer (tradition). The man with the best fancy dress (possibly in the whole party) was Ricky’s brother Adda, who had a WW2 style gas mask and full hazmat suit, he was pretty scary. The party was awesome, can’t really remember much more than that. Nobody could find me the next day much to everyone’s annoyance but we all met up eventually, compared notes on the night before and very hungover went our separate ways.

My new sails arrived yesterday, some North Ices.  I can’t wait to try them out sometime soon up in West Kirby.

Contributed by: Jack

We had incredible conditions for the last couple of weeks in Dakhla and surprise surprise the other two managed to stay fit for all of it. I hope that you have all seen the video of our successes and wipeouts a little further down the blog!

The drive back was significantly less fun than the drive down. De rigging the marquee and packing up was all very depressing. We had a great deal of help for Isa, one of the beach guardians.The drive to Marakesh went pretty well, the Ricky Gervais podcasts again keeping us very amused. Once we reached Marakesh Ricky’s map reading skills failed us (standard) and we found ourselves totally lost. Marakesh it turns out is the most poorly signposted city in the world. After 4 hours of being lost we eventually found a sign for the airport, which as it turns out, was only 50m from the entrance to the airport. We dropped Ricky off which was a mega bummer and Tom and I continued on to Moulay, another 4hours down the road. This meant that Tom and I had been in the car for getting on 30hours when we arrived. This particular leg of the journey was in 47 degree heat and may I just remind you that our air conditioning had not worked from day one.

When we arrived in Moulay there was no wind, I think we would have been far too knackered anyway. The next day we had some 4.2 to 4.7 type conditions and some nice ramps for jumping. Tom sailed pretty well and got involved with some forwards. I was a being a bit of a wimp and concentrated on back loops. I made some progress though; sometimes over rotating, sometimes under rotating. Tom gave me a load of flack over lunch about not doing any forwards. Unfortunately we were both a little underpowered after lunch and nothing much really happened.

Day two was windier and I made up for being a wuss the day before and did a fair few forwards whilst continuing my assault on back loops. Boujmaa was out and was doing loads of doubles and huge back loops. Tom continues the experimentation that I started in Daklha with hooked in forwards. We can again conclusively conclude that they don’t work (or you have to be insanely skilled). Tom because he is the most unlucky man alive (he must have done many evil things in a past life) perforated his ear drum. This meant that he had to stay off the water for two weeks.

The third day there was less wind but there was a proper swell coming in. I went out on my 4.7 and there were some big logo high waves coming in and peeling nicely. There were only a few of us out so there were loads of waves to catch. It was my first day of proper wave riding and I really enjoyed it but I think that day two was the most fun because of the awesome jumping. We had a BBQ in the evening which would rather sculpt the remainder of our trip.

We left the next day because the wind was dying and headed for Ceuta. About halfway there I started to feel pretty ropey. Tom managed to get another speeding fine (typical) after we had run out of dirhams. We managed to bribe the police man with £10 English pounds which we assured him was worth 400dirhams (actually worth 120). We did our usual trick of missing our ferry by 1minute and having to wait for the next one. We slept in a service station near Malaga. This was not the grand return to Spain we had anticipated. This was because we were too late and by now I was pretty ill. From about week one in Dakhla we had been dreaming of the 16ounze steak we were going to get on our return to Spain. A soggy, stale sandwich from a late night petrol station was not quite the stuff of our dreams. Because I was so ill Tom had to do a heroic stint behind the wheel though Spain and France. The drive went well except for in Madrid and we missed a ferry in Bologne by 5 minutes. We made it back to Windsor in the middle of the night. And the next day we were straight down to Bray Lake to buy more Windsurfing gear and for our first pint of beer in nearly three months and the Fifield.

All in all an awesome trip we never stopped loving the windsurfing so bring on next year!

Contributed by: Jack

However we had a very small group of just 3 young ladies, all around our age, 1 beginner, 1 harnessing and 1 looking to carve gybe, all of whom just wanted to have fun on the water, in the sun and a few drinks and fun in the evenings.

They all learned new skills during the week, enjoying having a centre of kit to themselves, a huge group of Polish in the next centre to keep them amused with their speedos and vodka in the evenings, and loads of coaching from me and Phil…2 instructors to 3 students, they were very pleased after being in Dahab on a busy week with many more in their lessons and only one instructor.

Phil and I had a great week too, enjoying having a full week to give to the students without our past ties of running a centre at the same time. Looking forward to the next one!  Check out www.getwindsurfing.com for more information about what we are up to!

Contributed by: Danielle

Brilliant stuff!

Contributed by: Jack, Tom and Ricky