Doing it in Dakhla Again!

Posts Tagged ‘windsurfing’

Doing it in Dakhla Again!

Wednesday, July 27th, 2011

We have made it !!

Largely due to the fact that we have no plans and we did not want to panic loved ones, very little regarding this episode of ‘Bray boys do Dakhla (Part 2)’ has been divulged to the public…… until now!

Last time we packed everything including the kitchen sink; we were well prepared and ready for every eventuality! This time not so much. In fact until about 15 minutes ago we had absolutely no idea where we were going to sleep this evening. We have not bought a tent (read wedding marquee), neither Jack nor I have any money and to make matters worse, have absolutely no access to transport, as we have just learnt that taxis are not authorised to cross the road block separating us from the windsurfing spot.

The shananagans started early on Friday morning with a last minute trip to Bray to pick up some final bits and pieces that I forgot. Fortunately I had the dependable Sawbridge boys to pack the trailer up before ‘Mr Sawbs’ drove us to Gatwick- simples! This time not so much. Once the trailer was fully loaded and connected to the car we discovered that the left indicator on the trailer was not working. Screwdriver in hand, dependable Jack attended to the problem whilst the rest of us said our final goodbyes. Unfortunately, ‘less-dependable’ Jack was not very careful, and by the time he had rewired the trailer, the right indicator worked when we applied the brakes, and the brakelights came on when we indicated left. By this stage we were running a little late and unreliable Jack was flustered and, in his haste, ripped trailer cable out of the car leaving the connector in the back of the car and a handful of exposed wires! Quick change of cars and we were off.

Somehow we managed to check in with 103kg of windsurfing kit without out paying extra money. Sadly that was the end of our luck, our flight to Casablanca was delayed by 3 hours. Even after being repeatedly reassured that we would not miss our connecting flight- we did! So we spent the night on the streets in Casablanca sharing cover with all sorts of unsavoury characters. Not really we were put up in a lovely hotel where I had my first ever Moroccan shower.

Now we are just about to have dinner with Colin and Freya (a lovely ex-pat couple who have bent over backwards to sort us out). This evening we are checked into a hotel and tomorrow we plan on setting up a Moroccan tent that we have just finished sewing together. This time we are trying out a new spot a little closer to Dakhla town.

Forecast looks decent and tides are good so we should have some good sessions to come.

PS flights were cheapish and easyish so if you fancy joining us for a week or two get in touch with Bray for more details.

Photos to follow.

Contributed by: Ricky

Tags: abroad, coast, Dakhla, windsurfing
Posted in Bray Lake Community, Trips Abroad | Comments Off

Lanzarote PWA Freestyle 2011- June 30th- July 3rd

Monday, July 11th, 2011

Flying from Egypt on Thursday, we visited the UK where we attended the Mumbles UKWA Freestyle event before jumping on the next plane out of Gatwick on Tuesday to Fuerteventura, picked up a car and caught an early ferry out the next morning to Lanzarote to stay for a few nights in Costa Teguise, the venue for Phil’s first PWA event. So after a very long weekend of travel it was straight into the action as we hit the water on Wednesday afternoon to check out the conditions for the competition. After a good session getting used to it, we spent the evening catching up with the other competitors over pizza and WiFi, before the event began the next morning.

Registration was done and then heats were due to begin at 2pm. The Single Elimination began and Phil’s heat was drawn, he would take on current tour leader Kiri Thode in the first round. This helped to ease the pressure and Phil was able to relax and enjoyed his first heat. Both guys sailed well, Phil making many moves on both sides to get a good score, but he was unable to match Kiri’s style as he pulled powerful moves such as spock-culo’s, air bob’s & Burners in the challenging conditions.

The single continued that day but the finals had to be held off till the next morning as the wind dropped off around 6pm. Day 2 saw really light winds, so most of the day was spent chilling in the shade, waiting and hoping the wind would increase to enough for the finals to be ran. At 5pm the wind had luckily filled in and the finalists took to the water with sails around 5.3′s, and the crowd was entertained with the guys putting in a huge effort to get the results they wanted. The Single results saw Gollito in 1st, Steven Broekhoven 2nd and Anthony Ruenes in 3rd with Davy Schefers taking the 4th spot, a great achievement for the guys.

Day 3 we began the double, the heats were drawn and Phil was up against a friend, Andraz Zan, SLO 49. The wind had filled in by the afternoon and guys took to the water with sails around 4.7 – 5.0′s. For Phil, the heat was a close one, with him and Andraz pulling similar moves but Phil got the upper hand with a big Shaka and and nice Kono off of one of Costa Teguise’s waves.

The next heat for Phil was to be Tonky Frans, a tough draw but having already retained the 17th spot there was nothing to lose for Phil. The heat started unpredictably for Tonky crashing a lot of early moves giving Phil the early advantage. Phil was sailing well pulling a mixture of powerful and safe moves but it was not enough once Tonky found his feet and started to show why he has been one of freestyles top competitors over the last decade, landing Backloops, Bonka’s (Forward loop in to Flaka) and other insane moves.

The rest of the day the wind held and so the double was continued up until the quarter finals when the judges postponed the action to be completed the next day. So the competition was finished on the Sunday, with amazing heats seeing the worlds best use the windiest day of the competition to really show what they can do. Pushloops, Air Chachos, Spock into Air Bob were some of the most impressive tricks amongst many being seen and after really tight heats the final saw Gollito Estredo take on Steven Broekhoven again. Both competitors were throwing massive tricks but in the end even Steven’s no handed burner couldn’t beat Gollito’s massive Air Chacho and other strong moves he pulled in the 8 minute heat.

The event was brilliant, the windsurfing displayed was incredible by all the riders, the wind and waves were good and a great competition was finished, leaving the competitors excited for the next event in Fuerte, although for many doing the whole tour the next 3 weeks will give them a welcome break after 3 weeks back to back events in Bonaire, Aruba and Lanzarote.

For Phil and I, we are now in Fuerte training for the next event with Adam and many other UK riders. Its set to be a great few weeks, with challenging conditions to get used to, definitely no shortage of wind!

Contributed by: Danielle Lucas

Tags: competition, freestyle, PWA, windsurfing, windy
Posted in Trips Abroad, Windsurfing Trips | Comments Off

To the Power of 3

Friday, June 10th, 2011

After the fortunes of the previous Sunday which saw a ‘Pass’ on the racing in favour of a solid F5+ playtime (read…no challengers to Linz hooked in on a 7.4 with the iSonic) sadly, Sunday 5th June saw a slight rustle accompanied by some drizzle. Coffee time extended itself an hour longer than usual until the requirement to restore my inner “Tao” took over and Tom needed to justify his Day Pass from parenthood. Paul was now back too after illness, so to the power of 3, we had enough to race.

Yes – despite club house mocking (you can only drink so much coffee, and chat so much) Tom and I proceeded to plot our course and have Beth drop a few buoys in place for us to make the most of what we had.

A north easterly meant a bit of a bob out past the wind shadow, but once out in the middle of the Lake I think we all had a much better session than we had anticipated. In fairness to Tom, he could have come home king on all occasions but instead chose to impart some of his race wisdom to Paul and myself on the way round. I came to windsurfing a bit late to tackle the BMX on water stuff (freestyle), so it was easy to slip into straight line sailing and not really look after other skills. I think by the end of our 3 races and a couple more laps for good practice both Paul and I left the water happy we’d refined a few skills and Tom happy to have helped. Sarah – are you joining us next week? And maybe we can coax a few more of you out too.

Race 1 – Paul (first), Tom (second) and Candice (third)

Race 2 – Candice (first), Tom (second) and Paul (third)

Race 3 – Tom (first), Candice (second) and Paul (third)

Contributed by: Candice

Tags: racing, windsurfing
Posted in Bray Lake Community | Comments Off

Silver Success for Manic Monkey

Monday, May 16th, 2011

Alexei Murphy represented the Manic Monkeys and the East Zone at the 2011 RYA Eric Twiname Champions over the 7/8th May weekend. The windsurfing Zone Squads have been working hard all winter with 6 weekends of intensive coaching. Hosted at Rutland Water Sailing Club, the Championships are the pinnacle of the racing calendar for the Zone and Home Country squads as the nine squad teams go head-to-head over two days for the prestige of picking up the coveted Eric Twiname Shield and being named top RYA Zone. It was an impressive regatta with 325 sailors taking part, including entries from 62 windsurfers.

Alexei competed in the 5.8m class with a great start on day 1 to lead the field with a 2-2-1-3 series. The light winds of Saturday were replaced by demanding gusty conditions on Sunday but the young windsurfers battled on for two more races. Alexei finished with equal top points for the competition (10) with Isaac Bradley Baker (West Kirby Warriors) but Isaac took the crown in the class on countback of first places. Alexei was delighted to be in the silver medal position at his first ET Championships.

It was the RYA West Zone who were triumphant in the overall competition and they were crowned 2011 RYA Eric Twiname Champions, taking home the ET Shield. The North took overall honours in Windsurfing.

Contributed by: Noel Murphy

Tags: Manic Monkeys, racing, Team 15, windsurfing
Posted in Bray Lake Community, Team 15 | Comments Off

Dale Club Trip Fri 8th – Sun 10th April

Wednesday, May 4th, 2011

After a slightly delayed start, mainly due to supervising a certain shop manager during his wooing of the Maidenhead females, Amy and I made it down to a sun blessed West Wales at around 17:00. No sooner had we settled into a couple of drinks at the Griffin, enjoying the warm early evening and relaxing after the journey the rest of the ‘club members’ arrived. I say club members, possibly a more accurate description would be ‘associated members’! Down in Dale we had the old guard of Colin and Mike, the original ‘Big’ Dave Haskins and the justification for the term club trip, Les!

A good dinner was had by all in The Griffin, especially Dave who, ignoring the menu, managed to have a prawn curry appear from somewhere, then any leftovers from anyone else’s plate and finally finishing off with an apple crumble. This could be the reason for his height! In true Bray style the rum and cokes flowed until we eventually retired, excited by the possibility of wind and sun the following morning.

We woke on Saturday to blazing sun and building wind. Excitement took over so, skipping breakfast, we headed to Dale car park to see who was contemplating an early session. Dave and Les were leading the charge. Dave had rigged his 9.4 Lightning and had ‘advised’ Les onto his 7.5 T-Bird. Rather more meekly I opted for my 6.3 Ezzy wave SE and a 100L Starboard Kode.

As it happened the wind built more than Dave or Les had anticipated so were quickly back in the car park rigging something a little more manageable and were equally quickly back on the water having a more enjoyable time. As days on the water go I have to say it was pretty much perfection for the UK. Force 4-5, high tide, sun, 25 degree heat and only a handful of people on the water. Bliss!!

As the morning went on we were joined on the water by Colin and (shock horror!) another club member – Simon. I have to take my hat off to Simon for his commitment to windsurfing as he was only there for Saturday driving both ways in the same day and scoring some great conditions during the day, amazing! A lesson to all those with work, family or friend excuses!!

We decided to break for brunch at around 11:30 and retired to the cafe to dissect the morning and meet back up with Mike (and his blister!).

Wanting to gain the most from the weekend away I opted to go for a walk in the afternoon and after following Mike and Dave’s advice headed round to West Dale beach and then on to St. Annes Head rejoining the crew for dinner. As it, fortunately, turned out the wind died a bit in the afternoon so I enjoyed my walk with a clear conscious!

Unfortunately during the afternoon Les had to return to England with pathetic excuses pertaining to his brothers golden wedding anniversary! Back down to one club member! No I tell a lie, Simon had to return to Blighty also, only associated members left!!

Another wonderful evening in The Griffin was had by all, the rum and coke flowed once more!

Sunday started with Dave myself and Amy meeting Colin and Mike at Allenbrook B&B to examine the owners 1934 Rolls Royce which was described at one point as ‘slightly mashed up due to machine gun fire’. It has been lovingly restored and, along with the Peacocks, adds another touch of elegance to Allenbrook Bed and Breakfast. Greeted as we were on Sunday by no wind (nats fart being generous) three of us headed to Newgale for some surfing and paddleboarding parting company with Colin and Mike.

I cannot say with hand on heart the surf was epic!

I however cared not a jot as I had recently purchased Frostie’s 10’5 Starboard Paddleboard and was eager to give it a whirl!

(You have to admit that is a pretty board)

Conditions were ideal to test out the new toy and I generously let Amy and Dave have a go as well! The only word to describe the board is fantastic. Wonderfully stable, great glide and highly responsive on the wave, incredible. As it turns out it is also really useful for giving your girlfriend a tow as well!

After a few interesting wipeouts I started to get the hang of it and had a brilliant time in the less than great conditions. This is honestly the best sport to go along with Windsurfing as you can make the best of the conditions on offer. Wind – windsurfing, wind and waves – windsurfing, no wind – paddleboarding, no wind or waves – paddleboarding. It allows to have more time on the water whatever the conditions, genius!

Anyhow, a great weekend was had by all those who made it and I hope to see a few more there in October.

Have a good one and take it easy……………

Contributed by: Ed Thorne

Tags: club, Dale, stand up paddleboard, SUP, West Wales, windsurfing
Posted in Bray Lake Community, Trips Abroad | 2 Comments »

A passion for water sports

Posts Tagged ‘windsurfing’