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| Owner:
Harry Member Member#: 186 Location: Registered: 14-04-2003 Diary Entries: 418 |
22nd October 2006 Windsurfing: Shoreham Wind Direction: S Wind Stength: Surf / Sea State: Air Temperature: Sea Temperature: Weather: Mostly rain :( Max Speed: Distance Covered: A cracking two-session day, in spite of the rain... Session 1: River Adur Strong S'ly winds and a big midday high tide meant that I decided to join Pat and Basher and lose my river virginity. I was very dubious about what conditions would be like on an inland stretch of water less than 100m wide, and indeed when I arrived at midday to be greeted by pissing rain and a solid force 2 I suspected that my cynicism would be verified. However the wind soon started to pick up and Pat arrived and got planing straight away on his 6.1 so I thought I might as well give it a go. As I was rigging up the rain cleared and the wind kept on increasing! By the time I hit the water I was straight into the straps and seriously powered up on the 5.8, fully downhauled. And wow what great sailing! The wind was surprisingly constant (give or take a few big ohshitohshit gusts) and the mirror flat water was a joy to sail on. The small sailing area forced lots of manoeuvres, especially tacks, all but one of which were sh*te, but very good to practice. No chance to settle lazily in the harness and blast meant a solid workout. A great 1 hour "different" session in close company with Pat and Basher and good to now know about a location for high tide strong onshore winds. Session 2: Shoreham Beach After packing up at the river we drove straight to the sea front to assess conditions there. And we found (at 3pm) - bolt onshore winds, (still) pissing rain and a meaty shorebreak. A quick scoot up the road to Lancing revealed no better. So back to Shoreham we went, where I decided to put up the 5.2 whilst the rain had temporarily receded and then hide in the van to wait for the tide to drop and the rain to stop. By 4pm the rain was still hammering down and I was having serious motivational issues, but soon a brief lull in the downpour arrived so I forced myself out of the van and onto the water. Very glad I did! The tide was now well off the groynes and combined with a slight starboard-tack angle on the wind meant that easy access was granted to some solid wavesailing conditions. Proper powered up by the 5.2 fully downhauled allowed planing straight off the beach (in spite of the onshoreness) and good speed to launch big off some decent ramps which then shaped up nicely for some solid backside bum-wiggling on the way back in - I think 4 wiggles was my best effort. There were big flat gaps between the waves on the inside for easy gybing, and I was soon well dialled in to the full-on conditions and was in a really go-for-it mood. At times I was seriously stacked and thinking about changing down, but more downhaul meant I was never over-clothed but glad to have lots of power to get me off the beach and keep me going when the wind dropped a tad towards the end. Overall a great 1.5 hour fully powered up waveboard session in solid wind and waves - one of the best I've had at Shoreham. A good end to a cracking weekend. :) |
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