2022 - Global Warming and Wingers Take Over the World
This is a round up of the year on the water that was 2022.
It all started with a very cold January. Hern Dog and Alex at were at Tyrella with Michael as ever taking the pictures.
Mark said :
"Great pics Michael. You make it look like we had a good time whereas it was very difficult to out and back with our kit and ourselves intact! Gusty and a lot of water moving around!".
NO COAST GUARDS INVOLVED
We are all well used to Ming's intimate relationship with the Coast Guard. From rescuing his wing, through turning up to find the 'casualty' was fine and of course their hot pusuit of him as the mysterious windsurfer out when no one else was during the first lock down.
But in January they weren't needed, but could easily have been. And for once at least it wasn't Chris's fault!
Ming, Wookie, Andrew Gallagher and others were out at Glen Road aka Ming's private road. The story is that a 30 footer sailed over close to Chris (he says 40 feet, but we apply the usual Loughridge factor to this). Andrew reports that Ming and the yacht went in the same direction and then tracked each other ie both turned right or left at the same time. In the end it was a 'near miss' according to Andrew at around 10 feet. Now that is close! 'Super close' according to our hairy correspondent.
Chris's version is that he decided it must be someone who knew him - he does after all move in the big boat owning classes. He thought they were coming over to talk to him or just messing around. So he sat down and waited. But only at the last minute did he realise they he didn't know them and they hadn't a clue what they were doing.
There was a girl at the helm (the only person on deck) and she didn't look as if she knew what she was doing. After the near miss a guy came up on deck who stopped the boat.
'I can't remember of the name of the boat, but I do remember the look on the face of the girl who was steering it!'
To be fair Chris, most girls have that look on their face when they see you....
Ever keen to promote our sport, Wookie gave chase and 'expresssed his opinion in his own inimitable style'. However I also understand that some words of disapproval passed Chris's lips too - but there was no fisting.
And they all lived happily ever after.
NAME THAT STORM - FEBRUARY
Arwen was the first named storm and produced snow with people in Scotland forced to spend many days 'locked in' at a pub.
Next was Storm Dennis on 15th February. Jarlath said "The water was smoking! Bartons for people with big balls". 122 mph gusts were recorded at the IoW.
Then it was Storm Eustice on 18th.
And the big names rounded off February with Storm Franklin on 20th. In the run up to it there was some action at Miners. As ever Michael was there to record it and I'm here to steal his best shots for this site.
That same day Paddy L, Vix Sinex and I sailed Ards. Various sails from 4-5.5m in the morning and then it went nuclear around lunch time.
At the same time the Pond Life crew (Paddy D, Sacha and Richard) were out at Bartins and Oxford Island on 5 dropping to 3.5m And then it got windy as Franklin moved in.
In other words, normal service was in operation.
MARCH - WHACKEY RACES
We all know Nick Fletcher is a National Treasure. So no surprise when he offered to run slalom training in March ahead of the official NSC races on 2/3rd April. The weather turned out good, unlike what we normally get on the official race days at the club. 8-9 degrees, sunny and wind running to near 5m weather. Nick marched out on the water at 11 (there are some who think he can actually walk on water) and started to wave his flags. The usual thing, raise the red flag for 3 minutes, green for 1 and then drop 'em all for go.
This worked out well until the wind blew the red flag out of his hand for a swim with the fishes. After this the starts were a bit more random with the green flag raised 'some minutes' before the start and dropped to go. Oddly it seemed to work quite well.
There was a good crowd out dashing about and the races seemed quite competitive. Normally I would have been fighting gallantly around last place but I had to leave this honour to Vick as I discovered I had no energy following a bug last week.
Another sick note specialist was Ming who sent in a photograph of what I swear was a pregnancy test showing positive. He claims it was a Covid test, but I find it hard to believe that any other human being would allow themselves to get close enough to Ming to pass on Covid....
The main people taking it all seriously were Wookie, Big Robert (claiming he was newly recovered from Covid), Philip and Paddy. Other honourable mentions go to David C, Zander and Vix Sinex.
Now we know that Wookie is quick, but this is just taking the piss. On one race he tore away from the field and finished (he thought) miles head, helped by a specacular gybe crash from Robert. So he relaxed in the shallows until everyone else arrived - and sailed on. Wookie has 'forgotten' the last leg of the race and was now nearly last. Undaunted, he set off again, overtook the entire field and won. Again. Now that's taking the hairy piss.
As I've already pointed out, organisation was a bit flexible. That applied to the field too. So when Nick realised that people were using the wrong (harder) mark for one gybe he motored over to the correct mark and waved his one remaining green flag like mad and pointed to the field to use this one. No-one did. Except for Mr Corkhill who therefore won the race by dint of being the only true finisher.
Afterwards there was much craic and Wookie celebrated by going out for an hour on his wing. If he'd any hair, it wouldn't have got wet....
APRIL - WINDLESS RACES AND HAIL
Well, after the trial run came the real thing. IWA ranking slalom racing at NSC. So naturally there was very little wind. In fact for a lot of the Saturday it was well down in single digits. As a result the entry was as light as the wind. Some brave people did go out on fins (well done Philip) but it was always going to be the day of the very big sails on foils.
Martin Pilikan led the field in almost all of the races - 10m on a foil is great low wind combination if you can handle it. As you can see from the picture above, even Mark couldn't hack this all the time.
There were a couple of ranking races (somehow) on the Sunday as the wind came up a bit more.
The results below show the picture. And while we have to take our hats off to Martin (well, let's face it, they weren't going to be blown off), a big shout has to go out to Andrew who won one of the races!
As ever, a big thanks to David Corkhill (and family I suspect) for these excellent shots.
Hardly blasting, but at least moving...
Some racing!
Winning line.
Floating by.
FIVE DAYS IN APRIL - THE HAIL MAGNET
After a frustrating time of little wind, we got lucky in early April. For the Pond Life Crew, it was an especially good directions and we had 5 days in a row.
The first two days were at Bartin's Bay on the west side of Lough Neagh. It was a little bit of a wobble to get out to the wind, but Paddy enjoyed one his best sails on 5m of 'not wave riding, but roller riding'. I was on 6.2, then 5.3.
Coming in was fun as there are sand dunes to negotiate. Paddy, with a small fin, had it dialled but others ended up with a splash/dismount.
No room for the doggers at Bartins...
A reasonable number of sails on the water as you can see. Paddy, Richard, Chris, Sasha, me and Cha appeared but didn't sail the first day. Much mutterijng from Sasha about fin sizes on his 1-3 fin free style wave. The lesson here is that a single bigger fin often works well in Lough Neagh conditions.
The next day was similar, so Bartins again but slightly less wind.
The third day and the wind had shifted a little so the launch was 500 yards away at Busted Marina. Another good day, again on 6.2m for me, but every now and then it really opened up. In the squalls I ended up back (upwind) at Bartins and flying.
At one stage it came up well over 30 knots and then the hail started. So I found myself flying along while looking at the tail of the board as it was too sore to look where I was going. Forunately my board seems to know where to go! I had to check my face when I landed to make sure I wasn't bleeding.
And in the midst of this I managed a really cracking gybe on the outside, on a wave and shot out of it faster than I came in. Savour it while I can, it doesn't happen too often for me.
Actually it was fairly warm with the sun out, so the sleet was a bit of an aberration.
Ciaran made it back today, still jet lagged from China but out he went. First time on a fin in months, but he hadn't forgotten how to sail. And Chris was trying spocky things too.
Sasha, between fins at Bartins.
Thursday it moved to northerly and that means Oxford Island. Fortunately there weren't too many dunkers and it was yet another 6.2m day for me.
Paddy was determined to get the really big wind and went out early. He did get some really great stuff on his 4m but the wind strength moved about a lot and so he ended up jumping beween the 4 and his 5. He was gone by the time the rest of us appeared around noon. Ciaran played with his new wing (4m) and Charlie and I went old school. 6.2/Naish for me (again, how boring) and Cha on 6.5 on his Fox. Some great runs but the wind alternated between good and near zero, so there was a bit of swimming to be done too.
Then late PM it steadied up into a properly Oxford Island northerly and it was just perfect. It's a reach of about 1.5 miles there and it doesn't take too many of these over the chop to really tire you out. We came off the water not because the wind had dropped or it had got cold, but because we were exhausted.
And so to day 5 of 5. Wingers Ciaran and Bleddyn, real windsufers Charlie and me. I finally got to sail something different, 7.8m on my Manta. Cha went for 7.5m on his Fox. Most of the time it was good, but there were spells of non-planing and then mad wind as showers came through. And would you believe I got more hail. Not quite as bad as earlier in the week, but both times I was the only one out and getting the pebble dash effect.
Am I now offically a hail magnet?
Another day to come off the water because you were knackered - but again big smiles all around.
And then to add insult to injury, three days later Chris, Ciaran and Jarlath were sailing the second bay in very gusty 4.5m weather and I rocked up to join them. Oh no, they said, that means it will hail.
And it did! I guess I'm stuck with this now.
That same day we were pleasantly surprised to see Jarlath, knowing that his 300 year old car had finally given up with a blown turbo. But undeterred, he rocked up in his little 109 with no less than 2 boards along with his entire sail, boom, mast etc collection. All this without a roof rack.
One suspects his leftward vision was not all it could be, but as they say the police never pressed charges. And he had a good sail once he'd borrowed a hat from Ciaran.
RICHARD PICKS UP SOME YOUNG GIRLS
This could sound so wrong of course. The fact is that Richard did actually pick up a couple of 13 year old girls and take them home.... However, as anyone who knows Richard will understand, he was acting a knight in shining armour at the time and good for him.
It was a cracking sunny day at Oxford Island. Four of us were down topping up our tans while enjoying some 6.5m weather from the north east.
Cha started on his 7.5 on the Fox and as you can see was motoring past Bird Shit Island.
The drama started as Richard was coming in from a good blast. There was a group of 13 year old girls who'd cycled down from Lurgan and had jumped in (fully clothed) to cool down. Turned out one of them had reacted rather badly to the cold of the water and was distressed and only just out of her depth at the end of the jetty. We heard their calls and at first thought they were just larking around. However Richard realised there was more to it and ditched his kit and went straight to her and picked her out of the water. Quickly on dry land, she remained very upset - probably in shock. So Richard produced a towel and then his fur lined rigging coat so her friends could help her warm up.
Still concerned, he quickly packed up his gear and then a couple of their bikes and he drove two of them to their house in Lurgan.
What a guy!
You have to be so careful in these situations these days, but he was immaculate.
And then to add to our day we spotted two very unusual things. The first was Benji windsurfing - something we haven't seen for many months. Although he does do wild water swimming regularly here, but there are rumours that this is motivivated by the number of women doing this.... We of course couldn't comment.
The other unusual thing is the board. Some of you will know that I had a Firerace board for many years - damned fast and a great board. It survived very well - including hitting a hidden line full tilt at Downings (see the video and feel my pain) but began to delimated 2 years ago and was destined for the bin. But Covid and Ciaran intervened. Forced to stay at home for the best part of a year (on full pay apparently) he took on a total rebuild of the board, just because he felt it was a good thing to do. And such a brilliant job he made of it, the board weighs pretty much what it should do and is still dammed fast. And it's now Benji's. He says he loves it, but we hadn't actually seen him sail it. Until today!
Sadly the wind went flukey before I could get an action shot. Perhaps he will sail again in the next couple of years and we can capture the evidence....
JUNE - WOOKIE GETS BUSTED
We finally managed it - we got Wookie to visit Busted.
For those of you who don't know, Busted is an old Lough Neagh location which for years was buried in trees. During the desperate non-windsurfing times of 2020, I 'discovered' it and all the inbred locals laughed and said you can't sail there. Until they saw the photographs of me sailing it! Now it's a regular haunt for the Pond Life Crew.
It's on the east side of Lough Neagh near a village called Derrymore. There are actually two locations here, Busted itself which is slightly north of Bartins Bay, a Council 'beach' with some nice sand dunes. Both work well with something like a south west. There is a headland to the south sticking out west which can shade the locations, especially Bartins and can make wobbling out to wind line well, wobbly... The launch at Busted is over stones and critically over various parts of old cars which have been dumped a long time ago presumably by locals. It was speculation that the car started life as a Morris Marina which gave rise to Busted Marina, later shortened to just Busted. Yes, you're right, we are a very sad bunch....
There is a good sized grass area which is cut by the Council from time to time. And the launch is through some small bushes which is cut by Ciaran from time to time. So it's a good launch with a clear view of the wind and water conditions. It's common there to see good wind on the outside and some small waves. It's a good locataion for both fins and foils and not too hard a carry for those with long ironing boards.
There are a couple of downsides. Firstly entry from the road is down a steep bit of grass and gravel which can get interesting for two wheel drive vans in the winter. And there is a sunken metal barge just north of the launch. This is clearly marked with a buoy, so is easy to avoid. But it's bad news if you go over it - as the hole in Paddy's board will attest!
Paddy coming in as Wookie heads out to lose his Busted virginity.
And so it came to pass that we had a hairy visit from Mr Wookie. And he just loved it. In fact he loved is to much that he did a Ming and stayed out until the light was fading.
We were running about on nice sails, 6.5m for me on the Naish, 7m for Cha, 5.5 for Paddy and 5.5 for Richard. It was actually a great sail on slightly bumpy water but really fast blasting back in with the chop. It was really good until the invisible man (Barry) materialised and killed the wind. Once he left of course it picked up nicely.
So that was day one of what turned out to be a 5 day run at Busted. The next day the wind was light but came up in the evening and Richard sneaked in for a very nice session on his 6.5. IE 7.5m for any normal people. Here is Richard going out with his characteristic hat on. You'll notice too that the greenery has shot up at Busted. The launch gap is a bit tight. I hate to admit it, but we are missing Ciaran (overseas on a work boat) who often comes down with his tools and hacks back the bushes.
Then Friday was the 'big day' we had all been waiting for - if you believe the forecasts. Didn't quite work out that way through. Yes we charged about on sails from 5m and up, but in truth the wind never settled. Paddy had a good time pressure sail on 5m, but I spent the day bed-hopping between my 5.3 and my 6.2, both rigged at once. Chris (Cassidy) bed-hopped with more difficulty between 5 and 5.5 - but having to share a mast. A right pain and a lot of frantic re-rigging. Richard appeared again and sailed but, like the rest of us, said it was never quite right. To give you the picture, I spent 10 minutes in the water with so little wind I couldn't even raise the sail, never mind water start. 10 minutes later I was flying on 5.3.
It died around 5 and we all sat around and waited in the sun. Then of course Cha appeared and had some good runs on 7m. And later on it blew it's whatsits off..
Just one of those days, but at least it was sunny!
Richard, mid gybe.
The next day was Saturday and boy was it different. Yes, I was on the same 5.3 but today the wind was steady and we had a ball. Richard actually said it was the best sail he'd had all year. I'd agree. Busted at its best, nice SW, good steady wind and sunny - apart from two torrential ran showers.
And finally Sunday, a day of rest for some, but not us. Busted again, one run on 6.5 was enough to convince me to revert to my trusty 5.3. Full on west, so the wind was clean and it took a few runs to get out of the bay. But it was lovely with some nice rollers on the north side and a little shelter near Bartins when it went mental. And eventually (after 3 hours of great sailing) it did go mental and sheeting in was hard and gybes were scary.
So the 5 day run at Costa del Busted was over. We went off to lie down in a darkened room and mutter about feeling stiff. And our tans are fabulous.....
And while we were enjoying Busted, Newtownards Sailing Club was bustlng with wannabee stars. Yes, the BBC was in town and all the posers were lining up. The Chronicles of Strangford was a BBC NI series in 2021 which told the tales of people living around the lough across the four seasons. Well, they are back and this year wanted to feature windsurfing and this new cross between an ironing board and blanket waving - winging.
Here is Vic, steaming along after the camera boat and wearing his famous helmet with a chimney on top.
Posers amongst windsurfers, surely not - actually it was quite a crowd. In the imortal parlance of Ming the Merciless, Wookie was the camera whore. While others tried to get near, Wookie simply circled the camera boat and managed to get himself in every shot. As you might imagine, this really endeared him to other water users. It appears there was some quite nice swearing and fisting from Minger and he even managed to annoy Dave C. So, while we'd all like to see our sport portayed in a youth friendly, welcoming fashion - it seems more likely the image will be of men of a certain age in rubber fisting their boards and swearing. Don't expect too many new recruits....
As well as trying to film windsurfers, despite being buzz-bombed by Mr Wookie, the crew did an interview with the most important man in the area - Paddy Lyner. We will have to wait for the final edit so see what Paddy said - and no doubt how much he said. He is well known for his ability to talk, but we imagine the editors at the BBC - no doubt after many hours hard work - well get him down to a managable sound bite or two. Fair play of course because the success of windsurfing at the club and beyond is largely down to Paddy.
The wind turned out be very light (should have been at Busted) and another poser Trevor Pollen got his kit back on loan from the Ulster Museum and was determined to show that the fin was not dead. Only problem was that he couldn't plane. He floated around for quite a while until at last the wind picked up. He immediately flew over at top speed to the boat - only to find that they had wrapped for the day. Words were spoken...
David C was desperately trying to get through Wookie's cordon to show off his skills for the camera. Not a bad jump for Ards conditions. This and Vic were taken by 'my captive photographer' ie his very understanding wife. Actually, when I think about this and the word captive, perhaps we should check on the reason she's always there to photograph him - tied to the job perhaps?
While all these merry japes were going on, the serious windsurfers were ploughing the furrows at Magheroarty. Actually, in Raptor's case, it was more like ploughing up the road. If you take a look at this photograph of him doing his usual excellent thing on a wave one thing stands out. That wetsuit! We think he is double jobbing working on the roads in Donegal - and he's sailing in his lunch break but still in his high vis.
JUNE 2022
FATHERS DAY WEEKEND
Some fathers sit back and relax on Father's Day - but not windsurfers. We enjoyed two days of 5-6m wind and bright sunshine at Oxford Island - king of the notherlies. And not even cold nipple dunkers could put us off...
Saturday was the warm up day. Not that we needed much warming up in the bright sunshine. I was one of the first to arrive and mistakenly rigged up my 8.5 as the forecasts suggested we would be lucky to get planing very much at all. Two runs and a frightening gybe made me realise the errors of my way and the forecasts so I dropped down to 6.5. The result was one of the best blasting days I've had in ages.
We had a couple of newish faces turn up. Craig and Jonny. Sounds like dodgy sandal wearing folk duo, but it turns out that Craig only sails antique kit, I'd even sold him my Ezzy 7.5 back in the day. Today however he was learning to foil and so bravely crashed around on what turned out to be Ming's ancient formula board.
They were encouraged by Nick who spent 4 hours winging before going home to rest. The other scores on the doors were Cha 7.5, Jarlath and, Paddy on 7. Normally I'm on a bigger sail than any of these lightweights, but today all bets were off and I was flying too.
It was a real pleasure to see Ciaran on the water - not words many of would predict we'd write very often. But back from his latest far away cruise (digging up WWII bombs under the ocean it turns out), we was out on his wing and smiling again.
Apparently Richard came down after his work and had a blast right into the evening. Aren't long days a blessing.
Everyone agreed it was one of the best days we could remember at the Disco Centre in ages.
And then the main day - Father's Day. It says something about the bosom of our various families that we had a large turnout of fathers (and grandfathers) very happy to escape them for a while. The sun shone again and this time it was pure north.
Cha was one of the first out. Only beaten by Nick (IR88 below) who was on a time budget before he ran for a plane. Let's hope he wasn't flying Easyjet...
In case you are confused, those are not dead chicken legs showing under Nick's sail. He insists on sailing in shorts....
Now what to rig. As you can see in this view from the main launch site, there was some wind about.
Ciaran is a very experienced sailor and never shy to give an opinion. Rig your 6.2 he told me, it's not as windy as it looks. Paddy, you'll be fine on 5.5. We weren't.
While Ciaran had one of the best sails of his life, we struggled with too much power. I quickly came in a changed down to 5.3 and a smaller fin and after that I was fine. Paddy sailed very over powered for quite a while before moving to a 5. Now he's a very good sailor but the next two images show him flying but struggling round gybes unable to sheet it.
Of course he still got them.
At least the wind put off many of the dunkers. So we just took over.
Others out included Jarlath on 5.3 and 95 wave set up. Richard on 4.5 and Chris on a 5.
The other thing about Ciaran coming back from the boat is that he's always ordered the newest kit. So he had a new 950 front wing (whatever that is) and he claims he managed to get it up. We didn't dare ask for any further details.
However, before that he surprised us all by sailing with a fin. 5.5 Blade on his 105 Dyno. Like the rest of us he had some great runs right across the the horizon and into Castors Bay. Must be about 1.5 miles and pure blasting and some nice rollers at the end on which to gybe (or not). In fact Ciaran, Nick and Jarlath were doing quite a lot of racing along there together.
A late entry was Jonny who also reverted to fin and had a ball.
All in all a great couple of days and it's probably a good thing that there is absolutely zero wind forecast for the next week as I don't think most of us are up to sailing again for a while.
JUST HOW GREAT IS MAGHEROARTY - AND JUST HOW GREAT ARE THESE PHOTOGRAPHS
I'm hugely greatful to Iwona Bielinska who took these great photographs of a June session at Magheroarty. Having tried to take a lot of photos up there myself, I know just hard it is to really do it and windsurfers justice! Just look at the colours, never mind the moves. Simply brilliant.
As I wasn't there myself, I will simply let the photos speak for themselves.
DOWNINGS HEATWAVE
This image sums up the 40th running of the Downings windsurfing event. The kids are out (for the national youth championships) whle the paddle boards and foils stand ready for the wind which never came....
We managed a paddle SUP race on both mornings and one very dodgy floatathon race on the Saturday. It was so light that many people were seen swimming their boards round some of the gybe marks and not even the foilers could plane ever.
However the sun shone and temperatures were in the top 20s. Great tans, but lousy windsurfing. Fortunately the social side of the event was as good as ever, so there was plenty of time to catch up with windsurfers we hadn't seen for a while.
The highlights were :
Nick Fletcher sternly explaining the safety rules to the 80+ entrants. Stictly no messing about or fighting or bad language - otherwise you are chucked out of the event. Then within 1 minute something went wrong and he clearly said 'oh F***' on the microphone. Cries of chuck him out mingled with the laughter. The kids loved it too.
Andrew Gallagher proudly displaying his nightclub entrance stamp on his hand on Sunday morning at the beach. Despite being almost unable to rig and certainly totally incapable of blowing up his SUP!
WAITING FOR GODOT
It's one of those books we've all heard about but never read. Well our own version is Waiting for Benji. After weeks and weeks of damned heatwaves and droughts, we finally had some wind forecast. A perfect 5m northerly in the sunshine and excitement was rising. So much so that the illusive Benji said we was going to sail! Now that's big news. Then it was taking the afternoon off to sail. And by 4pm we'd given up - and then he appeared. In fact we had to very rare sightings - Benji and the much injured Sasha too! We haven't seen the amature road digger Sasha for 5 months as he battled with a bad back.
He could hardly walk on the rigging area, but no matter how much we tried to persuade him it wasn't a good idea, Sasha was going out (possbily never to come back in again - he has form is this department).
The proof, two rare birds sighted at Oxford Island...
After a long gap, we had an appetiser the evening before. Around 4pm the bushes started to move at my house in Ballinderry and soon Whatsapp was buzzing. Oxford Island was locked due to a strike but Paddy assured us Busted worked well in a northerly so in the end Richard and I went out and had a great sail in the warm water. 8.5 for me, 6.5 for Richard. Nice.
However, the Council has done work on Busted and tidied it up a bit. Word seems to have gone out and now the curse of the dunkers has hit Busted! They were all complaining about how hard the rocks were on their feet - you'd think they'd go out at sandy Bartins, but no - they insisted on gumming up our launch.
To paraphrase a great Mark Twain quote about golf - a perfectly good sail - ruined..
The next day the gates were opened at Oxford Island and almost everyone turned up at some stage.
First up was Jonny. He was out on 5.2m and mostly on his 86. As you can see he was having a great time.
I spent most of the day there and sailed with Jonny until after lunch when he left. Knowing others would arrive I lay down in the sun for a rest. This picture shows the scene, good wind obvious and my 5.3 and Goya quad 104 ready for more action. It just sums up my day nicely.
Next to arrive was another rare visitor these days - young Barry. He sailed 4m and was doing some damage. Actually he nearly did as I took this picture when I thought he was going to hit the marker at high speed. Sadly for my action shot he didn't, instead doing a very hasty gybe at the last minute.
He also provided a first for us. He had to leave around 4pm with an unusual excuse - I have to get flee powder. I'm glad I wasn't standing too close to him. He says they've just got a puppy and it is scratching a lot, but we're not so sure.
Jarlath and Cha both dropped in to say hello, although Cha came back later (after work) and sailed.
After that it was the turn of Richard and the invisible Benji. As you can see from the two shots below they were flying. Benji on 5m on 94 and Richard amazingly on 3.7. To be fair, even he was dropping off the plane from time to time with so little sail.
Richard does a very good hamster cheek impression when he is concentrating! Keep sucking those nuts Richard...
Benji had an eventful sail as he managed to bust his spreader bar. I won't comment about the strain it must have been under as it took the pressure from Benji's tummy, but it turned out that it was already bent before he went out so he decided to risk it. So he had to sail in from Croaghan without a harness - he said 'feel like I've been hit by a truck' the next day.
The view north east from out launch with Castor's Bay off to the right. Some big rollers down there.
Cha did finally get his sail, 4.7m on his Dyno 105. And Sasha came off the water in one piece. Was he sore afterwards? I will leave the last word to him :
"I got out but my ar@e is on fire tonight!. We're not sure what this has to do with windsurfing though....
SEPTEMEMBER EASTERLIES - AND ALI'S PLUG
Spot the winger heading out between all the boats..
After the August heat came the wind. And a few days of easterlies forced your humble scribe to forsake the Pond and head to Whiterock. Actually Ciaran did sail Oxford Island, I say sail, but I found him floating around like a turd in a toilet on Friday night. We've never seen the second bay so weed-bound, it's like something out of a horror film - you expect a green tentacle to shoot out from it and drag you in.... Foiling would be impossible, even with a fin it's probably a nightmare. So Ciaran hit Castors and then had a very painful wobble back to Oxford Island.
The Saturday was wing day at Whiterock. Often it's cursed by hoards of SUPs out, plenty of room on the water but car parking is a nightmare.
Wookie, Ali, Tim and Ming winged while I rigged a board and fin. 7.8m on my Fox to be exact. They had a good session, I got planing but had to work hard to do it. Still the sun was out and the craic was good. After a pitstop for lunch, I went up to 8.5 but still really struggled to get planing.
Ali Todd came in complaining his plug had come out. We naturally assumed he meant his butt plug and wondered why he'd told us. It turned out however that he meant the plug on his wing board which connected to his leash. It was quite bad actually, as the top of the (new) board had gone soft and looked like the entire plug would pop out. A temporary repair with some tape and string got him back on the water. While we were relieved not to have to fish into his wetsuit for anything more unsavory....
Sunday however was the best day at Whiterock. The Saturday crew were joined by Craig, Jonny, Jake and Dave Cheyne. Again I was the only fin, but at least Craig rigged a 5m sail for his ironing board. This time the wind was much better and I stayed on 7.8m on the Fox and fairly flew. The wingers had a ball too until the wind died for lunch. An hour later it came back and was even better. It's been a while since I've sailed between the islands there so it was good to be reminded what a lovely spot it is, especially in a touch of east.
One high spot was when the Wookie was seen to be left for dead by the immaculate Tim. Wookie of course denies this, but we have the always reliable Minger as a witness, so it has to be true...
IT SHOULD HAPPEN TO A LAWYER
If you know the joke about no skid marks on the road, read on...
Ali Todd is a lawyer.
Ali has joined the winging brigade and in October he, Wookie, Minger and his 'girlfriend' Tim were all out at Glenn Road. Just to be clear, when I say they were 'out' I don't mean they'd come out of the closet...
It was proper windy and next thing Ali's wing decided to make a break for Bangor - he hadn't tightened his wrist strap well enough. Minger left Ali to die in the water (well, he is a lawyer after all) to give chase to the brand new £800 wing. But he couldn't get it. Shortly after this, Minger was flagged down by a passer by (on dry land we assume) to say a wing had been spotted further along the coast. An offer of a boat to go out and get it was turned down as it was felt too dangerous to take a boat out. Then another contact told Ming the wing has landed at Helen's Bay. So Ali was dispatched and found his wing on the beach (probably enjoying a couple of beers as people do at that location) and unharmed!
However, just to remind you, Ali has form in the bloody sailor department. This was him around 11 years before.
Fortunately back then we had a doctor on hand - with a lot of duct tape in his medical bag.
DONEGAL COURSES
There were two wave courses in Donegal this year. You can get the full stories here and here.
However, here's a couple of brief highlights if you prefer. Not great wind (again) this year, but at least our tans were well taken care of.
We had two Eds at one stage, including Ed Balls although fortunately he didn't dance (or try to run the economy).
Harty was training up a new crowd :
But there was a good turn out :
Weeks two saw the bromance of Ming and Tim blossom - dare we say even it bore fruit? Tim acquired the nickname Chardonnay and here's the proof.
We are used to broken windsurfers being mended, not least by Tim of course, but rarely with electric drills.
When the waves and wind did turn up, there was some winging taking place.
Who knew that Zlatan Ibrahimović windsurfed Donegal?
And there was some real wave sailing.
OCTOBER AND THE WIND BLOWS! AND RAPTOR RULES
There was no shortage of wind, waves or indeed mayhem at the Mayo Mayhem. And the really good news is that Raptor is the National Champion. The judges commented that he was probably not consistently the best sailor but he really turned it on when it mattered in the final. Well that's what it takes to win and there is no doubt that Alex has put in the work (clearly often not at work) over the years. So really well deserved.
There are plenty of write ups and indeed a very long video if you want to see how he did it.
Typical Day at Kearney
I think they were in shock when I rolled up at Kearney, but I had a new board to test. Phil from Getwindsurfing had persuaded me to buy a Starboard Kode. Nothing too surprising there, but in fact it was a 125 ltr wave board. It's somewhat akin to Ming's Moo ie rather thick and all the buoyancy in the middle - actually come to think of it, this is a pretty good description of Ming himself.....
Anyway, I found you had to own the centre line and even a non-planing gybe required the weight further forward than I was used to. I'd tried it in freeride mode (single 36 fin) on the Pond, but at last I could try it in wave mode with a 24 fin plus 2 thrusters. Sadly no pictures of this expedition.
5.2 weather for me and the likes of Fanta Pants. A little less for some other but sunny and nice sized but not too big waves. Backside for most of course.
Others out included Wookie, Philip, John, Russell (didn't know he did waves), Mark and Graeme. My thanks to Mark some of whose photos I have stolen.
And the big Kode? Well, despite the rider it turned really neatly. Easy to get onto a wave and really good when the wind turns fickle. I think I could be in love ...
NEWTOWNARDS REVISITED
It seems like ages since I've sailed the club at Newtownards. More fool me, because one October Sunday showed how good it can be. While the serious waveheads went into battle with 3m waves and 30+ knots at Kearney, a good crowd sailed the club in more civilised conditions. Paddy Lyner was all smiles on 5m and flying. David was on the fin, which of course meant his excellent wife was there with the camera and produced these great shots. Vic and Owen were the sole representatives of the old farts brigade - until Ming and I rocked up. Ali was out too on 4.7m.
Nick had a total ball on 5.3m on his 115 FSW. He came in because his legs had turned to jelly after so many runs.
Nick and his jelly legs.
Proof that the Lord was on the water. 104 Goya at this stage.
Tim in the air as usual. No time for Chardonnay here.
I rigged 4.7 and started on my 104 Goya quad but soon found the conditions taxing. Great when it was blowing 25-30 knots but not so clever when it dipped to around 20. So I checked the specification on my Kode 125 ltr (wave board) and it said sail size down to 6m. Sod that, I stuck the 4.7 on it with the board set up for wave mode and it was great. Suddenly the lulls mattered a lot less and that board really does sail like a much smaller board. OK, I had to work a bit over the very bouncy bits, but it really wasn't a problem. The love affair continues....
The morning brigade headed off eventually leaving just Minger on his small wing, me on the Kode and a very high tide. I stopped when the wind went totally mental (it had to be well over 30 knots as I started planing out of gybes) and managed to get in despite the high tide and waves. Minger stayed out waiting for the tide to drop but even he had to give in and swam in with his wing and board. Sensing a disaster (and not want to miss the pain) I was waist deep on the slipway to help him, but fair play - he made it in unaided.
A lovely day the club.
TIREE CLASSIC - THE NI TEAM
I don't usually find myself writing about the annual Tiree event - it's far away, hard to get to and requires a lot of skil to take part. But 3 amigos from Norn Iron went there this year and here's John Bedford's post about it -
Tiree 2022 was the 38th run of the Tiree Wave Classic which turned out to be the only BWA ranking event this year. Travelled with a good crew and we all entered the Masters Class (over 40s) so a few youngsters in there compared to us.
Competition can be frustrating, I had a terrible first day compounded by the combination of 40 knot wind and Covid leftovers but everyone had there ups and downs. My second day was better, but there is a lot of luck involved.
We ended up sailing eight days on the trip, had some mixed weather and conditions and fortunately managed to get off the island before the winter ferry disruption really kicked in.
Selection of photos give some idea of the event atmosphere and conditions. As usual we were hopeless at taking photos - but a great one of Dave Cheyne getting into a wave during our warm up sails at Crossapol included. It’s highs and lows though - last picture is also Dave’s 5.6 - somewhat reduced in size!
Good action, good company, interesting pets in the garden, good food and the odd beer here and there. Result
Now when he says 'result' what he fails to mention is that he did rather well in it. John is now 5th overall in the British Masters! Not bad for an old fart with most parts of his body f****d.
THE TORTOISE AND THE HARE - BALLYHOLME WINDSURFING EVENT
This was the second year that Ballyholme ran their Open Windsurfing Ulster Championships - and most excellently did they run it. Everything was well organised, great rescue boat cover, military timing and lovely food. There were two problems, both beyond their control. Firstly the weather, sunny, dry but very dodgy wind. And secondly only 20 entrants. Still it included people from as far away as Cork and Dublin. Indeed it was great to see Ed Balls, fresh from his brave but ultimately unsuccesful assault on the Achill wave event. In fact he won the silver fleet at Ballyholme, although he might have been nearly the only entrant...
It wasn't my finest hour as I holed my Manta with my harness hook and limped off to move the my SUP. This turned out to be an inspired move as, with a 40 cm fin stuck underneath it, I could now make good progress but of course not plane. And so it turned into the tortoise and the hare, or hares in this case. If there was a puff of wind foilers like Ming and Philip shot off, only to grind to a halt when the puff faded. I on the other hand kept up a steady, even brisk, pace and never dropped a gybe or a tack. The result was some epic battles especially near the finishing line with the fin proving at times successful against some of the foils.
The tortoise just about to be (temporarily) overtaken by the hare - but not the hair...
With such flukey winds there was much swearing at times and it was common to see a foil take off and then crash specacularly as the wind played tricks.
The other memorable things were the lobster pots which skewered a number of people. I got the rope of one wrapped a couple of times around my fin and various others were felled like they had been shot by a sniper. And then there was the singing. We think Philip sings when he sails to put other people off their gybes (or their food). All I know is that days later I was still singing hey hey we're the monkeys.....
When it came to the prize giving, it appeared to be done on height. Philips was 3rd in the golf fleet, only to be surpassed by an even taller runner up, who in turn was towered over the ariel Hannas.
It was actually great fun as the photos show.
The old man takes a lie down...
It almost looks like racing!
The winner, no surprise there.
Tired out by all the singing?
And on the Sunday a small but select (too select to include me) bunch trying a new innovation - foiling day. Not a huge fleet, actually 4, who did a down the coast and back race. There was some dispute about who won. In time terms it was Wookie. In fact he claims he was back first, went in, had a tea (and a bun) before sailing out to meet the second in the race - one Ming the Merciless. However a dispute arose over crossing the starting line, so Minger claims he won it. The jury is still out on this, but we do know that Minger grabbed the prize money and made off with it. No doubt this will be settled in a bar somewhere...
ONE DAY IN NOVEMBER
October and November were unseasonably warm. Great for our sport but trees were confused and thought it was Spring, bare heads were seen on the water and, to our horror, some windsurfers turned up at the water's edge in shorts!
Rather than try and fail to give the full picture of this busy period, instead here is the story of the last weekend of November and the spread of windsurfers and locations involved. When it was a balmy 13 degrees!
It was windy, seriously windy. Newtownards Sailing Club showed 30 knots with gusts well into the 40s. The sea state was agressive and the tide exceptionally high. Paddy L, Vic and Owen bravely went out on 4.2-4.5. They said they 'enjoyed it' but I'm not so sure. They were fighting all the way and landing again at the club was getting dangerous. Paddy bashed his leg on the slip way and I saw Owen struggle to get in.
Meanwhile, down at the car park Paddy D, Sasha and Russell were out on around 4.2. Now normally we poke fun at Russell for sailing on a much smaller sail than any normal human being. But full respect today. He was holding down (ish) a 4m and was flying. I will bet his arms were sore afterwards. Paddy and Sasha had to change down to 3.5/3.7. Paddy's comment was that it was right at the top of what he could hold - and then the gusts hit you. It didn't look like fun to me.
Up in the north, Wookie and Ming were at Magheroarty which Mr Wookie described at 'mental'. They had a more relaxing Saturday winging for what looked like many miles at Rosapenna.
Further east, Dave C was at Dooeys which Bedford described as 'an angry day at the beach'. We're not sure if he means the conditions or how he felt after trying to sail it.
To the south, at Tyrella, the waveheads were out. Given that Ards was so tough, one can only imagine what this was like. Thanks for Michael for proving this photo amongst many other.
However our national hero, National Wavehead Champion Raptor chose to sail Cloughy which he called 'lovely'. That probably means that few other sailors could cope. However Simon Saunders joined in late and sailed until dark. Mind you, that's 4pm these days.
For a more civilised sail, Richard and I finally hit the second bay at Oxford Island. The wind was a lot more controllable away from the coast and in fact we rigged 6.5 and 5.3. Good sail in somewhat patchy wind - and then it really came up. We clung on until it got silly and my thanks for the non sailing John Millar for some great shots.
Two things of note happened. Firstly Richard decided to experiment with a new form of sit down windsurfing...
And then I tried to set a new record for the longest distance waterstart. I was actually flying along when the wind really move up. I head up as far into the wind as I could and leaned out like a yachtsman. And then it got windier. The board lifted out of the water and my bum went into it. Still planing hard, I flew along for 100 yards with my bottom as the fin. I then regained (some) control and got the board back on the water and my bum into the air again. It must have looked comic.
Colonic irrigation for windsurfers anyone?
SO THAT WAS 2022
It feels like our climate is changing. From yet another little wind Donegal, to near tropical temperatures in November it's very different from when I started writing these articles.
And back in the day it was all proper windsurfing ie with a sail and a fin. Now I find myself sometimes the only fin surrounded by wingers. The good news for them is that they can get on the water in almost any conditions. More people are selling their windsurfing kit, even Chardonnay Tim has sold every bit of his windsurfing gear and setlled down to partner Ming (in so many ways) on the wing. I do however see quite a few wingers hanging on to their wave kit - two very different ends of the spectrum.
So what will 2023 hold in store? I might suggest :
- Yet more wings and ironing boards
- Manufacturers might start to make wings that last more than 5 minutes without bursting
- Yet fewer windsurf-only folk
- More warm days on the water
- The Guinness will still taste as good the moment you come off the water.
See you there.
