The summer begins!!!!!!!!

Well, the wind is here and my summer of windsurfing clinics has begun in earnest! Last week was a forward loop clinic with Mark from Cork in Ireland and once again I have to say it was a huge success! We managed to score a couple of good days including a great waveriding session at Puerto Lajas, but the best was definitely saved for last. On his last day we rocked up to Punta and the forward loop fun began. Mark already had an idea of what he was trying to do, and, after we tweaked his technique on the water, he was spinnig like a madman, hurling himself off every available ramp. His rotation was supersmooth after about an hour and by the end of the session he was landing with the sail out of the water and soooooo nearly sailing away!! Big respect to the fella- he gave it his all and was totally fearless, reaping the rewards for his great efforts- well done, mate! All in all, we had a great laugh and I can only hope Mark enjoyed it as much as I did- I love teaching forwards- they've got to be the most rewarding clinics I do, great stuff!!!!

What a week!!!!

Wow, what a week! I've just finished a full week of teaching with Pat O'Brien from the emerald isle and we had our fair share of action despite the fairly light winds for the week. Pat was a complete beginner and the conditions were absolutely perfect- Pat proved to be an amazing student and, despite the mishaps and accidents that befell us during the week( van smashed up by an articulated lorry, keys locked in borrowed van etc, you know, all the usual stuff, haha), progressed at an amazing rate, mastering all the basics in the first two sessions and quickly moving on to quick tacks and gybe variations, clew-first sailing, and using the harness. Well done that man! He is now back at home in Ireland with his shiny new windsurf kit watching the trees blowing through his office window and waiting for the weekend, I bet! All in all another huge success for all involved and great fun. See you next year, Pat?

Becalmed..........

As is pretty typical for the start of June, the wind has been pretty light for the last couple of weeks. I scored a couple of good freestyle sessions in the south when there was no wind up here (local knowledge, haha) but, apart from that, there has been very little windsurfing action. I have been getting wet most days though, as I am teaching Caroline (again) and she is coming on in leaps and bounds now- look out world! Hopefully she'll be in tiptop shape in time for next year's Get High Or Die!
I have a free week now and then I am going to be busy for most of the summer with clinics so there should be plenty to report. For now, check out the latest move for my tricktionary, the double flaka. As usual, a full how-to will follow very shortly..........

Double Flaka from Stephen Gibson on Vimeo.

Carlsberg?

CARLSBERG DON'T MAKE BEACH SIGNPOSTS, BUT IF THEY DID........................................

PROBABLY THE BEST SIGNPOST IN THE WORLD.

Get High Or Die!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

On Saturday 16th and Sunday 17th of May, I staged the first ever wave event to be held at Punta Blanca in Fuerte. My main goals with this comp were to get all the local riders together for a fun weekend of windsurfing and partying, and also to get every single competitor to push their own personal limits and reach a new level of sailing. To this end I devised a system of judging whereby each heat was judged by the riders from a different heat, according to their ability, a kind of handicap system, with riders who pushed themselves the hardest progressing through to the next round. The result was phenomonal! I have never seen such radical action at Punta in my 14 years of sailing there! In absolutely perfect conditions, we had guys sailing away from their first ever forward loops after only a few attempts, guys throwing themselves into doubles at every opportunity and all done with huge smiles all round. Wow, it surpassed all my expectations!
Will impressed everyone with his suicidal double attempts (he really was determined to get high or die!) and came away with 1st prize with Victor in 2nd and big Pieter in 3rd. Really, though, I could have awarded trophies to absolutely everyone as there were so many who sailed better than I have ever seen before.
After the heats, I held two expression sessions, with 15 in each heat, resulting in a jumping frenzy with all the local island hillbillies trying their utmost to kill or maim themselves, haha. Check the video and you'll see exactly what I mean!
After all the organisation I did, you'd have thought the gods would have been smiling down on me but, oh no, 1 minute into my quarter final heat, my mast foot broke and I spent the whole heat swimming back to the beach as my fellow competitors jeered me good-naturedly from the water. With friends like these, haha...............oh, well, next year, I'll fix it so I win.............
After the expression session it was back to the UTurn in Lajares for the prizegiving, filled to the rafters, and it was there where it was evident just how successful the weekend had been. Everyone was super-stoked to have been a part of it, and not one person whinged or whined about anything, which must be a first in the history of competition!!!
All in all, a greater success than I ever dreamed possible, already planning next year's..............
Greetings from the sunshine,
Gibson.

Get High Or Die!!!!!!!! from Stephen Gibson on Vimeo.

Get High Or Die Photos.

SUP

Day 2 goes OFF!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

As forecast, the wind filled in on Sunday and the comp was a huge success!! Everyone was giving it 110% and the action was insane! I am working on the video right now and I have 1500 photos to sift through so for now you will have to content yourselves with these low-res frame grabs from my video camera. Full write-up, photos and video this week, watch this space..........................

Get High Or Die, Day 1!!!!!!!

Well, that's day 1 over and, despite annoyingly light, gusty winds we managed to plough through the first round, leaving the quarters for today as the forecast looks much more promising. I'll leave ya with a couple of pics to show that there was still alot of good action- definitely much more to come today, though!!!!!!!!!!!!Full report and pics/video imminent.........................

LET'S GET READY TO RUMBLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

After months of waiting for the right forecast, it's finally on- the Punta Blanca "Get High Or Die" Wave Comp will take place this weekend at Punta Blanca on the northshore!

30 local sailors will fight it out on Saturday for the King of Punta title with man-on-man eliminations judged by the riders themselves to encourage a handicap-system whereby each rider will be judged according to how he or she pushes their own personal limits. On Sunday I will be running a super session with trophies for the most impressive jump, the most extreme wipeout/bail and one for the biggest chicken-out. Gonna be total carnage.

Sunday night will be an end of comp party in the U-Turn in Lajares with prizegiving and BBQ. Watch this space for photos, updates and, of course, THE video........................

More Clinic Success!!

Well, just said goodbye to Alan and Emmet from Ireland after another fantastic week of coaching. The wind was a little marginal this time but we managed to make the most of the conditions and even played a trump card heading south to sail 4.5s when there was a force 1 up here. Anyway, this is what Al said in a forum post....
"Just back from my week in Fuerteventura, thanks to all for the advice given.Just to share my experiences.........I took you up on your advice Oisin and booked a clinic for a week with Stephen Gibson (http://gibboinfuerte.blogspot.com/). I felt like I've crammed a years worth of progress into 7 days and avoided all the usual hassles with gear rental/service/transport/local knowledge. Couldn't recommend him highly enough for all sailing levels and will defo be back again. Picked up some nice gear too for a song thanks to Stephens contacts." Pretty happy, I reckon.
Also, read here what Nick, my student from two weeks ago, and an absolute beginner (until now) had to say.......
"I have just got back in from 7 days of 'flat out' fun with Fuerteventura legend Steve 'Gibbo' Gibson.
I hooked up with the man from the toon via a friend of mine for a week long , learn from scratch course. Being a total novice to the wind, although I can hold my own on a surfboard, snowboard, skis I thought it would be a nightmare to grasp wind surfing. NOT the case. Gibson explained everything in a 'canny' manor that was easy to understand and take in whilst making me feel totally at ease.
From the moment we hit the water at Waikiki beach, he was next to me or behind me talking me through, then showing me the how's, if's ,why's do's and don't do's. As part of my package all the kit was supplied. I feel there is no better way to learn than actually having the teacher out there with you talking you through everything that is going on piece by piece. He can then show you the correct way in close up as he is actually doing it.
I don't wish to give it the large one but by day 5 I was out in a good strong wind with a 5.0 up (not hooked in) screaming back and forth at speeds that felt like a ton although Gibbo reckons it was only 15mph! tacking quickly and Jibing.... Hope i have spelt it right.
The evenings were spent in Gibbo's bar .... 'Gibsons' eating cracking scran, downing beers, talking about the days fun and watching vids of the man himself whacking out a whole armory of tricks, loops and huge airs.
The highlight of my days on the water..........?
Gibson screaming out behind me, 'way ay one scoop man ', hitting a head high wave at half tilt and forward looping over my head about 10 feet away.... ! A proper giggle.
If you need to contact him to verify that I did actually have 2 scoops of chocolate ice cream get him at gibboinfuerte@yahoo.co.uk ". Bit bizarre, but very complimentary, haha.
And lastly, my advanced student from April, Alex's pa had this to say......."Hi All,
I can't recomend Steve's clinics highly enough. Not only for his professional instruction but in ensuring the best beach is hit for the days wind direction. Fuerta may be very windy, but it does need someone who knows the place to ensure that you end up in the right spot to make the most of the conditions - get it wrong and it may not be windy and you can spend all week chasing. Local knowledge of where to go and where not to sail when you get to the right spot can also ensure that you don't trash your kit in the first five minutes.
We've just come back from Steve's first clinic (Alex) and he has ensured that we have been able to make the best of the conditions on each day. Alex's sailing has really improved through Steve's tips and all in all its been a really good crack.
If anyone reading this is planning on going to Fuerta to improve their windsurfing or to just get some time on the water - get in touch with Steve. I promise you will not regret it. Top local knowledge and professional instruction - with video - which really helps get things dialled.
Thanks for everything Steve - Alex will be back. "
Pretty positive feedback so far, looking forward to my next one already............

Old Dog New Tricks.

As I mentioned, I've dedicated the last two days at Punta almost entirely to learning double flakas and am finally starting to get a feel for them. Yesterday, I took the video and we filmed for an hour to see if I could get my first one on camera and the result is this short video. I edited out the 55,000,000 crashes and was left with this little bit, haha. Check out the last double on the vid, though, can't believe that's me. Stoked! There's even a cheeky little one-hander on there.....

Double flaka session!!!!! from Stephen Gibson on Vimeo.

Glass Beach Photoshoot

While I was doing the clinic with Alex at Glass Beach, a friend of mine, Serge, took a few pics.

We were training flakas but conditions were pretty good for ponches aswell (as you can probably tell from the pics!). Today, it's off to Punta in search of the elusive double flaka! Got a few yesterday, one cracker, so I'm gonna try to get some video done. Enjoy the photos and watch this space.............

One-Handed Flaka Diablo.

This week I did a beginner course with Nick from the UK, which went amazingly. Once again we were blessed with perfect learning conditions and he soon progressed from uphauling and falling to planing around Waikiki tacking and gybing! Amazing progress. To be fair to Nick he was very determined and refused to give up no matter how difficult the next step seemed, and therefore progressed very, very quickly indeed. He is coming back again and we will have him in a harness and footstraps by the end of his next week which is not bad going at all for someone who will have, by then, been windsurfing for a grand total of 2 weeks! Bring it on..............
For now, I leave you with another addition to my "tricktionary"- the one-handed flaka diablo! Watch the vid, I will post a how-to very soon.................

One-Handed Flaka Diablo from Stephen Gibson on Vimeo.

Commitment!

Just in case you were thinking it all looks too easy, I have made a short video of Alex learning flakas during the week long clinic we did together. I have called the video "Commitment" as that is what is required when learning any manoeuvre but, perhaps even more so with the flaka! This was shot over two days at Glass Beach and is only a handful of the attempts made during this time as most of the time I was on the water spurring him on! If you can apply yourself as wholeheartedly as Alex does in this video, maybe you too can enjoy the success that he does at the end of the vid!!!!! Watch and learn..................

Commitment-journey to the flaka!!!!!!!!!! from Stephen Gibson on Vimeo.

Fuerte Windsurf Clinic April 2009

As I mentioned in the last post, the clinic with Alex last week was a huge success. Here is a short diary of how it all panned out over the week he was here. I have also put together a video diary using the footage I took to use for analysis..........
DAY 1.
Fairly light NE winds and it's off to Punta for the first day. A great chance for Alex to settle into the conditions with 3m waves breaking in the bay. We focus on waveriding and Alex attempts a couple of forwards as the wind freshens.
DAY 2.
The wind has picked up considerably and it's back to Punta, this time fully powered up on 5.0s. Alex has great succes with his forwards today, his rotation is smooth now and he sails away from quite a few perfect ones. Happy days!
DAY 3.
Despite the forecast for superstrong northeasterlies, the wind has turned due east and we score perfect conditions at the legendary Majanicho, normally a winter spot. Wind strong (4.5m sail) and small to medium waves. Alex sails for five hours and his waveriding improves immensely during his sessions here today. Possibly his best ever day of windsurfing, according to Alex!
DAY 4.
The wind has come back round NE and is still very strong, 4.5s being the order of the day. Today is perfect for fowards and Alex is getting one on every run now. As the wind gets even stronger, he starts to over-rotate a little as he has his technique so dialled so I teach him to stall them a little to remedy the problem. What a day! Alex' hands, however, are in tatters due to the hours he is sailing!
DAYS 5 and 6.
The wind swings into north and it's off to Glass to learn flakas! Over these two days Alex throws himself off every wave and piece of chop, showing incredible commitment and eventually reaping the rewards for his considerable efforts when he starts sailing out of flakas on the second day! An amazing achievement when you consider that flakas took me the best part of a year to master! Well done that young man!
The clinic really could not have gone any better- Alex was a model student, taking in every piece of advice and immediately putting it into practice on the water. His sailing improved dramatically in only one week and he left a very happy boy!
Check out the video of the action to see the incredible range of conditions we scored over the week. That could be you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


Fuerte windsurf clinics,April 2009 from Stephen Gibson on Vimeo.

Clinic success!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Well,that's the last day of my first real windsurf clinic and young Alex is on the plane headed for the green and pleasant(and cold) land! This week was an overwhelming success with wind every single day of his stay and all sorts of conditions. I will write a bit more about it in the next couple of days, congratulations to Alex, though, on his flaka and forward loop success!!!!!!!!!!!
For now, I leave you with the next move for my tricktionary- the flaka diablo. Full how-to coming soon, for now just watch the video....................................
Flaka diablo from Stephen Gibson on Vimeo.

Helmet cam trial run from Stephen Gibson on Vimeo.

Here it is - the moment we've all been waiting for!Well, me anyway........As promised, here is a bit of footage using the latest in modern technology- the home-made helmet cam!!!! Comprising of a combination of a video camera, a helmet, some roofrack straps and a lot of little fiddly bits, the home-made helmet cam may look a little awkward to manipulate but it surpassed even our expectations- it is also heavy, unpredictable and, almost certainly, dangerous! That said, however, we got some pretty nice stuff on there in the 30 minutes we had before Victor's(cameraman) neck swelled up. Enjoy the video....................Stephen.

One-handed flaka from Stephen Gibson on Vimeo.

Had a couple of decent sessions at Punta over the last couple of days and managed to persuade my amigo Victor to video for 20 minutes. I concentrated on flaka variations this time, so I can add to my ever-expanding tricktionary! Here is the first variation- the one-hander. I will do a step-by step very soon, and post the other two variations I got on video over the next couple of days.

We also did some filming with a "revolutionary"(i.e home-made) helmet cam yesterday morning, the video is almost finished and I will post it up very,very soon. Watch this space............

Still waitin for the wind to kick in over here (any day now!).

Meanwhile, check out this vid of the Twinser Wave in action. I

have used mine non-stop since getting it in October and love

this board..........