A perfect Friday...

On a rare tuition-free day (I was doing a bit of spot-guidance for a group from Cornwall), I was all set to make the call to go to Punta when I checked the windmills next to my house and detected a hint more north in the wind than forecast. My local wind senses tingling, I rang my "man on the beach" down at Puerto Lajas and lo and behold he confirmed that the wind looked quite sideshore down there, albeit quite light. It being only 9.30 in the morning, I gambled that the wind would stay north and pick up as the day went on and, guess what? Yeah, the wind had already freshened by the time we arrived at 11 and we got straight on the water and had 2 hours totally to ourselves before we had to change down to 4.5s and 5.0s and other people started to arrive. Although the waves were fairly small (head-high) it was an epic, fun session with friends and we sailed for far too long, coming back in at 6pm. What a day! Check out the pics below, most from the little punchy wave in front of the parking area, great fun for aerials and jumping, and also the bit of vid at the end, stolen from a friend´s camera (thanks, Sam!), which gives you a better perspective of what a fun place this is to sail when it works, even when it´s small...

lajas from Stephen Gibson on Vimeo.

Another week of wind...

The wind is still blowing during one of the best summer seasons I can remember over here- it´s been amazing! Last week´s student was my mate Simon Hobbs from Cardiff, who came over to crack the forward loop. Dogged by injury from the get-go (he blacked his eye trying 360s in 40kts at Sotavento, then wrenched his shoulder), it was always going to be an uphill battle but Si soldiered on and made good progress, critically disposing of the "fear factor", indeed almost cracking it on the last day before his injured shoulder stopped play. We had wind in abundance on every day of his stay and sailed every day at Punta, bar one when we headed south to learn 360s. All in all, a great week, shame about the injuries as he could have had the loop cracked for sure, but that´s windsurfing and he´ll be back and get it next time...

Si, flying like a local at Punta.

Duck gybe in the legendary lagoon at Sotavento.

How not to 360!

Punta again...stylin´!

...and again...

Today, I´m off to Punta to teach forwards again. If I get time I´m going to try to make a video documentary of how it goes today to post up. In the meantime, check out this awesome video Hobbsy made of the sailing back at home in Wales (when he wasn´t injured).

Untitled from SIMON HOBBS on Vimeo.

Ponch.

During the surfdock clinic last week, I did an impromptu ponch class/diagramatic analysis on the side of my van to explain the dynamics of the move to the boys. Unfortunately, we didn´t get the ideal conditions to try it out (Sotavento is the place for ponches, but it was too windy and mirror-flat when we went down there), so I thought I´d get some snaps when I next went down two days ago. This time conditions were much better, maxed on 4.5 with knee high wavelets and wind cross-off. Check out the snaps below, and see if you can match them with the diagram on the van pic above- bet you can´t, haha!!!!!

Windy, Wavey Surfdock Week.

Although it finished almost a week ago, this is the first chance I´ve had to sit down and write a report on the Surfdock summer wave clinic. Wind-wise, it was by far my most successful clinic to date, with wind from first light til dark on every single day of the boys´one week stay. Without going into too much detail and writing a blow-by-blow account, we sailed at Sotavento and Glass the first day, then Glass and Punta the second and Punta every day for the remainder. We also had the good fortune to have Irish wave wizard Oisin Van Gelderen along for the trip, to help out with tuition (and motivation!), so the pressure was certainly on the boys to step up. Although the lads outlined their goals at the start of the week and everyone had slightly different aims, the one common factor was that old demon the forward loop, and with conditions at Punta so totally perfect, it turned into a 90% forward loop clinic- some of the boys learning it for the first time, and some others perfecting their rotation with the aim of stalling them.
I´d like to congratulate everyone who took part as they all gave it 110% for the entire week, and were looking decidedly jaded when they left for the airport....
All in all, a huge success- 6 solid days of sailing in waves, 3 meals out (and a couple of nights out I suspect), and a tongue-in-cheek award ceremony (hope you´ve all still got those "trophies", you earned them), and of course tons of craic! I can only hope they enjoyed it as much as I did. Thanks and well done (and I hope your ribs heal soon, Peter).
Ryan.

Andy.

Peter.

Phil.

Cormac.

The instructors hard at work.

So that´s it for what looks certain to become an annual event, a huge thanks to Colin from www.surfdock.ie for organising everything at his end (with probably more than a little help from Nina, I´d imagine), the legendary OVG for his help, Ryan for his inspiring sailing (well done on the backside 3s, youngster), and of course all the boys- see you all next year if you´ve recovered by then...

Ready, steady, go.

My summer season really kicks off tomorrow with the arrival of my first clinic, the boys from Ireland. The forecast is looking fantastic and they are in for some top coaching from myself and the legendary Oisin Van Gelderen. Looks like conditions will be perfect for this full-on wave clinic and I´m hoping to see some amazing results by the end of the week. Apparently it´s all about forwards, backloops, pushloops and goiters. Can´t wait! Keep an eye on the blog for pics, vids and updates. In the meantime, here´s some more photos from this incredible month down in Puerto Lajas https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10151049075331894.489804.533171893&type=1&l=25bdb44c9c

June so far...

I think I might already have mentioned (about a thousand times) but, yeah, this June has been one of the best ever so far. Instead of posting up all the pics and boring you all for months I´ve stuck them in a facebook album. Check it out here... https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10151038758151894.488613.533171893&type=1&l=97ac5393e7

A Brief Respite.

Well, the wind has finally gone light for a couple of days giving my aching body time to recuperate at least a little before it comes back with a vengeance on Friday, coincidentally the first day of my 8 week summer holiday! I say holiday but anyone who has been in touch asking for tuition or spot guiding will know I am actually extremely busy this summer, so hopefully I´ll have a lot of stuff and pics to post. For now, I´ll leave you with a few more photos of my last day at Lajas. Punta on Friday methinks...

Still going...

Yeah, still windy (and sunny, ahem) over here. It´s been an epic summer already and it hasn´t even truly got going yet! This was yesterday...

And there´s more...

...and another nice aerial sequence from the next day- smaller, but giving a nice perspective of the wave down there and the "rubbish" we´re having to sail in at the moment, haha...

Aerial Antics...

I was hoping to get a few pics from this week and I now have too many! Don´t know what to do with them all! I won´t bang on about how fantastic this June has been, suufice it to say that it is still firing over here and looks set to continue. I´ve had some of the best port tack riding I´ve ever had and feel as though I´m improving quite a bit (port riding has never been my ideal conditions), although I freely admit I´ve a fair way to go before I´m a true wave ripper, haha. Anyway, feast yer eyes on this aerial from earlier in the week down the coast, loads more to come, I´ll keep sorting through them...

Summer is definitely here...

Yep, it´s here at last. After a long and very windy winter/spring, the summer trades have kicked in and it looks like it´s here to stay- great news for my upcoming clinics at the end of the month. Last week was pretty epic again with a couple of days at Glass and then two amazing days at Puerto Lajas, port-tack jumping and riding. Once again, due to work commitments through the week, I was first on the water and leaving just as all the boys were rigging for their session, and looking at the photos it looks as though it got even better after I left. Puerto Lajas is a joy after the madness and stress of a crowded Glass Beach, waves aplenty and no waiting in line and getting screamed at by the "Glass locals" (they know who they are- it doesn´t happen to me but I see some very bad on-water etiquette from certain sailors up here towards the tourists). Anyway, today was light but it´s kicking in extra strong from tomorrow so I´ve prepared my small sail and I´ll be heading along that dusty old northtrack tomorrow to Punta and then back to Puerto Lajas hopefully for the rest of the week (hopefully I´ll strike lucky and get some decent photos...). Having been witness to some crazy aggro antics and near-misses at Glass earlier in the week, I thought this near-miss video from Eva Ophius sailing at Pozo was pretty relevant. Now this is close...

Glassy...

What can I say, last week was one of the best weeks I can remember in my time here at Glass Beach. Fully powered on my 5m North Hero with logo-high waves every day and, quite unusually, blowing from first thing in the morning! Anyone who has been here and sailed at Glass will know that it gets pretty crowded when it´s good, but everyone seems to arrive at about 3 or 4 in the afternoon so, with this in mind and also the fact that I start work at 4 through the week, I got myself down to the beach at 11am every day and scored epic Glass with no crowds. Awesome. Just me and two or three other guys out with constant waves and wind, taking any wave you wanted for two and a half hours at a time. By all accounts the afternoons were extremely crowded with all the usual aggro and bad attitude which make me not the greatest fan of Glass Beach. The downside, however, was that the photographer posse tends to turn up in the afternoon aswell so I missed them and got zero pics to post up. Never mind, next week looks even better with bigger swell and even more wind (looks like 4.5m weather coming our way!) so maybe I´ll get lucky and have some photos to show you.
On another note, it looks like I will be collaborating with someone this winter to provide week-long SUP camps, including accomodation, equipment, transport, and evening meals and BBQ, similar to my windsurf clinics. Watch this space for more info, we should be starting in September when the wind drops and the first decent swells arrive...

Ridiculousness.

It´s just been revealed that kiteboarding is about to replace windsurfing in the 2016 Olympics and, naturally, there´s a fair bit of hoo-ha about it all. I think it´s fairly obvious what my opinion on the matter is- I´d say most people would agree that due to the fairly low level of skill and fitness/training required in kiting you may aswell just toss a coin for the medals. If you head down to Flag Beach on a windyish day, it will be immediately apparent that everyone is at the same level- they all go the same speed, do the same tricks and can take one hand off and drag it in the water. Actually, there are two levels- complete beginners, who flap about in the water with no board and get in my way with their lines, and "experts"(the aforementioned hand-draggers), who flap about in the water looking for their boards and get in my way with their lines. As both these levels seem to be separated by about six sessions on the water, I consider this proof of the lack of skill, dedication and training needed. Anyway, I won´t harp on about it, if you want to read more check this out... http://www.change.org/petitions/isaf-keep-windsurfing-as-olympic-discipline . (I signed by the way).