Carl
Christchurch on 28/01/13
| Rating: |  |
| Board: | 74 litres |
| Sail: | 4.5 |
The wind was a bit light to start off with so went out on 5.4m and freestyle board. Despite the lighter wind, the forecast 16 sec period had brought the most fantastic waves. The wind picked up and the freestyle board was getting a bit uncomfortable so after a couple of very loud flat landings I decided to change down so as to keep this board in one piece. After changing board twice and rig once, I was finally on the perfect kit, 4.5m and waveboard and had such a great time on this I didn't even notice when my ticket ran out until about 2 hours later. Eventually came in when the 4.5m was too much but couldn't really feel my hands by then anyway, maybe I should invest in some gloves.
Christchurch on 31/12/12
| Rating: |  |
| Board: | 74 litres |
| Sail: | 4.5 |
First time out in weeks due to other commitments. There was a good swell and with all the flooding locally the high tide was right up the beach. I was a bit unfit after about 6 weeks absence but had a great time for a while, some nice waves and good jumps. Then I came in for a rest and if I'd packed up it would probably have been a great day. Instead I went to go back out and totally mistimed it and got caught out. At this point I could probably still have made it out of harms way but stupidly decided I could get my board up the right way and get on before the next break. I did, but far too slowly and then found myself heading into a wall of white with no speed whatsover. After a good rinsing I got spat up the beach but pulled out by the undertow again before I could even get up and was back out of my depth. As I started to swim back for the shore at least I could see my kit had washed quite high, out of harms way, well almost. Then I got picked up by an even bigger break and somehow ended up on top of my kit and sucked back out again. A couple more rinsings and I found myself under the sail being pushed along the sand. The exfoliation is good for the face, or so I'm told, unfortunately the friction was too much, my jaw wouldn'd stay closed and I ended up eating quite a bit of sand. I finally made it out of the sea, coughing up half the beach while a couple of friends helped me rescue my kit. I felt such a muppet, its so long since I've been caught out this badly by a bit of shorebreak that I'd forgotten it ever happened. Then I found out the shorebreak had also claimed a friends board and sadly, for someone else a broken leg. All this in a place that's known for it good waves but without the normal shorebreak problems. I wonder what Hayling was like?
Added by johng on 31/12/12
Wow, you were lucky! Or daft, going out again! Always a tricky call, the "just one more" run, caught me out a few times! Really glad to hear you're ok, it's a shock when the familiar turns deadly, and maybe that's the hardest part to handle...
Happy New Year 
!!!!
Christchurch on 22/11/12
| Rating: |  |
| Board: | 74 litres |
| Sail: | 4.0 |
43 knots when I arrived at the beach, some nice waves and the usual friendly faces. Everyone was smiling this day, I even got round one of my forward attempts but mis timed the landing of course. Can't beleive I had actually forgotten about it until I remembered that a professional photographer had showed up later on to take some pictures of us and then recently came across his shots:-
imagesfromnature.foliopic.com/gallery/sailboard-ac
Totally amazing day, when is the next one please?
Added by Yannis on 18/12/12
No shoes!
Christchurch on 31/10/12
| Rating: | |
| Board: | 74 litres |
| Sail: | 4.0 |
Good session in the gales at Avon with some nice waves. Not really massive given the wind strength, peaking about a couple of feet over head high but still good. Everyone was out on 4.0's when I got there so I rigged the same, but unfortunately most of them were coming in to change down just as I hit the water. I really should have done the same, but I stuck with the 4.0 for some reason and was too overpowered to get any decent rides or even gybe properly. The jumping was great though, one or two went on for ages and felt higher than I've ever been before but I was so overpowered there were definately no loop attempts from me. After a couple of hours sailing I had to go anyway, the car park was filling up by then and a number of the windsurfing royalty had started to show up. I stuck around for 20 minutes to watch before leaving and glad I did. It was like watching a PWA Pozo event - massive back loops and push loops, most of them landed cleanly and people planing away from endo forwards among the many other things going on. Don't think I've ever seen such a high standard at such a close proximity it certainly made me realise just how feeble my own attempts at loops etc are, but also gave me the inspiration to try harder. Hopefully November will bring us more of the same before too long.
Christchurch on 16/07/12
| Rating: | |
| Board: | 74 litres |
| Sail: | 5.0 |
Fantastic 4.0m day at Avon, only problem with it was I was on a 5.0m and too lazy to change gear having already changed down once. Pretty good jumping conditions, kicking myself now for not coming in again to change down.
Christchurch on 22/06/12
| Rating: | |
| Board: | 74 litres |
| Sail: | 4.5 |
In some years you just do stupid things. This year mine was starting a new job just as the Summer Gales kicked in. After clocking 140 hours in 10 days I was well and truly "done werkin and due some sherkin" and sneaked off to Avon for a morning sail. Some nice waves sunshine a strong cross off wind and 4.0m - 4.5m weather what more could you want? None of this mamby pamby standing around chatting wondering what to rig either, just 2 hours solid sailing in great conditions. I hope the Summer gales last until after I'm finished with this job.
Added by rogerta on 23/06/12
Must be such a shock Carl... How are you coping?
Christchurch on 09/04/12
| Rating: | |
| Board: | 74 litres |
| Sail: | 5.0 |
Easily the best day of this year so far, loads of people out but not too busy. Amazing day for jumping, perfect vertical ramps up to head high for the take off and for some reason I'd decided to sail slightly overpowered which just made the jumps even higher. Went for 20 or 30 forwards, I lost count, so feeling properly back into that although none of them went particularly well. Got the kit most of the way round on one or two off small jumps close in, which was Ok but as I gained a bit of confidence I went for some off much higher jumps which is where fear seemed to take over and it all started going wrong. I didn't get my weight over the board, get the rig across or sheet in properly which was a great way to set up a feeble "quarter loop" at the apex of the jump followed by a face first death plummet. None of this is great for confidence or general wellbeing so I think I'll stick to trying them off small jumps for now.
Christchurch on 11/12/11
| Rating: | |
| Board: | 74 litres |
| Sail: | 5.0 |
A great session with some decent 6 foot ramps for some proper floaty airs for an hour or two after high tide. Then the wind swung a bit onshore and increased quite a bit to about 4.0m weather. As mine is still at the menders I decided to call it a day. Looks like a pretty windy forecast for the rest of the week and also the possibility of a 7m swell due to hit us at some point. Maybe I should forget the sail and go buy sand bags instead.
Christchurch on 08/12/11
| Rating: | |
| Board: | 74 litres |
| Sail: | 4.0 |
Met up with Bernie at Avon in the morning and as we rigged 4.0's we were a bit worried the sails might just be too small. We needn't have worried, on the water we were ovepowered a bit on the inside, but completely flattened in the gusts out to sea. After what was a poor effort at best I came in for a much needed rest to wait for the wind to settle. Had the 3.7m with me in the van but the gusts were so ridiculous I doubt it would have made much difference to change down so didn't bother. Stupidly, in my rush to the beach I had left my coffee and food on the kitchen side, so didn't even have anything to eat while I waited around getting cold. Thanks very much to Bernie for coming to the recscue with hot drinks and nibbles, top dude! After some time I had another go but it just seemed even stronger (some gusts were well over 50 knots I later found out). Then later on in the afternoon, much later in fact, after an extremely long wait in the cold I had one last attempt. Suddenly it all seemed quite different. The sea had flattened a little bit, I was still well overpowered, but somehow much more calm and relaxed now. My jumps were mostly controlled and my gybes weren't pretty but I was at last making most of them dry. All the getting trashed and waiting around in the cold earlier started to seem worthwhile now, the sailing was begining to feel great, I couldn't believe my luck, today was going to be a good day after all.................and just at that point, I put my knee right through the sail!
Added by Bernie on 08/12/11
Glad things got better for you later Carl, sorry to hear that you used your sail as a hoopla!
Christchurch on 29/11/11
| Rating: | |
| Board: | 74 litres |
| Sail: | 4.0 |
Amazing day, best swell in ages, massive out to sea and on the outer bar, clean 5 to 6 foot surf just off the beach, perfect 3.5 - 4.m weather, its nearly December and still warm. Lots of people were still "held up on way to work by bad weather" when I got there just before 11. Had a great couple of hours, excellent jumping, a few more failed forward attempts and a good few rinsings here and there. Thought I'd lost it completely at one point when I ended up washed onto the rocks, but somehow managed to get back out without damage, glad I was wearing boots though. Then in the afternoon the wind picked up a notch and I was completely overpowered. Didn't really have the strength left to change down so derigged and went home a happy man.
