This forecast was pretty well predicted a fair way in advance, in fact it came off the back of a few windy days before so i had been sailing a fair bit and was into the groove.  But I didn’t expect it to come through that strong!

Normally when it blows strong in Rhossy it gets to 3.7m weather, but it is still quite manageable, this day it was at a whole other level; the wind was so strong it was chopping up the waves and making it super hard to keep the thing on the water.

One of the pilots from the neighboring RAF valley gave a phone call through to the weather tower where they were reading a steady 58 knots whilst we were sailing.  That’s pretty scary windy!  It’s not like the Canaries where it’s warmer and some how softer, this was a full blown cold wind storm!

Because the day before had been a classic 4.7 day, wall to wall sunshine, and would have been great for filming, I decided that today, with the odd ray of sunshine at my house 30 minutes away would be the same.  I somehow managed to talk my girlfriend Maike into coming with me, I said, it’ll be just like Cape Town (!!!) where she’s done sterling jobs behind the lens on many occasions before. I advised her to wrap warm as you never know with British weather and so on….. Knowing full well there was a front pushing nearly 60 knots ahead of it!!  Add to that the fact that she is six and a half months pregnant and has a stomach like a bowling ball, needs a bathroom every 10 minutes and had to negotiate my way out of antenatal classes for that evening, I thought I did a pretty good job to get any footage at all!!

The sailing was hard work, you know it’s strong when the seaweed is blowing along the beach.  I rigged my Gaastra Manic 3.7 and my Tabou Pocket Wave 75, that was the smallest gear I had; the sail felt pretty good in the hands despite the fact that I was getting my arms pulled off! I could always point it where I wanted it to go, I just couldn’t always sheet in with it! It’s rare but days like this is when I need a 3.3! Every jump and piece of white water I found myself unhooking and quickly my forearms got pumped, add to that a few bottom turns and I had arms like Popeye in no time!

I couldn’t really do too much, there were some big backloops but even they are super tricky, you pass through the apex of the wind and there is still bags of pressure in the sail, so you accelerate down towards the water and the landing has to be spot on or it’s an explosion!

I managed to squeeze in a few pushloop tables but the thought of going over the front into a forward was too much; no way!!  I think if you go for it like that everything has to be perfect, otherwise you sheet in and anything could happen!

If nothing else it was good practise ahead of the first rounds of the UK tour in May, it’s unlikely but you never know we may get something like that for the event here, how crazy would that be!  After Rhosneigr it’s Ireland and as we’ve seen before anything can happen there.

See you all there! Phil

As always Boardseeker will be providing you with podcasts from all of the BWA events, thanks to our film maker Alfie Hart, so stay tuned to Boardseeker for all the latest footage. You can also keep up to date with more info on the BWA on our sister site www.boards.co.uk and the BWA website here. 

Next up in the New Generation series Boardseeker catches up with the super talented Noah Voecker-Roche.

Noah Voecker

Name: Noah Voecker

Date of birth: 07/11/1999

Currently living in: Lanzarote (Canary islands) SPAIN

Years windsurfing: 7

Years competing: 0

Favourite discipline: Waves and freestyle

Sponsors: Fanatic, NorthSails, ION.

Latest move you learnt? In waves: landed backloop. In freestyle: shaka and the double flaka.

In waves I’m learning to land more consistently and make higher backloops, plus learn pushloops. In freestyle I’m learning to do the normal stance kono and be more consistent with the new moves I learn.

How did you get into windsurfing? 

I grew up on the beach and have always seen people windsurfing. One day, when I was 5, I told my father that I wanted to windsurf. He thought I was too young, but actually, it worked pretty well and I have been addicted since that day!

Noah Voecker

Have you made it to any competitions? If you have what was your first competition, and how did it go? If you haven’t do you think you will compete in the future?

Yes, I will start to compete in waves and freestyle in national and PWA events.

What are your long term aims in windsurfing?

To be  world champion and promote this fantastic sport.

Noah Vocker Time to ride. from The wave Hobbit on Vimeo.

Videos produced by Mark Dowson (Juice Boardsports Team Rider) and Russell Groves.

Where is your favourite place to windsurf?

My favourite place to windsurf for freestyle is in Las Cucharas because it is flat water and sometimes you can do some moves going down some swells, it’s super fun!!

For waves it’s Jameos; it’s a lava reef with a super long left hander with some side off wind!

 If you could go windsurfing anywhere, where would it be?

I would go to Jericoacoara and Camocim  in Brasil for freestyle and for waves I would love to go to Australia, Cape Verde, South Africa and of course to Maui!!

Who do you look up to in windsurfing? Who has inspired you?

I look up a lot to Gollito Estredo, Victor Fernandez, Tonky Frans and Philip Koester.

Noah Voecker

Check out more of the New Generation series:

• Alessio Stillrich
• Pablo Ramirez
• Fiona Wylde
• Dan Couchman
• Bernd Roediger
• Kimo Brown
• Mattijs Lasore

Boardseeker catches up with two big names in freestyle; current freestyle world champion Gollito Estredo and former champion Nik Baker.

Image credit: PWA/John Carter

Getting the most our of your gear is incredibly important; John Skye shares his tips on trimming your outhaul to get just the right amount of power.

Photo: Dave White

Check out the previous technique videos on Boardseeker:

• The taka with Phil Horrocks
• Catching waves with James Cox
• Wave tips top turn with Jamie Hancock
• Push loop with Jamie and John
• Wave Tips with Ben Proffitt
• On shore bottom turn with Phil Horrocks
• Getting out in waves with John Skye
• Forward loops

Photo: Dave White/ BWA

The Frontside 360 Explained

The Frontside 360 is a 360 degree rotation during the frontside surfing, i’s one of the most exciting feelings in waveriding.

Basically you need to have a nice wave and create a lot of speed in your bottom turn. Then face the lip with your board beyond vertical, at 11 o’clock, give a strong whip with your hip and pull back your head to get the push of the wave, rotate and open the sail to get the power away and carry on sailing.

Before learning the frontside 360 you should be able to create enough speed in your wave riding turns…once you are able to do some nice hits, either frontside or backside…aerials back or frontside would be good to know how to do to make the learning easier too. You basically need speed and a bit of control to go for the first attempts.

The Backside 360 Explained

The backside 360 is a similar move in terms of rotation, but has nothing to do with the frontside one. I would say it is quite a bit more technical, so again, you need speed riding backside, you need to be able to create a little “pop”, to boost into an aerial backside and smack the breaking white water behind you’re body. You do half of the rotation before having hit the section, so that the power of the wave together with a pull on your rig does the rest, making the final part of the rotation to carry on sailing.

Conditions

You should be powered up on small sails to make it easier, 5.0 down I would say, medium size waves are recommended too so that they help you get that push from the wave to make the whole rotation.

How Long Will It Take?

It depends a bit on the intensity you are working on a new move, you could probably get some nailed quite soon, but until you can say that you control one it always takes some time. A few sessions to get the first ones, a year minimum until you know exactly what to do. I always think that to learn a new move properly you need a years time minimum!

The Five Progressions will explain exactly what your learning process is likely to be and how to progress onto the next stage…

The Five Progressions

Frontside 360:

• You stop sticking your mast top in the wave. Phase one you have the speed, hit the wave but nothing happens, you normally stick the mast top in the wave and stop any kind of rotation.
• You stop doing goo screws, landing behind the wave. Phase two you try to go for the aerial version, doing the same mistake with the mast top, but maybe rotate a few, landing behind the wave.
• You do the rotation and stay in the wave, but probably with the board upside down and under you’re sail. Phase three, you try to make a combo of both first phases..speed and turning without sticking the mast top, but normally staying under the white water.
• You start to flip the board the way that you can carry on sailing but probably still fighting under the white water as the sail is not upright enough. Phase four you get to the point where you get into the rotation, without sticking the top and getting pushed from the wave. Here you have got to apply the trick, pulling back your head to the direction of the beach and giving that “whipp” with you’re hips to make the whole gear turn. After turning you hold your sail upright and get wind in it again to carry on sailing in the same wave…A LOT of attempts later you will start to make the first ones…be patient.
• You rotate and actually carry on sailing.

KEY POINT – Timing is really important in this move, as you have to choose the most critical section of the wave to start the rotation, if you are too early or too late…you won’t be able to do it!

The Five Progressions

Backside 360:

• You try to push your sail into the wind and stop getting pushed down from the wind. Phase one you have the speed and you try to face the lip pushing the sail against it, but you get blown down by the wind and stopped directly.
• You do an aerial backside pushing the sail into the wind and stop to get knocked down from the wind. Phase two you do an aerial backside and you push the sail against the wind, ending up in the water loosing the wave.
• You start to do the rotations landing behind the wave. Phase three you do an aerial backside, push the sail against the wind and rotate like a shaka, but landing behind the wave.
• You start landing in the wave, but losing grip once landing on the open face. Phase four you start to do some aerial backside 360 and land a few by mistake…really motivating
• You start to rotate and understand the move. Phase five you start to understand the move, getting into the aerial with a chop in front of the wave, creating that “pop” that makes you do half of the rotation before you hit the white water, so that the push of the wave and a pull on the rig makes you finalise the move.

KEY POINT – Again, timing is really important, but more important is to understand the last phase. I’ll explain roughly; normally in front of each wave, there are little bits of chop that can allow you do a little aerial backside. So you look for that, check the breaking section of the wave at the same time and try to pop up into a backside aerial, pushing the sail into the wind and leaning your body weight on top of the gear, smacking the lip or white water. Once you’ve done that, you have to pull your rig around to get the wind and power out of the sail to finalise the rotation.

For both of the two moves there are existing variations on how to do them, for example you can do the frontside 360 as a whole aerial down the line, but to start with these twp is good and hard work already, so enjoy the process and good luck! And never give up!

Find out more about the up and coming wave clinic with Dany Bruch on our sister site Boards: Adam Lewis and Dany Bruch Coaching

Photos PWA / John Carter