"End of season"

Name: Lucy Robson
Age: 24yrs
Home town: Brighton

And so the competition season has come to an end and to be honest I am pretty relieved! Within the space of just a couple of weeks I have seen myself going from Hebridean exposure at the Tiree Wave Classic to the more milder climes of the Isle of Wight for the Whiteair contest, and all the time trying to maintain an equilibrium between my love for windsurfing and competition sanity!

Classic

The Tiree Wave Classic ran from 16 - 21 October and with usual enthusiasm I travelled to Tiree the week previous to get some pre-comp practise in. Tiree is a fantastic destination, but there is no mistaking that the journey up there is a complete mission. This time round it took about 13 hours in a packed car and I was definitely having to focus on having some great sessions on the water to get me through it!!

Mission complete, once in Tiree there was not as much wind the week before competition as I had hoped and I probably only got two good sessions in. There was, however, surf everyday so I couldn't complain too much and once I had acclimatised to the cold it was all good!

Come competition week life got increasingly hectic getting yourself to HQ sharpish each morning, driving to the right beach, rigging up every piece of conceivable kit you might need and spending the day trying not to get cold! Definitely easier said then done.

Super, super, super X!

The format for this year was to include three disciplines: wave, freestyle, super X and the first thing I have to say is the latter is definitely more difficult than it looks! It was my first time doing super X and I just could not believe how big those sausages are when you get up close to them. My one bit of advice from one of the boys was "Just chill Luc, you can mount the sausage, it is the most natural thing in the world!" Ha ha yeh thanks guys!! In my first race I

"Just chill Luc, you can mount the sausage, it is the most natural thing in the world! Ha ha yeh thanks guys!!!!"

managed to take the lead and was feeling pretty pleased with myself as I widened a big gap between me and the rest of the fleet - that was until I got the course wrong on the next sausage and got disqualified. The next race my fin came out as I ran into the water on the start with the rest of the fleet and that was game over. And the third? Well according to head judge Julian Du Vall, I was "sausage dodging" along with the rest of the fleet bar one, so we all got disqualified. So that is my brief and regrettable encounter with racing and inflatables.

As for the wave and freestyle, I got a solid second place in the wave heats and came third in freestyle. The freestyle heat was particularly shocking for me as I managed to crash everything and just let nerves get the better of me. My wave heats made up for this though and I managed to secure second overall which gave cause for celebration and hangovers!

So with Tiree over it was back down south for Whiteair. Not trying to make any excuses but I can't say this was my best event! I had kit and sailing issues and just did not manage to pull it together enough and came away with third place.

The Tour

So now I am looking forward to winter! Not for the cold bitter offerings of the south coast but Margarita, Fuerteventura, Cape Town and then Maui to train and really try and get myself to a reasonable standard. I start next week and I'll be back sometime in March, hopefully with a lot more tricks and style to my windsurfing!

Ed’s note: We shall be following Lucy around the world on her travels as she says good bye to that career in law and embraces the unpredictable life of a travelling windsurfer. I’m sure we will be rewarded with some classic ‘Lucy’ tales!

Lucy is an Ultrasport team rider and is sponsored by:

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