Mast high and get belted anyone?!

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

"Together with thinking a bit more intelligently in my heats, I was pleased with my sailing given the challenge of doing something impressive in relatively no wind!"

After last month’s getaway to Fuerte I’ve been accused by my mate Jem Hall of becoming slightly predictable and being all about “sailing in the big stuff and getting belted, mast high, belted, mast high, belted etc….!” So refreshingly, or not, these past weeks have seen lots of chilled out surf action and less big nights out on the town…

THE NEW SEASON BEGINS

Arriving back to the drizzly UK during the second week of March, I fortunately only had a couple of weeks of office mundanity before escaping to the West Country for Easter and the first UKWA Freewave Event of the season at Gwithian. I had high hopes for this event and was watching the forecast eagerly hoping that I would be able to give my new JP Radical Wave 74 a bit of a thrashing in the surf!

Chugging down to Cornwall with the Brighton posse I had made the decision to stay in a “bungalow” at Hayle rather than face the soggy confines of sleeping in the van. (A bit of luxury – I must be moving up!!) Having managed to blag Thursday 23rd March off work (dental appointment) for the drive down I pulled myself out of bed at 4am (yeh I know!) and got myself on the road. First en route was a visit to my sponsors at Bluecrush in Torquay who were suitably amused by my latest babe status in last month’s Boardseeker. Tony (da boss): “Lucy, have you turned into a sex crazed maniac?! What’s all this about size and members, and what has it got to do with windsurfing?!!!” Me (a little sheepish): “Errr..not a lot actually…”

The next day at competition HQ the decision was made to run the comp at Marazion where reports were that the wind was blowing a nice Force 4-5 from the left creating some good port tack jumping conditions and some small waves.

BE ORGAINISED LUCY!

Getting down to the beach with my new resolution to be slightly more prepared than previous events, I rigged two lots of kit: a 5.7m NP Expression with a JP 84 Freestyle Wave and a 6.1m NP Expression with a 91 JP Freestyle and then had a few practise runs to get in the groove.

Given that only I and Caroline had entered the Girls comp we were put into heats with the youths, juniors and masters. As the heats progressed it became obvious that the wind was starting to die so apart from the odd gust assisting some jumps on the way out, it was all about light-wind freestyle so I took my biggest board and the 5.7m and then proceeded to get involved in lots of sail spinning, ducking, heli-tacks, sail body 360’s, backwind 360’s and vulcan attempts.

Together with thinking a bit more intelligently in my heats I was pretty pleased with my sailing given the challenge of doing something impressive in relatively no wind! When it came to the Girl’s final Caroline had already made the decision to get changed and get warm so Sav (crazy dude with dreadlocks that works for Ultrasport and the only master contingent) agreed “to be a lady” and gave me someone to sail against and also my first even win! And, although I can’t claim fame to much on this one, all in all it was pretty damn cool and definitely warranted lots of Easter chocolate.

The forecast for the next day was not looking promising. Again everyone met at Marazion but the wind just wasn’t happening, however the surf was! Compared to the dross you get in Brighton I was more than happy to spend the day riding some lovely Cornish beauties. Saturday, Sunday and Monday followed a similar theme with surfing during the day and meeting for drinks in the Blood and Bucket in the evening.

Surprisingly, I did not get any mast high and I did not get belted – but there is always next time!

Laterz………