The De Blaby Files

How many hours sailed over the last month?: I’ve done quite a lot of windsurfing this month with four days at West Wittering and two days at Hayling Island. I’ve probably done about 14 hours in all because when we were at Hayling, we were there all afternoon on both days. I was very tired on the Monday!

Greatest wind speed sailed in: We haven’t had a lot of wind until last weekend when we had two days of force 5 northerly winds. It was quite cold for summer and we went from the ‘Esso Garage’ beach. The wind was about 20 knots but the water was still very flat.

Highlight of last month: It’s been a really great month: I got my new 85 litre JP Young Gun about 3 weeks ago and my new Neil Pryde 4.0m One sail just recently from Dan at Ultra Sport. The board is much more wobbly than my 114 litre Young Gun but much faster and looser when the wind gets me going. In light winds though it’s quite tricky.

I also met Chris Audsley at Hayling who was a really cool guy. He went straight off the beach and did two forward loops on a flat sea! Then he did loads of freestyle moves which I’ve never seen before. I’ve got a good picture of Chris and me too. Something else made it a good month too…read on…

What can you do that you couldn't 4 weeks ago:

I can waterstart…wicked!! On the first day at Hayling, my Dad spent ages teaching me by lifting me out of the water from the waterstart position to get me going and by the Sunday I did a few on my own. I’ve got to practice much more because at the moment I still need Dad to lift the sail out of the water for me, which means he has to fall in every time that I do! To be honest, at the moment, on my new board, I fall in quite a lot because gybing has just got harder.

Goal for August: To practice my waterstarts and to carve my new board properly on gybes. I’m still hoping to get together with Simon Bornhoft when the weather is right as he’s said he will help me.