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. 

If you missed it then there is also a great feature on our front page with the guys behind Don’t Let Go.

Lastly, we’ve got this from O’neill, nice!

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Cape Town is the choice of many over the winter and there are a number of options when it comes to clinics, so if you are concerned about heading there for the first time, these guys can be just as good a guide to the location as they are at coaching. However, it is the pros that are catching our attention at the moment. In particular, Andy ‘Bubble’ Chambers who has posted a little gallery on facebook, looks like the usual logo high sunset action mixed in with a bit of freestyle on the popular lake.

A slightly different start to the norm for videos. This one is short, very short indeed but for those getting in to windsurfing it’s cool to see people just ripping and having a good time, so enjoy this no move short edit, perhaps even let us know your thoughts on it in the comments below…

Other pro sailors that have ventured south include the likes of Adam Lewis and Phil Horrocks, both of which can also be seen in this great little feature on our front page explaining in minor detail about the backloop.

More on the video front and Keith Teboul is relly one of the most influential figures in what board shapes reach our feet each year. With a strong focus on surfing and a huge talent in windsurfing he combines the two and shows us what some of his board shapes are all about with this nice little clip produced by team rider Levi Siver.

From waves to flat water and this next clip can only be the distinctive style that is Mattia Pedrani. The Italian freestyler mixes up the latest aerial combos with his own invented moves, perhaps that is really pure freestyle…

Back to waves and a mark our words this is a name to remember. Loick Lesauvage in action at his homespot in France, it’s been a while since we have seen such great talent at such a young age, just 12 years old and truly ripping.

Just to wrap up we posted a bit of formlua news from Latvia yesterday, well if that got you thinking that it looks like a bit of fun then check out these great formula racing tips from Steve Sylvester.

Next up in the ‘Wave Tips’ series from Boardseeker, two men known for boosting some of the biggest backies talk you through the technique for this stylish jump…

Check the rest of the Boardseeker Wave Tips series and more here in the wave technique section.

The Boardseeker wave tips series continues as we bring you the ultimate guidance for spinning round a taka, from Adam Lewis and Phil Horrocks.

One of the easier wave moves the taka is an upwind 360 on the wave, preferably after smacking the lip! So have a watch and give it a go…

Photo: Dave White

Check out the previous technique videos on Boardseeker:

• 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