Last week some South Coast sailors ignored coast guard warning and escaped from work and school to get on the water and fight the storm at Avon Beach.

The morning was cross-on shore and nuclear winds with gusts up to 85 mph!!!!!
This combined with the spring tides, brought good waves to ride.
First, with the high tide, there was hardly any space on the beach to launch from, but this did stop Mark Agg-Jones and some Portsmouth and Southampton sailors.
Mark lost ALL his gear. He got washed on a wave and the strong currents and winds made the gear disappear down and out the coast  in seconds. (the gear hasn't been found yet, so if you find some JP/Pryde gear washed of the beach east of Christchurch, please, contact Mark at Sport Water shop or email him at markaggjones@mac.com )
Then the wind turned cross-off shore and the waves were pealing  perfectly.

Others on the water were Jamie Hancock, James Cox, Gregg Dunnet, Ian Leonard and Rob Nunan.

Thanks to Adam Cropper for the pics (Adam is sponsored by Tushingham/Starboard, and is the founder of the TrufDog land windsurf boards, www.turfdog.co.uk )