Since it had been windier later, we aimed to get to the centre after 1. By that time it was 4.7 weather, or at least in parts - some parts were 6 m, other parts were 4.2! I took a 4.7 North in fetching purple, not sure of the model, and a Fanatic 95 Freewave. All would have been well, but for the fact that after the first run out and back, I went to turn on the inside and the mast jumped (or so it felt) off the mast foot!! Not good. A quick check revealed the insert in the rubber UJ had burst, thus losing grip on the threads of the screw holding things on the board… A nice lady also from the centre, possibly Ben's gf, helped me swim back with the stuff. I probably could have made it, but it was kinda important to let someone else know what was going on, in case. Thank heaven it wasn't on the outside - a much longer swim! I'd have probably ditched the sail.
Once the mast foot was replaced, it all seemed to work ok, the Fanatic was easy to use, if a bit slippery - the non-slip seemed determined to pitch me off at lots of critical moments. However, it was incredibly gusty, and I really wasn't on it, getting more and more frustrated. And that's how it stayed really. Maybe I was tired from yesterday, but somehow, just one of those days when nothing seems to work. I tried a different sail, a Severne Gator, a very springy wave sail, in 4.2, which was great in the stonking gusts, but really hard to get going in the lulls, because it didn't seem very easy to pump, being so springy - no feeling of resistance, and you couldn't work your weight against it because it kind of gave way. Although I did stop for breaks, to eat an apple and later a banana, and chat to the OTC guys, it wasn't the best day.
Which is a pity, because it was lovely and sunny, and probably the last windy day, judging by the pants forecast for Saturday. Ah well. Better luck next time :-)
Friday, 8 October 2010
Thursday, 7 October 2010
Windy - but from where??
The wind had definitely switched this morning, I called the centre and there wasn't much on, but check again later. We had a relaxed hanging around reading kind of morning, and then I figured maybe it was worth going down to check on things. We needed some food and water and stuff, and no extra stress dropping in on the centre to check things out.
There were already a few people out in the bay in the WSW? wind, very warm compared with the NE from the last days. Ben suggested that it was worth getting out there because although pretty gusty, it was likely to come up a bit as the afternoon wore on. I took a Severne 5.9 and a Goya 105 or some such - seemed to work ok, yes it was gusty, with some serious holes, some strange hammering gusts and even some changes of direction, but lovely sun, warm water, a great feeling!
After an hour or so the wind had come up a bit, so I headed back and got Ben to downhaul the Severne some more - it seemed very flat but apparently that's how it works. I'd already given it some more outhaul when I started with it, to help the battens rotate. I also switched to a Starboard Kode 101 - nice board, easy ridin'.
Eventually I gave up on the 5.9 and switched to a Severne Blade 5.3, which apparently has a much lower centre of effort with a more direct feel as a result. That and the very direct Starboard was a nice combination, and I bashed around on that until close of play. I must have done 2.5 hours or so on the water, at least, starting around 13.20 and finishing about 16.30 with some breaks in between. It all felt really relaxed, and low stress. At the end I still had loads of energy left, and was trying some more things, but I stopped because it was getting on, the guys were in the cafe next door, and I wanted to save something for tomorrow, reputedly also windy…
There were already a few people out in the bay in the WSW? wind, very warm compared with the NE from the last days. Ben suggested that it was worth getting out there because although pretty gusty, it was likely to come up a bit as the afternoon wore on. I took a Severne 5.9 and a Goya 105 or some such - seemed to work ok, yes it was gusty, with some serious holes, some strange hammering gusts and even some changes of direction, but lovely sun, warm water, a great feeling!
After an hour or so the wind had come up a bit, so I headed back and got Ben to downhaul the Severne some more - it seemed very flat but apparently that's how it works. I'd already given it some more outhaul when I started with it, to help the battens rotate. I also switched to a Starboard Kode 101 - nice board, easy ridin'.
Eventually I gave up on the 5.9 and switched to a Severne Blade 5.3, which apparently has a much lower centre of effort with a more direct feel as a result. That and the very direct Starboard was a nice combination, and I bashed around on that until close of play. I must have done 2.5 hours or so on the water, at least, starting around 13.20 and finishing about 16.30 with some breaks in between. It all felt really relaxed, and low stress. At the end I still had loads of energy left, and was trying some more things, but I stopped because it was getting on, the guys were in the cafe next door, and I wanted to save something for tomorrow, reputedly also windy…
Wednesday, 6 October 2010
No wind at all!
The wind was absolutely nothing most of today, with huge black clouds over the mountain, that were clearly raining on someone. It had rained here at the villa last night, evidenced by the soggy, but fortunately empty, barbecue charcoal bag, and lots of wet patches on the patio more obviously. I did some yoga which was hard work, then went for a swim. Unfortunately, I wasn't watching too hard when swimming on my back, and bashed my forehead under the edge of the pool - a marked man! I did improve my stroke though, tried doing it at a rate that didn't make me breathless. I need to do this lots more.
Otherwise, a non-windsurfing kind of day. We went down to Playa de las Americas, where a mix of chavs and riches go, depending on the end of town you're in. The waves look pretty good, and could be fairly useful on a bigger day. There was only one guy out today though, so clearly not the Big Day. Jen bought a mask and snorkel so she could practise in the pool, so that next time she'd be ready and better trained. Smart girl. It also resulted in a very interesting purchase experience - after investigating some snorkel items outside a store, we subsequently went into a proper dive store and the guy was fantastically helpful, explaining the relative quality of each model. Jen eventually bought one good enough to be worth keeping, that would enhance her subaqua experience. She was subsequently seen to be wearing it at the dining room table, prior to testing it in the actual pool.
I called the centre when we got back - absolutely no action at all, and no sign of any to come. However, by the time we got back, the wind had started to switch to SW, and the planes started to take off overhead instead of landing. I called the centre and spoke to Ben, to check on how things were, but still nothing there - he said he'd call me back if it picked up in time for a blast. Nope.
So now we're off to the pub to get internet access and all that. I did have a preliminary session with my iPhone in the cafe earlier at P dl A, so I know there's nothing pressing, but there's the blog to load up...
Otherwise, a non-windsurfing kind of day. We went down to Playa de las Americas, where a mix of chavs and riches go, depending on the end of town you're in. The waves look pretty good, and could be fairly useful on a bigger day. There was only one guy out today though, so clearly not the Big Day. Jen bought a mask and snorkel so she could practise in the pool, so that next time she'd be ready and better trained. Smart girl. It also resulted in a very interesting purchase experience - after investigating some snorkel items outside a store, we subsequently went into a proper dive store and the guy was fantastically helpful, explaining the relative quality of each model. Jen eventually bought one good enough to be worth keeping, that would enhance her subaqua experience. She was subsequently seen to be wearing it at the dining room table, prior to testing it in the actual pool.
I called the centre when we got back - absolutely no action at all, and no sign of any to come. However, by the time we got back, the wind had started to switch to SW, and the planes started to take off overhead instead of landing. I called the centre and spoke to Ben, to check on how things were, but still nothing there - he said he'd call me back if it picked up in time for a blast. Nope.
So now we're off to the pub to get internet access and all that. I did have a preliminary session with my iPhone in the cafe earlier at P dl A, so I know there's nothing pressing, but there's the blog to load up...
Tuesday, 5 October 2010
Barely wind...
Called up the centre about 10.30 or 11 - seemed to be windyish, so we determined that I'd be dropped off and recovered about 1600, providing I didn't call for an early pickup or v.v.
Settled on a RRD 95l FSW and an Ezzy 6.5 freeride sail. Hmm. Seemed to go ok initially, but after an hour or so I felt it wasn't really delivering, too much like hard work and I was starting to regret having to waterstart… Never a good sign.
Anyway, went back and got a 125l Quatro and a Goya 6.9 freeride sail. I have to say this combo wasn't especially inspiring. The Quatro straps were very curiously positioned, needing one's feet to be positioned uncomfortably - Ben the centre person later suggested that's cos they don't do freeride in Hawaii... I soldiered on for a bit, but the waterstarting was getting very hard, and I really wasn't enjoying myself. One too many waterstarts when I was stooging around for a slight breeze to get a lift! Very tired at some points.
So retired to centre to catch some board repair tips (10min set araldite!!) rather than Mr Ding which is very likely to crack and let in water… Two other guests at the centre, a Dutch guy and another Brit, both of whom had given up in the tricky conditions. So not just me then… Jen came in while I was changing, and we went with the girls off to a local pizzeria.
Settled on a RRD 95l FSW and an Ezzy 6.5 freeride sail. Hmm. Seemed to go ok initially, but after an hour or so I felt it wasn't really delivering, too much like hard work and I was starting to regret having to waterstart… Never a good sign.
Anyway, went back and got a 125l Quatro and a Goya 6.9 freeride sail. I have to say this combo wasn't especially inspiring. The Quatro straps were very curiously positioned, needing one's feet to be positioned uncomfortably - Ben the centre person later suggested that's cos they don't do freeride in Hawaii... I soldiered on for a bit, but the waterstarting was getting very hard, and I really wasn't enjoying myself. One too many waterstarts when I was stooging around for a slight breeze to get a lift! Very tired at some points.
So retired to centre to catch some board repair tips (10min set araldite!!) rather than Mr Ding which is very likely to crack and let in water… Two other guests at the centre, a Dutch guy and another Brit, both of whom had given up in the tricky conditions. So not just me then… Jen came in while I was changing, and we went with the girls off to a local pizzeria.
Monday, 4 October 2010
Fortunately dormant... for now
Not much wind at all today. So little, in fact, that when I called the centre this morning they were happy to declare it as unlikely to be windy. So we went off to see the slightly dormant volcano, Mount Tiede. Which proved to be extremely interesting…
A huge ring of sharp-edged old rocks - were they the edge of a crater or something else? The blurb on the various explanatory noticeboards had a different story - apparently, 170000 years ago, the whole side of a much larger mountain slipped into the sea in a seismic event, leaving the sharp-edged old rocks. Meanwhile, the volcanic activity cranked up and built the current mountain in the middle of the resulting plain. The tall isolated stacks are actually the lava tubes, which, having cooled and congealed in the surrounding rock, are exposed when the softer rock is worn away, leaving them standing alone. Amazing. You can also see the other lava ducts, which are like sideways ridges, and there's one still going up the side of an exposed cliff. The lava is like concrete with softer material holding chunks of harder rock - it's incredible to think that the huge temperature and pressure didn't actually melt these chunks, leaving them held in a kind of concrete.
Generally good to get to know all this. We also had tea and ice-cream in the caff, before heading down to the local supermarket and getting some supplies in for the week. The evening passed with barbecued dorado and rather large caipirinhas all round, twice. Hic. Roll on tomorrow.
A huge ring of sharp-edged old rocks - were they the edge of a crater or something else? The blurb on the various explanatory noticeboards had a different story - apparently, 170000 years ago, the whole side of a much larger mountain slipped into the sea in a seismic event, leaving the sharp-edged old rocks. Meanwhile, the volcanic activity cranked up and built the current mountain in the middle of the resulting plain. The tall isolated stacks are actually the lava tubes, which, having cooled and congealed in the surrounding rock, are exposed when the softer rock is worn away, leaving them standing alone. Amazing. You can also see the other lava ducts, which are like sideways ridges, and there's one still going up the side of an exposed cliff. The lava is like concrete with softer material holding chunks of harder rock - it's incredible to think that the huge temperature and pressure didn't actually melt these chunks, leaving them held in a kind of concrete.
Generally good to get to know all this. We also had tea and ice-cream in the caff, before heading down to the local supermarket and getting some supplies in for the week. The evening passed with barbecued dorado and rather large caipirinhas all round, twice. Hic. Roll on tomorrow.
Sunday, 3 October 2010
First steps...
The day started pretty slowly - nice not to have to get up! But we are talking leisurely here - breakfast was probably 10ish. Went down to El Medano to check out the centre, surprisingly crowded apparently, since it was hard to find a parking spot. We walked through the town and along the front, checking out the people and places. It's a small town, friendly enough, a good mix of locals and holiday makers, with no headbangers apparent - most people have controlled their sun exposure for example!
One interesting feature is the community exercise equipment - lots of the beach areas and parks have various exercise kit, like wheels to twiddle for your arms, backward swings hinged to exercise your legs, and even bicycle pedals in front of seats for static bike exercise. People were actually using this which was cool too - the old guy on the spinny arm wheels thing definitely had no bingo wings, although the rest of him didn't look up to that standard, so maybe that was his favourite. We did reckon he'd done at least 30 minutes we knew of!
The OTC is downstairs through a double door, almost the last building going South/Southwest on the front. Almost hard to spot! Ben and Adam are pretty low-key - I filled out the form, but Adam seemed like he hadn't ever considered the content when I questioned some of the items. Surely he's had sad bastards like me before!
The wind was pretty light, and the guys agreed there was unlikely to be any action for a bit, so since Jen wanted to get a particular type of Italian shoe at the market in Christiano, we walked back to the car and drove off. We nearly went via Santa Cruz when Kirsty turned right intend of left on the highway junction, but people kind of noticed and we went off on a pretty deserted junction and turned around.
The market was pretty interesting, lots of tat but some good stuff too - notable items are the F1 clothing stall (all looks genuine!), the Fli Flot Italian comfy shoe stand (which didn't have any that I liked to replace flip-flops, but Jen did get some, usually £30/pair, she paid €25 for 2 pairs) and possibly the weird sheepskin slip-on stall. Yeah, kind of like warm snuggly granny boots but cut-down, slip-on. The stall owner was complaining about business - apparently it was really down in September.
Back to El Medano for lunch, at what is possibly a German-owned caff that Kirsty likes. The chili wraps are absolutely huge, so I'm kind of glad I didn't have one since that would have meant I'd have been too full to sail. The cheese, ham and egg baguette was pretty good, as was the fresh mango juice. Good to people-watch, sitting outside on the promenade, at least one pair of very dodgy Speedo-replacing board shorts, far too tight, one lady wearing a very tight dress with not much on underneath to judge by the general shapes and imprints, a little girl on a plastic push-along bike.
I walked back to the centre to discuss options, as the wind had come up a bit with some small white horses further out. Let's give it a go! Back to the car and the guys dropped me off on the car park that they would pick me up at around 6. Strange putting on a shortie, it was incredibly hot and humid downstairs in the OTC changing room, really sweating a lot.
Contrary to the suggestion of a 7.5, I went for a 7.0 and a Starboard Futura - good choice. This combo went ok, apart from not really liking chop and also being quite hard to get in the rear straps. This is probably because I'm not used to slalom-like straps, in the outside, all mine are centralised and a single back strap. I spent a couple of hours bashing around, which didn't get boring because of the need to work at planing, using the breeze and the slight swell to help.
One interesting feature is the community exercise equipment - lots of the beach areas and parks have various exercise kit, like wheels to twiddle for your arms, backward swings hinged to exercise your legs, and even bicycle pedals in front of seats for static bike exercise. People were actually using this which was cool too - the old guy on the spinny arm wheels thing definitely had no bingo wings, although the rest of him didn't look up to that standard, so maybe that was his favourite. We did reckon he'd done at least 30 minutes we knew of!
The OTC is downstairs through a double door, almost the last building going South/Southwest on the front. Almost hard to spot! Ben and Adam are pretty low-key - I filled out the form, but Adam seemed like he hadn't ever considered the content when I questioned some of the items. Surely he's had sad bastards like me before!
The wind was pretty light, and the guys agreed there was unlikely to be any action for a bit, so since Jen wanted to get a particular type of Italian shoe at the market in Christiano, we walked back to the car and drove off. We nearly went via Santa Cruz when Kirsty turned right intend of left on the highway junction, but people kind of noticed and we went off on a pretty deserted junction and turned around.
The market was pretty interesting, lots of tat but some good stuff too - notable items are the F1 clothing stall (all looks genuine!), the Fli Flot Italian comfy shoe stand (which didn't have any that I liked to replace flip-flops, but Jen did get some, usually £30/pair, she paid €25 for 2 pairs) and possibly the weird sheepskin slip-on stall. Yeah, kind of like warm snuggly granny boots but cut-down, slip-on. The stall owner was complaining about business - apparently it was really down in September.
Back to El Medano for lunch, at what is possibly a German-owned caff that Kirsty likes. The chili wraps are absolutely huge, so I'm kind of glad I didn't have one since that would have meant I'd have been too full to sail. The cheese, ham and egg baguette was pretty good, as was the fresh mango juice. Good to people-watch, sitting outside on the promenade, at least one pair of very dodgy Speedo-replacing board shorts, far too tight, one lady wearing a very tight dress with not much on underneath to judge by the general shapes and imprints, a little girl on a plastic push-along bike.
I walked back to the centre to discuss options, as the wind had come up a bit with some small white horses further out. Let's give it a go! Back to the car and the guys dropped me off on the car park that they would pick me up at around 6. Strange putting on a shortie, it was incredibly hot and humid downstairs in the OTC changing room, really sweating a lot.
Contrary to the suggestion of a 7.5, I went for a 7.0 and a Starboard Futura - good choice. This combo went ok, apart from not really liking chop and also being quite hard to get in the rear straps. This is probably because I'm not used to slalom-like straps, in the outside, all mine are centralised and a single back strap. I spent a couple of hours bashing around, which didn't get boring because of the need to work at planing, using the breeze and the slight swell to help.
Saturday, 2 October 2010
Not just a holiday, surely...
It's Saturday, and we're all packed and ready to go, the cars are organised so there's no shuffling, the kids are hopefully packed over at their place and after lunch, we'll be gone.
Tenerife! Not been there before, so this is very much a test. We're staying in Kirsty's parents' place, not far form El Medano, and if it works out well, maybe we'd go again. So that's a test.
El Medano... hmm, isn't there reputedly windsurfing there? Well, indeed, and I've signed up at the Official Test Centre (OTC) for a week's kit rental, so that's another test - will Tenerife be a good venue?? It has waves and stuff, as well as lots of flatter water, should be the case.
And finally, the third level of testing is the windsurfing itself - the OTC has a different principle from other centres, in that you don't get a board, you're expected to try lots of different ones as you wish. And that sounds like a great idea!
Of course, it was really windy this week, and the forecast for next is gibberingly RUBBISH!! Like, 5 knots max until next Friday evening... There's lots of other things to do, like sitting in bars, eating, sunning, reading (taking the scarey book that Alan bought me - House of Leaves, very thick), cycling (lots of rentals, a volcano to climb!) and so on. Perhaps some surfing, there are waves and the period looks good, so could be fun.
Right... time to go , let's see how it develops!
Tenerife! Not been there before, so this is very much a test. We're staying in Kirsty's parents' place, not far form El Medano, and if it works out well, maybe we'd go again. So that's a test.
El Medano... hmm, isn't there reputedly windsurfing there? Well, indeed, and I've signed up at the Official Test Centre (OTC) for a week's kit rental, so that's another test - will Tenerife be a good venue?? It has waves and stuff, as well as lots of flatter water, should be the case.
And finally, the third level of testing is the windsurfing itself - the OTC has a different principle from other centres, in that you don't get a board, you're expected to try lots of different ones as you wish. And that sounds like a great idea!
Of course, it was really windy this week, and the forecast for next is gibberingly RUBBISH!! Like, 5 knots max until next Friday evening... There's lots of other things to do, like sitting in bars, eating, sunning, reading (taking the scarey book that Alan bought me - House of Leaves, very thick), cycling (lots of rentals, a volcano to climb!) and so on. Perhaps some surfing, there are waves and the period looks good, so could be fun.
Right... time to go , let's see how it develops!
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