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The Life And Times Of The Windsup

In keeping with the windSUP theme this month, Harty relates his personal 13 year relationship with these overgrown surfboards.

TEAM15

The RYA tell us more about their Team15 programme for young windsurfers.

Rig Tuning Basics

In keeping with summer, the high season for newcomers to windsurfing, we go back to basics this month and look at the fundamentals of rig tuning. Getting your rig to its optimal state is all about finding a base to work from and then tune, experiment and reflect from there. This piece is not going to disappear off in a haze of luff curve, flex response time and other fancy jargon, but rather provide you with the basics that I have seen benefit hundreds of people I have coached. The main areas we will cover are: harness line length, spread and position, boom height and the main trimming variables of both outhaul and downhaul.

Progression

““Progress is impossible without change, and those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything.” George Bernard Shaw.

Life Of Dorian

Thirty-year-old Dutch windsurfer Dorian van Rijsselberghe is the proud owner of two RS:X windsurfing Olympic gold medals. He won his first at the 2012 Olympics in Weymouth, and second at the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. And needless to say, he has his eyes set on number three in Tokyo in 2020! Dorian gives us an insight into his life, thoughts on foiling and the PWA and just what it takes to be an Olympic champion.

Kids Rule

Whatever sport you look at, there is no doubt youths are the future. They will ensure the survival and the development of a discipline, especially in windsurfing. In the past, perhaps this was forgotten in terms of specially adapted and efficient equipment for youngsters. Today though, kids can finally find boards and rigs that will boost their progress. All they have to do is to spend time together in the water, because kids loving being with other kids and pushing themselves to progress. So ignoring the rule of never work with children or animals, I organised a mega trip for a bunch of talented kids in their school holidays, with the aim to get everyone on the water as much as possible, this is the story of how my ‘Water Academy’ went down!

Island Of The Winds

Mykonos may be known as a playground for the rich, but it’s also famous for its consistent winds. Chris Sammer tells us why it’s ideal for a family windsurfing trip.

Flying On The Edge

High wind foiling with big sails is not for the faint hearted. The 2019 Catalunya Costa Brava PWA World Cup saw some of the wildest professional wind foil racing to date as sailors battled raging Tramontana winds. On the flip side, the opening day of the event saw some of the lightest winds yet encountered for professional foil racing and then, later on in the event period, for the first time in the PWA, the sailors competed in slalom foiling. The event put the sailors on the edge of foil performance in a variety of conditions; John Carter asked the pros their opinion of the limits for foil racing being explored to such extremes?

Defi Diaries

‘DéfiWind de Gruissan’, is the original ‘DéfiWind’ event and doing a ‘Défi’ has become a must do on windsurfing bucket lists. Seasoned ‘Défi’ dude John Skye and first timer, Karo van Tonder take us behind the scenes of the world’s largest windsurfing race with their ‘DéfiDiaries’!

A Swell Sou'Easter

Southeast winds and south coast swell prove the perfect ingredients to fire up Dorset’s finest wave, Kimmeridge, for some rare port tack down the line action. On scene to score it with the lucky locals were Timo Mullen, Andy Chambers and Paul Hunt. They tell us just why it was a day to remember.

A Rising Influence

The birth and subsequent growth of stand-up-paddling brought about a positive and much needed injection of interest into watersports in general. One of the key drivers was that it was easy to understand, and more importantly easy to access, bringing the sport into the mainstream. Simply grab a board and paddle, and away you go! And with the first boards that hit the market being long and wide, the early-adopting windsurfing brands quickly realised there was an opportunity for some crossover between the two sports. So not long after the dawn of SUP production came the emergence of the windsurfing-SUP board – a.k.a. windSUP.

Windsup Skills

WindSUP doesn’t just offer a light wind alternative, but also a gateway back into some potentially long-lost longboard skills, once the target of all windsurfers! So while you’re eyeing up those summer breezes, let’s look at a few top tips to make the most out of your WindSUP this summer.

Benefits Of Windsurfing For Kids

The RYA explain why windsurfing helps develop positive character traits.

Slow West

As dawn sets in, I slip out of my dream world, crawl out of the tent, put my feet on the sandy ground, breathe in the fresh sea air and watch the breaking waves.

With Friends Like That...

One of the ways in which SUP is unique in the boardsports world in that it’s very easy to teach someone new how to paddle, even when compared to surfing. And especially when compared to windsurfing or kitesurfing.

On All Fronts

Originally from Perros Guirec in northern Brittany, Alexis Deniel was a regular from a very young age on many national and international surf and longboard competitions before he turned his focus to SUP surf about ten years ago. His radical and powerful style and mental fortitude quickly propelled the charismatic Breton rider into the French vanguard of the sport. At the end of his 7th season on the APP Tour, he managed to secure a 7th overall ranking for 2018 which has only poured more fuel on the fire. We caught up with the two-time European champion to find out where it started, his thoughts on the APP Tour and where SUP surf is headed…

Kombucha In Chiba

I was in Hawaii when paddle boarding had just been born, or more accurately reborn, but still hadn’t grown up enough to leave its parents, Laird Hamilton and Dave Kalama.

Paddle Science #15 - Smart Muscle Training

Some athletes are able to sprint paddle faster and are able to develop bigger muscles more easily whilst some athletes will be able to paddle for longer and further without fatigue. This is largely based upon which muscle fibres are recruited in your body. If you’re thinking of creating a SUP training programme for the summer then understanding what types of fibres you have in your muscles will greatly influence how you will adapt to any training programme.

Out Of Time

Another loud explosion. We looked at each other with a mix of excitement and worry. What would we see up there? We were walking towards Mount Yasur on Tanna, one of the few very active volcanos in Vanuatu which was considered ‘kind of ’ safe to view up close. It was still a two hour hike ahead but the noises were already worryingly loud.

Minor Threat

Everyone has seen Ice Age and who doesn’t love that movie when poor Zid is denied his nut because it’s frozen inside an ice cube?

Knowledge

Get psyched #10 Giving back to nature.

If You Do Just One Thing Today…

We’ve all got some advice to give everyone else when it comes to health: go keto, be more plant based, mobilise don’t stretch, lift heavy things, go outdoors, randomise your workouts...

Christopher Fuhrhop Founder Of Restube

We first saw the Restube at the huge German watersports expo Boot, in 2014.. The product looked ingenious, a compact self-inflating bouyancy aid that could be worn unobtrisvely in the ocean. Time has shown a genuine demand for Restube across many professional and recreational users. We spoke to Restube founder Christopher Fuhrhop to learn more about how Restube can work for paddlers.

Get Started In Foiling

Foiling has quite simply taken over my free time for a few months now. The sensation of lift, speed, hovering above the wave, turning with the slightest twitch of a foot and riding across a wave so slopey that in real terms you wouldn’t give it a second glance has completely captivated me. The new skills won in hard-fought battles have given me such rewards, riding on never ending waves with such velocity in the most pathetic conditions, that to me the foil is king and long live its continued development.

Cool County

If you want to explore a county in Ireland with your SUP, the one with the longest coastline on the island seems a good place to start. County Donegal has over 1000 kms of wild shores and is often called the ‘forgotten county’ due to its remoteness. Finn Mullen gives a guide to its waters.

Flow Motion

The thing I love about living in Western Australia is its vastness. Having scoured its coastlines for over three and a half decades, with the aid of a new toy (a wee little Zodiac bought for tow- in foiling) the doors have opened to areas of that I’d previously been to, but never had the means of accessing. Until now.

Desire Lines

Flung far out into Norwegian sea, the Molde Archipelago forms part of Norway’s Romsdal Peninsula, the corner’ of this long, tall country that marks the division between the lower regions and the long run up north. Although it sits at latitude 62 degrees north (Anchorage, Alaska is 61) Molde is caressed by the same Gulf Stream that warms Norway’s British neighbours to the south west. It’s mandatory that you’ll bring your paddling kit, but can we also make a strong suggestion to bring a fly rod too? The fishing is quite literally ‘off the hook’…

Back To Dakhla

Six years after our last trip to Dakhla, we returned for two weeks during January and February. When you go back to a place full of good memories after a few years you're always asking yourself about how it may have changed. Even more so in developing areas such as the Western Sahara. Let's dive in to the Dakhla of 2019 compared to the place we enjoyed nearly 2000 days ago.

Elevate

“Only passions, great passions can elevate the soul to great things.” Denis Diderot.

Flight's Primary Ignition

The parameters suggested to the brands for our inaugural wind foil sail test were left incredibly broad and open, for one simple reason. We wanted them to decide which product to put forward, and in doing so provide some understanding of their design direction. A sort of litmus paper test to gauge whether there was a consensus amongst the largest sail lofts.