Sun, Wind, FreeSTYLE & GPS

It looks to be shaping up for a good fun weekend here in Bahrain with sun and wind. The weather has been a little odd recently with more rain than normal and rather cold (down to 14C over night and 18 in the days) but it looks like we'll be back to cruising in boardies soon enough.

Last weekend was fun with some good bump n jump, freestyle and a fun few speed runs at the wall. Unfortunately I only have my freestyle gear here at the moment so my 26 knots was rather below the potential. The tide was down a little too which meant that the flattest water is in a wind shaddow. This place is incredible though and will prodce serious speeds if I can get it all together.

This weekend I will be testing the latest Black Project FreeSTYLE 19cm which arrived on Tuesday, so more of that to follow...

Black Project Fins FreeSTYLE Prototype - READ MORE

I will try to get my GoPro out this weekend and upload some GPS tracks to map out where I go exploring.

More to follow...

More wind, more freestyle.

It didn't look to good when I woke up on Friday morning with think dust and only 10-15 knots but as the day passed the conditions improved. By 2pm it was windy and sunny again.

I am getting lots of freestyle practice which is good and some what pleased with the results. I can certainly say that I am falling of alot but also that I am starting to feel more comfortable, I have not broken my anckles yet so that is a bonus!

Flaka progress - watching the videos has helped, I am feeling good in the set up and getting rotaton but killing it by leaning back on landing, I need to get my weight over the board. At the moment I am going down wind, popping the board, rotating upwind but finishing off with the later stages of a board/sail 360 so at the moment it is rather a hybrid but something I can work on. Much better than a few days ago.

The wind was best betweem 3 and 4pm and I was pleased to see so many people at the beach, there must have been 20-25 kites and 4 windsurfers, add to that families etc. it was quite busy on the beach and on the water, luckily the kiters still to a small area so I get the rest.

Not much wind so far this Saturday morning but it looks like it will pick up later and it is already sunny so that should help.

Less than 2 weeks till the 60 Days of Summer now... must look for cars on http://www.craigslist.com/ today. Yesterday I got my boardbag off the roof... a year of dust, think it will need a rather good srub before being packed!

The wind still looks good for the next week.

More to follow...

Weekend warmup...

The charts have been bang on all week but I have had various work commitments which have meant that I have not been able to get out the last few days but I knew that I would get back early today so was pleased to see the sasnd flying about this morning when I woke up. The wind persisted throughout the day and when I got home it was perfect for more freestyle training.

15-20 knots, 38C airtemp, 34C water and sunny, not bad! I continued to work on lots of board / sail 360s and heli tacks. I was finding it rather harder to get the final part of the board/sail 360s today, guess that was due to more wind?

I tried a flaka on just about every run, ok so they may not look much like the flakas you see on youtube or at your local beach but I do feel that I am making progress. Today I was getting better pop and getting the nose jammed into the water, not getting far enough forward. I seem to almost get it then lean back and not commit fully. I had a few fun crashes but everything is still in one piece!

Tonight I will watch some more video so that I can analyse my progress a little better. With the wind set to continue for a number of days (actually looks to me like the longest period of wind I have seen in 3 years!) I wonder if I can get these flakas ticked off before we leave for Hawaii?

Great video, nice to see an old HSM SO, these ones with the cammo luff hold a special place in my heart...

The 2 week countdown has started, we'll be negotiating excess baggage charges with BA in 14 days time.

More to follow...  

60 Days of Summer - Freestyle Target # 1: THE FLAKA

One thing I really will be working on this summer is some freestyle moves, the motivation is two fold, firstly wanting to bring these into the waves and also back to Bahrain for flat water fun.

I have already been working on Flakas and non-planning upwind 360s here and I have made some progress and have been watching videos and reading for tips but will be aim to have these dialled in the first week back in Maui.

Windsurfing Mag just ran a great article which was really useful.  

Watch this space for some video in a few weeks.

More sailing targets to follow...