So been a busy September for windsurfing, with an awesome forecast the week before the 2nd round of the BWA tour I decided to take time out from film making and gardening and got out and about around the Welsh coast enjoying windsurfing sessions with friends.
All photo's courtesy of Olly Wood
The BWA Avon event near Bournemouth on the South coast of the UK normally struggles for good conditions but this year, 2018 it delivered . . . This video shows the action from the first day, which I knocked together after a lovely meal at James Cox's house. He lives literally just round the corner from the spot we competed at in Southbourne.
Andy 'Bubble' Chambers winning a BWA event for the first time was cool to see. On a personal level I did my usual of giving priority to the film making, so when it comes to competing I'm pretty last minute grabbing my gear and sailing, no warm ups or changing gear, just go out there and have fun.
This event was unique for me because we had wind from the right (starboard tack) and normally at most of the event venues we get wind from the left (port tack). I grew up learning to sail with starboard tack conditions so this was a chance for me to perform to my best and maybe get a little run through the event and post my best ever result.
Unfortunately, I didn't sail to my best and got a mid fleet result. Super happy to have had a comp in starboard tack though and was great to see the level of all the other guys on this tack.
The event carried on and the main day (Saturday) was a bit of a wash out with torrential rain, some wind but no official event was run for the other fleets. The organisers did manage an open comp, with all the competitors given a chance to sail heats and perform there best tricks in the wet onshore conditions. The main event film below shows the story from the whole weekend.
As you can see we had a cracking party on the Saturday night, hosted by Jimmy's Conker Gin company and all in all it was a very successful event. Back home and the garden has required some attention, weeding, clearing and preparing the ground for some of the autumn sown crops. As usual Bunty's Blog has all the info and here is the current video showing whats happening in our garden.