OK, as said before, we have to be nervous of these predictions in the off-season but it looks as if there may be a little NE brewing for Sat afternoon.

So... get your plans in early. At this stage if I make an appearance at a kids party in the morning I get a pink slip for the afternoon so I should be able to hit the beach around 1pm.

Who's keen for what? Two options - if there's enough wind we could have a sail at Baggies on the NE... conditions should be pretty flat and easy but better than nothing. Otherwise we do some slalom practise offshore at Vetch's or somewhere else off Durbs. What do you guys think? Anyone thought of going offshore at Pirates or somewhere like that. If the surf is flat enough we could get out on the bigger kit and have a nice burn.... buzz up and down the golden mile a bit.

I'm in. and have cancelled all golf for saturday. Sunday is Mother's day don't forget!!

Pity about the kids party Jamo, i was thinking of a Palms trip maybe..
Otherwise the slalom thing sounds good. I'll take anything at this stage...

Yes, I've put Sunday down for mothers' day but Rene is putting pressure on me to take her windsurfing on Mothers' day. Typical... I think she's thinking of trying to catch the bergy at Craigie Burn. Romantic... hmmm.

Palms would be a good plan for Sat but the risk/reward is a bit low for me I think. Kids party is mucho points and this one is low hanging fruit - 2 hours in the morning with the option to sail afterwoods.

Cond still looking good for a burn on 5.8s this afternoon. Waves are small but should be fairly clean so we'll have a look at Baggies at about 1pm. If it's really light we'll either switch to freeride kit (if the sea's small enough) or sail in town on freeride kit.

Blew nicely in the end. Dave, Paul, Ralph, Reuben were sailing earlier on and seemed to have a good session by the time we arrived at about 1.45p. When I measured the wind it was avg 21, gusting 25 NE so I rigged 5.0 and Cliff 5.2.

By the time we got to the beach it seemed to have dropped a bit and Dave was suggesting the sails were a bit small. He also mentioned to watch out for the shorebreak. I ignored that and went on to do the standard shorebreak dance- that mysical set of steps and maneuvers as you negotiate and plead with the foam and sand for ownership and control of your kit. I decided to withdraw to lick my wounds a bit and reconsider my approach.

Got out easily on the second try.. all in the timing, you see and beyond the shorebreak it was actually pretty flat and quite easy. 5.0 was slightly underpowered but my setup was also a mess with harness lines in the wrong place and getting used to the old evo again. To add to that my starboard tack line broke on the first return in so had to come in and change it... what a pain.

So in all quite a lot of admin getting going the first time. Cliff had better luck and was able to stay upwind. I fought for a while to get upwind but started enjoying it more once I was sailing closer to the rocks. Power was still a little on the light side but enough to plane and ride what waves there were. Waves were medium but briefly ridable and ramps were there if you got powered up on the inside.

Power was a bit variable and gusty though.

Isaac joined us on a 5.2 and then the wind really started to come through and we were well powered for the rest of the session.

Sadly I ended it with the demise of the Evo. It has cracked again (in the repair area) so it seems the repair cannot stand up to a beating on the east coast. so I'm back to square one... better put some pressure on Arno for the JP but I'm worried the same will happen to that first time I sail it.

As a result, my jumping is really suffering. I'm so nervous about breaking the board that I send-guess myself in the air as I agonise over how to land. I hit some decent ramps and got some decent height on Sat but had at least two hard flat landings. I make sure I'm out of the harness and if the board slaps down hard I let go and fall off into the sea but it still seems to punish the boards. Don't know how to sort this out.

Anyway, I'll check the budget and see how I can organise myself some sort of wave board without breaking the bank.

Great day out and great sail in the end. Got the blisters on my hand to prove it..

Between James and Ralph there must be a scrap yard of broken boards and bits and pieces of masts, booms .... Maybe lay off the full cream milk fella's

Hey Isaac, nice to see you back on the water again after ... 7 months ??

Ja, it was good to be out there again! It has been too long, probably closer to 8 or 9 months not including the solo session I had in semi-slogging conditions at Country Club a few weeks ago(when I broke my 400 mast). Lets hope for weekend wind!