gps-speedsurfing
Jan 11th 2007...

West Kirby

40-55 knots on the Ano... All day...

Couldn't hook in or make it down the course properly

A couple of mates there on the day were making it look easy

Blimey I'd love to give it another go!!! It's been too long
Windy ol' day that mate, I spent it sat on the wall filming you lot - good times.

18th of Jan 07 was probably the windiest WK has seen for many a year.
I have video footage of the 18th Mar 07, probably as windy as the 11th Jan, 45-50kts+. Al Cross attempted to get going but got blown off with a 5m Stealth,  Windy J managed 40kts on his wave board with a 3.9m NP Core.

For me probably not much more than 40, certainly during the GPS Speedscene revo.  Back in the late 80's we had some big seshies on 13" needles with sub 4m speedsails (Gaastra Speedfoils) winds probably gusting over 50, although a little difficult to quantify at those speeds. Typically the water smoking over 45's.

Had one failed attempt back then, WK a complete white out,  dead square,  super flat and 60-70 knots, full on Hurricane Force 12, I dug myself into the rocks on the windward side of the wall to take some pics, I had to crawl back down the wall to the car park, if I would have shown anything to the wind I would have been blown into the lake.

bring it on!
18th Jan pics...

http://www.stevethorp.co.uk/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=63&Itemid=28

Definitely my windiest day, big respect to MVM!
Steve, your Leg photos are fairly sick man, I was flicking around through your sailing pics and bang my breakfast landed on my desk.
Hi All,
We had a big day in the late '80's at the Sandy Point High Wind Carnival. Blew 50-60 knots all day with peaks of 63. Power was out in the town and trees down eveywhere.  Mal Wright and I were on 3.9 Gaastra Speedfoils and Jason Polakow on a 2.9 wave. Pre race briefing warned of it being too risky to launch the rescue boat so if there was a crash ( and there was!!) we had to just let our kit go and try get to shore. Helmets compulsory and organisers picked the 10 people allowed to sail for the session . From memory, Mal did a 41.?? (i think the fastest ever for the time) and I was high 39's. Jason did 38. I think we were on 39 cm speed polyester boards... Sails were the old tight leech variety and it was a tight angle. Pretty sure Daffy has video and I have some Pics somewhere..... 
 Not too sure what would happen if we had a day like that again??
cheers Tony
West Kirby - The big storm of '87



The good old days - 13" needles , full face helmets, and huge wipeouts circa 1988

So windy a complete white-out ...... not sure whats happened to the pics?????
December 1997, Luderitz second Lagoon. 3.5 wavesail and 8'6'' Sailboards Maui Waveboard. I could harldy hook in out in the chop but had some pretty sweet gybes on the inside against the bank. Later that day we measured 67 knots at Diaz point. Rocks the size of the last joint on your thumb were crashing into the car windscreen.

Also got blown out at the same spot on the way up to the Walvis bay speedweek in 2006. Got some video trying to hold down a 4.6 stealth in a measured 51 knots.  I have to admit i was pretty rubbish in those conditions.

Howard. Those pics of West Kirby looks sick man. How much damage can you do in those conditions on the current equipment.

Howard

I think I was there with Mike Shaw and Nick Luget ? the lake was covered in spin drift the next time I experienced it was at Fuerteventura PBA event the guys at the Pro Centre were using 3m sails we were using 5.2 and 5.5 on the speed course

How things have changed 11 13 15 18 inch boards we tried every thing  Happy Days
18/1/07 had to be one of the windiest days.
http://50knots.xs4all.nl/gps%2Dspeedsurfing/media/UK/West%20Kirby/18%20Jan%202007/slides/DSC04809.html
What ever happened to Nick Luget?
Hennie,
I'm pretty sure the top pic was the build up to the great storm of 1987, that laid bare the southern half of the UK, with winds peeking at over 100kts at it's most brutal time. WK was probably as windy as the 18th Jan 07, as told by Steve above. The course was dead square that day in 87, impossible to rig let alone sail, we were sailing Mistral Hookipa's in those days with NP RAF wave 3.7's the smallest of the quiver, so not a chance.  

Given similar conditions on current kit, albeit a broad course, who knows, several of the fast uk lads and dutch crew that come over, are all capable of seeing 50+ here.  Hopefully the refurb to the wall will not detract from the strips performance. We shall see!

Mike, those days were really special - the early days,  big winds, tiny boards, sailing within an inch of big offs. All too easy now,  but way quicker, even though it does n't feel like it. Spent most of my sailing time with Nick Whittaker when we worked for Roy ar Manchester Sailboard Centre, then the WK speed crew and Pete Tye and John Coleman from Derby / Doncaster Sailboards.   Defo happy days. Soon to return to West Kirby.

The bottom pick was actually a Sou'wester - they do get thru from time time! 40kts circa 1989 not 88, I was sailing Vitsea / gaastra so '89 kit. Tming kit in those days was by Casio - boom mounted waterproof stopwatch, timed over the 250, on a good day we were making the 250 around 12seconds give or take a bit - pretty rudimentry but a good guide for tuning purposes. Not that there was much tuning to be done back then - more survival and bigballs factor. 
Hey Cleggy,  Mr. Luget went to the Darkside! He was selling his speed kit last year.
It would be great to see more of the old boyz come back. I cannot recall any current UK GPS speedies other than Bob, Farrel, Mike P and Steve Corps that were speedsailing back then 87/88/89. I shelved it before Whitey hit the scene at WK
On 18-01-2007 some surfers sailed on the lokal lake. See some picktures.http://www.zerobeaufort.nl/fotoboek/fotoboek.php?title=The%20Perfect%20Storm%2018-01-2007&source=noordaa180107
Great pics Johan. Epic storm that day, fast moving and powerful,  to blast the UK and Holland during daylight hours of the same day. 
Some of us are still using that kit from 87 ; )
Was it the storm of 87 that washed away some of the lake railings and the lake wardens hut?
Howie, is that you in the photo #464? I think may I have some more photos from that speed event.
Noy sure on that one Cleggy, we did n't hang around for the tide. We headed back to Sale Water Park where it was blowing F2 gusting F11!!!

Yep 464 was me . Sold those sails to Alex - cannot rememeber his surname he was good mates with Ian Francis and Andy.. ? who drove the pale blue vw camper, ring any bells?
More of the 1987 big storm



Speed Kit of 89 20" 13" & 15"

<A href="http://i39.photobucket.com/albums/e166/1chipmunk/kspeedvx2.jpg">http://i39.photobucket.com/albums/e166/1chipmunk/kspeedvx2.jpg</A>


<A href="http://i39.photobucket.com/albums/e166/1chipmunk/kspeedvx.jpg">http://i39.photobucket.com/albums/e166/1chipmunk/kspeedvx.jpg</A>
yep i still have the VX2's and an F2 tommy 260



Mike,

You need to open the picture links up in a seperate IE window,  then ctrl-A ctrl-C (select all, copy)
then ctrl v (paste) into the gp3s message window, if the pic is wider than the message window, this will result in the page formatting getting screwed, best practice - make sure the pic is now wider than 650 pixels or thereabouts.

Nice pics mate, T 260 .... cool good for 40+ then!

NEILPRYDE
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