Monday 1st November - Windsurf ***** River Orwell at Levington Marina – sunny periods and mild.

Foil – 20.62 knot max (year PB), 18.83 knot ave (4th bet ever)., 10.70 knot hour, 15.82 knot mile, 45.50 km., 14.92 knot alpha (PB).

Exocet RF AST 91 with Slingshot Hover Glide 76 with Tushingham Vulcan 6m.

Despite being absolutely full of cold I was keen to make the most of todays wind, mild too and sunny:) I was definitely not up to an open sea session and with an early high water at Levington around 8.20 I arrived at that time, perfect conditions too with some good 20 knot plus gusts and flat water with wall to wall sunshine:) Foil board was quickly on the beach and as feeling a little on the weak side I went with a fairly small sail for my old Tushingham  Vulcan 6m, kindly given to me by Craig Hurrell which is ideal on the foil, love using small sails to foil now, makes things so much easier if windy enough to fly! Fellow foiler Ian Clarke arrived to make the most of the good conditions and rigged his 5.6. With wetsuit on with hat but no gloves and plenty of water the launch was easy but only made it a few metres before the plastic clip on my harness broke, luckily, I have a spare and was quickly out and up and flying with the strongest winds on the corner of the river. The session then turned into a gybe feast with both Ian and I enjoying the decent wind and flat water:) I was lucky enough to see a video of Slingshots Wyatt Miller making gybing look very easy and he flips the rig and then changes his feet as I do on a fin board so decided to give that a try. I then had my best ever gybing session with another PB alpha, not all flying but am defiantly making steps forward and certainly not going in the as much which is just as well as full of cold! We were doing fairly short runs across the corner as usually ran out of wind when heading up river not helped by using a small sail but then I got a few gusts which took me up towards Pin Mill where the wind was strong again, super smooth too:) With the tide dropping you just had to make sure not to sail too close to the shore and I did not hit the bottom at all. I was also pleased to get my years fastest speed of 20.62 but did not push things too hard and still managed my 4th best average, can’t wait to try my smaller 65 front wing which my son Robert will be posting me as he forget to bring it on a recent visit but then again, he was also under the weather too! After well over two hours out really enjoying the River Orwell, even had an old barge motor past it was time to call it a day and ran in the deep-water marina entrance channel before packing up and heading for the top showers. Then home for around one after a top session, great way to start the month, perhaps some more wind on Thursday but from the North so might be a little chilly!

PS – also got a pic in the local paper so November has started well, apart from the germs!

https://www.facebook.com/media/set?vanity=stephen.squirrell.1&set=a.10222650430462087

https://windfoilzone.com/expert-tips-first-windfoil-jibes/