Friday 22nd April - Windsurf *** The Dip, Felixstowe – sunny.

Fin – 26.38 knot max, 23.96 knot ave., 14.03 knot hour (year PB), 19.12 knot mile (year PB), 42.47 km., 13.18 knot alpha.

F2 Zantos 295 and F2 Ride 282 with 36 fin and Tushingham Thunderbird 6.5m.

With the wind continuing to blow I arranged to meet Ian at The Dip in Felixstowe around 9.15 to make the most of low water which was at 9.36. Arrived to lovely blue sky with at least 17 knots of wind from the NE, looked ideal and was expected to build during the morning. I was keen to at least start on the foil so quickly set that up and rigged my 6.5 which if too big for the foil I could swop straight over to my fin board. Ian was in mixed minds about whether to fin or foil but was starting to set up his foil as I set of. Flying straight off the beach it looked like the start of a good day, it does not take long for things to go badly wrong yet again, 400m off the beach and going well I had the familiar sound of my fuselage once again breaking, my third to go, we all know that the Slingshot fuselage is very poorly designed but being a poor pensioner, it is not easy to keep upgrading so you have to make do and keep your fingers crossed. Being 400m offshore and flying I can’t believe I hit the bottom it is definitely deeper than a couple of feet the only other thing is hitting something underwater, sadly you can never be sure but it did not feel I hit anything??? The only good thing being my front wing floated to the surface so at least I did not lose that like the last time! I was lucky I was close to the shore so after retrieving my wing I could easily sail back; lucky I was not 2 miles offshore like yesterday but at least I could have seen if my vhf radio worked! The really bad news came to light when I made it back to the beach as the back of my board is once again very badly damaged, if that is a right off then that could be difficult to replace, the price of a new board and foil is horrendously expensive, will ask David Coles if the board can be repaired and see what he says, it could be time to dust off the longboard for a bit! With no choice I switched to my F2 Zantos 295 with Ian putting his foil away to go for a fin board also. With the tide now running with the wind I was a little underpowered with the 6.5 on the fin and quickly lost a groyne or two but the wind picked up and I made it back OK doing long runs over a mile past the red and white bouy where the sea was very big. You now have to sail out through a section of steep waves before things calm down so going fast was out but the ride back was good fun, certainly making the back leg ache. Ian was going well on his 100lt and 5.6 and we were joined by someone out on a wing foil who I had never seen before! With the wind and sea state picking up I came ashore for a snack and to take a few pics, Ian had changed down to his wave board and the foiler was still out but that looked like very hard work to my with the waves making it hard to turn! I then had some good runs on my smaller 115 Ride, going slowly out and going faster on the way back. With the wind now well over 25 knots I decided to call it a day as we have two more days of fresh winds which is just as well with once again no foil gear:( At least I was home nice and early which surprised Mag, she guessed that I had broken something! I had enough energy to do my exercises in the very breezy back garden but it quickly dried my wetsuit!

PS - there was a little good news, I got two pics in the local paper today :)

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?vanity=stephen.squirrell.1&set=a.10223385479837862