Wednesday 11th August - Windsurf ***** – sunny and warm:).

Foil – 17.15 knot max, 15.45 knot ave ., 10.77 knot hour, 14.67 knot mile, 48.18 km ., 9.63 knot alpha.

Exocet RF AST 91 with Slingshot Hover Glide 76 with Tushingham Lightning 7.8m.

Summer has well and truly returned to Felixstowe with another warm sunny day with the promise of some breeze in the afternoon. Nice morning at home doing the usual, me exercises with Mag pottering in the garden with one eye on Landguard weather station. The SSW breeze began to build around midday, gusting to around 15 knots so put a message on WhasApp to see if any one was going, with high water just after 2 The Manor was probably the better launch beach but as it was a lovely day decided to try The Dip because you can definitely park there. Paul Smith said he had had several foiling sessions of late and the high tide had been no problem so after lunch I was just waiting for high water to pass. I then got a message from a friend, kitesurfer Ben who was hoping to kite foil from Felixstowe to Waldringfield So I decided to head down, dropping Mag off at Jacobs Ladder for a walk. Paul had just arrived and was keen to get out on his foil despite the fact there was very little beach! There was a nice onshore breeze gusting to 17mph and Paul was rigging his 8m which surprised me as he is a lightweight. I did not fancy my 8.5 so went for the 7.8. Paul managed to get off from a small piece of beach with no problems and had to pump to get going, the wind had eased a little but I decided to stick with the 7.8 despite it being wind with tide! There was a couple of kites up in the Deben but it did not look windy enough for a foil to Waldringfield so decided to give that a miss today. With shortie on I too launched OK. Paul was disappearing down the coast towards Landguard so I decided to follow him. I had the pump up on the foil and was a fraction under and only gained about one groyne on the first beat but I tried harder then and soon made progress. It is great fun beating in a nice swell trying to keep the board out of the water and avoid the lobster pots, still having to pump up after most tacks but no problem as you could run down a wave. I did meet up with Paul down towards The Manor and the flying Wizzard was out foiling there definitely improving too:) I was surprised how well the 7.8 went in winds that did not exceed 16 knots and the sail back the three miles to The Dip was just magic:) After pumping up I just turned really broad hugging the shoreline all the way just playing with the swell really close to the beach just showing off to all the people enjoying an afternoon on the beach! I had to sail around the pier then back to the beach past the Fludgers and to Jacobs Ladder where the tide really pushed me along, just amazing fun! At The Dip Al Parker was out struggling on his fin board, he soon changed and had a good time on his foil. It was so good I did it all again, sailing just past the pier before having another super broad run back. The sea had calmed down nicely now but I had been out 2 and a half hours covering 30 miles so decided to call it a day. As I was leaving Ben kite foiled past to the Fludgers, I wonder if he had made it to Waldringfeild? Could be a few days of this now to, August is turning into a top month:)

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