What a wild night in our van with high winds and lashing rain !!! so didn't sleep well :( have a walk over to the course to see several already out having rigged in the dark and rain !!! It was like a who's who in the world Farrel,Steve T,Ian R, Zara and Pete Davies etc etc :) but they seemed to be wiping out in spectatular fashion about half way down the course so know I was in for a hard day !!! So with the wind being so strong and the tide going to cover half the lake car park in a few hours we left our van and took my gear over in Peter Cutts van. We decided to rig my 5.2 and his 5.8 and take it in turns which cut down our time on the water and probably saved our lifes !!!! :) After a word with Ian who said it was pretty 'hardcore' out there as the wind was too broad which meant a bad rolling swell down all of the course :) So it was a case of starting in the corner head up to the first corner, hoping you were in the straps and harness before bearing off and hanging on for as long as possible !!!! I made it about 10 metre's down the course before crashing out and hitting my head on the wall !!! :( thank goodness for my helmet :) It wasn't a hard knock but made me nervous for the rest of the morning and hats off to those who made a good series of 10 second runs !!! and several were just going for a high max !!! Pete C was struggling with his Manta and had ago on my Falcon speed with my 5.2 and liked it and got his best max  39 kts !!! which repaid the time I did a similar speed on his kit at La Franqui !!!! :)

So then the tide came in and the plan had been for me to pack up having got a 40 kt ave. and take Mag to see the metal figures at Crosby beach but because we had such a bad morning we would try again in the afternoon as the tide dropped which meant sitting in the van for a couple of hours with the heater on !!! So at about one I returned to the lake to discover the wind had dropped alot so de-rigged the 5.2 and rigged the 5.8 and had to go out on the 80 :( after afew low 30 runs decided that was a waste of time and decided to rig the longboard and 8.5 and go for a 30 ave. It took awhile as I had to carry my kit across the road and I as finally ready at 3 ish - trouble now was there were alot of freestylers out and you had to be careful as once you got the big board up and running it's not the easiest to stop !!! Again I had a great time out in the sun and made a 31+ kt run and was looking good for a 30 ave but the wind eased and I only made 29 - good but not good enough to beat Bob Cunningham !!! what what fun trying.I came off the water as darkness fell with two boards to de-rigg and then a 5 hour trip home !!! Mag and I both love West Kirby, the friendly people,wonderful people and it was great to put faces to any I,ve scene post on this site !!! I only blight was when I came across a old timer freestyer (the point of freestyle is ???? but to be honest the same can be said of speedsailing !!! ) when our boards touched lightly as I landed and I got a really bad mouthful of abuse totally out of character to every one else we met - perhaps he was having a bad day :(

So looking forward to going back and hoping for abit better sailing conditions and my 40 kt ave !!!