WindsurfingUK issue 5 October 2017 | Page 35

33 treated me over the years and warned me that this day would come if I didn’t start stretching and strengthening my core. Maybe a word of warning for all you thirty-something rippers out there who are still in the invincibility zone which I thought would last forever. Hindsight is a wonderful gift. As a language teacher over here, working with kids, I have the luxury of sharing the same holidays as the locals, literally translated as 13 weeks in summer. Which just happens to be the windiest season. Purely coincidental of course! I run most of my clinics during this period as the winds are most consistent and, obviously, I’m not at work. Due to the conditions I concentrate mainly on intermediate and above in my clinics, whether it be gybing, tacking, general sea sailing or introduction to waves. You just need to able to plane in the straps and there’s a beach for you in Fuerte. Definitely my favourite clinic is teaching forwards though. It’s such a huge mental barrier to most people that it’s a massive buzz for me when I help them actually achieve it. I love it. Fuerte Windsurf Clinics I actually came up with the Fuerte Windsurf Clinics idea while I was laid up with my hip injury and wasn’t sure if I would be able to sail properly again. I thought it would be a great way to carry on sailing without overly punishing my body trying to keep up with the pesky kids, meet people and also impart some of the knowledge I had accumulated over my many years in the sport. In the end, I carried on punishing my body while running the clinics, hahaha! They’ve been a huge success and I’ve met so many great people through the clinics and surfaris, some of whom have become some of my best amigos. As a team rider for Fanatic/North I am currently sailing all new kit for the 2018 season. Actually I have held onto my Fanatic 2017 90L Quad TE, which I love, because I only used it three times due to last year’s injury shenanigans. That’s my small board for up here as we generally sail on 4.5, 5.0/ 5.3, which also just happens to be my quiver of North Superheros for the coming season. I recently received my 2018 Fanatic 99L Stubby TE which is absolutely amazing! Previously I always had a freestyle board as my big board as they were so quick to plane and user-friendly in bump n jump conditions (even down-the-line wave sailing scenarios saw them get use). Planing performance But the Stubby is the board I’ve been looking for all these years, combining early planing characteristics of the freestyle boards with the responsiveness and slashy turns of a waveboard – kind of what we tried to achieve with the freestyle wave boards years ago but far better. I also replace my stock fins with Maui Ultra Fins on all my boards, thereby notably increasing the planing performance and manoeuvrability. I didn’t really believe the hype uk WIND SURFING