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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