94 SPOTLIGHT
Kiddy friendly
O’Shea Grom Rig 1.5m
Info: http://www.osheasurf.com/grommain.html Price: £1849
WORDS: WINDSURFING UK PICS: FI PLAVENIEKS
WITH MANY WATER GOING TOYS OFFERING INCREASED VERSATILITY
THERE’S MORE THAN ONE WAY TO UTILISE WHAT YOU OWN. O’SHEA
HAVE A LONG STANDING MANUFACTURING STAND UP PADDLE
BOARDS AS WELL AS WINDSURFING GEAR. HERE WE LOOK AT THE
BRAND’S GROM 1.5M KIDDY RIG AND HOW THAT STACKS UP WHEN
GETTING OFFSPRING INTO WINDSURFING – ALL FROM THE POV OF
SAID GROM.
As well as being an adept paddler the
Wind+SUP makes a great platform for
learning to windsurf. Days when the wind
blows needn’t be a sit on the beach
affair. Simply grab a sail and still get out.
The Grom 1.5m rig is a nifty addition to
your kit box with offspring firmly in mind.
With dimensions to suit smaller frames
it’s a hard wearing, durable, bright and
thoughtful design. Lightweight
component parts, including dinky
reduced diameter boom fit for smaller
hands, the Grom 1.5m is eye catching
and looks the biz – comments from
onlookers confirmed this during testing.
Our three (now four) year old tester
found the rig fairly easy to wield around
in light winds. Having taken first steps
with something even smaller she was
familiar with how things feel. We did
uk
WIND
SURFING
have to lower the boom right to the very
bottom of the cut out as Molly is right on
the cusp height wise. With a bit of help
from mum and dad, however, she was
soon up and sailing. This muscle
memory development is key to
successful progression so it’s great she
could do most of the sail work herself.
For the second outing the wind had
picked up considerably. In this instance
there was a little more assistance
required as tiny muscles couldn’t quite
cope with force four winds. Still getting
involved, however, this ended up being
Molly’s introduction to (almost) planing
sailing – albeit with dad holding on to
make sure no off putting situations
arose. Needless to say it was all smiles
and giggles.
Conclusion
O’Shea’s Wind+SUP inflatable is a
quality multi-purpose iSUP that’s
fun in paddle mode but also
efficient in windSUP guise. Mum
and dad can get a bit of cruising in
the bag or dabble with some light
wind freestyle. Switch things round
and plug the Grom 1.5m rig in and
suddenly the whole set up is a kiddy
friendly beginner windy combo. The
Grom 1.5m is a stable, user friendly
and on the whole cracking little rig
that wee ones will enjoy using.
Molly’s comment? ‘This is fun! Can
we do it again?’ which I’m sure
you’ll appreciate is endorsement
enough.