Slaughtering the Slalom with Sam Latham - K15

I first saw Sam windsurf at the 2011 Portland Harbour dash, and one thing stood out, he is fast off the mark. It is a beach start for the race and he was off like a shot, up and planing before others had their toes wet. At that point I knew he would be one to watch in the future. Sam is currently studying Industrial Design at Bournemouth Uni and windsurfs whenever he can around his studies.

Recently he contacted me to let me know about his new website and help him promote it; www.k-15.co.uk, please visit to show your support, he also has a page on stalkerbook.

As many of the regular readers will know I am trying to get perspectives from the younger sailors among us, so asked Sam if he would like to write a bit about training and starting slalom, which to be honest I am now s#!tt!ng myself about. The first round of the BSA Slalom series is at Hayling Island in 3 weeks and I have no idea what to do. So over to Sam for some advice.

Martyn Ogier and Hot Sails GPS in action

Martyn has a quick video showing the power of the Hot Sails Maui GPS 7.3m, topping 40knots on open water at Pembroke Bay, Guernsey, right next to a nice little wave.

Martyn Ogier, Pembroke, March 2012 from Pierre Bisson on Vimeo.

One day I hope to be able to sail with such confidence, fully locked in over choppy water. You can see the power in the sail well in this clip.

Good speeds and please please please can we have some good winds.
The Bus

Setting up Adjustable Outhaul

Ever since using adjustable outhaul for the first time last year I have developed the opinion that it is necessary and not an option any more for speedsurfing and its diverse range of disciplines. It allows for a change in conditions without stopping, and more importantly when going for 'medium wind' speeds. In that I mean when it is possible to get upwind, where you are on a reasonable fin and mid size sail. In light winds it makes little difference but can help you plane quicker by letting it off a bit and bearing away on a gust. In high wind speed sailing it is not really needed as it is often a real battle to get upwind anyway, but it is very useful for every wind strength.

2012 The year the records went in the first 3 days!

I will elaborate on this as more news comes in. I have heard reports of a 54knot peak on one GPS, and 10sec runs close to 50. It will take a day before all results come in though. I hope you are all still okay after these winds!

The full report can be found here http://www.redsurfbus.com/2012/01/50knot-barrier-destroyed-by-more-than-1.html

Here is a taster.....

'The Bus'

Best Board Graphics Ever?

I want one, I want one, I need one, I really need one, this is just brilliant!!!

Its a Moo custom, watch this space for an interview with Moo in the new year. They currently have logged the fastest speeds at West Kirby with one run over 50knots.

Here is a promo vid.....

MOOsters of speed from k4 fins on Vimeo.

Exocet SL Sport boards and XO Silverline sails real life review conclusions

In this final write up I will summarise my findings after using the Exocet SL Sport 66&78cm boards with the XO Silverline 7 & 7.8m sails. They were used in a variety of conditions from flat water to choppy seas, and from 10-12knots up to around 25-30knots. I sailed them with others for over 20hours in total in almost as many sessions. This allowed me to get to know the characteristics of the kit, from the benefits to the disadvantages of certain elements.

Overall I was really impressed with the boards and sails, I hope to show you this through the text below. I wanted to offer a detailed review process that was based on real life windsurfing of real life sized kit. All too often I open the magazines to read reviews on 5m wave sails and 75l boards, great if you weigh that of a teenager or are as tall as a one ;-) I also wanted to offer a review that was not  based around a graph/chart/scale that I often ignore as they have about as much meaning as the same in the Brass Eye comedy from the 90's.

West Kirby USM by Howard Rowson OPH

Farrel O'Shea at Full Throttle

Event: UK Ultimate Speed Meeting

Date: 6^th October 2011

Venue: West Kirby 

Ultimate Speed … Ultimate League of Gentlemen

Long have the UK Speedsailing crews waited for a high wind forecast from the West to West Northwest, providing epic conditions for one of the worlds fastest speed strips.

Late September showed early signs from the main forecasting models that October would perhaps see a return to a mobile westerly flow, with a resultant storm track of low pressure systems off the Atlantic, tracking west to east just north of Scotland, setting up West Kirby for an “in the line of fire” serious high wind session.

Eriks Advice on Speedsurfingblog

This is a collection of links to Erik Loots' Speedsurfingblog which a lot of you will know and some may not. I am trying to collect together some of his older posts that are worthy of reading and will help us all get better speeds out of our sessions.

SpeedsurfingBlog Article by 'The Bus'

Last night I rounded up the various stuff I had done about West Kirby and the amazing hour by Jacques van de Hout and Hans Kreisel for an article on the Speedsurfingblog. There was something I missed from all the work I did on here, cannot believe it either. Not the fact I missed it but the fact it stands out nearly as much as Steve Thorp's 50knot display. Click the banner for the link.

Hope you enjoy it, good speed and winds, 'The Bus'

Exocet SL Sport Boards, XO Silver line sails and Black Project fins. Review stage 2, powered up 'speedsurfing'

This next part of the review process is about getting to know the kit in a variety of conditions. This article discusses the first outing in constant Force 4 gusting to Force 5 winds, good both in terms of direction and strength. For a first 'full-on' session I was pleased with the outcome, both myself and Portland Pirates team mate, workhorse and dedicated all round windsurfer Pete Young had good speeds from the boards considering they are big pieces of kit.

West Kirby 6th October Collection of Videos

West Kirby Ultimate Speed Meeting - October 2011
Scroll down for all videos, if you know of any more please contact me
redsurfbus@gmail.com


Mr Windsmurf on YouTube 
(if you let me know your real name I can credit you properly!)

Grevelingen Chop Team does it again.

Just a quick note to mention the amazing hour by both Jacques van der Hout and Hans Kreisel. Thats not forgetting the Nautical Mile and distance on top.

This is amazing stuff. They came to the UK and showed us what they were made of at West Kirby on the 6th of October , and have now returned to their home spot at Grevelingenmeer - Zonnemaire, Netherlands. 

I expect most people who read this will understand why I am writing about this achievement, but for those who do not know I will explain. Most windsurfers cruise across the wind at 20-25knots, anything upwind to get back to where you started from  means the speed drops to 18-22knots (all figures are approximate and really depend on a variety of factors) Then when you turn obviously you reduce speed a lot (not if you are one of these two guys though!).

The Harbour Dash

The Harbour Dash course.

The Harbour Dash is an event held in Weymouth bay, starting from one side, going across the bay into Portland Harbour's North entrance, down along the wall and out of the East entrance and back across the bay to the start point. It is a local tradition started in memory of Brian Matthews, a well known and respected windsurfer from "around these 'ere parts". More details can be found here on the OTC website. 

Norman Petty (of West Kirby fame in a recent article) has  organised this event for the past decade. This year, driven by Tris Best from the OTC, and assisted by Norman and Kevin Greenslade, the event has had the publicity that it richly deserves. 

On arrival I saw about 20 windsurfers rigging up with a couple of fellow Portland Pirates out in the harbour testing the conditions. They were good with dead west wind averaging about 20-25knots. Both team mates went down in the water, something was up. Eventually Pete Young came back to shore with a broken harness line to tell everyone that the fishermen had kindly put lines out that stretched quite a way. Eventually Mark Matthews, Brians son and our team captain (Swagger) managed to swim nearly 500m to shore without his fin.

Exocet SL Sport 78cm (129l) and 66cm(105l) with XO Silver 7.8m sail

New Exocet overtaking old Exocet (formula so all is forgiven)

The first time I got the boards wet the wind was low. It was ideal to get a feeling for them and to see the planing threshold of the bigger board with the biggest sail I was supplied with. Most other sailors were either out on 150+l beginners kit or formula kit, with a couple of lightweight freestylers out doing their pump pump pop stuff.

A different perspective on the famous West Kirby day.

Norman Petty (aka Normski), a windsurfer that many people in the UK will have been on the water with and may have the fortune to know or chat with at the beach, sent me his perspective of West Kirby , 6th October 2011. Normski invited me onto the GPS Team Challenge and I feel forever in his debt as without that none of this website would exist. 

He is a 'Legend' class windsurfer who is just as comfortable in logo high waves as he is on the speed course. He certainly showed me how it was done in my first month on the GPS Team Challenge when it was our job to go for distance, I managed 79nmi while he carried on to over 100! Here is his bit, I did not want it to get lost in the other article that a lot of people have already read. - 'The Bus'

West Kirby - Autumn Gales 2011

Here is a quick round up of the day. It was a day that many of the regular speedsurfers who meet at West Kirby broke their PB's and joined the 40 knot club properly with 5x10second averages. 

First I would like to congratulate those who got their membership to the club. I know Tristan Haskins, Mike George and Mark Hayford are really pleased with the day. Mike even posted his SPD file on Facebook which to any of his friends that don't own a gps will be a meaningless set of numbers. Think he was a bit over excited there but I can totally understand how he feels, I am sure you all can. 

Exocet 'FreeRace' Tests - First Impressions When Rigging

Welcome to the Exocet SL Sport, Silver line Sails and Black Project Type R Fins Review Series.

First I would like to introduce you to our testing methods. I say 'our'  this because I am going to use some very experienced windsurfers, some intermediate regular windsurfers and a couple of 'occasional' windsurfing intermediates. The rationale behind this is to get the opinions from windsurfers of a range of abilities on the same kit, from first impressions to lasting memories and the small niggles that may arise from getting to know a bit of kit over a good few sessions in different conditions.

I have chosen to do it this way after I posted a suggestion similar to this on a forum a few years back and had quite a few others say it was a good idea. We spend a lot of money on kit and want to make the right choice when buying it, often we do not get the chance to test it rigorously and when reading the review of some kit that has been used by a pro/ex pro/team rider it is clearly going to be a very accurate account of the board but it often does not tell us what we need from the kit,  either for the weekend warrior or someone still learning to carve gybe after several years of windsurfing.

Weymouth Speed Week 2011, Registration is open

Registration is open for Weymouth Speed Week (WSW) 2011. This year the title sponsor is Simmer Style who will be providing the majority of the prizes and underwriting the $1000 prize for anyone who breaks the harbour record set in 2008 by Anders Bringdal at 38.4 knots over the historic 500 metre course. The Legendary, Farrel O’Shea the importer of Simmer sails and Mistral boards into the UK said “Of course we are delighted to be associated with WSW this year, speed sailing has been a passion of mine for many years and the bonus is our boards and sails do well here also”

Zara Davis from the UK leads the Women’s European Speed tour - By Pete Davis

The 3rd event of the European Speedsailing Championship tour was held on the island of Fehmarn in Germany. It delivered some great, if challenging racing with winds up to 35 knots. Five rounds were completed by the international fleet and the lead changed 3 times over the event. Anders Bjorkqvist from Sweden came out on top amazingly after a bad crash in the second round when he broke his finger and put his head through the sail! He carried on, taking the win by only one point over Manfred Merle from Germany who split the two storming Swedes, putting Daniel Borgelind in third. Zara Davis with five bullets won the women’s fleet, beating her old rival Birgit Hofer who consoled herself with taking the Germans ladies crown for 2011. Zara’s speed was impressive all week underlined by the fact that she came an impressive 17th overall in a very strong men’s fleet of sixty plus entrants.