News from January 2012

GPS Team Challenge Updates

The GPS Team Challenge in the Northern Hemisphere ended with some great peak and 5x10 average  results for the Portland Pirates but alas only mediocre scores in the other categories. The wind either only came in the week when most were working, or blew through far too strong for hour and nautical mile attempts. I cannot speak for the other teams around Western Europe but would expect they suffered a similar fate. One team as usual, dominated the scoreboard with fantastic results all round. The winners of the 2011 series - The Grevelingen Chop Team. Hot on their heels this month in the top speed categories were the West Kirby Warriors, they seem to have a few very big hitters in their team with Steve Thorp and Farrel OShea and are getting more organised to give the Portland Pirates more competition. Steve as you all know scored a secure 50knot+ peak, and was even gracious enough to post his lower scoring GPS result.

GPS Team Challenge 2011 Final Results

I am sorry this is a little late, as you may have seen it has been a but busier here in the UK than usual for this time of year. I intended to write this at the start of January after a well fought month in December. It is relatively hard for me to comment how the other teams organise themselves or even how competitive they are in the GTC. I can say how disappointed, or perhaps a better word is frustrated, some Portland Pirates were when the Tassie Speed Seekers scored the following session on the 20th.

November news 2011

The first thing I must say in this is a congratulations to a team mate; Pete Young for getting over 40 knots again at Portland Harbour. This is such a rare occurrence that it deserves a mention, also well done to the other guys who were out that day; Kev Greenslade and Steve Corps both scored peaks within a knot of 40. Steve managed that after breaking a middle batten on his first run as well. I can confirm it was a very hard session with winds that made the sail feel like Thor's hammer was hitting it. I managed a measly 35.45peak on my gps which is a personal best but know I could have done better if I was back at full strength, most of my time was spent slowly walking back upwind out of breath!  The session is here.

Another well done needs to go to some team mates for their tireless performance last month for the Portland Pirates. If it was not for Pete (The Matrix), Kev (El Reg) Greenslade, and Norman (Normski) Petty going out in some horrible temperatures and conditions with little light after work then the Portland Pirates would not be up there any more. Their Nautical Mile, Hour and Distance efforts deserve medals sometimes, its a shame that it is always left to a few to do the less glamorous disciplines, which I am sure is the case with all teams out there.

The GPS Team challange saw the Tassie Speedseekers shoot up the rankings with a top place finish for the month after a great session here.  With fifteen speedsurfers out and a result that covered every discipline for the month it must have been a really great session, there were a total of nine personal bests as well. As can be seen above this has left 3rd, 4th and 5th places to fight for. This should motivate some to get out in what looks like amazing conditions for Western Europe over the next few days and maybe even weeks if the longer range forecasts are anything to go by.

10th, 11th and 12th places look worth fighting for as well with only a span of 20 points between them. Remember that a discount required for this month may mean a drop of a few places for some if you have 4 poor months already. This can make a huge difference now as you move lower down the results table here.

A session of note must be mentioned now, it had a total of 80 speedsurfers all at one location, Strand Horst. There were a total of 23 that achieved 2seconds over 40knots! The session can be found here. This is such a great result and shows how well organised the Dutch are at getting together for Speed meetings. Redsurfbus.com is planning a few for the UK next year and I will put more info on here once things are confirmed.

Some other news about something I was shown today is that Angelo Pecere and Jeffery Leeflang have started a project to create ; Ghosts of Speed: A Windsurf Speed Movie . They have a facebook page for anyone that is interested here.

Finally Boardseeker managed to get a great article with Anders about his experiences at Luderitz, read it here






Good Speed and Winds (and make sure you are safe now up here in the Northern Hemisphere, check your UJ/tendon and replace, also check your ropes.)
'The Bus'


When I started these reports I was hoping for a few to join in and send me some info on great sessions in a month. Please if you read it can you try to do that, it will give so much more depth to the reports, I find it hard to say much more that compare a few scores on the table.

November News in Brief

We are all still waiting for Anders Bringdal to bring home the speedsurfing title (I know he is Swedish, when I say home I mean back to us windsurfers). He posted a 48.03knot 5x10 second average on the 11th November and apparently did even better in a previous session but had GPS problems. He is showing the Kites that they are not so far ahead, and seems to be beating them at the moment in the wider Luderitz Canal. Videos are here.

The Speed Strip at Luderitz

October News in Brief

October was a great month for the UK and Western Europe, like September most of the results were achieved in the first week with conditions which secured a good score in all categories for the Portland Pirates and many other teams. West Kirby fired up and an Ultimate Speed Meeting was called, you probably have read the reports for this, there are several. It was a day that Steve Thorp scored 50.01 on his GPS. If that is compared to the current speeds that are coming from Luderitz (report to follow) it really shows what an outstanding sailor Steve is, he either has balls of steel or a slight mental problem or both. After talking to many people at Weymouth Speed week who saw him there, I think it has to be both for achieving that over quite significant chop (no offence intended Steve!). Next time I hope I can actually be there rather than report from postings off the internet.

Introduction to Speed Team Makkum

Speedteam Makkum (Netherlands-North)

Together with many other Dutch teams, Speedteam Makkum joined the Global GPS Team Challenge at the beginning of 2010. We are a group of enthusiastic windsurfers who consider Makkum Beach as our windsurfing home base or at least as one of our favourite spots, were we like to sail as often as possible and where we meet other windsurfers who share the passion for this great sport.

Makkum – great spot for all disciplines of windsurfing

Makkum is situated at the borders of the northern part of the “IJsselmeer” which is the biggest lake in The Netherlands. It is separated from the “Waddensea”by the famous “Afsluitdike”.

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!).

GPSTC Team Introduction - Cockroaches NSW

Andrew aka Sick_em_rex on the GPS Team Challenge from the Cockroaches team sent me this to introduce the team to the rest of us. Thank you Andrew, its great to know a little more about the people we compete with every time the wind favours us. - 'The Bus' 
If any of your team has a few pics to break the article up I would really appreciate them.....

G'Day, my name is Andrew or sick_em_rex from the Cockroaches GPS team challenge team. I wanted to introduce our team as I too think its a good idea to know each other a little better.

Our team is based in Sydney which although it is built on the stunning harbour, the main place most of us sail is Botany Bay. It is located only a short drive from the city and works in almost all wind directions. It is the home to one one of Sydneys best speed strips at Sandringham but this is only exposed at low tide and again only works in a Southerly wind. In a nor east which is the prevailing Summer wind, we tend to run literally alongside the runway of Sydney Airport. Speeds of 40knots have been recorded here so in the right conditions it can be a great spot for not only 2 second bursts but also nautical miles. It is also a great spot for bump and jump sailing. Visually it is spectacular as you can literally be sailing within 100m of a taxiing A380.

Great Start to September, awful end

The last GPSTC report about the first half of September was full of great results for the northern hemisphere, including a national record. As for this second half I am really finding it hard what to write about. There has been no wind, or rather none worthy of mentioning. The British teams scored the odd session, but only one or two sailors managing to catch it before it blew through. 

The Dutch appeared to get a little more, due to more wind in the East  side of the North Sea than the West but again nothing much to speak of (Forgive me if I missed a great session and do let me know). Like I predicted (in fact the day after I predicted it) The Portland Pirates were knocked off the top spot by the Grevelingen Chop Team, but our boys scores held fast due to the lack of wind for the rest of September, giving us our best finish for the year in second. Great team effort by the usual suspects and as for the rest who sailed but did not post see the captain for some deck scrubbing duties, he is the one on the crutch again, argggg.

Mid September Ranking for GPS Team Challenge

This month I think is worthy of a quick round up now. Up here in the northern hemisphere anywhere near the Atlantic has recently enjoyed the tail end of two hurricanes. The first, Irene was a sad event for some windsurfers as we lost an ambassador to the sport, Joe Rocco. Joe sailed at Long Island in the USA and had many friends who windsurf and was on all accounts a well loved character. They will hopefully name the beach he sailed from after him as a memorial. Our thoughts go out to his family at this sad time.

As the hurricane moved up their east coast it sent us great winds in perfect directions for the UK. This allowed the Portland Pirates to take a good lead in the first few days of the month, with great performances from the Matrix and El Reg who managed an hour average each of just under 25knots. Now to some this may not sound much but Portland Harbour is a tricky spot for good Nautical Miles and Hours, either end can have holes in the the wind on a gale force day, and the chop is terrible if you venture more than 100yards off the shore, which is often necessary due to how shallow it is. This means that one tack is under a Nautical Mile and many gybes are required.

GPSTC WA roundup by Lao Shi (Pinnaroos)

***I will edit this a bit over the next few days with pictures and maps, finding it hard to concentrate for more that 5 mins right now though and promised to get this online for Lao Shi as soon as I got home - it is a fantastic bit of writing so big thanks to him.....If I have any of the names wrong in the picture captions please tell me and I will change it.

GPSTC was the love child of Nebbian (Web guru) and Hardie (Brain guru?) both sailors on WA teams (although Nebbian was originally from Queensland until he saw the light). It was originally a couple of teams, the Mandurah mob of captain Hardie and his crew and the elite Swan River Mob. I joined about 6 months in to the competition and joined the fledgling Pinnaroos (Pinnas as they were then) because they only had 3 sailors and rarely got a scoring session. Through his prodigious recruiting skills (and some say cheque book) Mineral grew the team and when he was benched through injury I took over. Our team now has more than 20 active sailors.

GPSTC now lists 125 WA sailors (about 100 active sailors (in some cases I use the word loosely)). Such is the social nature of the GPSTC that I know almost all of them.

Sorry to those that I have not mentioned but there are just too many.

A quick run down on the WA teams.

Swan River Mob (SRM)

l to r - hardie,isaac,john(recycle),peter(25),Chris(aus1111), snides, claude

slowboat

The threpeat champions for the first three years. Captained by 25 (WA Nmile record holder and most bizarre injury prize) and containing a number of WA’s elite sailors.

Claude and Snides are the machines of SRM being the first sailors in the competition to break 400Km within a week of each other. Snides is also the alpha guru.

'Slowboat' Aus74(current 2sec Record Holder 50.093knts)

Slowboat is a freak! He can go fast on any size board and in any conditions. I have spent the last 4 years chasing him around and have learned heaps. He is usually 4+ knots faster than me on any given day. Last year he took the WA 2 sec record that had been held by Dan Engdahl (also SRM) since 2008.

Recycle is another mainstay of the team and is Mr Consistent.

When the Dutch appeared on the international scene they gave SRM (and everybody else) an arse whoopin! SRM has since lost some of its Mojo and their sailors are less focussed on the monthly rankings but still quick.

Mandurah Mob (MM)

Top Row: Hardie, Crasher, Elmo, Adam The Craw Ave Weight 100kg+ & Nebbian

Bottom Row: Shane (SMS09), Bender, Decrepit, Sam (Lightworker), Paul (Pepe47) Ave Weight 75kg-

Also known as the Manbra Mob for the generous endowment of some of the team.

They are a bunch of enthusiasts with a number of flexible workers that sail in one of the best spots in WA. Hardie’s run is the site of a number of the state records and many PBs from all the teams.

Elmo is the most unfortunate sailor in the comp in the way he finds new methods to injure himself and trash kit. However he takes it all in his strides and publishes the best story posts of anybody on the GPSTC.

Hardie is the father of the GPSTC. His enthusiasm and organisation grew what started as a Seabreeze forum post in to an international competition that has reinvigorated windsurfing in WA and around Australia. He almost imploded in his quest to reach the Holy Grail of 40 knots but is now a more Zen like figure.

Decrepit is a legend in all senses of the word, in seniority and his ability with making boards, fins and testing sails. He is a distance machine and alpha artist.

Other regular sailors are Bender who sails further south but often drives to join the Mob although rarely the other way around. Sammy (currently known as Lightworker, he keeps changing his nickname) renowned weedy maker. Evets another distance machine. Adam, who is still trying to convince the Mob that Safety Bay is the new speed spot. On again, off again, Crasher (up there with the best of them on his day) and Pepe who produces beautiful bespoke wood and carbon works of fin art.

Some of he Mob can have a tendency to go a bit quiet over winter but once the weed starts growing (in the water not the smoking kind) and the water warms they are battling it out for top WA team.

Pinnaroos (formerly Pinnas)

Back row l-r Nebbian, Mineral, Macka Packa, Marcel
Front row l-r Hardpole, Lao Shi, Chris P

This team was started by Mineral at Pinnaroo point. The name came about after a nice lady called us team “Peenus” after seeing the name on my sail.(see attached photo) and the name kinda stuck. When we gained our first female sailors (Windxtasy/Jemma)it was decided it might be time to change it.

Team star is Jake the Snake. He has led the way with me riding his coat tails. Unfortunately he is not as addicted to windsurfing as I am and his real life often means that he disappears for months at a time. When he is on form we are up there pushing for the top placings in the AUS comp. I am currently racing with Vando (Moreton Bay Mob) to see who will be the first to reach 20000 Km in the GPSTC. At the time of writing he is in front. Vando’s first session was 1548 days ago and mine was 1381 days ago on the 22^nd Nov 2007. So I am averaging 14 Km / day!

In the beginning, Hardie told me it would take me a couple of years to become skilled at Speed sailing and I thought “how hard can it be”. He was right and I still don’t think of myself as anywhere near mastery. I have been labelled the Director of Tactics and Strategic Planning (although I am sure some less favourable titles have been used) for my efforts to bully the rest of the team to go places and sail specific categories for best points advantage.

Pointman is our team speedster and can be relied upon for a fast mile. He often gets frustrated at us flyweights in light winds but comes in to his own when it gets strong. He won the Masters slalom on the day I scored my speed PB after I retreated with my tail between my legs to the river having been smashed on a 5m on the ocean. He toughed it out.

Nebbian is the other founding Father of the GPSTC. He is the brainstrust behind the magic that is the GPSTC website. His ability to make it do the things people ask is true wizardry. He started in WA with the Manbra Mob but relocated to Perth and switched allegiances. Since then he has lost a heap of weight and favours the waves. He has been my chauffeur the last two years on expeditions up north where we have scored some great early season wavesailing. He has been known to dabble with the dark side but assures us that windsurfing has his heart. He is happy with his speed achievements and has an amazing ability to pull out a big distance session off very little recent sailing. Recently he has been working too hard and we miss sailing with him.

Chris Porter was another stalwart early on in the team and is currently on a sabbatical in NSW with his family for 6+ months. We hope he will miss the warmth and come back.

Hardpole and Macka Packa are always keen for a bit of adventure and with a heap of new recruits in the last year or so, many of whom are improving fast, (JJ, Scarrgo, Grumpy, Obelix, Jonah, Birdman, Damo) the team has a good mix of abilities and a great social combination. It is a rare day that I sail on my own. Mineral is back after serious injury and we hope Marcel will be back soon from a Knee reconstruction (snowboarding not windsurfing)

Perth Southsiders

This team has a bunch of Pros, some elite sailors and an enthusiastic band of amateurs. Lucky for the other teams the Pros rarely get GPS organised and the original captain Big Dog (now Lord Vadar) eventually gave up in frustration.

Jesper (KA,RRD) is the current Swan river mile record holder and always shares his knowledge regardless of your team. Steve Stratfold (NP, F2, Choco) is a board repairer extraordinaire and wears a GPS when he remembers but someone else has to upload the data for him. Danny Aeberli (F2, Choco) makes appearances during the summer but getting him and the other Pros to sail for a category is like herding cats.

Annika has competed in the PWA and gives most of the blokes a run for their money. She and Lord Vadar have gone off windsurfing recently although we hope to see them back as the weather warms. Stribo moved over East but still posts for the team. His whistling speed weedy warning you of his approach is missed.

Darryl is a big unit who is capable of pipping Slowboat on occasion and pushes him hard the rest of the time with some fantastic results. He is one of the few in the team that travels. Nelson (current captain) Annie, Big Dog and Windrider have done a great job of building a strong social group for sailors at Melville on the Swan River. They are the most social team in WA. PSS also has a bunch of new recruits pushing hard.

The Wannabees

A team that has recently gone from strength to strength under the super enthusiastic guidance of obi one tobi. It contains the Windsurfing WA President (Garry) who has the biggest van in the GPSTC and makes a point of having a chat with as many sailors as possible and VP (Bertie) although we don’t see too much of him in winter as he jets of to Europe (to go kiting, although he claims the only reason for kiting is for the chicks). One of the best juniors in the GPSTC, Jet and his driver / rig bitch and allround champion Benny. Brayden is the team speedster but he has had to get a job and we don’t see him sailing so much. Somepunk (Windforce) makes an appearance when he can get out of the shop and recent recruit Troutty Trousers has been blazing a trail getting the rest of the team out in winter and growing a pair!

The Sailfish

Two WA female competitors (Cheryl and Binny) decided that they wanted to be a part of the first all women team and were founding members of The Sailfish. They sail with MM and SRM and are trying to recruit more sailors. Binny has been recovering from a nasty sailing crash and we hope to see her on the water in summer. Recently Cheryl has recruited Nic and they have been getting some scores on the board. Well done, Sailfish.

There have been other WA teams that have fizzled and some of their members have joined the above and the odd appearance is put in by the westozwind warriors and divas (but not so far this year)

The last four months has seen the Pinnaroos get top WA spot for three months and a tie between MM and SRM for August. Expect to see some real close competition over summer.

Thanks to Hardie and Nebbian for such a great idea and making it happen. Thank you to all those that join me sailing around WA and make the sport I live for even better.

Sorry to all the sailors that I didn’t mention.

Hopefully future reports can be a bit briefer but I thought it might be useful for those who have not been in it from the start to know a bit more about the teams that post.

See you on the water, Lao Shi!

Mandurah Mob August Update by Decrepit (Aus)

It's been Mandurah Mob's best month this year, put us in equal 2nd with SRM for Australia and 10th Internationally.
The availability of our better sailors, coinciding with some wind made the difference.

Several of our guys work "fly in fly out", means they are away for a week or two, then are here for a week or so, this month Crasher was back in time for some action at "Cheese Graters". Bender joined with him to clock some good numbers for our 2s, 5x10 and alpha.
Evets has moved 400km south to Albany so his posts don't often coincide with the rest of us. Fortunately on the 20th he was back up here, Evets borrowed some gear off me and together we managed to get our distance figures up in fairly light gusty conditions. Man of Steel was also with us, and combined with Bender to improve our hour somewhat.

A bit by Lea
Thanks for this Decrepit. This whole idea is now moving faster than I could have imagined or dreamed of.  Any other team captains that want me to put a post in please email me - redsurfbus@gmail.com and I will put them up. I am now starting to see how to develop it to a more functional website fit for this purpose.

Team Rankings Going into September

Ok, here goes with the first of many reports. I want feedback as I develop this into something that will interest all the GPSTC members, especially after I read last night that Ben, the creator of the team challenge fully endorses this idea. 

I have looked at the monthly team rankings for the current year, the top three teams from the Netherlands are going to be hard to catch.

We are moving into our autumn in the northern hemisphere now, after some idiot decided to give summer a miss for us in the UK. This means that we should be starting to see the first of our Atlantic storms fire up and send wind our way, the only problem being once it gets past us in the UK it seems to accelerate to the Netherlands.

The Tassie Speed Seekers have opened up a gap on their own in 4th place after they had a fantastic month in July, meaning the Portland Pirates will have to work hard (hope you are listening mi'hearties) every month until the end of the year to catch up. I am sure the Pit Crew feel the same about the Pirates, with a small gap between them, a good month and they could easily move into 5th place. The Pit Crew must remember that they have a team from Stand Horst in the Netherlands on their tail, and that spot is said to be one of the best in the world.

The gap between Team Horst in 7th and Moreton Bay Mob in 8th position is much bigger, but it is still all to play for when the discards are taken into account. All the positions from 8th to 14th can and will change over the next couple of months as the discards become more critical to the final result.

The rest of the table is quite evenly spaced out with scores reasonably close to each other until we reach the bottom of the table with slightly larger jumps from one position to the next.

Ok.....I just found that really difficult to write and to make interesting without knowing all of you. I guess over the next few months I will be able to give a bit more banter between the teams as I collate more stuff on here from the good/bad sessions off the GPSTC site.

Speedsurfing News Updates

Things have been moving quite quickly for this site, there seems to be a lot of support for it so thank you for reading and showing your support on the various forums. The number of hits is now consistently up in the 3 digits every day, which to experienced website owners may seem few but for me I am over the moon with it (hopefully they are not from me constantly checking to see how many hits I have had ;-)).

I have registered the domain Redsurfbus.com now, so in the future we will not be confined to the blogger layout which although is fantastic it can be a bit restrictive. I have tried for hours to get a menu system to work, both using Erik Loot's template (thank you Erik) and the various ones online when googled. I cannot get one to work yet, but will keep trying. If anyone is an IT wizard and can help please let me know.

The best news is there are a couple of people who want to write a few articles for the site. First and foremost is Adam Gustaffson, a well known sailor from the South West of England. He is going to start with a few posts about his local spots, which I think will be an invaluable resource, especially for myself. I am far too spoilt with Portland Harbour on my doorstep and route home from work so rarely venture anywhere else (in fact have not at all this year), these articles by Adam will definitely tempt me further afield.

A few more planned articles include bits on how to start speedsurfing and how to use the kit you may already have rather than upgrading to slalom/speed kit. I would like to get all UK spots covered with a small article for each one, a map and some pictures so if there is anyone out there willing to put a few words together about their favourite spot then please let me know (redsurfbus@gmail.com or Lea Spencer on facebook). Finally my fiancée Kat is going to do some nutrition articles that will give advice on staying hydrated and strong while doing any endurance sailing, and help you rebuild after big sessions. She is pleased that I have agreed to be her guinea pig and we will test some of the advice she will give. Since my heart/blood illness I have noticed a big difference in my energy levels when I eat differently so I will be a good test subject for this and I will report on the effects/differences to my windsurfing from the food I have eaten. 

I am completely open to ideas and criticism so please get in touch with advice you can offer. 

Portland Pirates Have a Shocker!

This is the worst months results I have seen since joining the team back in September 2010. It only seems like Normski and The Matrix got any time on the water at all with 11 sessions between them. The Matrix even went on holiday which as usual delivered the good wind from the right place with water in the harbour on Wednesday the 10th, this gave Camel a chance to get top points for the team at Portland, coupled with Jim Crossleys efforts from Langstone Harbour.

I do not know what has happened to the rest of the team, with a couple of others posting once and over half not posting at all. I have my excuses and hopefully am now fighting fit ready to start posting results again. Cap'n Swags will be preparing his motivating stick next month and there will be deck scrubbin galore for those non posters. With a finish at 23rd place for August it is just fortunate that this will count as a discard so does not yet affect our results for the year unless we have a few more shockers.

As for the rest of the country Team East finished just below us in 29th place. Mike G and Ben Tilston got top speeds for the team while Stephen Squirrell and Tris Haskins completed their distance. Most of their month had Steve Carter and Stephen Squirrell posting their longboard sessions, and in fairness it has been a longboard weather summer here this year. Last year was consistently windy in the second week of August through to the end of the month.

Up at West Kirby, the WK Speed Warriors only managed to get out on the water to get a score once in the month. Howie Rowson and Mark Hayford scored good speeds in what turned out to be an average West Kirby wind, however it was their other results that let them down with an hour average of 3.18 knots and a NM of 6.48knots. All other postings for WK Speed Warriors were only single man sessions so cannot count in the challenge.

This is not good enough England! Lets hope for some good autumn gales, the weather has certainly felt autumnal for the past few days down here in Weymouth.

Late edit - It appears Swagger managed to back The Matrix up yesterday with a bit of distance and a nautical mile in what was quite easily described as marginal wind, this moves the Pirates up to 22nd. A nautical mile on Portland Harbour is very tricky in low winds as the wind tends to be weak at either end, often its good to get out in the middle when it is like that, but then the worry is getting back to shore if the wind drops off. Great Effort ;-)

GPS Team Challenge Leaders

It is really windy today, I am gutted that I cannot go. After a week of feeling awful I don't want to chance it today.

The Portland Pirates are currently at the top of the leaderboard for the GPS team challenge. The scores are determined by order of rank for each discipline. If you are placed 1st for one of them then you score a 1, 2nd - 2 etc. So the team with the lowest score is the one who wins.

Considering this is the coldest month for water temperatures and often air temperature I think we are doing quite well so far this year. Well done to all my team mates.

British GPS Speed Ladder 2011

Boards magazine and GPS Speedsurfing

have joined together for a GPS Speed Ladder for 2011. I was just browsing the results and found these. I cannot say how unbelievable happy I am, especially with my average hour result.

Currently 4th in the UK, out of a total of 61 participants. Some of which are fully sponsored sailors. I am not really yet able to compete with top speeds as I do not have a small speed sail or a small board that I get the opportunity to use. The one I have is an old pure flat water board and this is not suited well for Portland Harbour. With a decent 80l and 5.4ish speed sail under the right conditions I am sure I can get close to the top in other disciplines by the end of this year. 

 My nautical mile speed was done in easterly harbour chop as opposed to flat water and I should be able to destroy this speed as soon as we get a strong west-south-west wind. I am happy with the results though so far.

Portland Pirates now 4th in the World

Great team scores for the month. The big hitters this month are;

Well done Ian, you are definitely showing us how to do it!

5th In the World - In our coldest month!!!

Well done to Pete and Ian from the Portland Pirates, (UK 's top team) their great efforts yesteday have moved us up to 5th in the world at the moment. Last year we did not get a score for January.

To put this is perspective and for those of you who have not heard of this competition, the GPS Team Challenge was set up by a group of Australian Windsurfers to compete against each other. It has since become a worldwide competition with a total of about 50 teams, each with around 10 members. We compete with GPS systems recording our

>2 Second Peak Speed
>5x10 Second Average Speed
>1 Hour average Speed
>Alpha Racing - 500m with a Gybe.
>Nautical Mile
>Total Distance.
2 sailors must post scores and the average of the 2 is used for the competition.

I dont offer much for the team yet, but last year in the 3 months I was a member I had 3 results that counted towards our overall score. My distance and hour times are not bad and my speeds are improving, having only had speed kit since Spetember and October it takes a while to get used to.

Team members Pete and Ian are currently (and usually!) the big hitters, and consistently score speeds that are up there with the best windsurfers in the world, especially considering the conditions we have at Portland Harbour which are often far from ideal. We get a few ideal days per year though, having some of those in January is an added bonus.

The team captain Mark is great at motivating us and keeps us up to date on what out targets are for the month. Thanks to this we all knew we needed a good distance, hour speed and Alpha to move up the rankings this month. He must listen to the Doctor at the moment though and stop cutting the cast off his broken ankle or it will never heal.

Good luck to all teams in the UK for this saturday, I hope we get the chance to show the rest of the world what we can do!