Looking Forward to 2012

After a successful 12 months for my windsurfing I am really pleased with my results over the year. Back at the end of September 2010 I bought my first slalom/speed sail and have been hooked ever since. It was then that I started this website, as a diary ready to complete my 1000 nautical miles for the British Heart Foundation. I succeeded with that by July and have gone on to raise £1600 and match it by distance windsurfed. This was really just an excuse to get out on the water as much as possible, a completely selfish obsession!

2011 Personal Review Part 2 - The National Windsurfing Festival

Around April time Allan Cross invited me to the National Windsurfing Festival to organise the charity element. This is the first of many thanks in this article, Allan I really want to thank you for the opportunity to do this and hope to be able to help with the W4CR part next year.  He told me that the previous year was really successful with a raffle for Help the Heroes. This was co-ordinated by Gavin Nicholson and his girlfriend (and soon to be wife - congratulations to the pair of you, Kat and I wish you all the best for your future and we will see you this weekend at your wedding reception) with the help of the Army, Navy and Air Force windsurfing teams. They had one hell of a team to raise money, I only had Kat to help before Gavin and Emma offered their assistance.

Initially I had ideas to do a healthy eating stand with oat, nut and fruit bars to sample and a recipe for the cost of £1. I had many other ideas as well but of course on August the 1st I ended up in hospital and spent the majority of August in and out of the place for tests, consultations and long waits. I was really worried that I would not be able to do anything, and maybe not even go to the festival. 

About half way through August Gavin got in touch with me after hearing what had happened from some friends at my local beach where we all launch (or used to until they doubled the parking prices). He offered his help and the expertise of Emma, who has worked for various charities as part of her working life. They really saved the day, Kat was exhausted after looking after me for a few weeks, travelling to and from Poland with her son and holding down a 42hr per week job as a carer at a local nursing home. We could not have done this without them and this is the first of many thanks to them throughout this article.

Boards article about Weymouth Speed Week

I have always wanted to get into Boards magazine. December 2011 is the last 'normal' Boards issue, next year they are moving to a biannual collectors magazine with more on-line content. I made it just before they finished then. Its a bit of a dream come true. There is even a picture of Kat right in the middle of the top picture.

The magazine had it spread over two pages so I have cropped and do a bit of cut and paste to get it onto one. The text is what I wrote on here about Speed week, if you cannot read it in the picture it is also found here

2011 Personal Review

The year I windsurfed 1000 nautical miles to raise money for the British Heart Foundation draws to a close.......

It has been a very hard year for everything in my life other than completing the 1000 nautical miles. After setting it up ready to start in January I was happy that finally I had spent some time learning how to create a website, something that I had wanted to do for years now. Also I recieved a lot of support for it from various other websites, windsurfers and friends.

The £1000 goal was already looking easily achievable when I actually started windsurfing the 1000nmi, in January the monetary target was nearly at the halfway point. This was thanks to a few very generous donations from friends and a few windsurfers online that I am still yet to meet in person. January came and I was off to a great start, I doubled my distance goal for the month.

Made it into the Local Paper again

The article in the Dorset Echo Online click here
More importantly Donate HERE
For the full story behind this appearance in the news paper click this link or the first picture.

Click on the image for full resolution 

A change in the air

First thing I want to say is thank you to all who helped me get to £1000, and those friends who I sailed with who pushed me over my 1000nautical miles. I am attending the National Windsurfing Festival to raise some more money on 3rd and 4th September with a little help from some friends. I will attempt to match the money with distance sailed but after the recent setback (see last post) I will not put myself under any pressure to do this in a set time scale yet.

Some news for the future of the blog for any regular readers.

After a lot of thinking in the past few weeks of what to do, if anything at all, with this blog I have decided to attempt to convert it to a news site for Windsurf Speed Sailors. The reason for this is that I spend a lot of time reading the forums and keep up to date with a lot of the new developments, usually through facebook or other sites. Since starting the BHF challenge my facebook friends have gone from about 150 up to 600 odd, all of these extras are windsurfers of all abilities and levels. Some are quite well known and post news, results and stories of their sailing, others not so well known but still offer a lot of information about the sport. What I want to do is bring all this together into one place, starting with a weekly article, perhaps with pictures and videos of the weeks sailing and sometimes results from any speed competitions. I hope it will develop into a real website from a simple blog, but will start it simply and build up from there.

Weymouth speed week is coming up soon which I have kindly been given a guest entry to so this is perfect timing for me to start this little project and report from the 'home of speedsailing'.

I do not want to copy what other people have done, and do not think I am doing so with this idea. If I am then please let me know as I do not know about such a website. I think more and more people are becoming involved in the speed side of windsurfing, which is thanks to GPSSS and GPSTC (links at bottom of page) and the development of the GPS units themselves. I do not have much to offer in terms of advice on how to speed sail as my top speed is only 35knots so far, but as a school teacher I am quite good at explaining how to do things that I am learning how to do myself so part of the site will include my development as a sailor and some of my experiences on different kit. Currently I have 2 new (to me) Simmer SCR 2010 sails with new North Gold masts burning a hole in my quiver bag, I cannot wait to get them wet and will report on how they feel from first time use and when I have got used to them.

If there is anyone who would like to help, or can offer advice (especially on how to get a damn menu bar to work at the top of this page!) then it would be very much welcomed and appreciated. Either comment on here or email me - redsurfbus@gmail.com

Thanks for reading,
Lea

Details about the clotting

I will try to explain the last brief post I made, bear with me though as tramadol and morphine pain relief is currently making it quite hard for me to make sense of anything much.

Last week I felt run down, not just tired but really run down. Some days I did very little and had a pain in my left knee that was quite sharp when I walked any distance (50m or more). I had a bit of a sore throat so put this all down to a teachers cold. What all of you non-teachers do not realise when you comment on our long holidays is that a lot of us end up quite ill for the first few days of each break. These symptoms kept coming and going, one day I felt ok-ish then next quite tired and a bit ill.

On Sunday Kat needed picking up from Bournemouth so I travelled over, it was hot so I had the windows open and I noticed my chest felt a bit sore inside my right rib cage. I just assumed this was perhaps the cold taking hold as I felt quite achey everywhere as well. It got worse as the evening wore on. I thought perhaps the open windows in the van had given me a chill or something.

Monday morning I woke in a lot of pain, I was struggling to breathe naturally and fully, gasping occasionally. Kat talked me into calling the doctor, who instantly called an ambulance. The paramedic lady was not a full paramedic and only arrived with the support car as opposed to a full van. She did various tests, noting my pulse was only 54 (which is quite high for me), she stated her concern that it was so low until I said that I do a fair bit of sport. The full ambulance crew arrived and took me to hospital. I still thought at this point that it was just Pleurisy (swelling on my lung) caused by a cold or flu.

They did a lot of blood tests, all came back perfect apart from one (D-dimer, a broad test that indicates a problem but is not conclusive on its own). With my symptoms and another test showing a distict lack of oxygen in my blood they got more concerned and told me I would be staying overnight (at least 1 night) to be closely monitored. They said there was a possibility that I was suffering a Pulmonary Embolism, which is a blood clot in the lung, this in turn causes the Pleuritic swelling around the lung and the acute pain. I was moved from accident and emergency to their Emergency Medical Unit (EMU without Rod Hull). After 2 hours Kat went home with all my money and valuables, leaving me with shorts, a tshirt and a wash bag. Twenty minutes later the specialist turned up and told me to come back in the morning for an Angiogram! This was about 8pm, I had shorts and a tshirt, toothpaste and soap, none of which would keep me  warm on the way home. I had been told that I would be staying overnight but it was clear there were no beds and the tourists couldnt go home so they sent the local home. My view of the NHS at this point went from respecting all the workers to complete disbelief in the decision they had made to send me home. The last thing I want to do is stay in hospital, but please understand that I could not breathe well and was in a lot of pain.

Luckily a kind nurse gave me a lift home at the end of her shift. The NHS now seems to be like the Education system, full of people who care a lot, but are forced to follow beaurocratic decisions and hit targets set by idiots who do not care.

Monday night and tuesday morning I was in a lot of pain. I could not find any position to get comfy. I got the phone call to return to the hospital for midday for my CTPA (computer tomograph pulminory angiogram) which I gather is like a 3D xray. I went for this which took the 15minutes I was told it would take and was actually out of the department before midday. I went back up to EMU (still no sign of Rod Hull), and waited for the results and the consultation. I was in a lot of pain.

By 1pm I asked for some pain relief and somewhere to lie down as I was struggling to breathe. I was told there were no free beds, so I pointed out the empty room full of them. I was still told no and to go and sit and wait. By 2pm I was wet with sweat, shaking a fair bit and still in pain. I asked again for some pain killers. By 3pm I was getting a little impatient and annoyed, I asked again for some pain relief. At 4pm the results came down so at least I was distracted from the pain for a brief period. The consultant moved me to a room full of beds, only one was occupied. I sat down and he told me that there were multiple clots in both of my lungs. One infarction was showing which means that the right lung is damaged.

I asked him why my homocystine levels had not been tested after I had a heart attack, he said I should have been and he himself could not believe that they had not. I explained that all the 'consultants' had done following my heart attack was prescribe me the standard drugs and blame it on my family history. As I have explained in previous posts my Father died at a young age, but we are opposites, he had a crap diet, was over 20stone, lifted heavy weights in his youth straining his heart, had cholesterol in the double figures etc. I have always kept myself fit, not fat, eaten lots of fresh veg and had quite low cholesterol.

All along I was sure that there was something wrong that did not fit into a standard heart attack 'box'. He said he would arrange for the test and asked me to go back to the waiting room. I was still in a lot of pain and it was now gone 5pm. I went to the nurses station, told them I had asked now 5 times for some painkillers, I still got nothing. I even heard one nurse say to another about how it was not very busy that day! So what was their excuse?

By 5.30pm the consultant came back and told me I couldnt have the blood test because I had to start Warfarin as soon as possible to get rid of the clots and stop any more forming or the ones there getting any bigger. Warfarin would make one of the tests non viable as it stops clots forming in the blood. I would have to wait for 6 months and then have the tests!

With the pain, the hot environment and the fact that I cannot stand illogical reasoning I started to get quite annoyed. I said why not give the test now before I start the warfarin. He said he understood my logic but I really had to start the warfarin now and unfortunately the Heparin they had given me the day before would also affect the result. So I asked if realistically I would come off the Warfarin in 6 months, he said it would be unlikely and it would be advisable to stay on it for the rest of my life. I asked how I would ever have the test then? I stated that when my father came off Warfarin he died, and even starting the stuff was causing me a fair bit of anxiety. Would it not be better to take the risk now, let the Heparin clear from my system and have the test and then I will be able to accept the outcome and live knowing why I was on drugs for the rest of my life at the age of 37.

We went in this circle about 3 times before I got up and walked out in tears with pain and stress. After I calmed down I went back in, straight up to the nurses station and told her I had already asked 5 times, this is now the 6th, give me some pain killers. The doctor had just told me that without the anticoagulent I could die at any point (pulmonary embulosis is the cause of a lot of sudden death syndrome victims). The pain was horrible, and after 6 hours of waiting in a hot room on an uncomfy chair I now understand why some patients end up getting violent, at this point I was on the edge. They gave me 2 paracetamol and 2 ibuprofen. I could have walked to my van hours ago and got things that strength!

I sat back down with the consultant specialist and agreed with him that I have no choice but to start the warfarin. I pleaded with him to arrange the blood test, he said there was nothing he could do as the haematology department would not do it due to the anticoagulent.

At 7pm I eventually was given the medicines and sent home.

At 3am Tuesday morning I thought I was going to die. The pain was so strong that I was contorted and not breathing apart from the odd gasp every 20 seconds or so. This passed and came back several times, the pain had moved into my shoulders and my stomach felt like it was swelling, this was the same as I experienced with the heart attack. At about 7am I was in complete agony, I told/gasped to Kat that I loved her and not to worry, everything would be sorted out thinking all the time that I was actually dying at this point. I called the emergency doctor who got the ambulance to come again. They took me to A&E again, they gave me some much stronger pain relief and although I could still feel very sharp pains in my right lung the others felt more like background noise, like hearing a song in the next room, dull but still noticable. As the morning wore on they carried on reducing in 'volume'. A&E wanted to transfer me to the same ward (EMU still no Rod) for overnight. This is now strange, monday I did not want to go to hospital, as my dad died when he went the second time with chest problems. By the end of monday I wanted to stay in as I knew it was serious. Tuesday I wanted to stay in through anxiety and pain, but after the experience in that ward I really did not want to go there again. The lady who works on the counter there is one of the rudest people I have had the misfortune to come across (dont forget I teach bottom set kids! so I encounter a lot of rude people (this includes some of the staff ;-)).

The admissions doctor was very kind and understanding and agreed that it would perhaps be best at home with pain killers. I got some strong stuff and came home. All was now well, or at least getting there. From what I understand, now I am on the heparin/warfarin combination there is very little chance of the clots growing or causing much more problems, they can only now shrink in size and get broken down to nothing which should take less than a month.

I went back this morning for the  blood test that decides the level of warfarin I need. The consultant from monday/tuesday had also managed to arrange the special blood test that we had argued about, shame though as now I have a lot more anticoagulent in my system than the day before, so the test will be even less accurate. Hopefully now though I will be proven right, that my heart attack was not a standard one and there is something causing my blood to clot, this may or may not be genetic. We only had one disagreement today.

The first day I took the Warfarin I became very itchy, the second time even more itchy to the point where I am constantly scratching somewhere. I told him about this, he said it was the Tramadol. I said it cant be as I was itchy before I had the tramdol. So he said it was the oral morphine, I said that on monday I was not itchy and had oral morphine. So he said it was a delayed reaction, why can they not admit when they are wrong. All he has done has prescribed me even stronger painkillers than the oral morphine! I will carry on the tramadol until tomorrow as I have to drive to the hospital again tomorrow for further tests, then use the stronger one at the weekend when I dont have to move.

On to the important things, several doctors have said it will be a long time before I should consider windsurfing but should be able to go again. The only one who said just give it a go when you feel ready is the one I will listen to ;-) So hopefully sometime next week in low winds I will go and get wet, this depends on the damage in my lungs which I cannot tell yet due to resting all the time.

Finally I want to thank a couple of people who read my last post and sent me kind messages, they really meant a lot to me as I did and still do feel quite low after all this. Thank you Pete and Swagger (and also Ringo for the extra donation). To end on a positive note, since the heart attack I have been waiting to get that feeling a lot of people describe, where they see their life as a second chance and live it to the full every day. I really feel like that this time, and I think Kat and I deserve some good luck now so I will make sure it happens.

Pulmonary Embolism - The clots return

I will expand on this later in the week. I just got home from hospital after being diagnosed with multiple pulmonary emboles. In laymans terms that means lots of blood clots in both of my lungs. Currently I am not sure if I will be able to windsurf again, from the pain I have been in it will be a long time if ever.

I knew the last few short sessions that there was something wrong as I ached more afterwards than earlier this year when I did a few very long sessions. I was holding myself back each time, the back of my mind worried about something, now I know why. Watch this space for kit for sale :-(

I am sorry that I wont be able to continue the challenge and get over 2000nmi. I will leave the donations page open until the end of the year.
Thank you to all who have supported me through the challenge, I hope that sometime in the future I will be able to do something like it again as it was fun and I have met a lot of good people while doing it.

Both goals complete this week - 1006nmi total, 35knot Speed.

First I want to say thank you to all that have donated and helped me along the way, my first set of goals are complete. Its best to extend them now as I wanted this challenge to last all year.

I knew that the 1000 goal was soon going to be finished, but I cant quite believe that at the end of it enough wind came to allow me to get the 35knot speed as well. I woke up at 6am and knew I had to go and get my final 20 nautical miles so went down to the harbour and rigged my big kit. I only dropped a couple of gybes in an hour so one this session I managed to get my hour best average speed as well, something I have not been able to beat since I got it in September last year.

26nmi sailed, 1006 is the new total.

My new goal is now to get 2011nmi, it seems appropriate this year.

Thank you to all the people who have donated.

I feel like I hit a milestone today, with another donation taking me to two thirds of my target. I also just hit 5000 visits on this site with an average now of about 1500 per month. Cheers.

As for the distance sailed I am falling behind but this is not for want of trying, there is no wind, there is none forecast before the end of the month either! When it comes one day a fortnight like it has been doing then there isnt enough time of the water to keep my windsurfing fitness up. A good couple of two hour sessions are needed before I am in the condition needed for a long distance session, and no other exercise is good enough. I can keep my strength with floor exercises, I can keep my fitness with everyday activities, its the little muscles that only windsurfing uses that cannot be exercised.

I just hope we get a lot of wind through April in the Easter holidays.

Building the Van Interior for Camping and Windsurfing

How it looks now (apart from the carbon grill)

Before I started this project I had spent countless nights camping, either in tents, board bags, with tarp and hammock 'Mears style' or even with the seat wound down in the various cars I have owned. Most more recent trips had been to Cornwall and I had seen so many different styles of camper van. Every night without fail I would be designing mine in my minds eye, with the hope of owning one in the future. 

Please understand that the most interior work I had ever done on a car was to change a stereo and speakers, which I found harder to do than this. Trying to get door cards off without damage is a skilled job, ripping interiors out is quite easy. 

I bought the van in October 2008, took all the seats out of the back, along with the carpet and other unwanted parts. As the evenings were dark there was not much I could do other than start planning the build with actual measurements and sorting out the curtains/blinds. I did not want conventional blinds, I wanted those that reflected the sunlight back out of the van on hot days as it would be parked a lot at the beach without any cover. I got some reflective material and backed it with a cut up cheap duvet. I was really pleased with the result, although the press studs holding it in the picture did not last long and have now been replaced with bungee cord.

In the darker months I got the alarm fitted and prepared everything, which involved a lot of cleaning and scrubbing. The roof lining is in perfect condition but had 100,000 miles of pollution giving it a varied grey tint near the doors.

By February I had bought most of the raw materials and put tints on the windows. The tints were a lot easier to do than the internet let me to believe. Next time I will use a razor blade to get the windows perfectly clean though, on one window there is a little bit of silver 'speckling' where it was not perfect.

The frame is 'offset' to allow all for boards under one side and sails under the other. The middle support is run at a slight angle to make the rear wider for ease of access for kit, and this makes changing area at the front bigger. It was measured around the actual boards for a good fit. I have at progressed my windsurfing and the boards are now smaller so I can fit 3 sails and two boards for long weekends away all under the left hand side.

All of it is bolted through a hardwood frame into the original holes in the floor where the seats were positioned.

I worked with the original panelling and used secure points to build my frame into or on. This was tricky and will involve a bit of a fiddle to change the rear light bulbs which I expect I will have to do soon.

I placed wood across the 3 main supports about every 25-30cm to make sure that the bed will not up sag in places. 

The main boards for the bed were cut to shape ready to be fitted.

When I redesign the interior I will laminate these with cloth and resin to save using the cross beams. It should save weight and gain me enough space to fit a surfboard in with my windsurfing kit.

I wanted to keep a basic camper design for the interior so have part of the bed that slides out allowing for more floor space, you can see the design taking form here.

The material to make the bed was the most costly part so far. I opted for firm grade foam and some 'wine' coloured leatherette, so it would be waterproof and easy to wipe clean of salt and sand.

It is more comfortable than any bed I have ever slept it, so definitely worth the extra cost. I also started to cover the woodwork with carpet to give it all a better finish.

Here you can see the size of the sleeping area, the two smaller parts slide out to create a versatile backrest.

This seating arrangement is not brilliant for anyone  tall though. The bed is too high up so all you can do is slouch, which is not a problem after a hard day on the water.

There have been a few changes since I took these pictures 2 years ago. I completely redesigned the kitchen from this which was too big and bulky.

I wanted something that I could easily take out and use outside, this weighed far too much in the end so I made something more simple.

This shows the kitchen in use, I will post some better ones soon. The idea was to use the 'wasted' space behind the passenger bench seat, creating a cupboard and an area to slide the stove into when not in use. It gives plenty of space for a small set of pans, bits of 'emergency' food and cutlery. The gas bottle is secured underneath. I will develop this design with carbon and glass laminates in the future which will be easier to clean and lighter. It does the job I wanted it to do, and works well.

A year since my heart restarted

Could I have had a heart attack at a better time of year, when everywhere there are great big red hearts due to Valentines day! At least I will never forget when it happened, although I would like to. It has been a time for a lot of reflection which has unfortunately not been water based. A few things that have happened in the last few weeks have also caused me to think about what happened and how I feel now, both about windsurfing and life in general. I have come to the conclusion that they are now inexorably linked for me.

About 10 years ago when I went camping in Cornwall in the winter for the first time I saw plenty of surfers out in freezing conditions. I thought they were either mad, addicted or obsessed, or all three. Part of me was jealous of their commitment as they shivered in the car park on the way out for their session. They all shared the same desperate look in their eyes as they looked out at the clean peeling waves, and all came back looking satisfied, relaxed and mentally in a place only an extreme sportsman/woman can understand.

What is it about windsurfing and other other similar sports that creates such dedication and ultimate satisfaction? When I first started I used to think it was the battle with the elements and the feeling that you won at the end. HA! You never win, and there is no point in trying to battle them. I now think it comes from working in harmony with them. Of course this has taken at least 300 sessions learning how to do this and am still at novice stage in this respect, anyone who thinks they are not is ignorant.

Over the past year I have seen my life goals and wants change completely, I used to be career driven with hobbies on the side to wind down and relax. I wanted success in my job and my own property that I could 'potter' with and grow food in the garden. I wanted children and I suppose what everyone deems to be a normal life. The effect it had on me when my father died at near my current age has meant that these goals have changed after suffering the same health problems he had. We have lived our lives as complete opposites but this made no difference to heart disease and genetics, only that I have survived to become fitter, he only became weaker after his first heart attack and did nothing to change. If I could afford it I would have children tomorrow, knowing that if something happened to me then they would be safe financially, but  a career move has affected this.

Just over three years ago I made a bad career choice which may or may not have led to my health problems but it has ruined what was a good career and very successful past results. Many of my students  have gone on to further and higher education to study maths or the sciences. Several having gone on to Oxford and Cambridge. For a year in the middle I had no drive and no desire any more to climb the greasy pole, I now feel that the education system does not want to generate free thinkers, perhaps society only wants people who will do what they are told in ignorance without argument.  

Without a doubt I do my best for the students I teach and work hard to get them to succeed, dragging some of them kicking and screaming through a stagnant syllabus all too often though. Colleagues, parents and students alike used to appreciate what I did, which does not fit into any box to be ticked in a lesson observation. The school I work at gets less than average results, it has an intake that is far below average so in terms of improving the results we do better than most schools. However in the new culture that is being forced upon us as teachers we are told we are only satisfactory (which means not good enough in OFSTED terms, as opposed to good which means just about satisfactory) because the school can only achieve satisfactory. The bureaucrats have to justify their decisions, and unfortunately I am no longer motivated to please them.  It would be nice to be told that we are doing a good job, instead we got told the bureaucrats and management do a great job and we need to raise our game. What is this? An oxymoron or a paradox?

There is still a lot of satisfaction I get from teaching some students, those who I manage to motivate and get through to,  although there is a hole in my desire to learn more academically for myself now. My vision of my life always had me going back to higher education either part time or full to complete a PHD in the field of 'the psychology of learning'. These goals have changed perhaps due to the bad career move I made or perhaps due to the satisfaction I now get from windsurfing. When I make a new move, or beat a personal best it gives me the same satisfaction that years of study have given me in the past, and there is no stress involved in learning the new move, only minor bruising more often than not.

The mental recovery since it happened is still not over, and my mood will swing up and down quite often. I know how to make it swing up and what to do - Windsurf, forget the troubles of the world and live in harmony with some of the worst conditions nature can throw at us.

Building Confidence after heart problems.

I was reading some of the posts on the British Heart Foundation website and realised I have not said too much about the after effects of heart trouble. One thing I needed was support in building my confidence back to get on with normal everyday life. I looked for books and found leaflets, I asked for help and found overworked underpaid NHS staff as helpful as they could be considering the circumstances, but most of their knowledge was designed for the elderly. After going to the cardiac rehabilitation clinic the first time, 2 weeks after my heart attack, and running rings around the instructor I soon realised there was not much help out there for the younger sufferers.

Part of this challenge is to drive me to build a lot of my confidence back. After a couple of very difficult years at work I really needed something I could succeed with in the next year, and thought combining fitness and the sport I love would be a good idea. 

A fellow windsurfer and friend inspired me to start this challenge, perhaps unintentionally as well. He was very generous and gave me my first speed board and sail, this was arranged before I had the heart attack and I had not seen him since my last session of 2009 on December 27th. When I did see him again I was thinking someone else would benefit more from the kit as I did not even know if I would windsurf again (but was dying to get out and felt fit enough, just a bit cold stood on the shore in north east winds last March). He gave me a bit more time to think about it, and I decided the best thing was to just go for it. Thank you Duncan.

Throughout my life I have been to countless professional training sessions and meetings where management speak was banded about, such as goal setting and SMART targets. You know the type of thing I am sure. For the first time in my life I found these bits of advice truly invaluable to get my confidence back. I started thinking about the challenge in April, pretty much after my first or second session back on the water. It gave me something to aim for, and train for. Also it gave me something to look forward to doing, a reason to try to get better and a step towards getting more confident again.

As the year progressed I had my ups and downs, and still do. There are times where I get a tiny little 'niggling' pain somewhere in my chest and it sends my brain into total confusion. I think because of the almost lack of pain while having the heart attack I worry with every little twinge, of course doing 100+ sit-ups per day, 100+ press-ups and other floor exercises I am bound to have 'twinges'. Everyday now the challenge is driving me to get fitter and complete my goals, both in terms of monies raised and miles sailed.

The hardest part of the recovery was the emotional part, and I personally think this is directly linked to the lack of confidence. As I have felt my confidence come back I have been in a lot better control of my emotions. Again there are still ups and downs, especially at the moment as it is the depths of winter and only a few weeks before it will be a year since it happened (don't really want to use the word anniversary). I will try to write something about this further. Some of these posts will be a bit like a notepad for me in the coming months as I intend to collect lots of information and put this into a book/online resource for people recovering from heart attacks or similar problems. 

Many people I have spoken to feel very alone when they are younger and have suffered, but they are not and should not feel that way at all. If anyone wants to contact me then please do so, either by commenting on here or by email or facebook. I have so far spoken to people from about 10 different countries who have suffered, but not many people from the UK.....I wonder why.

To any new followers and facebook friends

I want to say a big thankyou to Stephen who has introduced me to many more windsurfers on facebook, hopefully this will help spread the word about this challenge.  To you all, I wish you good winds and for those in Europe a break from these horrible cold northerly winds.

There is unfortunately no more news or tracks from here in Weymouth. The only winds recently have been with very cold high pressure weather from the North and East. There was a brief respite last weekend but only in the hours of darkness. For the first time in my life I fully understand how the Jet Stream keeps us in the UK warm, the snow we had on Thursday and Friday disappeared after 20 minutes of Southwest wind when the sun set on friday night. All of us Portland Pirates were texting and hoping for a session on Saturday, alas the wind did not stay for the daylight hours, but did return again after sunset.

I have ordered some palmless mitts as now I am resigned to the fact I will have to catch whatever I can in this cold weather, even if it does mean -10deg windchill!

Angiogram Screenshots

I just remembered that I have the video of the Angiogram procedure from two days after the heart attack. For anyone who does not know what this is, it is where they put a hole in the biggest vein in your leg and inject you with a dye that shows up under xray. Full description on Wiki.

It was pretty painful but only at the end when they put the plug into the vein in the groin, other than that I did not really feel anything. I was worried though as this is where they decide if there is something wrong with the arteries causing the heart attack. The main cause of heart attacks is where you get a 'plaque' build up on the inside wall an artery which carries blood to and from the heart. This causes the artery wall to get thinner. As the pressure inside your blood vessels is always changing, so are the dimensions of the arteries. This can cause the plaque to break off the wall causing a blockage.

This showed the heart surgeon that I do not have any blockages in my arteries. The nurses could not believe it due to the size of the heart attack and the time it lasted, they had a bet with me that I will have stents fitted.

I was very lucky that I did not. Basically they are little 'cages' that are inserted to open out the artery wall. The hole in the femoral artery in the leg is used to send a long 'wire' up with a balloon attached. Inside the balloon is a type of cage that is left inside the artery once the balloon has widened the wall.





All of this was done on the Monday morning, I went into hospital on the Saturday morning so it was done quickly. The only other thing they had to do was assess the damage doe to my heart by using an electro-cardiogram. The whole angiogram procedure was not painful like I said even though they had a wire stuck inside me but the ECG hurt like hell and all they were doing was rubbing a magnety thing over my chest. I had to sit in the most strange positions to allow my heart to be visible at certain angles, it was only the odd positions that made it sore. Once that was done they discharged me from hospital, on Kat's birthday, three days after the heart attack. Amazing really.

Memories of the morning that lead to this.

A few people have read this and asked me to explain in more detail about the heart attack. Before I had it I always assumed that the symptoms are a tingling down the arms and pain in the chest. What happened to me was far from this.

At about 3am on the 13th Febuary 2010 I woke up with my hands over my head pumping them together not really knowing what I was doing. I remember Kat waking next to me and asking what was going on, she looked at the time and asked if I was okay. All I can say about the feelings I had is that my triceps felt like I had been over working them for hours, all I could feel was the amino acid sensation in them, similar to the 'nice' pain you get the day after a good workout. My chest felt a bit like when I was a kid after we piled on each other on the field at school, that sort of light but crushed feeling, not painful at all.

Kat took my blood pressure (I swear there is more medical kit in this place than a hospital in the 80's!) and it was strange, the Diastolic was very high - 120 from memory. When I turned on my left side though the pain in my arms was not as bad and this made me think it was my back causing the problem. I had been an idiot about a month before and carried a washing machine up 2 flights of stairs causing back pain until April. Kat told me several times that we needed to ring an ambulance but I kept saying I was ok and that it was nothing really, I do not know why I did not listen to her. Fortunately I am young, fit and healthy so my heart was apparently pumping the blood through smaller vessels and some oxygen was getting into it.

I think I went back to sleep, or maybe blacked out. The alarm went for Kat to go to work, it was the start of my school holidays so I didnt have to get up but she woke me to see if I was okay. I told her the pain was still there and she phoned her mum. She came rushing in telling me I needed to call an ambulance right away or I may lose limbs or worse, my life. I called NHS direct, explained my pain and as soon as I put the phone down the flashing lights were outside.

The Paramedics came upstairs and explained that I needed to be taken into the van for tests, the stairs are steep here so they would have found it difficult to carry me, they asked if I could walk which I did with their help. I didnt really feel weak or anything just a bit odd (which in fairness I always feel ;) ).

In the ambulance they connected me up to the machines, told me they were quite certain I was having a heart attack and asked me to sign a form giving them permission to administer a drug to thin my blood. They told me I had a 2% chance of dying due to the drug, but some instinct inside me tells me that it saved my life. Dorset is one of the few counties where the Paramedics can do this. They also gave me morphine so things get a little hazy now.

Kat gathered some things for me, looked really upset but stood by my side all the time. I really dont know what I would have done without her, maybe not been here to type this now. I dont tell her often enough how much it meant to have her with me.

We were taken up to Dorchester Hospital, I remember being quite impressed with the Paramedics balance in the back, telling him he would make a good surfer as we rounded corners at huge speeds. I also admired the space in the van, being a van owner myself. This I know was the morphine having its effect.In the hospital I have little memory of the first morning, I believe the attack stopped at about 11am. I remember feeling lower than ever before, and more reliant on others than I have ever experienced. By the afternoon I wanted to get out of bed and move around but wasnt allowed to do this for the following 3 days.

My Mum was coming over to visit that day, for the second time since she moved to Spain 6 years previously. She was staying for 5 days so it was worrying me what would happen, who would pick her up from the airport, who would tell her etc. Kat was amazing, she got in touch with my good friend Martin and they went to pick her up together. Kat was really good and told her gently at the arrival lounge, then they came to the hospital.

I was still drowsy and high as a kite from the morphine so do not remember much about the rest of the first day. The next couple of days went slowly with lots of tests and a bloody painful injection in my stomach quite often. I will write more about the tests in other posts.

I will try to expand this in the future as it still gets me quite upset to think about it, and need to clarify some of the memories with the people who were around me.

Thank you for reading.
Lea

Why do I windsurf and how did I get here?

Nearly 30 years ago as a small boy I remember helping my cousin carry a huge lump of plastic with lots of bits stuck to it about half a mile to the sea. It was such hard work that when I tried to pull that massive triangular sail up I had no energy left. It just looked so cool to have a pack away boat that could be sailed wherever you could manage to carry it.

Just over 20 years ago my parents wanted to move from Stockport to North Wales near Anglesea and open a B&B, all I wanted was to be near the sea and dreamt of having my own windsurfer. That year I went on a school trip to the south of France, an activites holiday in which most of us were so hungover every day that it was impossible to appreciate the activities. It was then that I got the sail out of the water, moved about 10m along the shallows, fell in and then it was someone elses turn. I forgot about watersports for a long time after that, my parents did move to Rhyl but I went to university in Hull. If ever there was a place to put someone off the sea its Hull, or rather the Humber estuary. I hope the picture shows the colour well enough.

About 10 years ago I decided to retrain and become a teacher, in the long summer of my 2 year course I lived in a tent down on the north coast of Cornwall, started surfing and rekindled my love of the sea and the feelings of freedom it generates for me. The next year I applied to a few schools on the south coast, from Christchurch across to Wadebridge. Stuck in the middle was the place for my first interview, Weymouth. They put me up in a hotel overlooking the bay and I sat there thinking what a nice place, got the job and turned down all the other interviews.

In Weymouth I found it hard to get a place to live, and ended up lodging with a new found friend who had some old windsurf kit in his garage. He hardly used it, he wouldnt let me borrow it (now I understand why - too easy to break) so I wound him up that if he didnt get out on it then I would use it one day when he was at work. He is now as hooked as me, well perhaps not quite as bad as I am. I got a lesson through Windtek, managed to tack and gybe in the first half hour, went back into the shop on the way home and got a full board and rig package.

 That was perhaps my first mistake, I was overconfident as learnt quickly on a big board so decided to go straight for an intermediate 150l, which I promptly broke the nose of in a force 6. It took me 4 years to gybe again as I then replaced the 150 after about 10 short sessions with a 133 which was too small. This put me off unless the wind was perfect for it, it was hard to uphaul at first and I couldnt waterstart.

For about 3 years I had the kit, one board and 2 sails and hardly used it. My girlfriend at the time wouldnt let me drop everything when the wind blew, in fact she made it so hard to windsurf I think that in the 2 years we were together I got out twice.

When it was over I got out about 10 times in the following year and was up to the point where I could get my feet in the straps and beachstart as long as I could touch the bottom. Then the winter set in and the kit was packed away. I also met Kat who loves the fact she is with someone who does a lot of sport, and enjoys watching at times.

Last year I had 59 sessions, developed a full quiver of boards and sails and got the bug big time. A brief break this winter and I have not been off the water for more than 5 days since.

Over time as I think about it more I will edit this to get it spot on, why do I windsurf - escape from reality, fitness, pushing myself, soul healing even though I dont think there is a soul, meeting more genuine people than any other walk of life I have strolled around in...........

First time blog

Where do I start?
Up until last year I enjoyed windsurfing a lot, having tried to do it for about 4 years with not much time on the water. Last year I got bitten by the bug and managed nearly 60 sessions on the water, only stopping on December 27th due to frozen toes.

I had the intention of starting again this year as soon as the water was a bearable temperature, so mid Febuary seemed a good target to get wet. On Febuary the 13th I had a large heart attack lasting from about 3am to 11am. I recovered my physical health quickly and got back out on the water by the start of April. Mentally it has been harder, there is not much support for those of us who are younger and suffer from heart problems. Although the NHS does a good job with their heart attack conveyor belt recovery system, they dont have any answers to satisfy my curiosity as to why! As the months have rolled on I have found my solice on the water which at least puts the negative thoughts out of my mind.

Spring and early summer were not good for wind, but I went out as often as I could even if it was just learning new moves with a big board and small sail in light winds. Summer itself was mixed, with a couple of great weeks at the end of August. Since then I have been out about 5 times every week, with a total session count of 53 including a few times on the stand up paddleboard through the wind drought weeks.

At the start of September I joined the Portland Pirates Speedsailing team and now have clear targets to beat every session when the conditions are right.  I am almost certainly the weakest link in the team at the moment, but the scoring system takes the best two scores for that day. The way I see it is if I get out on the water then on occasion my times may count, and over time my skills will get better, and I will upgrade equipment to speed sailing kit over time when I can afford it.

My goals for 2011 are to get 100 sessions and 1000nautical miles under my belt, with a max speed over 35knots. I am going to try to get sponsored to complete this with all proceeds going to the British Heart Foundation.


After each session if I have the energy I will post on here, I used to write a diary in my iphone which was lost as apple upgraded the software, at least on this I will be able to keep a log and share it with anyone interested.