Jason Graves more about
me can be found here
Windsurfing
My early
start into addiction
From an early age, I was taken to the Dorset
coast, almost 4 to 5 times a year. Most of the time this was for vacation,
other times we, as a family, just went down to clean and maintain the small
family home we owned down there. The south coast of
My first
experience of the sport was When I first saw a friend of mine who lived by the
coast, rig up a sail and board, jump on and glide along on a board, using the
wind to move him from wave face to flat water. Moving as though he and the
elements were in complete harmony, I was in awe. It seemed inconceivable that
such a complicated, advanced, fun piece of equipment, could be understood by a
boy no more than a year or two older than myself. Then to watch the tricks and
speed of windsurfing, again left me with an urge to absorb everything I could.
There are initially many parts to comprehend in windsurfing; you have to have a
natural love for the sea amongst the obvious being able to swim type skills. As
time went by my initial water baby, swim everywhere, playing under and just
over the water, changed to understanding more of the elements that drove this
massive adventure playground. Windsurfing drew me in, because, tantalisingly on
the edge of each of my windsurfing progressions were more interesting skills,
that just begged to be conquered.
Soon, by
the age of 20 I was married, and living in Taplow near Maidenhead. A distant
leap from the sea, but the Datchet reservoir, provided a man made Windsurf
playground, where I could carry on learning and developing Windsurfing skills
in the absence of tide or salt water. There I first learned to water start*, an
essential skill when moving from long floaty type boards to the shorter sinky,
wave boards. I was elated when in an afternoon of trying, I finally felt myself
pulled upward, onto my board and into position to move off as though I’d been
in that stance all along. Once this was mastered, my confidence jumped and I
progressed from the soft warm afternoon winds to the wilder autumn/spring winds
and of course, smaller equipment.
Every
windsurfer wants to surf, but gets so used to the buzz of speed, board ripping
across waves and water, you realise that surfing with all it’s beauty and
simplicity, is no more than a five to ten second ride along a wave face,
followed by a long paddle and then a longer wait for the next thrill. Unless
you’re fortunate to live in conditions such as Hookipa in
The
physical and mental feeling, after a day of blasting around waves or flat water
or maybe just cruising a sea breeze, are too almost perfect. The feeling of
complete calm and tranquillity, a oneness with nature and my very soul. The
freedom I feel on the water is incredible as though you are at liberty to go
wherever and whenever, ride each wavelet or cruise with your back inches from
the fast moving surface. The near life and death experience when you feel
nature at it’s most awesome, pulling you into oblivion and the exhilaration of
surviving all of that. To be amongst all the beauty of wind, sun, waves and
motion is a gift that I give thanks for; it truly is a wonderful adventure
area. Then when I sleep after experiencing all this magnificence, it’s the
deepest most peaceful sleep that I could ever want. The feeling of complete
exhaustion, I can hardly move, as every muscle is spent, not aching or sore,
it’s just as though they’ve given their all and now, complete stillness in
slumber is all they have left.
Today
I’m now
at a level where I still think I’m a beginner, I don’t know if that will ever
change. I’m always looking to somebody out on the sea, pulling of a manoeuvre
or trick, and thinking, I wish I could do that. At the moment, my skill level
is fairly advanced, my current skill acquirement is the carve gibe, something
of an allusive dream, that I’m just about grasping. To turn around the way I
came from when on the plane, without getting wet and look so stylish while
doing it, is mouth wateringly close. However, it’s a one a day manoeuvre, of
the 50 or so attempts I try, each time I’m out, I’ll only manage one complete
turn. I know if I keep practicing, it’ll eventually by my skill and I can move
onto a speed tack, an even harder talent on a short wave board. The skill
acquirement is never ending, half the addiction perhaps?
Diary (
I’ve got
carve gibing, down to 1 in 4 attempts, which is pretty cool, it’s taken a week
of wind to get me planing through a turn. How stoked am I? Well very, is a good
word. Spent a day just blasting on my wave board and finally after tricking
jumps and a carve tack, I was carving my wave
board like I’d been doing it all my life. Man I was ecstatic, it was
pure, the feeling whilst completing the manoeuvre is very fluid and relaxed
with a feeling of timing is everything. As the turns executed you have to look
forward and slightly back to see how far your into the turn before doing the
rig flip. Then foot down and quick jump turn change to get on a fast exit from
the carve.
Diary
update (
After
some of the warmest and windiest weekends and evenings for a long while, I’ve
finally achieved carve gibing and duck gibing every turn. In one afternoon it
was blowing a pure 22Knots of wind. Rigged up on a 6.4M2 sail on a
110 litre Cross board, I pulled out constant gibes on the warm s/w wind. The
water was fairly flat blowing cross off shore with bump and jump further out.
Then I switched to make the transition to Duck gibing on a port tack. It was
easier planing out of the duck then a carve. The board flew round as ran my
hand to the back of the boom before throwing the rig forward just before the downwind
switch stance transition, a mad scramble and pulling it back to the directional
side planing out of the turn. It has to be the easiest, sweetest turn, no
effort other than timing is needed. Then boosted by this new skill, I went on
closer to the beach to pull of the turn in front of all my mates still watching
the rest of us. Was the best feeling, the tide was on neaps so going rip speed
straight at the beach with no fear of fin catch (fin digging in to the sand or
beach as happens in low water spring tides) completing the turn just feet from
the shoreline was a bit show off maybe? J
Went onto
complete Clew first water starts and higher jumps throughout the session. Tried
a spock 360, but completed this jump loop without the board on a hairy wipeout.
Gonna keep trying that but, taking a little more air next time. The skills are
coming, but want to get into Kitesurfing in the lower wind speeds so have sold
my largest board the Fanatic Sting Ray 160 and am selling my brand new 10.5
Meter North R-Type and 8.5 Meter Sailworks sails for 2/3 of their original
prices. Also going is my brand new North Viper 510 carbon Mast and my Arrows
Race Carbon boom.
Kite
lessons are going to come from the Paracademy
in
*Water starting is where you will lie in the
water and use the sail and wind to pull you back upright onto the board, to get
going again.
Diary update (26/02/04)
I’ve made some dramatic changes to my life,
I’ve immigrated to the West Indies, St Kitt’s to be precise. It’s a beautiful
Island with warm friendly people. Since passing my PADI SCUBA dive instructor
exams (#188051), I’ve trained a good few people to dive etc. Diving has taught
me many new things about sport, diving is the most peaceful relaxing sport I’ve
ever encountered. If you just want to chill out and feel at one with the
Universe, then the rhythm of breathing and letting yr mind wonder whilst
completely immersed in an amazing world, then look to the coral reefs and wild
surrounding these. I’ve seen sharks all number of fish, some of the most
amazing scenery, crystal blue waters where you can see for hundreds of feet
before the haze of the ocean obscures the view. Coral reefs with their breath
taking variety of colours and inhabitants. The closer you look at a reef the
more life you will see. I defy anyone not to be completely amazed at this
outstanding natural earth beauty.
Where to
start
There are
many parts to the sport, as my preface page shows, for each type of wind
condition there are different types of equipment that can be used. I typically
keep all three, as each day is normally completely different from the last. The
wind conditions vary from Summer to winter as do the wave and temperatures.
Typically I keep an eye on local wind conditions through the BBC’s
weather service and anything above 17Mph starts to get me excited. But for
a warm afternoon cruising, it’s out with the big kit and on with the fun…
Boards
windsurfing…
my Fanatic quiver includes the, Cross
110 and Goya
Wave 86.
And there
are three boards in my collection, not because I’m greedy, but each is used in
a different set of conditions,
generally the bigger the board, the bigger the sail used. So
if the wind
is only a breeze of around 10-13 Knots then the largest board would be ideal
to take a
large Sail say 10.5 Meters2. The smallest board then is used when
it’s howling
a gale and
the only other people out on the water are the rescue services (maybe) typically
it is used
for manoeuvrability and ride quality. When it’s howling the waves are pretty
large, thus
the smaller board is able to ride the waves and produce far less bump being
more
controllable in those type conditions. There are several other factors determining
each
board to be
used on a day. The larger board displaces more water therefore can plane
a lot
earlier even with someone as heavy as myself on board. There is a lot of skill
to
each board, but the easiest to ride if your
just starting out is the larger board and is ideal
(obviously
maybe J ).
Check the
galleries of the stars of the surfing world at the following sites:
Fanatic,
Sailworks, Tushingham, Naish and Animal
Sails
The sail
collection consists of mostly sailworks sails.
My sail sizes are: 3.7 M2, 4.4 M2, 5.0 M2,
5.8M2, 6.4M2, 7.5M2, 8.5M2 and
10.5M2
I have also
1 Naish (3.7 M2 ) sail and a Tushingham (5.0 M2) Power zone
sail, but all the others are Sailworks
and look as above.
Also then
each mast has different characteristics, a smaller sail will typically be used
in high winds i.e. 20MPH – 35MPH will need a sail around 5.8M2 through
3.7 M2 Each of these smaller
sails will feel ‘twitchy’ or binary or simply put on or off with the power.
They need smaller masts and smaller booms and these vary in size too.
Booms
My boom
collection is up to three booms so far, from 140-170, 170-220 and 190-275.
These sizes are in meters, and the makes of these typically are a North wave
boom, Arrows carbon freestyle and an Arrows Carbon race. They again are
expensive/necessary pieces of windsurfing kit.
Masts
Also then
masts are essential kit, again they vary in size in my collection I have,
4Meters, 4.30Meters, 4.60Meters, 4.90Meters and 5.10Meters masts. Each also
have a different stiffness and are used accordingly in conjunction with the
sail type and specification.
There are
so many more parts to this that if you want to know more about the technical
side, Email me: jasgrave@cisco.com
The Buzz
But enough
about that, get on with the cruising and enjoy some wild moments jumping,
gibing, carving looping etc. The fun and thrills are only limited by your
imagination and skill. There is an element of elitism to windsurfing, but it
favours those who are good not the rich J.
J