Mistral 2012

Not long now till the new 2012 Mistral Boards will be available in Europe, Check them out :-))

Irish Speedsailing Championships Round 6 Dungarven, County Waterford, Ireland 26th November

Unfortunately for me my back injury flared up again in October so that has kept me off the water since the middle of October but last weekend was the last round of this years Irish National Speedsailing Championships. We watched the forecast all week and Dungarven was the only location showing a decent forecast of winds gusting up to 35 knots, but only for Saturday so the call was made to run this round as a 1 day event and the call went out to meet at the usual spot by the church at Dungarven.

As money is tight for me i couldn't afford to pay for accommodation so i decided to drive over from Kerry on Saturday morning, planning to leave at 5am to get there in plenty of time for the briefing but when i went out to start my van, it wouldn't start so not really the best start of the day for me. After waiting for a couple of hours for the AA, they got the van started for me and i eventually got underway at 7am. Arriving at Dungarven around 10.30am i was disappointed to again see little to no wind when it was howling elsewhere. Never the less i decided to get my Mistral Screamer 95 ready (which is currently my biggest board until my 2012 Mistral's arrive) with a 36cm Vector Maui Fins SL9 Alfa Fin & Starboard iSonic W53 Speed Special with 25cm Vector Maui Fins Delta Speed Fin and rigged my 6.4m, 7.3m & 8.3m KA Koncepts so i was ready if the wind picked up.

Just after mid day the first signs appeared that the wind was picking up and with most people planing on 7-8m sails in the gusts the call was made to measure the event on a 10 second average of your 5 best 10 second runs because of the gusty conditions, so i got into my wetsuit and grabbed my Mistral Screamer 95 and 7.3m KA Koncept and hit the water. I became apparent very quickly that it was very gusty with massive holes in the wind and i was struggling to get going. I was also suffering with my back so made the decision not to use my 8.3m in case i hurt it further. I got a few runs in, but nothing special as i was underpowered so i asked one of my friends, Brian Doyle if i could borrow his iSonic 111 so i had a bit of float to help me get going in the lulls and put my 42cm Vector Maui Fins Canefire Fin into it and went back out with my 7.3m KA Koncept. Before i got my deal with Mistral my own iSonic 111 was my go to board in conditions just like this and i found no problem at all getting it going with the extra volume as the lulls were so big but my back was really hurting now but i still managed to get in enough runs to get a result which i was happy with as i could hardly move my back.

Unfortunately i only managed to finish 8th overall and 5th Master but considering i went against my physios orders to compete as i had to do so to get a result otherwise i would have dropped down the rankings, i am still in 4th position overall with just the 2 GPS rounds left to run until the end of the year so i am hoping that my physio can work her magic and get my back sorted so i can get another Speedsailing session in before the end of the year. For me this year my back has hampered me competing and also kept me off the water at times which has annoyed me so i am hoping once and for all i can get it fixed.

For Sale

It's now time replace my sails so my current quiver of 2010 KA Koncepts (8.3m, 7.3m, 6.4m & 5.7m) will be available for sale in late December/Early January when my new sails arrive. I have updated my For Sale section here http://irl-250.blogspot.com/2010/01/for-sale.html or you can click the For Sale box on the right hand side of the page and all sails can be seen here in County Kerry, Ireland and i can supply further pictures upon request. I can accept a deposit for any of these sails to secure the sail when they become available for sale in late December/Early January.

I also have available for sale a 6.4m KA Kult (Freeride/Bump & Jump/Wave Sail), a 10.5m Demon Design VG5 Raceboard Sail with 580cm North Viper 100% Carbon Mast and some wave fins and these are all available for sale now.

I can deliver the sails to any of the Irish Speed and Slalom events or i can arrange postage/shipping at the buyers cost.

As always i can do a bit of a discount if you buy more than one sail from me so let me know if you might be interested in anything i have for sale

Invited To Become An Author on www.speedsurfingblog.com

A few days ago Erik Loots contacted me and asked if i would like to become an Author on his website www.speedsurfingblog.com and i happily accepted his invitation. I have followed the Speedsurfingblog for a few years now and i find that there is alot of very useful information for speed sailing on the site and it's also a great source of all the latest speed sailing news.

My own blog here is only a few years old and i am honored that Erik has been following my own blog posts and feels that i can provide a useful contribution to his own website. I hope that in the coming future you will find what i post to the Speedsurfingblog informative and useful and that you continue to follow my news updates here.

See you on the water :-))

New Sponsor

I'm very pleased to announce that for 2012 i will be riding Mistral Speed and Slalom boards. When i first started racing back in the late 80's Mistral were the boards that everyone wanted to ride and now with the legendary Anders Bringdal at the helm the will certainly regain that legendary status in the coming years. To be part of this is awesome and i will be getting my boards through Wind & Wave in Malahide, County Dublin, Ireland. See you on the water :-))

Irish Speedsailing Championships Round 5 Ladies Island, County Wexford & Dungarven, County Waterford, Ireland 8th & 9th October

Apologies for the late post as i have been away for a few weeks and this is the first chance i had had to write this. Earlier this month the call was made with the current forecasts that Round 5 of the Irish Speedsailing Championships would be run at 2 different locations. As Ladies Island had the best forecast of 15 to 20 knots for Saturday the first day was run there and then with the forecasted 30 knot SW winds for Dungarven we would run the second days competition there.

I made my way over to Ladies Island on Saturday morning getting there mid morning leaving Kerry at 5am. On arrival i was disappointed to see little to no wind but with the forecast due to pick up i decided to get ready my Starboard iSonic 111 with 38cm Vector Maui Fins ZX Fin and rig my 7.3m KA Koncept and wait for the wind to pick up. Due to the forecast showing marginal winds quite a few competitors decided not to travel down and wait for Sunday which turned out to be a mistake as after about an hour the wind picked up to over our 18 knot wind minimum so it was game on and official racing was called by the race officer. I quickly got ready and then hit the water and had a great time and despite the very gusty conditions and big chop i managed a 29.6 knot peak which gave a 3rd place for the day and in a decent position to get a good place for the event. I was also starting to feel more at ease in the chop after having some pretty big crashes in similar conditions over the past few years.

After everyone had packed up we decided to head over to Dungarven so we didn't have a big drive in the morning and booked into the Park Hotel and after some food and a few pints got to bed reasonably early to get ready for the forecasted winds the following day.

When i woke i was disappointed to yet again see the forecast was wrong and the was hardly any wind so i had a leisurely breakfast and headed down to the beach to see what was happening. Everyone had come down today and most were gutted to hear there was more wind yesterday but it is a 2 day event so not turning up for one of the days is always a risk. After a few hours the wind started to pick up so i decided to get ready my Starboard iSonic 111 with 38cm Vector Maui Fins ZX Fin and rig my 7.3m KA Koncept. Also if the wind was to pick up to what was forecasted i also got ready my Starboard iSonic 86 with 29cm Vector Maui Fins Delta Speed fin and Starboard iSonic W53 Speed Special With 25cm Vector Maui Fins Delta Speed Fin and rigged my 6.4m KA Koncept. After quickly getting into my wetsuit i got out on the water but there was massive holes in the wind making any decent speeds hard to achieve and after a couple of hours the wind dropped off so i headed in. I was disappointed to hear the round was called official which in my opinion was no where near our average wind minimum and considering how gusty and holey the wind was should really have been a fun day but that's the luck of the draw and i reluctantly went with the decision.

After 2 days competition i finished 5th overall and 4th Master which keeps me on track to achieve a top 3 position in the overall rankings for the year and i can't wait for the last event in November where i will be using my new sponsors boards for the first time in a competition. See you next month

2012 KA Sail Range

The new 2012 KA Sail sail range has just been released and the sails look awesome. Peter Weitenberg, Jesper Orth, Martin Love and Andrew McDougall have done a great job this year improving the already great KA Sail range and have a new sail range available this year, the Killer which is a sail suited to Onshore and Cross Onshore conditions so expect this sail to excel in the conditions we find here in Europe and fits nicely into the Wave Sail Range alongside the Kaos, KA's down the line wave sail and the Kult, KA's bump and jump sail which heavier riders such as my self find perfect for use in waves due to it's extra power compared to the other 2 wave sail ranges. This year the Kult has been geared a little more towards the freeride aspect of the sail but will still excel in waves if you want a sail that does it all.

The Koyote continues to be the choice for people wanting a fast easy to use sail, being based on the awesome Koncept sail range but is a easy, comfortable and forgiving sail range perfect for freeride sailors but is still a seriously fast sail, having topped 40 knots on numerous occasions.

The KA Race has been improved yet again and will be the weapon of choice for Slalom and Formula sailors out there. The low end of the sail has been improved and now has a bigger wind range in each size with less drag. Expect to see Jesper Orth doing well on the PWA tour and Chris Bond doing well on the UKWA Formula circuit this year using this sail.

Finally the new Koncept, my favorite sail in the range looks stunning and i can't wait to get my hands on it. Look at the overall top 5 on www.gps-speedsurfing and you will see the Koncept holds 3 of these places as well as being the current GPSSS World Record Holder proving this to be the weapon of choice for Speed Sailing. This year the sails have a slightly lower aspect resulting in a more balanced foil. A constant yet extremely defined power dynamic has been built into the sails and any tendency to oversheet and stall the sail has been eliminated. This excellent sail has been improved yet again and is now better than ever.

I will have the KA Kult, Kaos and Koncept available for demo here in Ireland so if you want to try them give me a shout and you can see further information on the KA Sail range here

See you on the water