We all spent the last bank holiday weekend at the annual Fleadh Sheoil windsurfing festival at Malahide in Dublin and everyone had a great time. As KA Sails are my sail sponsor i organised for Peter Weitenberg, the new European importer to come over to demo the new 2009 sail range. On the first day there was glorious sunshine which ensured alot of people got sunburnt,(including myself) and light winds so big sails and Sups were the order of the day. The big sails Peter brought over to demo were very popular and the big range of Sups John Kenny brought made sure evryone had a chance to get wet and have a great time.
On Sunday it was an early start as i was involved in the Sunrise Sunset charity event so i was at the beach at sunrise to take pictures of Steve Flannagan hitting the water. The photos are here:-
If you want to take a look. I was only going to sail part of the day so it was great that Steve hit the water at dawn and then proceded to sail almost non stop for the next 16 hours until sunset in what was an amazing achievement. Congratulations steve.
I myself got out my old F2 World Cup Lightning and got on the water at 10 for a couple of hours and rediscovered my love for sailing longboards after not setting foot on one for 15 years. It took me a while to get used to it again but loved every minute. I came in at 12 for a break at to make the footstraps bigger as i couldn't get into them. I went back out but as i was beachstarting the UJ broke (it was 15 years old aswell) and didn't have a spare so couldn't sail the long board any more and was a bit dissapointed as i was enjoying it.
In the afternoon i got out on my Lorch 75 with 42cm Vector Maui Fins Canefire and 7.5m koncept and had a great time blasting around for a couple of hours in the sunshine. All throughout the day there was so many people on the water and it was great to see all the happy faces after a great days windsurfing. Once the day was over i and a few of the lads waited for Steve to come of the water to congratulate him with a cold bottle of beer and to help him off the water.
On monday the wind picked up more so i got on the water with my Lorch 64 with 38cm ZX Vector Maui Fins and 6.6m Koncept and had a crack at getting over 30 knots on the GPS. At times i was massivly overpowered and my crash last month was on my mind but i went for it and managed a 29.52 max in the steep messy chop. So close to 30 but still happy and came of the water with aching muscles after a great few days on the water.
Big thanks got to Alison Beirne and all the students who organised a great event and i cannot wait for the next one next year. Thanks also to Peter Weitenberg for coming over from Holland with the 2009 KA Sails, Oisin and Alan from Surfdock for the JP, Loft and Neil Pryde demo gear and Mikey and JK for the Starboard and Servernne demo gear and also the Sups for people to try. All these guys made the weekend a great success
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment