Don't worry befs, I won't point it at you. You'll be on the sand bar riding the waves on your little board anyway.
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The last time I sailed on the sea was...........................................I can't remember :?

I think it was went we went to Devon

I might come down to Hayling. When's low tide? Sounds like a complete "massif". I've not seen any video of myself in years.... it would be interesting.

Low water is 3pm - perfect...

Hope to see you tomorrow Tim and anyone else. I plan to meet befs in the cafe at the east end of the front about 8:30 for breakfast. The car is loaded and I'm ready.

Hopefully the wood slick will miss Hayling. Most of it is washing up east of Brighton and with the IOW in the way we should be fine. The Wind is forecast to be in the 20s and the rain should miss us so it's looking like a good day.

Hayling is a bit far from Cambridge so it looks as though I'll have to try gybing on my own at Brogborough
Or maybe I'll make the usual excuses - too windy, not enough wind, too cold, too tired! :oops:
Alistair

What a superb days sailing. Befs and I arrived first and after breakfast we decided to survey the situation. OMG was my first thought, it was totally closed out with the biggest shore dump I have seen in a long time. The tide was nearing it's peak so it was a waiting game. Two guys, who were pulling off goiters, went out a little later but it was still a bit much for us.

Then Sean, DaveK, Tim, Nigel, Nick and Adam arrived. The dump was residing and Tim was the first into the fray. After a struggle he made it and looked to be having fun so the rest of us decided to go for it. By the time we had all made it to the beach the dump had totally gone. An amazing change in such a short space of time.

Myself, Nick and Befs all went out and it was perfect 5.2 weather with some superb waves breaking on th sand bar. We were all having so much fin that the gybing practise sort of went out of the window though I did manage to plane out of a few at the back. The inside was a different matter.

As the waves cleaned up I was really enjoying riding them and decided to go at one full on and lept off it. One look as the trough the other side meant I needed strong cycle clips to even think about landing it, so I bailed :oops: .

Tim was in his element out there and really having fun. Befs was on his 112 with what seemed like a massive fin. He was really struggling to stay downwind so he changed to his smaller board. This is where his lack of TOW showed. Fitness for windsurfing on the sea needs keeping up, befs hasn't been on the sea since Saunton in October 2006 :roll: so he came back in and changed back to the 112.

Nick went for a couple of gybes but was having too much fun jumping so appeared to be going for the fall in and waterstart technique. He was coping with the waves admirably.

The most impressive feat of the day was DaveK. This was his first time in the sea at Hayling and his first time in the sea anywhere apart from the flat waters of the lagoon in Dahab. Considering that he has only been sailing for a short time he was doing brilliantly. He was going quite a way out for a first timer and was really looking stoked at the end of the day.

Sean too was having a ball. Again, he has limited sea time and when he arrived appeared nervous at the sight before him. However, he really went for it and was all smiles at the end.

Adam was on his usual form, cracking jokes and giving the tea baggers a shed load of abuse. He was the last to hit the water and spent a lot of time in and under it. He had rigged a 4.5 which left him a little underpowered and his big board was not coping too well. Nick was sailing near him and encouraging him. When he got going he was going well but the wind was dropping slightly and the 4.5 was just not quite enough. I later found Adam chatting to Timster (who was also having a good time) and Adam looked freezing. His perseverance coupled with his slightly loose wetsuit had sapped his energy so he got changed and did some filming instead.

By now the wind was dropping and the sun falling. We all went for a debrief in the Inn on the Beach and reminisced on the highs and lows of a great session on the water.

The inaugural meting of the Carve Club (or Nick's Numpties) didn't see much carving but we all had a great time. We''ll be back

good to see people had a good session.

St James's was a fantastic atmosphere, football was rubbish.