I'm back home again and had a really good week on Jem's clinic. We had 7 days of planing wind on sails ranging from 4.0m to 5.7m. I spent a lot of time on the FS100 but used the FSW85 on windier days (could have gone smaller but that was unnecessary).

I've returned having pulled of a few new moves:

- downwind 360s on port tack are nearly as good as on starboard now. This is a real improvement since I had never completed one on port before this holiday. I guess that I must have managed at least 30 whilst away.

- my one handed upwind 360s in the straps (on port) are sick... in Jem's own words. :twisted:

- pulled off a couple of dozen good backwind gybes on starboard... previous successes were always pretty ragged and never really stylish

- controlled wave jumping on starboard which addresses the port tack bias that I have had until now.

I still can't do vulcans or loops yet but good progress was made. My popping for vulcans is much better and I often have attempts where I rotate the full 180 degrees prior to a sudden back-door exit. I also managed my first full rotation for a forward, landing with feet in the straps and pointing the original direction. If I'd made a bit more effort to waterstart away in the straps, I could have claimed it!

We also did loads of drills for other moves but I won't babble on about those.

Speed: On the one day, my 4.0m NP Combat got a bit much on the FSW85 (all of the 3.5m sails were gone) so I took out a JP Super-X 86 and a GPS for a little while. I clocked 60kph on the Navman (somewhere between 37.2mph and 37.9mph) which wasn't bad considering it was gusting 45knots (top end of a force 9) and I had to pick my way through kite surfers, kamikaze windsurfers and waves that were refracting around the point and crashing half way down the speed strip! I was second fastest in Prasonisi this month and the winner gets a free GPS.

Ok, that's enough for now. I would heartily recommend Prasonisi to anyone - whether they like speed, waves or freestyle. I've had two full on weeks on both occasions that I have been.

Mike

Was a chap called John Bainbridge on the course.

If so,.... did he break anything?

Sounds like it was fantastic. Jem's a good guy. Am going to do one of his courses next spring.

There was certainly someone called John on the course and his surname may have been Bainbridge.

No-one broke anything in our group but I did see a few people wandering around with bandages and plasters!

Jem is a top guy and I've enjoyed both of his clinics.

Mike

I've returned having pulled of a few new moves:

Well done Mike, I hope these are going to be pulled off mid race next season.

anything would be better than him "puling off" his top again

PS I didn't understand a word of what he said anyway

Mike,
You raise your bar again. Which is impressive, and you do it with style not risk - which is sensible!

You'll be loopin soon I'm sure.

See ya soon,

Tim

OWCHHHHH! It aches!