Dahab - Seems like a long time ago!

Sometime my job has its bonus’s and some work for Neilson at their Dahab resort in the middle of winter is definitely a bonus.

So at the beginning of March it was off to Egypt for two weeks work, honest. Simple job really run at Intermediate Instructor Course and a couple of Start Instructor course moderations and in between go windsurfing, simple really.

Neilsons centre in Dahab is a fantastic venue for windsurfers of all levels especially at this time of year, as you tend to get a good mix of condition to suit everyone.

With stacks of Starboards and Tushingham sails to choose from all you need is the right wind.

So after a successful Intermediate Instructor course with some great conditions and a successful out come for every one all I have to do is wait for the next bit of work and in between if I’m lucky get a sail in. Unfortunately this is were its starts to go wrong it is now my second day off and still no wind, I guess that’s how its goes. As ever though and windsurfers being the optimistic bunch that we are the forecast looks like improving in the next few days, so fingers crossed.

Girls for Gold

After the best intentions of keeping my blog up to date, a very cold and uneventful but busy winter has meant that there has been very little to say. But with Summer approaching there are plenty of trips and event planned to keep every one busy.


Last Saturday however (one very cold Saturday) we did get 6 brave girls down to the Lake from 'Girls 4 Gold' (chosen from many as potential future Olympic Windsurfers) to find out all there is to know about the world of competitive windsurfing and to get out on the water and experience the thrill.

Unfortunately the Lake froze on the Friday night and we had 15mm of ice covering the whole lake.

The girls were accompanied by a Girls 4 Gold representative, Barry Eddgington the RYA Olympic Windsurf Coach, and the RYA Windsurfing Olympic Physiologist. Not to be put off by the cold the first part of the day was spent looking in to the world of the Olympic Windsurfer (very scary and very humbling) run by the RYA team and then followed by a 'this is windsurfing' session 'beginner to advance' run in double quick time by Mark and I ending up with a two hour windsurfing session in icy water.

The ice proved a great teaching aid as the ice and cold water provided the ideal incentive to not fall in and as the ice re-frozen under them the boards became more stable, all we need to do now is work out how we incorporate it into our summer teaching program.

Tushingham / Starboard Dealer Conference

Wednesday saw myself and Linz drive down to Devon for the Tushingham/Starboard annual Dealer Conference.

This was our first visit to their new warehouse and it was stuffed full of new 09 boards and sails.

Starboard are to make a few changes to the range next year but most will be small improvements, in essence all remains very similar.

The big changes are the disappearance of the Kombat - a "love it or hate it" kind of board which has been replaced by the all new Kode which is everything the Kombat was and wasn’t, and some. I've now had a chance to sail both the 94 and the 86 and love them. They will definitely become part of my permanent quiver over the 08/09 season and both are available for demo.

There were small tweaks to the Futura and Isonics but no majour changes and we now have 09 Futura available to buy and demo. See Shop.

Tushingham, like Starboard there are very few changes to the Tushingham sail range and those changes are small tweaks rather than anything dramatic. It’s hard to better what is already an awesome product both in performance and value for money and the only real notable changes to there range are the Storm. Still in essence the same sails the look and shape has evolved. The bigger sizes giving earlier acceleration in the lighter winds an emphases on making the sail more manoeuvre orientated with the smaller sizes maintaining there awesome high wind freeride potential.

Following the Starboard/Tushingham brain washing Linz and I along with the other retailers went for a paddle on their new SUP’s up the river Avon followed by some food and beer at the local pub in Bantham. If anyone is interested in the new SUP board phenomenon we now have five demo boards and are planning a trip along the Thames.

Frostie's Blog

Welcome to Frostie's blog,
At Bray Lake we want you to get involved with your watersport either by coming down to the Lake, telling us about different places you've sailed at, or trips you're planning and of course what happened.
The next club trip is Dale in October which is often a great time of year to sail, we always get loads of people joining us, so if you haven't done this trip before, don't be shy come with us. Having looked at tides etc we've decided the weekend of 4th/5th October is going to be the one.
I'll be keeping you up to date with everything that happens via this blog. If any one wants to add their comments, please feel free.