Owner:
Harry
Member
Member#: 442 Location: Registered: 11-11-2003 Diary Entries: 30
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17th August 2004
Windsurfing: Galicia, Spain Wind Direction: Cross-off to cross (SW-W) Wind Stength: Proper windy! Surf / Sea State: HUGE waves + shorebreak Air Temperature: Warm Sea Temperature: Tad nippy Weather: Sunny Max Speed: Distance Covered:
Martin woke me up early, as he said he would the night before - conditions
were looking good. Mr Keen boy had already got his kit out and wasted no
time in getting on the water. I thought the wind looked a bit light so
minced around having breakfast, rigging up etc. Martin was scoring some
epic conditions - huge waves, great cross-off down the line riding. Just as
I was going out he came in, with a big grin on his face. Thought I would
get some of the same, but the tide was now dropping off and shorebreak was
getting HUGE. Made several attempts to get out, but no way it wasn't
happening, just took some more proper munchings. We all minced around some
more waiting for the tide to come back up again which would reduce the
shore-break. Meanwhile Al had found a 50m long pond on the beach formed by
this river which ran along the beach. The pond was lined up perfectly
cross-shore with the wind, and it was perfectly flat on it (obviously...),
so was great fun trying to get planing on it and pull off moves and gybes.
It was so small and narrow it made it very difficuly to do anything, but
was great fun taking it in turns trying. Nearly got round a gybe on my wave
board on it, carving as hard as I possible could, but had to bail out as I
realised I was heading rapidly downwind towards the sand....!
After lunch we tried once more to make it out. Tide was coming up now but
still the shorebreak was mental, just walls and walls of white water.
Amazingly though James made it out - jammy git managed to time his run with
a brief respite in the madness. He charged out to a huge wave, went for a
back loop.... The last we saw of him was him fully inverted with his mast
pointing down towards the water, as he disappered into the void behind the
other side of the wave. He came back in 20 mins later, with his sail
destroyed, having swam for ages apparently after losing his kit, in order
to catch up with it again.
So....it was just too mental here at Traba so we decided to up sticks and
go to this flat water area which Adam and Al had been to yesterday. (Adam
had hurt his ankle, and Al isn't good enough yet to sail in the waves, so
they had gone to this place on the west coast where it was flat water and
mentally windy apparently). Was looking forward to a solid proper windy
flat water session. BUT at the beach/harbour type place we went to wind was
offshore and really gusty :( Martin and Al launched from the beach on
their bigger boards, but I thought if I was going to get out on my own kit
(wave board and 5.2) there was no way I would be able to launch from the
beach, since there was no wind on the inside there. So I launched from
rocks further downwind which would get me straight out into where the wind
was best. Launching over the rocks was interesting.....took a while but
made it in the end. Was very annoying watching Martin sailing just meters
away from me, having launched successfully from the beach and sailed
downwind....maybe I should have done that in the end. Anyway made it out
alright, and had some OK flat-water blasting. However the offshore wind
meant I was just always trying to stay upwind, so didn't feel confident
going for lots of gybes. Wind was gusty as well so was often blobbing, and
hence drifting. Had to go for loads of tacks though so was good practice
for them. After an hour or so on the water, realised I was losing too much
ground downwind, so decided to cut my losses and sail round the back of the
rocks where I would be able to land quite easily. There was no wind round
there though at all so lots of swimming took ages. Then had to de-rig and
tie all my kit to my boom so I could walk back up the road to the beach and
the vans. When I got there somehow jammy git Martin had managed to sail all
the way back upwind to the beach, despite being on small kit as well and
the wind being very dodgy right on the inside. Grrrr I don't know how he
does it - always gets way upwind no matter how marginal it is and what size
kit he is on.
OVERALL THOUGHTS ON THE HOLIDAY
Had a great time with Martin, Adam, Al and James; roughing it on the
beaches was good fun, evenings were always a great laff and we even cooked
up some really good meals with our limited resources, not just beans from a
tin, BBQ'd trout one night, steaks another - always was good. Did the
tourist thing as well in Santiago, and a Spanish all-nighter in this town
Noia near Santiago :) Unfortunately didn't get any really good sessions on
the water which produced an ear-to-ear grin on my face - most of the time
the wind was too light and the waves/shorebreak too big. But we had a good
amount of wind and TOW, and I feel I learnt loads about sailing in big
waves, getting out through the white water, how to take the munchings, etc
etc. Plus - unlike all the other guys - not a single bit of my kit got
broken!!! :-> A great holiday in an amazing place. Would love to go back
there when the thermal north-easterly wind is blowing and a good but
slightly less mental swell is rolling in.
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