Received email. No jump ramp at the boat show. Health and safety have closed the ramp down,- to dangerous. Force 8 when they hit the
water and only force 2 at the other end of pool. Ramp weighs about a ton, to heavy for pool floor.
Still... the freestyle exhibition should be good, ahve you seen the height those guys can get off flat water without a ramp!!
How do they do that!??
Al.
can't believe its a weight issue, the water must weigh thousands of tons, so an extra 1 shouldn't cause an issue. I think the sailors have just bottled it... pansies.
There is a jump ramp, it was used for the first time yesterday.
Nick Baker was landing forwards off it.
The pool is proving extremely difficult to sail in as the wind is gusty as it bounces off the opposite wall of the arena. It is making
freestyle very difficult but even so its still impressive.
Andy
Went to London boat show yesterday
So what News??
a) Well - the Boatshow was huge but the windsurf section was small ie 30sq meters or something and access down some temp side
awning....
b) Kit
Boards from F2 and Fanatic look great....Mistral also look like they are back
Sails from Gaastra look really well engineered with loads of thought gone into them. If money was no object then this is the one
IMO!
North look quite good as well.
Severne look real nice but not sure about quality and Arrows are about the same as Tushingham in terms of quality i would say (IMO)
So - if £ is the thing - go for Arrows or Tushy but if you want the best then go for Gaastra / North?
Plug-n-play DVD looks amazing - but i havent got a DVD player! Also showing a Swift DVD that is due to be released soon - that kid is
gonna make a fortune i think
c) Others on show were NP / JP, Tushingham, AHD, Starboard, Naish and Boards
JP boards look lovely - but £999!
I personally dont like the design of the NP sails with the weird window frame thing so didnt even look at them - but plenty of people
did!
d) Indoor windsurfing was free! Saw three sessions - slalom, freestyle and jumping
Slalom - useless - only 1 gybe made out of all the heats i saw (made by Nik Baker)
Freestyle - pretty useless - but some vulcans/spocks and body drags
Jumping - was the first ever time that any of the people had used the ramp - so genuinely scary....saw some quite horrific looking
accidents as they boards missed the slot or went only half way up the ramp and got catapulted. Nick Baker, Ben proffit and someone
else did ok and each pulled off a fwd loop though!
Overall - indoor setup was really poor.....the wind was sooooo gusty that world champion freestylers (Swift, Ricardo Compello?) could
hardly sail along yet alone gybe or pull much off!?? There was also half the seating missing cos the pool collapsed a week ago....and
the building / tent it was in was too small / low for any clean air....Fun to watch and good for them for having a go though....but
it was basically impossible.
e) Stars - all the stars there inc Nik Baker, all the young freestylers (Diaz, Swifty etc), Kevin Pritchard, all the UK windsurfers
(Skye, Funnel, Audsley).....and a guest appearance of the legendary Mr Naish - who just happened to give me a poster and sign it for my
3mth old son! Nice one fella!!!
f) Shops - Robin Hood and Riks were there - and they both really know there stuff. If you are gonna get kit from anywhere i would say
there guys are very knowledgeable.
Anyway - thats it from you London correspondent.
Steve
Well have been to the show and the ramp is going to be used. Good news for all viewers.
Great to see indoor windsurfing in the UK. 
As an aussie relatively new to these shores i shall reserve my opinion on how this country compares to home. 
. Shall be keen to know if anyone could recommend a great beach as i have
to say that if Weston super mud was you guys have to offer then its a non starter. Catch u later aussiemacka
lived in oz for 6 years and w.s.m is better on its day than many beaches in oz also no sharks
Can't remember if this was psoted elsewhere, but For those haven't been able to go to the London Boat Show and see the indoor
windsurfing. There is a short (10 minute) feature on Grandstand on BBC2 at 3.50pm Sunday afternoon (18th Jan).
Al.
Bloody Bowls!!!
Looks like we are going to have to wait until next Sunday to see the Indoor Windsurfing on TV.
Al.
Looks like the coulorful physical exciting sport of windsurfing cant compete with the fast paced game of indoor bowls,still whilst
watching the best of Top gear this evening Clarkson was trying to kill a toyota hi lux and parked it on a slip way in the severn
channel which looked like Burnham,-for a split second two windsurfers sailed by in the back ground,maybe this was the BBC's ideal of
windsurfing coverage!!!
[Edited on 18-1-2004 by Spencer]
I saw that as well.... They seemed to be going pretty well. Probably is the BBC's idea of windsurf coverage. I wonder if the Indoor
stuff will ever make it to air??
I think I need a Hi Lux myself as well to withstand the rigours of living in Borth!
Al.
That hi lux did look prettt sturdy seeming it was 13 yrs. old, Did that look like Burnham to you?. Milkeypies told me to sail there on
a SWerly as wsm always goes a bit iffy with southerly in it...i thimk that hi lux disapearing into the channel showed how strong the
tide is as it was teatherd down with about 6 ropes?
Spence...
quote:
Originally posted by Spencer
Looks like the coulorful physical exciting sport of windsurfing cant compete with the fast paced game of indoor bowls.
[Edited on 18-1-2004 by Spencer]
there should be some windsurfing on I.T.V at 12.30 tonight a nice and convenient time. it was so anoying having the bowls come on. saw some on high.tv they got quite good by the end so should be worth watching
I thought that the bowls coverage was pretty exiting and I'm glad they did not interupt it with this silly indoor sailing thingy!
Oh, and even though I live 30miles from WSM and it is by far my closest beach, the tidal range makes finding the right water/wind/work
combination almost impossible to find, so I sail on the south coast beaches far more. Also, very limeted in the bikini department
during the summer compared to Sandbanks! (hi Jen, slap me later)
Looking forward to living 45mins from Calshot, Wittering, Lee on Solent, Hayling island etc in the near future.............
I knew it was only going to 10 mins, but I duly set my video, and sat through (well fast forwarded though) and hours worth of Bowls.
Its not bad at that speed.
But lo - no windsurfing.
I too saw the hi lux - pretty cool.
Ive just seen on the boards site, windsurfing on itv1 at 12.40am on 20th jan
Just found this on the BBC website....at least they don't think it's totally pointless even though they didn't get around to showing
it!
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/tv_and_radio/grandstand/340465
1.stm
Al,
I've tried to post that 3 times now and the link won't link 
See if you
can make it behave.....stupid website!
bbc
[Edited on 20-1-2004 by Dave]
hi spencer it was definatly Burnham as we were sailing at the time but did not realise what was happening, too busy sailing that
toyota took a real kicking and still ran.
Burnham is no good if theres much south in it as its come across land so is gusty berrow is much better
got to go to the gym only only 15 days till 2 weeks in WA
I posted a review last Friday that in terms of the pool action was none too flattering.
However, in terms of the jumping it looks like they got it all together and there was some cracking action.
See
http://www.ukwindsurfing.com/pics_n_vids/2004/vids.asp
Ste