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Windsurfing: Ynyslas
Wind Direction: SW
Wind Stength: 25-35 knots
Surf / Sea State: 4-5 foot messy surf
Air Temperature: 11¬?C
Sea Temperature: 14¬?C
Weather: Cloudy

A pretty mad session in mad conditions. One guy had already been out butb decided it was too much for him. Richard was rigging up when Steve and I walked over to have a look. Decided to take the 5m and JP across to the beach along with my 4.5m and Naish board.

I expected to see the others out on the water by the time I got back to the beach, but they weren't so I rigged my 5m and little wave board and got out there. I was perfectly powered but it was pretty big out there with some gnarly looking waves. I made it out the back in one piece and had a few more runs in and out but still no-one else was out so I sailed upwind to the car park and went to see where they were.

Richard and Steve were just about ready to go out and I don't think they believed me quite how big it was... that was until they had a go themselves. After his first run Steve said it was pretty scary out there and Richard went back to the car and sent a while changing down to smaller kit.

Meanwhile Steve and I were having fun and quite an adrenalin rush contending with the waves and tough seas.

Then things went wrong for me. Out the back I did a small jump off the back of a wave and my UJ snapped. I was still hooked in and holding onto the sail so my board went scooting off in front of me leaving me floundering with a detached sail. I then got hit by a big wave and rolled over a few times and when I surfaced my board was nowehere to be seen and my rig was slowly sinking. There was no chance of swimming back with my rig and then I saw my board about 100 m downwind and slightly inshore of me. I started swimming after it but after getting hit by a couple more big waves it disappeared from sight, so the only option left was to swim back to shore. It took quite a while battling through the waves and the rip but I eventually made it back to shore and thankfully my board had already washed up on the beach as well.

Steve and I took a walk along the beach later in the day looking for my rig but it was nowhere to be seen. Quite an expensive day, one 5m sail, a 100% carbon mast and a boom lost at sea!

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