Circle One Carbon Skim 56" - Budget light wind solutions...

I am not a small, or particularly light person, some have even called me 'robust' and I have always found trotting up and down on a big kite and twintip pretty dull, even worse on a surfboard in no swell, and the beaches we use are not really suited for a raceboard as they are generally very shallow with suprise sandbanks everywhere. Not ideal for your £300 hand made fins. I also don't have a competitive bone in my body. I do however like to maximise my time on the water, so what's the solution?

Historically, the classic skim for kiting is the Nobile Skim, which I had in my posession (someone left it at my house for an extended 6 month period) and I rode it quite a bit, and it was easy to ride, but I was never really happy with its performance. The fins/rails were too grippy, the rail was lethally sharp, and considering it was CAP construction, it was bloody expensive. Even worse was the North Skimfish, the graphics alone made me want to vomit. Don't get me started.

After many trials and tribulations, I ended up riding a Circle One EPS 54" skim a lot last year; after stuffing my ankle up I got quite into it.

From about 8 knots, with a 12m, you really can fly upwind in diddly squat, in incredibly shallow water and actually progress your riding quite a bit, sharpen up your kite control which is critcal and improve your balance and fancy footwork for strapless. A lot of the time you have to work on apparent wind, and I would recommend a kite with a small diameter leading edge so it has good forward speed as well as flying further round the window. My Mr F 2 12m (Delta/Bow/Hybrid) is just about perfect for this, pure C shapes are not so good in the super light stuff in my experience. You need a kite with more aerodynamic leanings.

So what can you achieve on this strange little craft? Well, shovits, aerial transitions and spins, surface passes, jibes, tacks and even slashing little waves and all sorts of other cunning stunts are possible. Much more satisfying than trotting back and forth for me. It's skateboard trick heaven with a kite.

From time to time I have had skims out in quite large swell, which is extremely fun/funny. Dropping in is like sliding down a 45 degree ice slope and is a real test of balance and kite control. Wacky Races would be an accurate comparison. You can also literally reach warp speed.

'But it's got no fins' I hear you say, in an alarmed fashion. Yes, this is indeed the case, but in my experience they are more of a hindrance as they catch when you try and spin the board, or slip out when you least expect it, and make little improvement to the upwind ability. They also prevent you from riding in super shallow water, or even over wet sandbars. Surface tension is your friend. Don't stab it with G10 the whole time.

From an injury recovery point of view it has also been an excellent tool, without a doubt helping strengthen my gammy kankle. You have to constantly trim the board angle, and balance, using all your proprioception. Imagine it like a wobble board for the water. It also seems to give your core/stomach a damn good work out, as you have to control your balance with small movements. From an impact point of view (normally a thing to avoid after most injuries) there is barely any, and you are not just bouncing around on a locked in rail the whole time, a la twin tip.

So anyway, I just received this new 56" Carbon Skim from Circle One. Shape-wise, it's quite different to last year, having a lot more taper at the rear, rather than being a teardrop shape. It also seems more strongly built than the EPS version and more or less exactly the same weight. The rail shape has changed slightly, being squarer running towards the base. The finish, as ever, is really (bang) tidy with these boards. For the £60 price increase (RRP ~£240), I would go for the carbon version every time, specially with kiting in mind. The trouble is, that at the moment it's a special order.

Tidy rear end (more slender than previous)

After the first couple of sessions on it, my verdict so far is that it is a big improvement on the EPS board from last year, it seems even smoother through the water and the new rail shape means you can hold a little more power and go upwind at a ridiculous angle in the gusts. Due to the skinnier tail, it feels more purposeful/grippy on the waves, but the 2" extra length seems to compensate for the reduction in surface area at the tail, and overall volume and upwind ability are very similar to the last one. The rocker is exactly the same, i.e not much apart from a touch in the nose as you would expect from a skim. I may bore you with some Go Pro footage in the near future. Be warned.

Luxury kick pad is a must

More purposeful nose

Flat as a witch's tit, and note the new rail shape

Circle One Bamboo 2012 6' x 19" x 2 1/4"

New Circle One boards are here, and they are looking sweet. The 6' was the most popular board last year, and a lot of people locally have been getting on really well with the shape and buoyancy which works well in local conditions where it's slightly more onshore and you need a little extra float/volume to really use the wave. Considering its volume, it rides smooth as silk and it's not bouncy on chop as you would expect.

What I like about it, is that it's an easy enough board to ride, but still has a lot of performance. It also has just enough rocker not to nose dive if you are front foot heavy, and has enough in the mid section to steam upwind. I mainly ride it strapless, as does Sarah.

The lay up is slightly different this year, promising the same relatively low weight, but more robust construction. This is always a trade off so we will see how it fairs after some abuse.

For around £400 new with fins, deck pads and straps I don't think you will find a better kite board for your money.

New graphic

Single concave

Medium rocker

A touch of extra nose rocker, and flat mid section

Same fin box as last year accepting FCS plugs.

Double strap inserts this year

Finish is as good as ever

BKSA Wavemasters 2011

After a fair amount ‘umming and ‘arrring and due to yours truly smashing up my gammy ankle the previous week, Sarah and I postponed our loose idea of an autumnal trip to warmer climes, and with Jet ski in tow, headed across the bridge to the BKSA Wavemasters in Cornwall. Dicky Gowers had called us a few weeks previous and asked to borrow it for safety cover. I said fine, as long as I didn't have to sit on it all week.

Jetski Phil

We arrived at our luxury static accommodation at the St Ives Bay Caravan park. It turned out to be a very topical place to be with the Dale Farm eviction going on. Still, after a little modification it was very comfortable, and after burning most of the North Sea gas reserves, it was also fairly warm. Sound proof it wasn’t. We were sharing with friends Neil and Lisa for the week, who became even more familiar by the end of the stay.

Biggies at Godrevy

Day one greeted us with bright sunshine and humungous surf . The view from the floral cushioned Horizon Contessa was pretty spectacular down towards Godrevy. Mr Vento hadn’t arrived yet, but he was scheduled to turn up before lunchtime. After the rider meeting at the Café, unsurprisingly the Girlies were on first as the wind filled in. It filled in faster than expected, and as Pro Kiteb*tch for the better half I pumped up 6, 7 and 9m PD4 kites whilst her ladyship literally crapped her way through the pre match nerves. Unfortunately disaster struck, and the council had decided not to unlock the gates to the track to Godrevy meaning the man left in charge (BKSA Vice Chairman, and all round nice guy, Pete Shaw) had to make some frantic phone calls to get the key. The competition couldn’t start until the Ski was on the beach. After an hour the gate then got opened, only for Jetski man Phil to find the access road to the beach had a chuffing great big sand dune across it.

Grinning like a winner

After all this unfortunate messing around the 11am start had turned into more of a 1.30pm start. Good conditions were being missed and it was quite frustrating. Anyway, the ladies eventually got off to a good start, with head high plus conditions with about 25-30 knots slightly side off.  Sarah’s first heat was against good friend of ours and local pocket rocket wave slayer Debbie Kennedy. Sarah didn’t ride that well, and came in a bit peeved, but made it into the next round where she was against another friend of ours, Welsh lovely Sarah Eager of Blast Kiteboarding and a plucky young Scottish lady called Sammy Wiseman. Suddenly Sarah seemed to click with the conditions, and in the relatively short 7 minute heats she scored three nice long waves with some powerful turns. This got her into the next round against Steph Bridge. For those of you not in the know, Steph is 3 x World course racing champion, and just got a 3rd place at the KSP tour (the international wave event). A formidable opponent to say the least. Sarah thought she was done for , but was pleased with her performance in her last heat and went into it quite relaxed, changing down to a 6m. She got three good waves with some nice slashy turns in the pocket, and cruised in not expecting to win. She was oblivious to the fact that Steph hadn’t had a great heat.

Cheeky session at Marazion on the way home

So much to her surprise, she had progressed to the final against Debbie. At this point she said to me she didn’t really mind who won, and again went in extremely relaxed. She worked her way out back, and took two or three quite large waves with her usual smooth style, made one very committed top turn and took a big one right on the head! She cruised in casual as a cucumber.

So after a rocky start, she won it. British Champion 2011! The key point being is that she relaxed, didn’t think about the other competitors and results and just rode.

The rest of the week was spent getting through the men’s heats which in the end ran in very small conditions. Light 1-2ft and almost bolt onshore.  It was still a good display of riding, specially the strapless guys with the top five all at a ridiculous level. The great conditions from the first day didn’t really reappear.  A jam session was held later in the week in some light but nice clean side off conditions (Sarah came second in this). This was a good laugh, and much less serious with twenty minute heats and three or four riders out at a time in quite technical conditions.
 

There has been a lot of feedback from various sides on how this event should be run in the future. I think this is a very positive thing, as the people involved are a really good group, and we have some very high level riders in the UK. It should be a showcase of talent, and definitely deserves more media coverage, sponsorship and more hands on deck to help coordinate. There has also been talk of making it a series, or running more of a jam format which takes the pressure off, and maximises time on the water. It will be interesting to see what happens. A huge thanks to Pete, Phil, Josh, Tessy and flag girl Lisa for soldiering away all week in chilly conditions.

Le Champ

Lastly the British Wavemasters was won by two South Africans, with both Sarah and Richie Sills hailing from the land of Springbok. Trevor Hale won the seniors though, and I think he’s from Devizes (Wiltshire’s hidden gem) so well done Trevor for keeping the British end up.

Lekker

The top three women were also all on 5 line kites. Funny old world isn't it?

The summer of wind 2011

Last year we were starting to get a little depressed by the lack of wind in the UK. We had two fairly iffy seasons. In a place where most of the trees near the beach have all grown at a 45 degree slant from being battered by the prevailing south westerly, the evidence wasn't stacking up.

A friend of mine works in renewable energy research, and has access to MET office data. He said the wind stats last year were the lowest in 150 odd years. Most of the turbines performed under capacity compared to what was forecasted.

This year has been ridiculously windy in comparison, and with decent southerly swell from the hurricanes whizzing around in the Atlantic we have had some great wave sessions and new spots have been opening up.

This sort of wind is also very good for business. We can watch our sales figures go up and down literally like the wind.

So the moral of the story is to keep the faith.

In the wise words words of King Crimson:

"I talk to the wind , The wind cannot hear"

Morocco - Camel Toe Adventures

When one of your best friends calls you whilst on his honeymoon, telling you that the new wifey is getting extremely annoyed because of the 40 knot wind blasting her at the swimming pool, it's time to get the devil out of Devon and slap some Moroccan waves for a week or so. Our mission was to save his new marriage with cunning, girly chat and distraction techniques.

My oh my, it was rather windy though, Sarah and I were both using a 6m PD4, which rather annoyingly blew off down the beach and had a little coral incident mid-week.

In Essaouira bay, in front/downwind of the hotel, it was extremely gusty side-off with the wind coming over the Medina, which was pretty terrible car crash style riding frankly, so we hired a Dacia, which is similar to a mid 90's Fiat, but with none of the refinement, and a clutch and gearbox comprising of Edam. We trotted up and down the coast to a few spots.

20km north of Essaouira is Moulay, a fairly deserted little town full of windsurfers. This is quite a short launch with a kite but there is a nice point / reef break and a lot of wind. A top tip would be to head there early and get out on a 9m before the wind kicks in fully and the windsurfers head out, thus avoiding crowded waves. Saying that, even when it did get busy later in the day everyone was courteous. If you want some space you can hack upwind 200m in front of the cliffs and still get great waves with plenty of space.

Sidi Kaouki is about 20km south of Essaouira and is another windsurfers' spot of choice. This is more of a beach break, and there is a lot of space. Again we would kite here before it started nuking as it was slightly side-off and clean as a whistle. The sand bars let the waves peel gently downwind and it makes for rather delightful down-the-line riding. It can be a fairly steep little wave here that can give you a right old slap if you get it wrong. It was great fun strapless. We did a hilarious downwinder with camel support, but that's another story.

Sarah wrote a lovely article for Kitegirl magazine located here:

Kitegirl Morocco Article - A wave to Essaouira

Here's the Morocco slideshow:

Getting owned (on camera)

I had a nice little swim at Bantham a couple of weeks back. I got munched and rolled by a wave, and binned the kite. My Go Pro HD got blasted off by the force of the wave, and went on a bit of a journey for a few days, and miraculously we found it washed up and it was 100% OK, even the footage was in tact.

I had to release the kite, and it also survived being washed into the rocks during a 3m swell with a couple of small holes. All in all, I count myself very lucky. Big thanks goes to the guys on the beach who kept an eye on me as I swam in.

Big thanks to Go Pro for making such a robust camera as well. We were sure it was mincemeat.

Oh and a big thanks to James at www.kentkiterepairs.co.uk for re-sleeving my bar and sorting the little holes in my kite. He's a legend.

Middle sized Thursday

We have had some amazing conditions in Devon over the last two weeks. Normally we have been on 11m and 9m kites. Bantham is probably one of the most beautiful kitesurf locations in the UK, and offers that perfect blend of solid waves and pitch flat lagoons. If only it was windy all the time and wasn't so ridiculously cold in the winter!


Sarah managed to get some pictures of some late evening wave riding last Thursday. It was blowing about 15mph and there were some chunky waves. This was the 1st time we have had a chance to use the Da Vinci on the wave. It works extremely well. You can run towards it endlessly, and it's very stable. All that depower/repower allows you to postition yourself perfectly and concentrate on putting your turns in. I can't wait to try the 6m in a storm swell here.

Cape Verde 2008

Sarah and I both spent the winter (November through to March) on Sal in Cape Verde. We were working for Surf Zone Cabo Verde with Mitu, Djo, Dani, Rod and Sheena. We had a fun few months instructing and riding the waves.


Ponta Preta scared the hell out of me several times. Sarah had the good sense to avoid it! The PD2 9m worked particularly well on Punta Preta, and the Easy Rider 7.5m when it was really blowing. Punta Preta is cross off, gusty and really challenging but a seriously special place to kitesurf. It worked 2 or three times a month when we were there.

Pic: Me trying not to get killed.

Pic: Local genius Elvis showing how it should be done.

Pic: Downwind of Punta Preta near the Riu hotel can have great flat water for freestyle.

The other side of the island is onshore and choppy with some waves on the outer reef. This side of the island was alright for freestyle, and we spent loads of time there. You have to get 4x4 cabs across the desert (We would recommend Tequila or Paulo!)

Pic: Sarah at kitebeach putting in a cheeky grab.

Punta Leme actually turned out to be one of our favourite spots, even though it was a rocky launch and a bit offshore if we were going to be technical. It also was where the locals said the sharks hung out. This didn't worry us much (it probably should have done) because with butter flat water on the inside of the spit, and some of the most consistent and long waves on the island on the point it really rocked.

Pic: Sarah ripping at Punta Leme

All in all it was a good trip. It's not really a place for freestyle and it's a tough location to teach and to learn. It was good experience for instructing (we don't think it can get any harder!) and also the wave riding is great when it happens. It was a slightly inconsistent season whilst we were there, but so much better than a winter in England. We met some great people along the way: Big shout out to Mitu, Djo, Keenya, Jai, Dani and Sata (even though he's a windsurfer) also to our adopted cat (Catloop) who hassled Josh Angulo on the beach one day.

Trying not to be too negative here, but don't go to Sal expecting flat water, vegetables and easy conditions. Also most of the island is a building site and it's expensive. There is also nothing to do but kitesurf. On the plus side it's very safe and the locals are really friendly.

Sao Vicente on the other hand........

Pic: Salamansa