ANDY KING
“Storm Ophelia was my first ‘high wind’ sail since breaking my ankle. The forecast looked unmissable with not only massive wind and waves but also sunshine and above average temps. I managed to wangle the day off and made the most of it with an early starboard tack session catching the southerly wind and southerly wind swell at an east facing beach on the South Coast at Falmouth. It was my first time sailing this low tide spot and it was good fun, absolutely maxed on a 4.2 and 81 litre thruster wave with some nice ramps and bowling waves. My ankle held up well but the rising tide and ever increasing shorebreak called time on our first session. The very SW hurricane swell had not yet arrived with full force on the St Ives bay beaches so I detoured on my drive across the county and called in to Stithians Lake to check out just how windy it was. The lake was boiling in the gusts with 50 plus knots ripping across the moorlands. I hate passing up sailable conditions and figured I had never sailed fresh water maxed on a 3.7 and wave board so a quick manic bump and jump session ticked that off the list and killed some time as I waited for the large pulse of swell to arrive.
On arriving at the North Coast at Mexico’s I could see that the swell was starting to hit and that a crew of locals and visitors where ripping it up. Re-rigging the 3.7 I hit the water on my new Goya 81 custom pro thruster wave. The wind had eased a little and it was nice to be well powered as opposed to being maxed out like earlier in the day. When you are riding waves too much power is not fun at all and it was a bit of a baptism of fire as I had not ridden any good sized waves since coming back from injury. I found a few ramps and filled my port tack score sheet between hunting out the bigger set waves before I eventually called it time as the sun set on the first storm of the autumn season. My tips on high wind sailing are … the sensible but crucial bits …choose the right beach. With super strong winds you don’t always want or need massive waves so look carefully at wind direction and predicted wind speeds, tide times and wave heights. Bigsalty.com has it all so plan for the worse, double check your equipment, make sure you are fit for the fight and do not expect or count on a rescue if something fails. Only sail within a distance you can swim or paddle your board and always sail with others or have others watching on… know when to throw the towel in if your tiring because that ‘one last run’ is Sod’s law going to be when you lose your kit or break a mast. Now for the fun bits… use that wind speed … it’s like having a rocket booster so don’t fear it and sheet out… instead bear off and sheet in with all of your might and line up on the steepest launch ramp you can… unhook and send it… then sheet in… pump the sail and sheet in again… you can sometimes get a second or third lift when it’s super windy, it’s as close to flying as you can get on a windsurf board!”
