I had a lot of email wanting to know more about Southend, where, what direction etc, so I had to go back. Although it’s been windy everyday since, I didn’t make it over to Southend during the weekend, wanted to go sailing with my mates, plus I wanted to be a dutiful dad and take my youngest to Roller World Saturday morning. Sunday was also out as I was up in Norfolk doing a demo day for Ray Page and Quayside Windsurfers on Sunday.

Actually my kids are cool and know when its windy I want to be out on the water, so we went early so I would catch the tide coming in. Being westerly it was too off shore for Clacton so we headed for St Osyth, at high tide it has its own speed bay but the other side gives the best opportunity for any jumping around our way with the wind from the west. The usual suspects were there, Shaun, Dave and the boys.

They had Clacton at its best on Sunday and were happy to rub it in as I drove back from Norfolk as we’d been less fortunate and only got the wind at the end of the day. Wells-next-sea has been a real wind magnet in past demo’s and just about covers everything a windsurfer could want, calm area for starters, and every thing else from a speed strip to wave jumping. The wind works best with any north in it, and the speed strip is real flat and fast on a North-westerly.

The wind turned to the south on Monday, the perfect direction for blasting in “the Ray” at Southend, not supper fast, but you can sail back up the course, plus you get nearly three kilometres to play with.

Jamie joined me again, but this time wanted to try out the Production board as he felt the custom 43 was a little small. We rigged up the 6.0 and 5.5 again, but this time we both had the same board. So we could work out what the longest run could be we headed west along the bank, it had a little angle but nothing to stop us getting up there easily. Once on our way back it was surprisingly fast with both of us getting plus forty-knot runs ending where the run bends into the second course.

The second course is always flatter, but there was no bias making it the same speed whatever direction you went. The two courses are split down the middle making them both 1.4 kilometres each, and with the angle difference you should get some fun out of anything from West to South East.

By the end of play Jamie had registered runs up to 41.5 and I had a few in the 44’s, but the next day I was to find it doesn’t count for the rankings on GPS-Speedsurfing.com.
Having figured out how to get the tracks off the GPS, thanks to the help form the boys at Garmin.

To get the most accurate times you should change the “record interval” from auto to time and set that to 00:02 so it records the time every two seconds. Having talked to the guys, they have put a lot of work to ensure everyone posting GPS results up is working in the same direction. Gutted, but Southend is just up the way so it shouldn’t be too hard to get some more runs.

Obviously we’ve been using the best money can buy, but that isn’t how I normally sail, I like the rest of you want to get the most out of my day, so normally sail freeride kit. My personal favourite is the Rockets and a Poison or Remedy depending on the wind. This week has been fairly steady and 5.8 Poison has been the weapon of choice when out with the boys.

Today we went out at St Osyth for a play, but then the wind picked up and we had a quick session in the bay with Anthony and Shaun. Apart from the enjoyment factor, I find it better to train on freeride kit rather than full on race kit. It makes for closer racing with your mates, plus if you can push a freeride board hard, you’ll find yourself busting new personal bests when you jump on the race kit. But most important it supposed to be fun.