Friday 23rd July- Windsurf **** - The Dip at Felixstowe – sunny periods.

Foil – 17.51 knot max, 16.53 knot ave., 10.03 knot hour, 14.24 knot mile, 44.16 km.,11.42 knot alpha.

Exocet RF AST 91 with Slingshot Hover Glide 76 with Tushingham Lightning 8.5m.

Looked forward to today for awhile as this ENE breeze has been forecast for several days now and it actually deliver for a change:) With high tide a bit early for the River Stour at Bradfield especially with the best wind coming in the afternoon I decided with a dropping tide to head down to The Dip arriving around 1.30 having given the tide time to drop a little! The sea was still quite high but the sea was flat so launching would be easy and foiling newcomer, lightweight Chris Stephens was ready to set off having rigged his 7.5. Chris was soon up and flying and looking good but it did not look overly windy which left me no choice but to rig my 8.5. I set up my foil board, the first time I have used it since 13th June due to breakages and a big thank you to David Coles who has done an excellent job of repairing it:) I have sorted out a replacement Slingshot Infinity 76 wing matched with a new fuselage being the cheapest way to get back foiling and could not wait to give it a try! Despite being cloudy and not as warm as the last few days I went for my shortie which was fine as I set off really broad hoping to sail down to The Manor where a few other foilers had launched. It is great fun sailing downwind hardly using the sail just running down the swell and soon bumped into Andy Mexome out with his 6.6 but I seemed fine with my much bigger sail so continued to The Manor as the wind increased. For a few minutes I wondered if I would get back but by sailing slow and flying low in what was now a pretty big sea I made it back to The Dip in 10 challenging runs, nothing like pushing yourself a little! I thought I would have to change down but Chris was still out with his 7.5 and Paul Smith was also out foiling now, another lightweight with his 8m so I decided to stay out. I am really glad I did as the sun was out, the tide had dropped, the wind eased down and the sea was super flat and I enjoyed some fantastic long broad runs only beating when the sea lumped up out past the red and white bouy! It was ideal for some gybe practice; Paul is getting close to foiling gybes but I am still a work in progress! Chris had swopped to his fin board with the 75 but then made the mistake of changing down to 6.6 as did newcomer Tony but they never had enough sail and quickly lost a few groynes. I saw Paul hit the bottom hard and not on the old fort which is a problem here which is in front of the beach café, it was the muddy bottom, so foilers must take care here when the tide is low! I was tempted to take my big freeride fin board out for a spin but after kiter Daniel had some trouble with the wind dropping and had to swim in, I decided against it, shame really as the sea looked great but I was cold now so decided to pack up and head for home – top session with a mix of big winds and sea to some lovely smooth blasting in the sun, nice to be back on the foil:)

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