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should stop trying! … but I kept at it, joining the Wednesday evening T15 Club because “racing” appealed to me, and slowly, but surely, I started to get the hang of things - the coaches truly deserved a medal! Later that same summer I moved from Aqua Sports to Queen Mary to join their dinghy youth group but as their T15 training was held at the same time I soon found myself skipping dinghy training to go windsurfing – I had started to get the windsurfing bug. It was not until 2005 that I started racing though, buying my first long board – a trusty Mistral “IMCO” and attended training camps organised by the RYA at Calshot and Rutland. That year I went to my first RYA Youth and Masters and in October was thrilled to be selected for the 2006 South East Zone squad.
Of course, having just worked how to sail the IMCO with the 6.6 Mistral one design sail, I found that changes were afoot and I had to move onto the new junior one design kit, a Bic Techno with TK7.8m Tushingham sail. At about the same time the Neil Pryde RS:X had been confirmed as the new Youth one design and Olympic board and with many of my friends moving onto it I was wondering what to do. The Zone Squad training on the Techno was invaluable – as well as race techniques and rules, I learnt how to plane and carve gybe – it was also immensely enjoyable socially and I gained many new friends. However it wasn’t long into the Techno training that I realised, being on the heavier side, I was never going to be great in lighter winds and decided to start training in parallel on the RS:X, which I sailed for nearly two years. My social life became completely windsurf oriented as almost every weekend was spent in some part of the country competing or training. It was with the RS:X that I had my first international competition experience at the 2006 World Championships in Sicily. Then I had dreams of getting into the National Squad but despite all the training it never quite happened (the wind never showed up at the key events), but on the plus side the RS:X program really helped me improve my technique, fitness and strength.
So the 2007 Youth and Masters was my last event on the RS:X – the second day was wonderfully windy and I scored some of best ever results ; by the end of the final race the kit was already sold to two aspiring friends and so I moved on. Moved on to what I hear you ask? Well in one sense I moved back – to my cherished IMCO long board, that does what you want it to when you want it to and which doesn’t ruin a sunny light wind day! But I’ve also moved forward by qualifying as a windsurf instructor and by turning my hand to slalom with plans to take on Formula in 2008 as well. After I (hopefully) go to Uni next October I don’t know what will happen – I’ll want to put my instructor skills to use and to sail something that is easier to cart around in a small car – of course there will be the SWA events. I’m hoping to persuade Dad to hitch up the trailer and meet me at those events that I can easily get to. Whatever the future, windsurfing will be a part of it and another thing is for sure, I’ll be at every LWA event that’s on outside of term time – it is a great “club” – every young windsurfer is welcomed and encouraged.
Summary of achievements (so far)
2004/5 T15 : Queen Mary Skimmers 2 x 1st places 2 x 2nds helped take QMS to the T15 Champions Cup finals, sailing a longboard (IMCO) 2005/6 Selected for the SE Zone Squad on Bic Techno one design but started sailing Neil Pryde 8.5 RS:X from January 2006 in parallel Youth and Masters 2006 RS:X 9th (of 19) 2006/7 Olympic Series National Ranker (Autumn) 9th (of 21) Olympic Spring Series National Ranker 7th (of 18) Youth and Masters 2007 RS:X 11th (of 19) Fat Face 2007 Hayling Island Masterblaster 2nd Youth UKWA 2007 Course Racing 5th RS:X (of 24) RYA Qualified Windsurfing Instructor London Windsurfing Association 2007 11th overall and 1st Youth and a Young Windsurfer of the Year My first ever Slalom Event: 5th (of 13) in the Challenge Fleet sailing DROPS Board and North Daytona.
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