sSs Team Rider, Jon Metcalfe, is also ASA Windsurfing Training Manager. He took a bunch of keen Army windsurfers to Rhosneigr for a weeks course in May to put them through their paces. Jon tells the story:
Action Army
Location: North Wales
Dates: 28 – 2 May 2008
By: Jon Metcalfe ASA Windsurfing Training Manager
Intro: As part of the development plan for Army windsurfing I organised the first intermediate / advanced coaching week which was held in North Wales from the 28th April – 2nd May this year, the main function of the week was skills based, to develop budding intermediate sailors and run some advanced clinics for those more advanced sailors wishing to get into the waves.
We had a total of thirteen in the group with quite a big group split, some people wanted to work towards getting into the harness and footstraps for the first time and iron out a few basic technique problems, cracking the old carve gybe was also high on the wish list and we even had a few aspiring Forward loopers !!
So why choose North Wales, well on a number of accounts, having been a freelance windsurfing Trainer for many years in the past I have spent a fair amount of time in this area, the great thing about Anglesey in North Wales is that you can sail pretty much in any wind direction and the conditions are so varied, flat water, bump and jump and waves at Rossneigr so we could cater for all abilities and levels.
The team: apart from myself heading up the trip I would like to mention some of the other coaches who helped me massively during the week, Tony Ireland (budding RYA windsurfing Trainer) Allan Cross who is the mastermind behind the Fat Face Windsurfing Festival and one of the main drivers of Army Windsurfing over the last decade and Steve Myers (RYA Windsurfing Trainer) who flew in from Germany and who is a legend in his own lunch time!!
We based ourselves at STC Indefatigable which is located on Anglesey just down from the Britannia Bridge on the Menai Straits, this is a superb facility which is used by Her Majesty’s Forces for recreational watersports training and adventurous training.
The forecast for the week was fairly moderate but knowing North Wales you can sometimes get more breeze than is forecast if you use a bit of local knowledge and local tidal effect in the Menai Straits at some of the locations.
Day One:
Forecast WSW force 3 / 4, dry with sunny spells.
We opted to go to Rossneiger on the first day due to a cross to on shore wind, a lot of the group were keen to sail in some coastal conditions so we were treated to some great blasting across the bay on 7.5m sails on big free ride boards, not much swell or shore break so a good shake down sail was had by all, we ran some skills clinics with the group, launching and landing in coastal conditions / improved beach starting and blasting control sessions, all with video feedback. Touched base with Dave and the Funsport crew, who let us take up all the parking and rigging areas. Cheers Dave!
Day Two
Forecast NE force 3 / 4 cloudy with patchy rain.
Bit chilly today with that North Easterly wind but the troops were mad keen to get another full day on the water so we went to a spot which is just past Caernarfon at the mouth of the Menai Straits called Foryd Bay, we had flood tide most of the afternoon, combined with a NE wind direction you get a good wind against tide effect in the straits and nice flat areas for gybing practice in the bay mouth. So the order for the day was to try and crack those carve gybes, I brought along a Fast Forward stance simulator (RYA new scheme coaching model) and ran some coaching sessions concentrating on using the formula (vision, trim, balance, power & stance) with the view to applying this to the carve gybe. Really successful day all round, back on big free ride kit for most of the day until around 1500 when we were blessed with a stonking force 5 for about two hours. Everyone was changing down to 6.5m sails and below and getting out smaller free ride boards.
Day 3
Forecast NNE force 3 most of the day, drizzle, low cloud, generally freezing!!
Not a great forecast but not to be deterred we set out to try and find a cross shore beach to continue our coaching sessions, Northerly winds are not great apart from the fact that we could see snow on top of some of the surrounding mountains, we were in for a classic North Wales wet and cold day, though we had had two blinding days so far spirits were high. A good spot in a Northerly direction is Dinas beach which is located in Caernarfon Bay, this gives a side shore wind direction from the right. The beach itself is shingle dropping to a flat sandy beach as the tide goes out, there are some groynes along this beach spaced around 200m apart, car parking and a great little café which sells hot food / drinks etc.
The wind was pretty light this day so we concentrated on some dry land sessions looking at transitions and core skills work, some of the lads went on the water to put into practice what they had learnt, the rest spent most of the day in the café eating pies and drinking tea!!
The wind didn’t really materialise so we opted for an earlier finish and headed back to the centre to discuss an evening plan.
Now what should happen is after dinner a few beers and a windsurfing DVD to while away the evening, but what actually happened was slightly different.
One of the party (not wishing to name names but you know who you are!) suggested that we all go for a beer into the local town called Bangor, what can go wrong, it’s a Wednesday night, well I sort of remember leaving a night club called the Octagon at 0300 the following morning, enough said !!
Day 4
Forecast WSW force 4 / 5, sunny spells.
Great just what we all needed after a big night, we all had done the wind dance in the night club the night before and were rearing to go, this was looking like the only day we may get some bumpy conditions for the some advanced sessions.
We decided to go to Rossneigr as this would give us a good chance of scoring some sort of wave action, but unfortunately it was not meant to be as it was pretty flat again but we had a great day never the less, it was windy enough to sail on 6.5m sails on 140 litre boards and at one point there were a few of the lads sailing on 6.0m sails on their short boards, due to the wind being up all day and looking at the forecast for Friday we decided to make the most of the conditions and sailed till about 1800 hours, the sun came out in the afternoon also which was a bonus, after we packed we headed back to the centre to have a look at all the stills shots we had taken over the week and discuss the plan for Friday.
Day 5
Forecast was giving light Southerly’s so we decided to wrap up the week and head home mid morning as it was bank holiday weekend and the traffic would be shocking getting back down South so we had a group debrief and said our good byes.
In summary
A very successful week by all accounts, getting four days of sailing in and seeing everyone progress so quickly was a real achievement, I met some really cool motivated windsurfers who came together for a week to get some good conditions and coaching to improve their own level and we had a laugh as well. We are planning to organise more of these events in the future so if you are in the Army and you’re an aspiring intermediate or advanced windsurfer, get in touch to find out more details about future trips.
I would like to thank the staff at Indefatigable STC for letting us stay and having use of the ASA Sailing Club for evening recreational activities and general chill out time.
The boys from Sea Sprite for supplying some RRD demo boards and Dave at Funsport and Adrian from Boardseeker.com
Look forward to seeing you on the next one.
Contact Jon on 07768 988258 or email asawsm@btconnect.com
Sponsored by Sea Sprite Sports Ezzy & RRD
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jon forward 1
jon forward 2
shore based coaching
one to one on the z rides
one handed lay down demo
blasting army boys
Rossy crew
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