Sport: Wind Surfing Shop Riders
DOB: 21/01/1952
Local Beach: West Wittering regular since 1985
Occupations: Itinerant Windsurfer, Gentleman of Leisure, occasional consultant to the Oil and Gas Industry and 3rd Cameraman for El Toro Productions.
Last Trip: Prasonisi for a coaching trip with Jem.
Next Trip: Punta San Carlos, Baja California
Favourite Spots: Aseelah, Oman; “Heaven”, Jericoacoara; Manawa, Mauritius; Peniche, Portugal
Current Kit: RRD FSW 102 and 90, Hardcore Wave 74 and Ezzy Wave SEs. Waiting (not very) patiently for my new Twinfin 82 and Ezzy Freewaves.
Favourite Move: Riding waves.
Wannabe Move: Riding waves a whole lot better!
There was a time (early 80s) when I had absolutely no interest in windsurfing whatsoever. The only windsurfing I had ever seen at that time were people floating around lakes and ponds on these strange and very precarious looking lumps of white plastic. One summer (it must have been 1983) I was on holiday in Sardinia and was out on a boat trip. We were quite a long way out, in steep choppy swell, when this guy came “skipping” towards us on a brightly coloured surfboard with a sail. I was stunned “How could he do that?” Then inevitably he fell in. I remember thinking that he’d never be able to stand on that ridiculously small board and pull the sail out of the water and that we’d have to rescue him. As I watched his sail magically lifted him out of the water and back onto his board. My whole perception of windsurfing changed in that instant and I was hooked.
The very next day I hired a board and started my windsurfing apprenticeship...scrabbling onto the board, dragging the sail out of the water, drifting off downwind......we have all been there. On returning to Norway (where I was working at the time) I bought my first board and continued to “teach” myself to windsurf on Oslo Fjord during the long summer evenings. I returned to UK early in 1985 and started sailing at West Wittering, which is still my local beach. 1985 proved to be very windy and by the end of the summer I was sailing a waveboard. Since then I have lived and sailed in Oman, Perth Australia, Portugal and Norway and have travelled to many windsurfing locations around the world.
Over the past several years I have been gradually cutting back on my work commitments and trying to spend more time sailing and travelling. Returning from a trip to Cape Verde early in 2002 I dropped my kit off at the villa we had just finished building in Portugal and met my next door neighbour and now fellow Team Rider Clive Boden. Having lured Clive out of windsurfing retirement and persuaded him to buy some modern kit, there has been no holding him back. Since then the most of the trips have been with Clive, who has documented these trips in increasingly more professional (his photography rather than my sailing) videos.
I use Ezzy sails because of their superior build quality, durability and handling characteristics and because I like the way that they have been gradually evolved and developed over the years, rather than blindly following latest trends or fashion. I have now been using Ezzy sails continuously for over 10 years.
Similarly, I started sailing RRD boards about 6 years ago and have been using RRD boards ever since. Over this time they have refined and developed their boards to produce a comprehensive range of easily sailed, high performance boards which I believe are the best on the market.
Needless to say I am very happy to represent these quality brands, which I had already chosen to sail.
My current goals are to keep travelling and improving my sailing.
|
