Wow, what a week! I've just finished a full week of teaching with Pat O'Brien from the emerald isle and we had our fair share of action despite the fairly light winds for the week. Pat was a complete beginner and the conditions were absolutely perfect- Pat proved to be an amazing student and, despite the mishaps and accidents that befell us during the week( van smashed up by an articulated lorry, keys locked in borrowed van etc, you know, all the usual stuff, haha), progressed at an amazing rate, mastering all the basics in the first two sessions and quickly moving on to quick tacks and gybe variations, clew-first sailing, and using the harness. Well done that man! He is now back at home in Ireland with his shiny new windsurf kit watching the trees blowing through his office window and waiting for the weekend, I bet! All in all another huge success for all involved and great fun. See you next year, Pat?

As is pretty typical for the start of June, the wind has been pretty light for the last couple of weeks. I scored a couple of good freestyle sessions in the south when there was no wind up here (local knowledge, haha) but, apart from that, there has been very little windsurfing action. I have been getting wet most days though, as I am teaching Caroline (again) and she is coming on in leaps and bounds now- look out world! Hopefully she'll be in tiptop shape in time for next year's Get High Or Die!
I have a free week now and then I am going to be busy for most of the summer with clinics so there should be plenty to report. For now, check out the latest move for my tricktionary, the double flaka. As usual, a full how-to will follow very shortly..........

Double Flaka from Stephen Gibson on Vimeo.

CARLSBERG DON'T MAKE BEACH SIGNPOSTS, BUT IF THEY DID........................................

PROBABLY THE BEST SIGNPOST IN THE WORLD.

On Saturday 16th and Sunday 17th of May, I staged the first ever wave event to be held at Punta Blanca in Fuerte. My main goals with this comp were to get all the local riders together for a fun weekend of windsurfing and partying, and also to get every single competitor to push their own personal limits and reach a new level of sailing. To this end I devised a system of judging whereby each heat was judged by the riders from a different heat, according to their ability, a kind of handicap system, with riders who pushed themselves the hardest progressing through to the next round. The result was phenomonal! I have never seen such radical action at Punta in my 14 years of sailing there! In absolutely perfect conditions, we had guys sailing away from their first ever forward loops after only a few attempts, guys throwing themselves into doubles at every opportunity and all done with huge smiles all round. Wow, it surpassed all my expectations!
Will impressed everyone with his suicidal double attempts (he really was determined to get high or die!) and came away with 1st prize with Victor in 2nd and big Pieter in 3rd. Really, though, I could have awarded trophies to absolutely everyone as there were so many who sailed better than I have ever seen before.
After the heats, I held two expression sessions, with 15 in each heat, resulting in a jumping frenzy with all the local island hillbillies trying their utmost to kill or maim themselves, haha. Check the video and you'll see exactly what I mean!
After all the organisation I did, you'd have thought the gods would have been smiling down on me but, oh no, 1 minute into my quarter final heat, my mast foot broke and I spent the whole heat swimming back to the beach as my fellow competitors jeered me good-naturedly from the water. With friends like these, haha...............oh, well, next year, I'll fix it so I win.............
After the expression session it was back to the UTurn in Lajares for the prizegiving, filled to the rafters, and it was there where it was evident just how successful the weekend had been. Everyone was super-stoked to have been a part of it, and not one person whinged or whined about anything, which must be a first in the history of competition!!!
All in all, a greater success than I ever dreamed possible, already planning next year's..............
Greetings from the sunshine,
Gibson.

Get High Or Die!!!!!!!! from Stephen Gibson on Vimeo.

As I mentioned, I've dedicated the last two days at Punta almost entirely to learning double flakas and am finally starting to get a feel for them. Yesterday, I took the video and we filmed for an hour to see if I could get my first one on camera and the result is this short video. I edited out the 55,000,000 crashes and was left with this little bit, haha. Check out the last double on the vid, though, can't believe that's me. Stoked! There's even a cheeky little one-hander on there.....

Double flaka session!!!!! from Stephen Gibson on Vimeo.

While I was doing the clinic with Alex at Glass Beach, a friend of mine, Serge, took a few pics.

We were training flakas but conditions were pretty good for ponches aswell (as you can probably tell from the pics!). Today, it's off to Punta in search of the elusive double flaka! Got a few yesterday, one cracker, so I'm gonna try to get some video done. Enjoy the photos and watch this space.............

As I mentioned in the last post, the clinic with Alex last week was a huge success. Here is a short diary of how it all panned out over the week he was here. I have also put together a video diary using the footage I took to use for analysis..........
DAY 1.Fairly light NE winds and it's off to Punta for the first day. A great chance for Alex to settle into the conditions with 3m waves breaking in the bay. We focus on waveriding and Alex attempts a couple of forwards as the wind freshens.
DAY 2.The wind has picked up considerably and it's back to Punta, this time fully powered up on 5.0s. Alex has great succes with his forwards today, his rotation is smooth now and he sails away from quite a few perfect ones. Happy days!
DAY 3.Despite the forecast for superstrong northeasterlies, the wind has turned due east and we score perfect conditions at the legendary Majanicho, normally a winter spot. Wind strong (4.5m sail) and small to medium waves. Alex sails for five hours and his waveriding improves immensely during his sessions here today. Possibly his best ever day of windsurfing, according to Alex!
DAY 4.The wind has come back round NE and is still very strong, 4.5s being the order of the day. Today is perfect for fowards and Alex is getting one on every run now. As the wind gets even stronger, he starts to over-rotate a little as he has his technique so dialled so I teach him to stall them a little to remedy the problem. What a day! Alex' hands, however, are in tatters due to the hours he is sailing!
DAYS 5 and 6.The wind swings into north and it's off to Glass to learn flakas! Over these two days Alex throws himself off every wave and piece of chop, showing incredible commitment and eventually reaping the rewards for his considerable efforts when he starts sailing out of flakas on the second day! An amazing achievement when you consider that flakas took me the best part of a year to master! Well done that young man!
The clinic really could not have gone any better- Alex was a model student, taking in every piece of advice and immediately putting it into practice on the water. His sailing improved dramatically in only one week and he left a very happy boy!Check out the video of the action to see the incredible range of conditions we scored over the week. That could be you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Fuerte windsurf clinics,April 2009 from Stephen Gibson on Vimeo.