Just a quick report to say that there were 4 sailors mad enough to be on the water at Boulmer at 5:30, Matt, John, Si and myself all planing on 5.7m to 6.5m on a very lumpy sea (actually out of my comfort zone, but it had to be done). Paul Hewitt and Andy joined us a little later and also sailed but the wind had eased and the tide was rapidly going out. Matt and John left to join others at Derwent while we waited for the tide to return, by 2pm Si and myself were joned by kev-windysmurf, Richard (from York) and Tdog's son in law on the water. Apologies if I have missed anyone out.
Also in attendance but not sailing were Ally, Andy Freeman, Gavin, Ken Hodson, Nikki & Steve, Pete, Peter Lawson, Steve B & Tdog. In total there were over 40 people at the beach to sail and support those sailing. A good turnout despite the less than perfect conditions.
Big up y'all!
Martin Haigh
Brogborough
OK, before I reveal the final figure, here is a little update....
I hoped to get 4 people to launch at 05:37 but by 05:38 there were 16 people windsurfing on Brog.
If you were one of those heroes who camped in puddles of mud, slept in vans, braved the club house spiders or drove through the night.... Thank YOU... you should be very proud.
The role of honour :
Everyone was amazing.... No bitching, moaning or discontent. Mike sailed 100 miles in a day (New Brog record), Andre sailed over 9 Hours...at speeds I dream of.. Annette, Pam, Mark, Steve and Phil sailed their hearts out and ran a water taxi service for the exhausted and frozen. Will was annoyingly good at Croquet but still lost... Pauline kept us fed, warm and jolly. Jo had blisters like holes in her hands... so she put on gloves and sailed another 11 miles... Eeyore Phil’s new sail tore in the cold and he still smiled... Simon sailed dress as a Rastafarian for 9 hours... James sailed a 1988 Alpha 130.. just like one I had... 20 years ago ! The list goes on and will be in Brogborough legend... Neil, John, Sandra, Richard, Pete, Tony, Zara, Dave and all others you were equally EXCELLENT! Have we told Stuart Cockerill he won a boom... I can’t remember... It was him I think...? (please someone confirm) It all got a bit much for little me! Neil, I’m sorry about the T shirt you won... but it is a real RRD one...
Brogborough Dawn Preparations{flv width="450" height="330"}sunrise{/flv}
The first 30 minutes of Sunrise-Sunset at Brog caught in a 30 second time lapse. A packed day and a great effort from all involved.
Note: At the last count the the sum raised was well in excess of £6,000!
Dahab, Egypt
Being based in Dahab we often feel that we miss out on all the action that is National Windsurfing Week and so this year decided to get stuck in despite the geographical gap between us and the UK.
The Sunrise to Sunset day for Cancer Research seemed a great way to get involved, have some good banter and hopefully raise some money.
After getting the green light to have Dahab as an event location; we quickly started discussing the fact that we could guarantee that it would be warm and windy. With this in mind, the idea of a further challenge started to emerge and the idea of doing 100 flat water loops in a day was born.
To encourage people to sponsor us we agreed that the person with the most cash raised on the day would do their loops in Speedos. The ability for those we knew to stitch us up seemed to do the trick; the night before the challenge we had both hit our targets. So that no one felt they had wasted their cash we both donned some Speedos and got to the beach at 5:30am.
With light winds till 8 it was a bit of a slow start but when the wind kicked in everything started looking good for a successful challenge. The first two loops from both of us were out the way within 5 minutes and the challenge seemed quite doable. The wind then eased a little and pumping into loops really impacted on the success rate. A waterstart away was needed for a loop to count and in the light winds the success rate was quite low.
By 10:30am I had managed to drag myself to 20 loops and John had literally jumped ahead to 26. At this point one of my major windsurfing issues, of windsurfing with my mouth open, came back to haunt me. Water that was being forced in had to come out and a bit of retching on the sand bar left me feeling pretty worse for wear. Loop twenty added a bit more to my issues as a fairly violent exit (on a loop) left me with my Speedos around my knees and a little exposed to onlookers.
John and I headed back to shore for a regroup, rethink and refresh. The second attack on the loops employed a slightly different tactic of longer runs, more loops a run, with bigger rests in between.
Refreshed and reenergised this paid off, in windier conditions we reached 30 a piece in only a few runs. John cruised past thirty with some well powered clean loops, whilst at thirty I hit the windsurfing equivalent of The Wall. Still clinging onto 5.2s in 4.2 metre weather wasn’t helping as I went round ten loop attempts in a row with no exit. Eventually it started to come back together and I inched towards 40 in about an hour and a half. At forty, being sick again, I was pretty keen for a break and both John and I felt like our backs were about to explode. However, the final ten weren’t to be put off and the countdown began. Success rates started to creep back to 50% for me and on 46 I watched John smash round his final loop.
Broken but still going John stuck with me in my final few, as it took me three goes to nail the final one. Back on the beach and inspecting the damage hugs and back slaps were out the question. A visible rawness was pretty clear.
With money still coming in we have already raised £1300. It was great to be part of National Windsuf Week from overseas and also help support Windsurfing for Cancer Research. A short video should be out soon but I would definitely recommend not trying this at home. Thanks for all the support.
Whilst many venues in the UK were supporting Windsurfing4CancerResearch’s ‘Sunrise Sunset’ challenge over the weekend, Simon Bornhoft was finishing his Freewave clinic in El Tur. Despite having to catch a flight that day, the Windwise clients got out on the water for a final session including a fundraiser for the charity. With stunning conditions everyone was part of a thrilling Master Blaster around the whole bay. In just under an hour of windsurfing, the Windwise clients & Ocean Source raised £175 for W4CR! So many thanks to those who took part and contributed to this very worthy cause.
