ir777

Moving home

noreply@blogger.com (Oisín van Gelderen) — Sun, 07 Aug 2011 23:23:00 +0000

This blog has moved to: www.surfdock.ie/ir777

www.surfdock.ie

Punta Warm up

noreply@blogger.com (Oisín van Gelderen) — Thu, 07 Jul 2011 22:20:00 +0000

Just a quick shot of todays warm up in Punta Blanca. Nicely powered on 5.0 and 74 quad. The next few days promise stronger wind, so fingers cross for better action.
Had the camera out for 15 minutes, and happy enough with this shot... but ppity about the water drop on lens. Will keep on working on that... I like this angle, but it's a bit hit or miss when the GoPro shoots every 2 seconds to get the right shot.
Will just have to try again tomorrow :)

http://www.surfdock.ie/

Get High or Die !!

noreply@blogger.com (Oisín van Gelderen) — Wed, 06 Jul 2011 17:51:00 +0000

Well I just couldn't resist....

My very good buddy Stephen Gibson in Fuerte organised this awesome event on Fuerte's north shore, and I always said I'd try and get over for it... just for some fun.

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

With a forecast like this... it's just unmissable... and it's my birthday...

so in the end a very easy choice: Flights booked... Punta here we come !

time to get high, or err... die !

www.surfdock.ie

Back in the saddle

noreply@blogger.com (Oisín van Gelderen) — Thu, 23 Jun 2011 16:39:00 +0000

Been far too long I know !!

Here's a taster of some recent action, thanks to a great new GoPro mount made for me by Steve Thorpe from K4 fins.

More to come..

www.surfdock.ie

assume the recovery position

noreply@blogger.com (Oisín van Gelderen) — Thu, 03 Mar 2011 20:54:00 +0000

Finally managed to recover some pictures off a dodgy memory card in my SLR camera.
Here's a few shots from one of the bigger days in Louisbourg I blogged about in the last week or two. Bit grey and shaky, but you get the general idea :)

Myself and Andreas

Some nice sets on the main reef at the beach

We sailed the offshore reef, but it was too bumpy on the face

Worth a look though !

Some nice lumps of water moving around :)

Not much wind around at the moment, though the surf is good on the west coast.
I have to stay home though, as I'm nominated for ISA Sailing Achievement of the year, so it's off to the awards ball on Saturday.
Naturally for the Irish Sailing Association it's a Black Tie dinner, some I'm going to have to get a Tux... the only suit I own is a wetsuit !

From the ISA site:
And the nominees for ISA Sailing Achievement of the Year are...
• Anthony O'Leary – Winner of the Rolex Commodore’s Cup 2010
• Peter O'Leary – Winner of the Skandia Sail For Gold Regatta
• Nicholas O'Leary – Only competitor to win 3 consecutive titles at the ISA All Ireland Sailing Championships
• Mark Pollack and Mick Liddy – Round Ireland Yacht Race
• Oisín Van Gelderen – Irish Speed Sailing Champion

Don't know who all these O'Learys are.. but they are damn good sailors !

And speaking of which, check out my Surfdock team-mate Ryan O'Leary's blog: ir999.blogspot.com
He's just had some great sessions in Fuerte and Donegal.

www.surfdock.ie

Fanoretastic & freestylin'

noreply@blogger.com (Oisín van Gelderen) — Tue, 01 Mar 2011 00:34:00 +0000

A distinct lack of pictures for this post due to my Nikon still being sick, but no lack of action in the last week. We scored a great session in Fanore (also known as Louisbourgorfanore) with a great crew on the water. The usual Galway crew including Dan G & Katie were loving it, and good to see Brian from Beach Telegraph on the water too.

This spot works best in SE winds for full cross offshore, and has a mix of beach and reef break, though the beach is rocky and shelvy, so it packs a punch.

Fanoretastic

This first pic (a shaky frame grab) gives a hint of what it's like on the beach break, clean punchy and hollow. In total 4 masts and sails were claimed by this wave... happily none of them mine. The reefs upwind were cleaner still, but the pics will have to wait for another time.

A bit of a view upwind towards the reefs. Pics don't do it justice.

Then this weekend I watched some of the live freestyle from Vietnam, and realised it's been a long time since I have been on my JP freestyle board. Full of inspiration, got a nice sunny day down at Burrow on 5.0 Combat.

freestylin

After a full day slippin' and sliding... realised my bones are not as bendy as they used to be ! Good fun though... think I can just about remember how to freestyle.

As usual, enjoyed messing around with the GoPro. This pic shows how flat the water is here, though this is down the end of the course in a NW wind, which is a bit short for a decent speed run.

Forecast not great rest for the rest of the week, though it looks like it will be OK for getting the SUPs out again.

www.surfdock.ie

normal service has been resumed

noreply@blogger.com (Oisín van Gelderen) — Sun, 13 Feb 2011 23:23:00 +0000

With all the talk of speedsailing, hardly had time to mention the wave sessions of the last week.

The day after the speedsailing in Dungarvan, we had the first round of our Irish Wave Champs in Coolmaine in Cork. The wind that I had got for the speed continued all weekend, and by Coolmaine standards, the swell was pumping about as good as it gets there... bit over logo high cross-on ramp central, and nice for some good rides too.

The first day was set aside for newcomers to the wave series, and the turnout was great, with loads of new faces having a go, even some who had never wave-sailed before.
We had a few fun expression sessions for the silver fleet... and a couple for us too, one was for biggest jump, the other for general 'express yourself' type stuff. It was an absolute jump-fest, and also nice to get a couple of takas in there, and generally loosen the muscles up after the speed marathon the day before.

Ryan, Jeff C, Myself (Pearse in background) Mark Killeen in the rain.

Then Sunday was comp proper, and we got through the whole round pretty quickly before the wind eventually died, and left us de-rigging in the pissing rain.

The newcomer to the Surfdock Team Ryan O'Leary was right at home in the starboard tack conditions, and generally loving life. Before you knew it, there he was in the final with myself, Jeff Cochrane (also team Surfdock) and Mark Killeen. Mark actually might have never made it, after breaking his boom 1 minute before his first heat.. luckly I was on the beach with one in my hand at the time rigging the 3.2m for Ryan. Unlucky to miss a place in the final was Dan Gardener, whose equipment decided enough was enough after all his jumping, and a shredded sail left him out of the running after his semifinal.

The final itself turned out to be a bit of an anticlimax after a great day of jumping and riding, as after about 4 minutes in, the wind started to drop, and we were left trying to keep moving, rather then giving it everything. Just a shame after 3 days of solid wind, for the last few minutes to be a bit frustrating. In the end though, I'm glad to say I got the win, Mark 2nd, Ryan 3rd and Jeff 4th (see pic).

Big thanks has to go to Pearse, for running the whole thing, arranging the non-stop wind and waves, and also getting a great crew of newcomers to try their first event!
Wish I had some pics of the event, but my Nikon is having memory card issues which need to be sorted out, and so I don't have any stills shots of this event, or of the Louisbourg session below. The shots are on the card... just need to find a way to get them.

Louisbourg... boots are back on :(

Anyway... yesterday was another great forecast for the westcoast. 6.3m swell and 30 knots Southerly :) That was the good news. The bad news was it's got colder again, and it was booties and hood back on, and I even got the full re-heats in the hands :(
Louisbourg was breaking the biggest I have ever sailed it, with some mast+ sets rolling through, an making getting out tricky at times. We tried sailing the outer reefs, which were absolutely firing, but they were actually a bit too bumpy to even think about turning on. The inside reef was breaking really heavy, and apart from Tibo having his usual 25 minute swim after his equipment, it was damn good fun. He didn't manage to break anything (again), but did manage to lose his mast off the top of his car on the way home. DOH!

The shot above is as usual from my trusty GoPro HD. I'm liking that nose mount angle, and just playing around to see what I can capture shooting stills every 2 secs. It's a bit hit and miss, but always good fun.

Hope you had a good one.

www.surfdock.ie

records fall !

noreply@blogger.com (Oisín van Gelderen) — Wed, 09 Feb 2011 07:21:00 +0000

What a windy week we have just had, and it's still blowing !!

After the Louisbourg session I posted about last week, we got a couple of wavesailing sessions in Dublin, before starting to look ahead to the forecast for the first round of the Irish wave Championships, which was set to take place in Cork last weekend.

A massive storm was on the way, with most of Ireland promised 30 to 60 knots of wind, 13m swell, and very mild temperatures. Could this be the end of the arctic winter and freezing windsurfing sessions we have been having?

Where to go, and where to sail before the wave event was proving to be a hard choice. Go to Donegal or Sligo to find massive waves, but then have and drive to Cork for the event at the far end of the country? That seemed like too much of a mission, and still manage to get work done too (yes I do actually work too !).

Another choice presented itself, and is one I have been waiting for, for a long time. Dungarvan Speed strip was forecast for Friday last with SW winds from 30 to 55knots, and the tide absolutely perfect for speedsailing all day. Better still, it's kind of on the way to Cork from Dublin, so in the end it was an easy choice... time to pack the speed board again and see how good Dungarvan might actually be for speed in the right conditions.

I have to say I got pretty excited at the prospect of possible record breaking conditions, so spent most of the night before checking gps equipment and settings, updating firmware, and getting all the speed gear together too. And of course packing and getting ready for the wave event afterwards in Cork.

After an early start to get down there, I was greeted with the flattest water I have ever seen, with sure enough - 35 to 50 knots blowing down the course. Rigging was a mission in the howling wind, and luckily enough a local sailor Oliver Clancy turned up for a sail too, which meant I could hit the water straight away, while my friend Dave Garvey followed me down (who while on the way discovered he had forgotten his wetsuit - which was pointed out by his young daughter, and a cross Dublin mission was set up with his very understanding and brilliant wife Cora).

For me it was time to put all 12kgs of lead in the weight jacket, and go and try out the conditions. First run down the course was pretty maxed out on my 4.7m RS Racing, and the GPS hit 43.5 knots max speed. This was going to be an interesting day indeed ! Run after run the speeds increased, with the top of the course being perfectly flat but still broad, until you get to the second red marker bouy, and then the course goes broader, and seems to increase 10 knots at the same time. Quite a few high 44s appeared, and then eventually a 46.34 !

My mission all along was to try and improve my 5x10 second average (which is what the gps-speedsurfing.com ranking is based on, and of course try and beat my 500m speed, and see if I could also break John Kenny's (R.I.P) 500m record at the same time. It's no secret that I have been chasing that speed for a long time.

With these times coming up, it looked pretty likely, as the course is sooo long, that it's pretty easy to wind up to top speed and hold it for a long time, with room to spare.

Dave eventually turned up, and had his first ever go of a speed board and small speed sail in strong conditions. It was a bit trickier when he got out, as the oncoming tide was pushing a lot of water through the starting area. He had a blast though, and got a good few runs in and started to get the hang of the speedboard. He definitely wants to come back for more.

The whole day I kept thinking that it would eventually have to be time to man-up, and go and try the 5.5m, and see if it was any faster. As it turned out, for me it was slower, only managing to get 43.5s on it. I think there was too much drag in such a strong wind, and for my bodyweight, the smaller sail was just more efficient.

Anyway, if I haven't bored you by now, you might be interested to see the speeds, which I could only find out that night when I got to Cork and could put them on a friends computer to analise.

Top Max Speeds

Top 10 second speeds, with the 5x10 averaged at the bottom.

Top 500m speeds.

Mission accomplised, or so I thought, as after Dave did all the GPS record witness stuff for me, I uploaded the wrong files to gps-speedsuring, and found the speeds to be slower than I thought. Eventually we sorted it out with great help from Roger in Holland, and then I could claim a new Irish GPS record, which was then sent for verification.

I found out last night that everything is in order, and I have got official word that I now hold the National GPS speed record, which is based on the fastest 10 second run of 45.02knots.

At 78kgs, I would be considered a lightweight in speedsailing terms, and looking at that list of top speed guys from the Netherlands, I'm keeping fine company.
Have so say, not bad for a guy with 1 speed-board and 2 sails.

And finally.... here is the video of the day !!!
Hope you enjoy it !

Dungarvan Irish GPS Speed Record from Surfdock Watersports on Vimeo.

I will have to write about the wave event in the next post.
That one well really well too, and I'm glad to say the strong winds continued and we had a great competition ! Also happy to report I won the event too :)

Hope you got to catch some of that great wind over the weekend !

www.surfdock.ie

Monday waves

noreply@blogger.com (Oisín van Gelderen) — Wed, 02 Feb 2011 08:51:00 +0000

Had a fun session in Louisbourg on Monday, with Dan G and PK from Galway, and Cormac from Belmullet. Wasn't massive waves - that's for later this week - but just so much fun powered up nicely on 4.5 Combat and 74 JP Quad all day.
Best of all, it's getting warm enough now to lose the booties, which is such a pleasure.
Thanks to PK for getting tired and taking the shots.

www.surfdock.ie

It's gone all purple

noreply@blogger.com (Oisín van Gelderen) — Sat, 29 Jan 2011 11:35:00 +0000

It's looks like it's going to be an interesting week ahead :)

www.surfdock.ie

warm and windyyyyyy photofest

noreply@blogger.com (Oisín van Gelderen) — Thu, 20 Jan 2011 01:38:00 +0000

With all the freezing weather over the start of this month, we were all pretty excited to see the forecast for mild temperatures in double figures, and wind speeds in the PURPLE range for last weekend !

With such strong winds for Saturday, I was dying to try out a speed spot in Wexford to see if it had record breaking potential. We were greeted with winds in the 30-45 knot range. Pretty windy... so time to rig the 5.5m and throw all the lead into my weight jacket !

The course was certainly flat, like this for the entire run - 1600m end to end. Unfortunately it proved to be just too square on the course to go downwind enough to be "fast-fast".
As they say though: "If you don't go... you won't know" and it was still definitely worth it to go to try out this wind direction.. and now we are more prepared for the next time.

My good friend and Team-mate Noelle Doran came down to try and beat her personal records. She has been multiple Irish Wave and Freestyle Champion, but injury forced her to stop competing in waves. Speed-sailing in a straight line though... how hard can that be on the body? Yep.. she is Speed Champion too !

At around 55kgs, Noelle is not exactly built like your 'typical' speed-sailor. Neither am I for that matter and with 10kgs in my weight jacket - I still was pretty maxed out on the 5.5m. I have got to say I was impressed that Noelle still managed to hang on to her 5.0m in 40 knots, and she certainly showed some of the boys how it should be done !

Good to see Keith Gorman also made the trip, and dragged down Big Brendan Meaney, who should have been in Keith's house fitting a kitchen for him. That's what I call a nice Boss !

Anyway... Saturday flat water mission done and dusted... so Sunday could only mean one thing.... time to hit the West Coast and find some waves :-)
I could tell you where this is... but I'd have to kill you !

Colin from Surfdock loving the conditions and sunshine lighting up his baby blue NP ATLAS.

Tibo getting one of the best sets of the day, and probably the prize for best picture too. He lost his kit twice, and swam after it for 20 minutes, but still came in smiling.

Andreas was also on form, falling more and more in love with his JP Quad on every wave.

There's Tibo in the water watching Andreas and screaming his approval. If only we had given him a GoPro to take some shots from there!

Quads = turns like this...

This shot of Paula, sums up how we all felt after this session !

Hope you got out somewhere too :-)

www.surfdock.ie

Irish Speed Champ

noreply@blogger.com (Oisín van Gelderen) — Mon, 03 Jan 2011 21:13:00 +0000

With the start of a new year, the 2010 speed-season is now complete, I'm happy to report that I have taken the Irish Speed-sailing Championships title for 2010.
The years results are calculated from all rounds of competition held throughout the year, and also from our best 2010 results posted on gps-speedsurfing.com. I had a clean slate of results, with bullets in every round!

Part of the trick to going fast is finding the best conditions (the flattest water with the strongest wind), and the Irish Championships runs on a rolling venue theme, where the event location is decided at the last minute to find the best wind/water conditions on the planned weekend. This worked well this year, with wind strong enough for me to use my JP Speed 45 at each round.

Without a doubt though, the highlight of my speed year was smashing my own personal records during a trip to West Kirby in the UK, where I got a Max GPS speed of 47.17knots (54.3mph), and a 5x10 sec GPS average of 43.19knots. This also gave me the Irish GPS records, now becoming the fastest Irish Sailor.

It has been an extremely difficult year, both for me personally and many Irish Windsurfers, as we continue to mourn the tragic loss of two legends in Irish windsurfing. Alan Harris, founder of Surfdock and a very close personal friend was my biggest supporter for longer than I can remember.
Then very soon after setting my top speed, we also lost John Kenny, who to this day remains the Irish 500m Speed Record Holder. In life JK always pushed me to go faster, and now in death his record remains the goal that I want to try and better.

I would like to dedicate this Championship to the memory of Alan and John.
I am looking forward to 2011, and hope to improve my speeds, and spend a lot more time back in the waves this year too.

pic by: Steven Cassidy.

www.surfdock.ie

Speed in the snow

noreply@blogger.com (Oisín van Gelderen) — Mon, 29 Nov 2010 19:55:00 +0000

Had a good morning speedsailing on Saturday at Burrow Beach. The drive there was in interesting in a snow storm and lightning, but once that had passed over, it turned out to be not *too cold and windier than expected.

*Had to post this pic for comedy value - it wasnt cold as I was wearing a new Elite Wetsuit, weight jacket (which is nice and warm too), mitts, and two hoods. Despite looking like a penguin, no re-heats though!

Also a nice pic as it shows Burrow on a good windy day. It's 30 knots here and I'm on my 5.5, and the water is sooo flat !

www.surfdock.ie

3.2m's in Dollymount

noreply@blogger.com (Oisín van Gelderen) — Thu, 11 Nov 2010 21:01:00 +0000

Here's a few shots from a very windy fun session in Dollymount beach today.
I was using my 3.2m FLY which most of the time was 'fooool powahhhhh'!! Some of the squalls going through were mental, around 40-50 knots, but mostly it was manageable on 3.2m for me.

I should have been on a 68l board, but don't have one yet, so I finned down my 74 Twinser Quad with K4 Quad fins, and control was no problemo at all. Thanks Steve!

There was a good crew out, with people on 4.0m or bigger being sent back to the beach suffering.... but still smiling.
Big THANKS to Mikey's Dad for taking the shots below!

www.surfdock.ie

what a week !! what a month !!

noreply@blogger.com (Oisín van Gelderen) — Thu, 11 Nov 2010 08:22:00 +0000

Since the trip to Magheroarty, the wind has been pretty much non-stop here in Ireland. I enjoyed enjoyed a few good sessions in Dublin, and made the trip over to Belmullet to catch a good forecast last weekend.

Met up with Andreas from Sligo, Cormac from UISCE, and Colin and Carlos came out of retirement - for possibly their best days waveriding in a long time.
Young Ryan came over with me - for his 3rd ever time wavesailing on the westcoast - and once again was blown away by how good the waves are.

We had a great day starboard tack waveriding on the reef and point at Drum on Saturday, followed by a mental day on Sunday down at Elly Beach. 4.5m... overpowered. 4.0m... overpowered. 3.6m... overpowered. 3.2m... overpowered !! Was good to test out all the sails though !

Here's a quick video of my first out on the water on the Sunday. I like this camera angle, so I didnt bother editing any clips, just gave you the whole run as it happened.

First Run from Surfdock Watersports on Vimeo.

Yesterday then was great for speedsailing at Burrow Beach in Dublin. Only problem being the tide was low at 6.30am - so I got up at stupid o'clock and was down there rigging at 6am in the dark, to be ready for first light.
It turned out to be well worth it, with 30-35 knots blowing down the course, and the water just deep enough to get straight in at first light. Sailed on my 5.5m RS EvoII, and got a couple of runs around 42, and and the rest all over 40. Nice start to the day! There was a good crew out all keen to catch the low-tide and improve on their PBs.

Speeds are here.

Ah yes, speaking of speed... This picture below was from the Speed event in Ladie's Island speed event - which I never blogged about. Huge thanks to Steven Cassidy for taking the pics!

After the speed in Burrow, the strong NE winds meant that Dublin would have waves everywhere, so I headed up the coast to find some swell. I'm sure every Dublin wavesailor was out from somewhere between Seapoint and Balbriggan, in fact the whole coast was on flood alert because of high tides and big wind/swell warning... as the tail end of a hurricaine went through.

Rush looked like the best option for me, with port tack cross offshore. The way the wave bent on the beach meant you could ride all the way from the sandbar on the outside in to the beach, and get 10 or 12 turns. OK, it wasn't the west coast... but always nice to see some decent waves only 5 mins from my house !

Here's a pic of Ryan out on his 4.5 and Quatro KT.

Other hurricaine news hit the papers too that day - with the west coast Tow-in crews finally surfing a new secret spot.. located off the coast of Donegal/Sligo.
Here's a shot that was on the front cover of the Irish Times newspaper - which meant that TV and Radio went crazy over covering the tow in surfers.

Far more interesting to hear though is that Finn Mullen Windsurfed AILEENS !! and is obviously the first person EVER to do that!! HUGE respect Finn !!! What an absolute ledgend !!
It was caught on video by Brian from Windsurfer International Magazine and Beach Telegraph, and you can also catch a quick shot of him here on the RTE news
Six One News - RTÉ News Player
No doubt Brian is keeping the footage for the next edition of Windsurfer International. I can't wait to see that one !

Here is the current forecast for Belmullet, check out today's wind !! I was going to head over, but might be TOO windy to be any fun. Also it's still supposed to be gales in Dublin, so I guess that will have to do :)

We have the finals of the IWA Wave champs in Belmulet this weekend, so will be heading over for that. The forecast keeps changing though - but it looks like we should get at least one days action in. Belmullet usually never fails to deliver... so fingers crossed for more and more wind - I like my 3.2m FLY :)

www.surfdock.ie

Some Donegal shots

noreply@blogger.com (Oisín van Gelderen) — Tue, 02 Nov 2010 23:04:00 +0000

Nice chunky swell in Magheroarty today! Started on 4.5 Combat, then changed down to 4.0 on 74 quad.
Good crew out, Benny G, Gerard & Brendan, Colin, Andreas, Tibo, Tom, Mikey, Timo, & Finn.

Great Day, and looks like more to come !

All the shots apart from first one are courtesy of Tom & Paula. Check out his website: www.pol321.com for more pics.

Been down this road more than once...

noreply@blogger.com (Oisín van Gelderen) — Mon, 01 Nov 2010 18:26:00 +0000

9 metre swell and 16 sec period... Van packed and on the road again :-)

IWA Louisbourg

noreply@blogger.com (Oisín van Gelderen) — Sat, 09 Oct 2010 07:14:00 +0000

More pics on pol321.com

R.I.P Big Man

noreply@blogger.com (Oisín van Gelderen) — Mon, 04 Oct 2010 06:46:00 +0000

With all this talk of speed in the last couple of posts, the latest news is very hard to blog. A couple of weeks ago, we all tragically lost another friend and legend in Irish Windsurfing.

John Kenny, (JK) was a big man in every sense of the word - larger than life, larger than all of us.
First Irish man to break 40 knots, and then 45knots (on a day I shared with him at Burrow).
We both pushed each-other hard on the water, to speeds we had only dreamed of. Neither of us would have had it any other way.
Rest in Peace Big Man, you will be sorely missed.

www.surfdock.ie

47 knots !

noreply@blogger.com (Oisín van Gelderen) — Fri, 17 Sep 2010 07:50:00 +0000

Just had an awesome day on Wednesday speedsailing. The forecast was looking really good for West Kirby in the UK, and my mate Steve Thorp was texting me saying he was on the way there.

I just got two new RS Racing sails on Friday, and was absolutely itching to use them on my JP Speed 45 and finally find out what speeds this board is capable of, so it was a really easy decision.... Time to book a Stena-Line ferry from Dublin and head go and try out my gear !

When we got there, the wind was pretty strong - 30-40 knots, and we saw Steve Thorp and Farrell O' Shea flying down the course and clocking in and around 48 knots!

I took my time rigging my brand new 4.7m RSRacing - just to get the hang things, and also had a slight delay, while I bashed the sh*t out of a roll of lead and stuffed it into my weight jacket !
Martin Waldron who travelled with me had already got a few runs, and returned dazed, with his carbon boom in 2 pieces... but smiling anyway.

As it turned out, the 4.7 was perfect for me all day (I'm not the heaviest speed-sailor at 78 kgs).. but smaller can be very efficient too ! You don't have to be f*t to be fast :) - and certainly Steve is proof of this - he's the same weight as me.

Here's a video of one of the runs from the GoPro. I didn't keep it on for long, as it was distracting, and as you can probably see, I was concentrating pretty hard ! Going down the famous Kirby wall at 45 knots needs every bit of concentration you have :) I did get closer to the wall on some runs..

Kirby 45 knots from Surfdock Watersports on Vimeo.

I know this run on the video peaked at just over 45knots, and I'm pretty sure I broke the Irish Speed Sailing record too! (This is of course subject to verification) - but I know for sure my Max Speed of 47.17 knots is the fastest any Irish sailor has ever done, and my 5 x 10second average is also the highest. Unfortunately the course was too rough to get 500m runs, which is hard in Kirby, so JK keeps his Irish 500m record.

GPS tracks are here.

After another ferry trip home, tired but happy, I could see on the computer I got 2 runs with peaks over 45 knots, and 8 runs in total peaking over 43knots, which was my previous personal best. Job done, a new PB for me, and a great days sailing at an awesome location. First day trying my RS Racing sails, and 47 knots instantly with a sail brand new out of the bag and no tuning... I can't wait to get this gear back to Burrow beach and go get some 500m runs ;)

www.surfdock.ie

Bring on the wind

noreply@blogger.com (Oisín van Gelderen) — Sun, 12 Sep 2010 16:48:00 +0000

I have been waiting a while for these sails to turn up!!
This is the 5.5m, and I also got a 4.7...... in case there is a hurricane!
Suddenly speedsailing is going to get very interesting indeed :)
We have a bunch of competitions kicking off next weekend - wave - speed - wave - speed.
Going to be busy

Surfdock / DMG IWA Wave event

noreply@blogger.com (Oisín van Gelderen) — Sat, 11 Sep 2010 20:44:00 +0000

It looks like the windy Autumn weather is kicking off nicely, just in time for the first IWA Wave event on 16/17th September, and hopefully then a great run for the following Wave, Speed and Slalom events too.

It's certainly going to be a busy Autumn, and hopefully great windy fun for everyone – no matter what your style of windsurfing ! Surfdock and DMG Sailsports are delighted to be hosting the next event in the calendar - The IWA Wave Champs, and are working hard behind the scenes to make sure you have a great event with great sailing.

Some preliminary information about the event for you:

What's it all about?: Getting out there and having some fun in the waves, pushing your skills and learning how to shred with like minded people.  There are fleets for everyone – you dont have to be a wave guru – you just need to be interested in getting out in the waves and trying it out.  You always come away inspired and ready for more action !

Dates:   September 18th-19th      or if no wind – rollover option:  October 2nd-3rd.

Venue:     In order to get good wind, and fun wavesailing conditions, we wanted to try something new this year, and we hope you will think it is worth it !   We have chosen from 3 venues,  and will decide on which one, depending on forecast a few days before the event.

Option 1. - Magheroarty Beach, Donegal.
Possibly the most beautiful beach in Ireland, Magheroarty has a great mix of waves on the beachbreak, and on the world famous reef – which is surfing and waveriding heaven (and easy to sail even in a big swell).
This works best in SW or W wind.

Option 2. -  Westport area – Co Mayo.
Basing an event out of Westport, gives us the option to change venue each day depending on the forecast – where we can choose from Louisbourg, Achill, Mulranny or event Belmullet.  All wind directions are covered, and Westport is a great party town too !

Option 3 – Dublin.
In strong SE, South or SW-W wind, Dublin has great wavesailing (also North and NE), with plenty of jumping and riding.  It's our backyard, and it would be great to bring a comp to Dublin for the first time.  Our fun coaching wave event was good fun – and showed us the number of wavesailors who are looking for some fun

The venue notification: will be posted by Lunchtime on Wednesday, and finally confirmed by lunchtime Thursday before the event.  This information will be posted on Surfdock Website & Facebook Page, DMG Website and Facebook Page, IWA website and windsurfireland egroups.

Registration info:  To make it easier to organise, we would really really really appreciate that you pre-register your interest in the event by sending an email to:  events@..., with your name, and mobile number.  This ensures we can get you the most accurate information about venues, and also give us an idea of numbers.

Entry requirements:  Everyone is welcome! But you must be a member of the IWA to compete in any IWA event.  Membership also provides you with personal insurance.
Forms will be available at registration, or you can join beforehand by visiting:  www.windsurfing.ie

We are working on putting together accomadation information, and will post this in the next couple of days.
Hope to see you out on the water !!

2011 Pryde Vid

noreply@blogger.com (Oisín van Gelderen) — Mon, 06 Sep 2010 23:02:00 +0000

Here's a nice vid of the 2011 Pryde sail collection!

www.surfdock.ie

7 days in Fuerte makes one weak

noreply@blogger.com (Oisín van Gelderen) — Tue, 17 Aug 2010 07:45:00 +0000

At this time of year I always love getting over to Fuerteventura to see my good friend Steve Gibson. Steve lives in Corralejo, and we hit the North shore in search of waves and freestyle conditions - our favourite spot being Punta Blanca.. a great mix of jumping, riding, and a sweet freestyle channel on the inside for slippin and sliding. It's just a fun jumpfest - I have been going there for 20 years.. and I love it.

Somehow we always end up pushing eachother loads, trading moves and sailing till either of us literally cannot walk!
This year was no different... I only got away for a week, but we had wind every day at Punta, apart from one day with a session at Glass Beach on the other side.

I always try and get down to Sotavento too (if the wind is not great up North) and see the PWA freestyle, but this time the wind was too good up North to leave, and I hadn't the time to get down.

Cant wait till next time back to Fuerte already.

www.surfdock.ie

Gear for sale

noreply@blogger.com (Oisín van Gelderen) — Sat, 24 Jul 2010 12:40:00 +0000

It's all sold, so nothing available at this time.
You can of course check the second hand list of the Surfdock website below.

www.surfdock.ie