Set-up a demo day and you’re almost guaranteed to have no wind, thought that doesn’t seem to apply to Boardwise since they switched beaches and set-up in Aberdovey. Last time we were there it was fifty knots, ok, we didn’t have that much this time, but then survival conditions isn’t the best for testing. The forecast was for light wind on Saturday with thirty-five plus for Sunday.

What we got was somewhere between the two, both were solid, and once the tide turned it was time to get out. The current next to the shore runs at an incredible eight knots, you can almost be planning and standing still, and with wind over tide this is the perfect spot for trying out a few down wind runs as you’ll be back to where you started without any effort.

The other side opens out to a flat lagoon at high tide, yet push up to the river mouth waves for both jumping and riding. On the south side the land protects the waves from the wind a little, not so good for jumping but it leaves them silky smooth. Cross the river and it gets a little wilder, not so formal but you get the full benefit of the wind.

There are without doubt better locations for testing specific boards, but this is a perfect spot to get feeling of how they would feel in the real world. I wasn’t the only one out there testing kit, the beach was busy both days, plus I also had a couple of friends testing with me.

Anyone following this site couldn’t help notice I’m not the only one sailing under my sail number. While the final choice is mine, we sail as a crew and its that support in the background that has made the years so great, so its not just about my style (whatever that is) or my size that needs satisfying, its for all of us.

Being on the other side of the demo, being a customer was a good experience, not only testing, but how the whole thing works, or more importantly, how it goes wrong for the customer. In the past there has been an attempt to make them more organised, swap you car keys for the kit etc, but that just made it harder for everyone and the equipment spent more time being walked up and down the beach than being sailed, and if you wanted to mix up brands, well that was almost impossible.

The free for all feeling works best, but we need some way to work out what kit on the beach is demo and what is private gear. I’ve seen many a squabble on the beach, some guy waving his arms around just to get his gear back, more occasions a quick apology has surfaced, but not always. This weekend it was my turn to be greeted at the beach, not once but twice I took customers kit out, at least I was greeted with a smile.

Think the answer is simple, the uk windsurfing industry is small enough to get together to use a single demo logo that incorporates the year, if it was on all boards and sails it could save a little embarrassment, plus its would be a logo to help promote demo days.

One good experience for getting out on those two lots of kit out for me, was to see just how ill informed some customers are about their equipment, even worse was it’s not just customers. I jumped on just about everything, and to be fair most of it was good to go, but not everything had was set up right, but then if he’s reading this he know which one I mean.

I guess getting it right comes down to a balance of experience and motivation, to that end it was great to see the guys from the shop on the water, both Ian and Doug popped into my lens during the weekend, but sadly there Wales appears to be too long a drive for some.