Seeing a poor forecast for Poole Windfest I couldn’t turn down a trip to Fuerteventura, though rocking up at the beach to the hear “you should have been here yesterday” almost broke me. All the 2010 gear on offer from Starboard, Severne and Airrush spread across the beach and all I had to do was put on my harness and go, or at least I would have if the wind turned up.
This could have easily been a week about meetings and presentations, but Svein wasn’t going to keep us off the water, even if the wind was going it best to keep it that way. A swell was hitting the shore just across the island so it wasn’t long before the van was loaded and we were heading for a new beach.
I’ve only had a couple of goes on a SUP but that was on flat water and to be honest it didn’t really capture my spirit. Then on the other hand I don’t live near waves, so the few times I’ve tried surfing it’s been more about the battle out than the ride in.
First run out on the SUP wasn’t much different, but this learning curve is a lot quicker and it wasn’t long before I was looking for my first wave. Again this didn’t go without a fall or two, but there’s no way I would have picked up these waves on a surfboard let alone got standing on the thing.
Maybe a few flat-water sessions would hone the paddling technique and I’d catch the waves before they jack up, but then just trying smaller waves would do the trick but with a lot more fun.
There’s no way you can get all these guys together without some sort of competition and with the lack of wind these thing’s normally end up in the bar. No difference here then, thankfully though it was the pool table where all the shots went down. We ended up with a three-way battle between England, Australia and Europe.
You’d only have to see me strike the first ball to know I’m no pool player, but fortunately I had John Mcafee and Simon Hurrey from Severne to hold up my end of the game and bring in the win for the UK.
