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        <title>Steve Thorp (Latest News)</title>
        <description><![CDATA[Steve Thorp's windsurfing and surfing website/blog]]></description>
        <link>http://www.stevethorp.co.uk</link>
        <lastBuildDate>Thu, 20 Jun 2013 10:23:36 +0100</lastBuildDate>
        <generator>FeedCreator 1.7</generator>
        <item>
            <title>New stuff</title>
            <link>http://www.stevethorp.co.uk/index.php?option=com_content&amp;task=view&amp;id=400</link>
            <description><![CDATA[IN BRIEF...I have a new slightly unusual waveboard.I have a new sponsor.I&#39;m not going to Luderitz.I went to Cornwall for the weekend.  THE HOLY COW.. I decided to call it the Holy Cow, and a flying angel cow graphic seemed appropriate. Big thanks to Geoff Hautman (a very talented man -not only as a designer but also 2nd in the bwa masters fleet) for doing the art work for me.  The unusual bit is the tail design. It actually does a similar job to &#39;wingers&#39; by allowing a wide parallel sided board to have a narrower pulled in tail. The idea being to get speed and drive from the parallel sides, whilst being able to turn tight and vert off the tail. I&#39;ve always liked the Channel Islands MTF altered championed by Dane Reynolds and that&#39;s where I&#39;ve pinched it from.  5 boxes for maximum versatility and fin testing.  Weighs in at 6.3kg fully loaded with fins and straps. 5.6kg for the bare hull. It&#39;s my big waveboard and is 85ltr, 225cm long x 57.5cm wide with a fairy flat rocker. I&#39;m having another board made for full on logo high plus fast powerful waves, and the &#39;Holy Cow&#39; is for everything else. CORNWALL As luck would have it a decent forecast for Cornwall finally appeared for the weekend including Friday. 3 days of wind. I started off at Fistral which looked amazing for wavesailing but there were annoyingly too many surfers despite the wind - I thought better of it and went surfing too for a bit cursing the fact that it was pretty rubbish compared to the epic sailing I could have been doing. The wind was Southerly but Gwithian too small, so I reluctantly went to Perran, which has never been a favourite of mine, but had a really good sail -once I&#39;d motivated myself to rig up in the pouring rain and walk down the massive dune. Full power on the 5m and new board, with cross shore wind. Lumpy and bumpy as ever but some good dumpy sections to hit.  SATURDAY started with another surf and then off to the Bluff. Lots of people there moaning it didn&#39;t look epic and driving off to Marazion, which was surely far less epic -but apparently less far to walk and I reckon vanity is the real reason with a photographer always there..haha. Sun was out, it was head high cross shore, 5m and plenty of ramps. I had a really good sail and started to enjoy some decent jumping for a change. Top day loving the board, working as expected. Straps felt weird but started to get used to them. Why do they always put the swimming area in front of the best peak? -zero swimmer, 20 windsrufers, arrghhh. SUNDAY and another surf at Fistral. This time a nice clean swell with offshore SE wind. Saweeet. It started to get windier.. Choices were a long drive to Sennen followed by a long walk to Gwenver, very gusty Gwithian, or up to one of my favourite spots for small sw swell maximising and SE winds, Constantine..   The picture is terrible from my phone and does it no justice. But I promise you on the sets it was logo high clean and punchy down the line. Big lulls in the waves made it easy to get out even when the wind went super light (just as Steve King turned up). Had a beaut of a wave which let me do two big airs and some vertical walls to hit. Good test for the board again -wobble n ride, and some proper dtl.The wind totally went so we derigged and went surfing, then 10 minutes later the wind kicked back in and by the end a new pulse of swell seemed to be marching in. But it was now 8pm and a little too late. We surfed until 9.30 -I got home at 2.30am. Great weekend, loving the new board. Tried it as a Tri with 10 Ezzy, 16 stubby but it felt too much like a single fin (too locked in), next time I go tri I&#39;ll stick a 14 in (12 Ezzy sides), or a 16 flex to loosen the board up (which is actually what Graham does). As a quad it worked perfect for me (8 Ezzy 14 Stubby). Twin test next time out. Only niggle with the board is I think it&#39;s come out 5ltr undersized, or perhaps my perception of an 85 isn&#39;t what it should be due to misleading quoted volumes from the brands.. hmm dunno. (I did get through last year with just a 75 which actually felt the same float) The new sponsor is DryRobe, check them out by following the link to your right. It&#39;s basically like a big warm waterproof coat that you can get changed inside or wear over your wetsuit like a rigging jacket. Not something I realised I needed until I had one! Made all the double dips into wet wetsuits a so much more pleasant experience, especially on the first rainy day.  And finally Luderitz. I&#39;ve had to concede that it&#39;s not going to happen for me - I raised precisely zero pounds and zero pence and have far less to my name. I do alright so there&#39;s no complaints. I kind of wish it had never been invented, but for sure this year will be interesting with a lot of big hitting gps sailors from Australia and the Netherlands in attendance so I&#39;m looking forward to it..]]></description>
            <author>sall@hypedigital.co.uk</author>
            <pubDate>Mon, 17 Jun 2013 15:32:44 +0100</pubDate>
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            <title>Somebody shoot me</title>
            <link>http://www.stevethorp.co.uk/index.php?option=com_content&amp;task=view&amp;id=399</link>
            <description><![CDATA[ BWA IRELANDI think a few were surprised to see me as the forecast wasn&#39;t so great, but I wanted an excuse for a week off, slow life down a bit, and figured I could do some video and some fin promo stuff. We had a bit of wind early on and the contest got underway. I drew Alfie in the first heat and managed to go through -perhaps inevitable as I borrowed a much bigger board off Geoff Hautman (thanks mate!) and Alfie was more focused on getting his filming done! Next up I had Phil Horrocks and perhaps inevitably I didn&#39;t get through -Phil rips and went on to finish the event in 2nd.They didn&#39;t manage to finish the first elimination, so we had to wait for a day with wind again. The forecast really was a bit pants with light NW winds all week, which meant small mushy light x-on starboard tack. The next two days involved trying to find a surfable wave and failing miserably.. Desperately seeking surfing with Leky.Not getting on the water drives me nuts, the forecast looked far from epic and there was this annoying forecast for back home in the UK which just kept getting better. So good in fact that one of the best spots on the East coast would light up, something which hasn&#39;t happened with the necessary wind in over 2yrs. (28mph wind and 10-15ft surf!)So come Wednesday afternoon I decided to do a runner -leave the craic in Ireland, leave me mates behind, miss the double elimination and a contest result, and drive from Brandon to the NE on my own. I&#39;d travelled to Ireland with the super talented Aleksy Gayda, but he decided he had to stay to keep the sponsors happy. Hopefully I can drag Leky along next time and we can get some footage of him ripping.I left at 4pm, boarded the 8pm ferry, drove home to leicester for 5am, picked a cooker up from work to drop into the kitchen (meant our plumber could finish everything instead of waiting 2wks for his next slot!), then drove up North for 11am after grabbing a couple of hours sleep here and there.  NORTH EAST   When I arrived the wind was there in spades and the sun was out, but swell hadn&#39;t kicked in yet and the tide was wrong. It was enough to give bit of a wave but was supposed to double in size by the end of the day.  SCOTLAND I decided I had at least 4hrs to kill, so I drove to Scotland and realised I&#39;d done all 4 nations in under 24hrs! I pulled up at the first beach to find Big Davey and his mate Scoty out sailing in cross shore 4.7 weather.A quick spin there and then I headed off to the reef. The sun had gone in and the sea was now looking a lot more heaving and stormy (the outer buoy showing 25ft and rising!!) I arrived at the special spot to find one surfer out, perfect x-off 5m weather and just overhead sucky waves unloading on the slab then pealing off round the corner. IT WAS ON! Copy/paste this link and you&#39;ll see why I&#39;d just driven through the night from one side of the British Isles to the other.. http://vimeo.com/42473383  I definitely got what I came for. The first surfer went in and Gabe Davies turned up (again!) with a mate, so it stayed quiet enough for just 3 of us to share waves. I sailed until 9.30pm by which time the odd rogue set was mast high. Pretty epic and stoked to score this place, but slightly annoyed I didn&#39;t push harder (although a couple of lucky escapes)I then had a nightmare of trying to find food at 10pm in the middle of nowhere and another not very sleep filled night in a freezing cold van. (I&#39;d had serious hotaches on the water despite it being the end of May! wasn&#39;t really prepared for that and my van heater has broke, bloody t5&#39;s)   I woke up to the above. The sun was shining, head high cross shore ramps and 5m weather again, but I was so tired I couldn&#39;t drag myself out. Guess it had all caught up with me, I went back to sleep.  I finally launched at lunchtime just i time for the wind to drop!So I&#39;d done hell of a lot of driving and missed the Ireland double elimination (light x-on starboard again with Ross Williams taking the win over Phill Horrocks) for basically 3hrs epic dtl sailing and a couple of limp ones. Kinda worth it, couldn&#39;t have missed it anyway..  .]]></description>
            <author>sall@hypedigital.co.uk</author>
            <pubDate>Sun, 26 May 2013 10:34:07 +0100</pubDate>
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            <title>Roa Island</title>
            <link>http://www.stevethorp.co.uk/index.php?option=com_content&amp;task=view&amp;id=398</link>
            <description><![CDATA[ Last week was a great week for me. I started by working all the hours I could until Saturday night to build up the work browny points, then I took off Sunday-Monday to go to Rhosneigr which totally delivered with 2 days of overpowered sailing in decent lumps.  Then we had windy Wednesday, or more accurately windy Tuesday night/Wednesday morning. I decided that I&#39;d finally make the trip up to Roa Island in Cumbria and forgo a possible decent day at the Kirb. I&#39;m glad I did -the wind was pants, but by heck what a spot! It was actually an awesome day in the sun, and I managed a 43knot peak.I made this video to show just what it&#39;s like. The sailing action might be a tad boring with me sailing along on a reach for nearly 3 minutes, but I wanted to show just how perfect the never ending speed strip is! Check it out..ROA ISLAND INFO VIDEO  (http://vimeo.com/64546846)Overview of Roa, check the scale bottom left.  Hotsails 5.5 gps, Moo custom flying banana 40, k4fins 17cm -small kit for 23knots.  Piel Island -end of the run (high tide) The strip viewed from the lifeboat launch (low tide) My tracks are shown on SPORTSTRACKLIVE (http://www.sportstracklive.com/track/map#stevethorp/Windsurfing/Roa/gps/983079/full), spot INFO on HERE (http://www.stevethorp.co.uk/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=242&Itemid=53). Then it was the weekend again, and I went up to the North East for a days surfing. I tried a spot I&#39;d wondered about a few times for the first time which is under everyones noses but never seen anyone surf it. Then as I wandered down with the board a dog walker informed me they always surf here! So there we go (fully windsurfable too). It was lush and I had the place to myself. Great day as despite the good weather and sweet forecast I managed to surf empty waves all day. Rounded off the best week in a long time. Ok, bit of a pimp this. But it&#39;s been taking up a lot of my life and I need to sell lots of stuff to get me to Luderitz in November. So first up is that we now have extended harness mounts. This will give epic shots from your Gopro like the ones below. It&#39;s also half the weight of the competition with less chance of dragging in the water. We now also have super strong and stiff carbon rods made especially for us by a UK fishing rod company. Go buy one HERE (http://www.k4fins.com/shop/)      And finally check out the new US bolt/plates we have. I&#39;m pretty chuffed with these. Again half the weight of anything else you can buy, cheaper too, and in case you&#39;re wondering also plenty strong enough.Get those in the k4fins/shop/ (http://www.k4fins.com/shop/) too.Oh, and I made a page on Facebook which pulls in feeds from all the Pro windsurfing blogs. Basically like the &#39;beach blogs&#39; Boardseeker had, but with no brands or news sites, just blogs. Pretty chuffed with that too :) Check it out WINDYBLOGS (https://www.facebook.com/Windyblogs)   .]]></description>
            <author>sall@hypedigital.co.uk</author>
            <pubDate>Wed, 24 Apr 2013 09:37:26 +0100</pubDate>
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            <title>2 weekends in Cornwall</title>
            <link>http://www.stevethorp.co.uk/index.php?option=com_content&amp;task=view&amp;id=397</link>
            <description><![CDATA[ I missed out the Ireland trip, here&#39;s the full low down on BOARDSEEKER (http://www.boardseekermag.com/features/the-real-storm-chase/#slide-1) if you missed it.WEEKEND 1 An epic forecast of SE winds and good sized swell. Started off surfing Bantham..waiting for the swell to come.. Then went down to Constantine for the Sunday to make max use of the medium size swell and strong SE winds..        As  you can see it was pretty decent! epic in fact. I was the only one out  for most of the day until local lad Andrew turned up to rip some waves.  I&#39;m getting a good idea for how the Firelights sail now and I&#39;m loving  them. Most of the time in Ireland I was on way too big a sail, but they  handled being totally overpowered with ease. In these gusty riding  conditions I was super impressed as well, really light and easy in the  hands. I stayed down for the Monday and this should have been the  best day - a big swell and more SE winds. I drove to check everywhere,  but it was too big for the little spots, and not big enough for the big  spots... Sennon, check Gwenvor in the distance  Yeah, that&#39;s a Lama on a wall..And an Emu?!The weather was beautiful for February in the UK, so I wasn&#39;t too sad to only get a surf at Gwithian.. WEEKEND 2 A stag do in Newquay and a ridiculously good 19 second swell forecast, had to be a great weekend.. Marazion on arrival.. this was a little worrying! It didn&#39;t get much better until the end of the day. It was actually meant to be 24mph Easterly but it never showed, neither did the 19 sec swell. But I did manage a surf at Constantine.. It was absolutely Baltic. Coldest I&#39;ve ever felt after a surf. Luckily the lads had a massive bonfire and Jaeger bombs to warm up with. Next day I managed to drag my ass to Watergate, after some shopping for thicker boots and gloves . Still no sign of a quality swell, and probably had my worst surf ever.. still loved every minute.Some lovely weather despite the fresh temperature, took Izzy for a long walk..   So the swell was pants in the end, but a great weekend for Riches stag. East coast swell for next weekend, this has without doubt been the best winter ever for a weekend warrior in the midlands, been a swell somewhere every weekend.. .]]></description>
            <author>sall@hypedigital.co.uk</author>
            <pubDate>Mon, 25 Feb 2013 17:18:38 +0100</pubDate>
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            <title>Hardest days sailing of my life!</title>
            <link>http://www.stevethorp.co.uk/index.php?option=com_content&amp;task=view&amp;id=394</link>
            <description><![CDATA[ 4 degrees centigrade. That&#39;s the coldest I usually go sailing in. It&#39;s never seemed too bad, but there never seems to have been a colder windsurfing forecast worth going on.Until yesterday. Yesterday was forecast Easterly winds, 13ft, snow, and 3 degrees C. The swell direction and size meant that a rare East coast gem would break again and the wind would be the best angle I&#39;d seen. I would almost have driven the 2 hrs just to see it breaking at this size. Plenty of people were snowed in, schools closed, more snow forecast, I decided to trundle off for a day at the seaside :)I half expected to find the secret little spot inaccessible when I got there, but was a bit disappointed to see there wasn&#39;t actually that much snow on the ground, I guess the salty spray off the sea had melted it all. So drove straight up and spotted some surfers and a jetski already out. (having back up when it&#39;s this cold must be great!)I weighed it up, decided it was do-able and I wouldn&#39;t get in the way, so headed out. It&#39;s actually one of the heaviest waves on the East coast, and that&#39;s saying something in these parts. The problem is for windsurfing the wind blows straight offshore and over other obstacles, so it&#39;s super gusty (but actually side shore to the wave), and the wave so fast and hollow that you can&#39;t slow down in front of it (or you&#39;ll get steam rollered ) -not a great combination I promise you. So for the first session I played it safe. I could honestly barely feel my fingers and wearing the palm-less mitts was still giving me cramp. The gusty wind meant you couldn&#39;t really sit back in the harness, you were always fighting it. I had to sit down on my kit a few times and just get my hands warm again. After catching a few waves I figured it would be best to take a break, and get a dose of hot aches out the way, after that it usually isn&#39;t so bad for me.Some pics from that first session by Ian Forsyth. Lots of the surfers which was Gabe Davies and friends.. http://www.ianforsythphotographer.com/surf-blog/?p=3412 (http://www.ianforsythphotographer.com/surf-blog/?p=3412)I warmed up back at the van and had a few words with myself about manning up and going for it. It definitely felt warmer, maybe I was getting acclimatised, -the air tempt was still only 1 deg!The first wave went really well -a mid sized one so I managed to get some good turns. Next run out back and I pick up a beauty, easily a mast high lump, and feeling confident as I can feel my hands this time! I set up deep and get ready to race it, take the drop and try to set up to hit the critical part, but then the wind totally disappears out my sail and the lips going to break right on me. I try and throw the kit out front and dive off, as I&#39;m not prepared to take a tumble strapped in with the kit -it&#39;s shallow boulders! I get a pretty damn good pasting (nearly as good as the one at Fistral last week that snapped my Firewire FST Hellfire, that was best ever!) and eventually surface to see the board and rig have gone separate ways.Here&#39;s the wipeout captured by James Cummings.. http://www.flickr.com/photos/jamescummingspics/sets/72157632576178881/with/8402234165/ (http://www.flickr.com/photos/jamescummingspics/sets/72157632576178881/with/8402234165/)Now things really got tricky! The wind was offshore, the tide outgoing, the swell pretty big..  I was paddling my arse off with the board and rig but going nowhere. The mast and boom were fine, but the sail was in two bits, so I still wanted to salvage it. I&#39;ve never ditched a rig in my life, but this was looking desperate! Remember it&#39;s a tad baltic! Luckily I&#39;m getting dragged towards a buoy, so tie the rig remains to that and it now becomes evident just how bad the rip is as it&#39;s dragging my kit underwater with a good 5knot current, just what I need! It takes me an age to paddle the board in. Luckily the surfers have been keeping an eye on me and had slightly embarrassingly called the coast guard, but thankfully stand them down when they realise I&#39;m making headway. Phew.After bit of a rest, I&#39;ve got the task of re rigging and sailing out to salvage the rig. This was bloody hard work. Towing speed was about 5mph with clawed numb hands, and I had to sail non stop for about 2 miles to make land. Yes the hot aches were just sublime!  By the time I&#39;d sorted my kit out it was dark, so the surf I was looking forward to never happened. Lessons learned? Well not much else I could have done really. I managed to get myself out of a pretty extreme pickle, but had it gone the other way there were at least people looking out for me for which I&#39;m very thankful. If I&#39;d paddled the board straight in I&#39;d have not really have been in a predicament at all, but I&#39;m obviously pretty happy to not have lost the carbon mast/boom.Gotta love the East coast though, 2 hrs from my door and waves gnarly as anywhere. I&#39;ve actually sailed this spot before when the wind was much steadier and slightly cross on, and the swell smaller and it was hell of a lot easier. Ideally the wind needs to go round further and be full cross off and it would be a lot cleaner, not sure it&#39;ll ever happen though.Some of my pics from the morning, not as good as the links above..       .]]></description>
            <author>sall@hypedigital.co.uk</author>
            <pubDate>Tue, 22 Jan 2013 16:21:18 +0100</pubDate>
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            <title>10 days in the SW</title>
            <link>http://www.stevethorp.co.uk/index.php?option=com_content&amp;task=view&amp;id=393</link>
            <description><![CDATA[A bit late! but here&#39;s a few pics from my travels over Christmas and New Year.I  started off at the inlaws in Torquay for xmas, then went to North Devon  to visit my sister and family in their new home, then spent New Year in  and around Newquay. It was far from epic surf wise, but a few good  sessions.. First up was Bigbury. To be honest it was pretty gusty  in a Westerly, and very difficult to find something ride able, but a  fun warm day on the water with a few mast high drops to be had out the  back..  Note the  new wide angle. I bought a Sigma 10-20 for my Canon 1d, which turned out  to be a minor blunder as it gives a large vignette at the 10mm end.  Apparently this is very frowned open, but I kinda like it. Cropped out  this time. Boxing day was a very windy family walk at  Instow, which was probably one of the better windsurfing days, ho well,  looked fun for those out at Westward Ho!  The  next day was the biggest forecast of the week. Big swell, good wind and  a daylight low tide, so headed to the above. It was rubbish! Maybe just  a little too sheltered and another one of those secret breaks that very  rarely breaks.Oh, did I mention it rained? by christ it rained,  endlessly..  a lot of Devon lanes started to collapse at the sides or  just end up underwater. I had to go to Halfords for a new alternator and  some guy had written off the engine of a brand new Mercedes stalling in  a big puddle, oops.   What then followed  was several days of trying to score decent surf, getting up for dawnies  that didn&#39;t pay off, traipesing to every sheltered secret spot,  arriving at wedges just as the dick draggers left (I love bodyboarders  really, but that nickname is just too funny not to use)  and driving to  Cornwall to find light onshore winds when it should have been blowing  20. I&#39;m really not a fan of WSW in Devon/Cornwall, my rule is always not  to go and this week just confirmed it. I did quite a bit of dog  walking..  which I like a lot anyway, but I&#39;d rather be riding. As ever  I&#39;m wiser for it though.  Finally,  on our last day (New years Day), the sun came out, the surf cleaned up  and the wind swung NW. Surprisingly Marazion looked the best/largest of  the local beaches, and quite a few of us enjoyed some fun wobble and  ride..    I then strung the day out for as long as possible surfing at Praa until dark, which was perfect. A sneaky South swell at Maza  It was SUP heaven (prob 10 out and 20 surfers), but better for windsurfing.  Lev not as big I&#39;ve  somehow missed out the best day of the lot! I can&#39;t remember which day  it was, but we had logo high and windy Southerlie at Gwithian, with all  the usual rippers out -split between Sandy Acres for smaller and  cleaner, and Gwithian for side shore and chunky. Haven&#39;t seen any pics  surface, and as ever didn&#39;t get the camera out, too busy loosing myself  in the waves for 5hrs :)  It was classic Gwithian, loads of fun.A  few days back at work, then enjoyed another 5hrs at Rhosniegr on  Saturday, turned out to be a great day for testing -starting out  10knots, full of kiters and waist high, finishing up 25, overhead and  deserted bar Liam (http://liamellisk405.blogspot.co.uk/) who&#39;d been in the shop all day. Plenty more news and some 2012 kit for sale, but I&#39;ll save that for next time. UPDATE! Some pics of Gwithian with much thanks to Tony Dodd.. Blackie     .]]></description>
            <author>sall@hypedigital.co.uk</author>
            <pubDate>Thu, 10 Jan 2013 11:52:50 +0100</pubDate>
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            <title>Big Wednesday</title>
            <link>http://www.stevethorp.co.uk/index.php?option=com_content&amp;task=view&amp;id=390</link>
            <description><![CDATA[ 17ft at 15 seconds SW swell and spring tides..  That meant the Cribbar would be worth a look. Unfortunately  a bit of West in the wind meant it was pretty blown out and sectiony, a real shame as it was so nearly epic, but it was still a lot of fun at nearly twice mast high.  I couldn&#39;t resist sailing out for a look at Zorba reef on the other side of the bay, it looked a lot cleaner but a bit softer but possibly bigger!  Some pics i found on the net to show Zorba..   Pic Chris Symmonds   Which as you can see is quite a way out    Pic Geoff Tydeman  Caught a few whoppers at this rare beast, then figured it wasn&#39;t the best thing to be doing on my own  2 miles out and headed in, catching a pretty big lump back into Fistral.    They were now towing into the Cribbar watched by a huge crowd of spectators, it didn&#39;t look so good, in hindsight I should have gone back out anyway, but Gwithian was a far more tempting proposition..  In fact it was pretty much classic Gwithian with the tide mid on the push and logo high -thanks to Tommy Perkins for the pics                Hopefully some pics and story in next months Windsurf Mag :)   I stayed down for the week as the forecast was so good, and surfed everyday. It was an epic week surfing wise, with only one day having to look for bigger stuff and finding shoulder high at Constantine. Unfortunately no more wind, but another big surf day on the Sunday. We went to a reef down South (the 5 oceans reef), then back to the Cribbar and I had a go at surfing it..  On the long paddle out I met another surfer going the other way, who said I&#39;d missed the best of it and that my 6&#39;10 was way too small. I&#39;d like to think that&#39;s why I didn&#39;t catch anything other than going over the falls a couple of times, but it was probably just my lack of experience in the big stuff and being a bit rubbish.. I nearly got in on one but the board blew back into my face, I elbowed it out the way and put a nice compression in it! (better than my face doing it!)  It was well worth going out and getting more of a feel for the place though (I&#39;ve sailed it 5 times now, but it&#39;s not quite the same as sitting out there)   Last weekend and another cracking swell was forecast, this time for the NE. Unfortunately it was also the BWA Gwithian event which I&#39;d been looking forward to all year, but the forecast for down there was pretty limp. As it happened they did alright  and ran two rounds for everyone, wish I&#39;d been there..  The NE was going off though! Saturday was windy, but the Northerly direction meant being out of the brunt of the swell if we wanted x shore. I met John Palmer at Filey, which turned out pretty good.                Sunday was the epic swell day. I had high hopes for enough wind to sail, but as it happened there was virtually none. The rubbish forecast for cornwall, and the epic forecast for here meant it was super busy... but one of the best swells for years..               Izzy chasing a baby fluffy rodent weasel thing      .]]></description>
            <author>sall@hypedigital.co.uk</author>
            <pubDate>Mon, 05 Nov 2012 14:40:40 +0100</pubDate>
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            <title>Too many waves</title>
            <link>http://www.stevethorp.co.uk/index.php?option=com_content&amp;task=view&amp;id=388</link>
            <description><![CDATA[It&#39;s been a while since my last post, but I&#39;ve been really busy with fin stuff and there&#39;s just been so many forecasts I haven&#39;t had enough time between to blog about them.Biggest news is, I&#39;ve got myself a new sponsor in the form of Bluesmiths. This stuff is just the pinnacle of water wear - Nanosphere stretchy  boardshorts and tops, quick drying, hard wearing , super comfy. Check their website..   http://www.bluesmiths.com/  (sorry for the lack of link, it&#39;s busted on here for some reason)I&#39;ve been away on my summer hols to Hossegor, which as always seems to be the case, was going off when I arrived the first afternoon and was unprepared (including no travel insurance, which made the paddle over the edge of sucky overhead sandy barrels of doom seem a bit less enticing!). But went rapidly down hill after that and was almost unsurfable most days. First day  Classic  Then I had a rare long weekend of all day drinking at Bestival -never again! it&#39;s way too expensive a past time..  The XX were don though.Then we had our weekend dash to the Orkney Islands, a place I&#39;ve had my eye on for ages and it didn&#39;t disappoint. Pics here in the trips section..http://www.stevethorp.co.uk/index.php?option=com_content&task=category&sectionid=17&id=42&Itemid=48  (sorry I can&#39;t get links to work at the minute) And Boardseeker piece here...http://www.boardseekermag.com/features/windsurfing-action/orkney-splash-and-dash.html Some new shots in the trip section of Thurso with Ben Proffitt back in March. Here&#39;s a bonus shot of him dropping me! Epic fail by the Gopro though - 2 seconds later he was giving me the V&#39;s, but the fish eye made him a tiny dot.   Then back to work for a few days until the next little beauty of a low came through, right up the North sea from the South, bringing a monster East swell..  this meant one thing to me -a place I&#39;ve wanted to surf for years would be working. A world class wave, with a rare swell and an even rarer wind..   I sailed it for over two hours, then gave way to the surfers, and took a few pics..         It was kinda epic, but despite the swell wrapping in and cleaning up beautifully at a cracking size and with some grunt, the wind was still coming over the back of them and very gusty. Maybe in another 3yrs it&#39;ll happen again with the wind 20 degrees further round! I then headed to Redcar for some cross on jumping and to meet up with Luke Raistrick. It looked epic..  Very windy!  cross shore ish Fully windy, so we rigged 3.7s but straight away it dropped. Then rigged 4.7, but it was now torrential rain and very dark and grey. I was powered up and the waves weren&#39;t bad, but it was so grim it was hard to enjoy. Luke gave it a good craic though..     more full res pics on my Flickr, link on home page.  The wind was meant to drop overnight, but the swell keep pumping. So I stopped in Morrisons underground carpark and tried to dry out 2 wet sails, a wet wetsuit, wet clothes, wet boards, wet towel and a very wet big dog as best I could so I could sleep in the van..I woke up feeling pretty damp and grim! Worse still the waves looked big and messy and there was a howling offshore. I decided I had to go windsurfing and heading South would be favorite for cross shore. I passed several surf beaches which looked like they were going off, including my all time fave which was absolutely macking with no one out (just a bolt offshore force 8!). Eventually I arrived at Fraisethorpe where everyone was windsurfing, and apologies for saying this, but it looked like a different day and a different swell (from 6ft @ 12 seconds to 2ft @ 2 seconds! wtf! wtff!!)From this...  To this...  How does that happen?! Well I guess I know now, but not what I expected to see! Anyway, at least I got another sail, powered up on 5 0 and caught up for a chat with a few of the local sailors. Made it back to work for the afternoon. Which is when I got the real kick in the nuts and had to question my sanity. I guess I just like windsurfing too much. But look what I drove away from...http://www.ianforsythphotographer.com/surf-blog/?p=3034Aaaaaarrrrrrggggghhhhhhhhhhhh gutted beyond belief. Finally, here&#39;s a link to what could be the future of windsurf boards. Many moons ago I remember Christian Fletcher (one of the first aerialists) having a board cut off at both ends and thinking it would be pretty cool for a freestyle board or even a wave board. Well now a similer design is hitting the mainstream in surfing with a new Firewire model, check the vid, goes pretty well!... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1GPz-6Qj_vA&feature=player_embedded Apologies for all the cutting and pasting required, I&#39;ll try and remedy it before the next one. .]]></description>
            <author>sall@hypedigital.co.uk</author>
            <pubDate>Wed, 26 Sep 2012 20:30:06 +0100</pubDate>
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        <item>
            <title>Random scoring</title>
            <link>http://www.stevethorp.co.uk/index.php?option=com_content&amp;task=view&amp;id=384</link>
            <description><![CDATA[ P&#39;land surf at 7am wednesday. Had a couple of epic surprise sessions in the last week. First off I was down in Devon with the folks, plenty of surfing as expected, but certainly didn&#39;t expect x-off 4.7 weather at Woolacombe on bank holiday Tuesday. Much windier than they had in Cornwall and a pretty epic day. Only shoulder high but really punchy and full power going down the line at mach10.(sorry no pics) A good warm up for this...   Had to work Thursday and Friday so missed super windy Thursday. Finished work at 4 on Friday afternoon and headed off on the 2.5hr drive to Kirby to catch the last of the wind. Arrived just before 8 to see a handful of sailors out -probably 25mph tops and raining. Rigged the 5.5 which is as big as I ever use really and left the 17cm Moo-k4fin in the usual 40 Moo board. First runs were just over 40knots. Gradually the wind picked up and everyone drifted off the water. Then I started to get 45 maxes, and eventually at 9.30pm a 49.5 knot max! By this time things were getting a bit blurry and a couple of runs later I called it a day as I couldn&#39;t see the chop. I&#39;d not fallen in a single time, so figured I&#39;d not push my luck even though the kit felt rock solid going away from the wall into death chop.GPSRESULTS FOR KIRBY - http://www.gps-speedsurfing.com/?mnu=forum&forum=2&val=38574The trouble with speedsailing is, it&#39;s hard to be totally happy unless you beat your pb&#39;s, and that usually depends on extreme weather. With a 45.1 knot average this was actually my 3rd best day ever, and the conditions seemed far from perfect, not massively windy and a pretty short session so I should be stoked with those results, but somehow wishing I&#39;d gone quicker. Then I arrived home at 1am to see that the Dutch guys had completely smoked me again, and everyone else! actually raising the bar for speedsailing by a fair margin..GPSRESULTS FOR THE BRACE - http://www.gps-speedsurfing.com/?mnu=forum&forum=2&val=38567 Jurjen pushing the 5 times 10 sec average to an all time gps record of 48.4 knots! -beating Anders Bringdals 48knots achieved at the trench Luderitz. And also taking the max 2 second speed off me by 0.03 knots to take it to 50.51! I&#39;ve some new 2012 SCR sails on the way (was using a 2010) and we also have some new fins to test very soon -made from new moulds, with new techniques and a new material. I can&#39;t help feel that these fins are my secret to being competitive at 76kg! So hopefully I can take the max back on the next big blow. Off surfing tomorrow in the NE, so expecting double overhead barrells! :)   .]]></description>
            <author>sall@hypedigital.co.uk</author>
            <pubDate>Sat, 09 Jun 2012 16:41:40 +0100</pubDate>
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        <item>
            <title>BWA Rhosniegre</title>
            <link>http://www.stevethorp.co.uk/index.php?option=com_content&amp;task=view&amp;id=383</link>
            <description><![CDATA[Image by BWA/Dave White  Everytime I enter a wave event I get the lamest conditions for my  heat, loose interest and swear never to bother again. This time was no  different.. there we were, me and my mate Potter, fighting over last  place in 1ft slop with a redundant sail in the first heat of the event.  Only this time I was quite interested in kicking Potters arse or I knew  I&#39;d never hear the end of it. Whoever won had to face British No1 and  sailing buddy, Ben Proffit, so it was going to be a pretty short day  either way. It ended up with Potter dead last and myself 2nd from last..  standard contest for us unseeded monkeys.(neither of us having competed for over a year)Day 2 and we abondoned the windless event to score some pretty decent surfing. Day  3 and the final day of the event was forecast some proper solid  conditions and a chance to fight back in the double elimination. It  started off as 4.2 weather, but was soon up to the typical Rossy full  power 3.7. Luckily PuraVida Jim lent me a brand new small mast for the  3.7 and I was super comfortable on that all day (with the 75 Fly and 15  flex twin fins).I managed to squeeze through several heats and fought my  way up to Jamie Hancock in 6th. Jamie had been hanging onto a 3.7 (smallest sail he&#39;d bought) all  day, probably for dear life bearing in mind he&#39;s only 60kg ish and I heard him  say he was pretty shattered. So figured I had a good chance of taking  him down despite him being a full ripper, this was pretty much when the  wind eased back and I guess Jamie ended up the better powered of the two  of us. I got a bit lost at sea but was totally chuffed to finish 6th in  a very strong field of PWA&#39;ers  and winteraway&#39;ers (all 5 infront of me are World Tour windsurfers). Perhaps they should run a &#39;privateers cup&#39; as part of the Pro fleet with the rules being no more than 3 weeks windsurfing outside Britain a year and have a full time job!  Good idea I reckon.  Results from  BWA site (http://www.britishwavesailingassociation.com/)Respect to Adam Lewis for breaking into the top 3 &#39;aliens&#39;! and the aliens for their super impressive sailing in the finals and big stunts out the back. Image by BWA/Dave White And one from Windy Sunday.. Image by BWA/Dave White Lots more pics and info including the live stream on the BOARDS FEATURES PAGE (http://boards.mpora.com/features) and event podcast. Really enjoyed the event, thanks to all the organisors and sailors for making it a great weekend. Gutted having to wave everyone off to Ireland for round 2 and going back to work on Monday. I might swing it next year if I can get wife Trudie to change her Birthday... Looking forward to the Cornwall round in October, hopefully I can make it and it delivers some epic conditions and the down the line stuff I usually sail.  .]]></description>
            <author>sall@hypedigital.co.uk</author>
            <pubDate>Fri, 18 May 2012 15:31:22 +0100</pubDate>
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