Tuesday 17th September  – Windsurf *** The Dip at Felixstowe –  sunny start then cloudy.

Foil – 19.83  knot max, 18.63 knot ave, 13.31  knot hour, 15.05 knot mile, 38.92 km., 14.92 knot alpha. 

Starboard Freeride 150 and a Evolution Freeride foil with a Tushingham Storm 5.2.

Despite my knees playing up I was keen to make the most of today's good NE breeze as I had missed a couple of good sessions lately which is not a problem as we had great fun celebrating my wife Maggies 64th Birthday. The Dip is the best local venue for the wind in this direction and a few had agreed to meet up around two to give the tide a chance to drop. I would be using my new foil so was hoping the shore brak was OK and indeed it was so I set up my foil board with the big freeride set-up and took a chance with 5.2 which proved ideal for most of the session. There was a good turnout with fin sailors taking the lions share today for a change with 5 out with sails between 5.6 and 6.6, we had only one winger, a couple of wind foilers and 2 kiters further along the beach. This mornings sunshine had sadly gone, we even had a few rain drops but not enough to spoil the sail. There was a smooth section of water  close to the beach but as usual it was where the wind was lightest, I could fly right to the beach but did not have enough sail here to fly all the way round in the gybe, further out it was a lot windier but the sea was fairly big but I managed to stay on for most of my gybes and had loads of good runs out, foiling is much better on my dodgy knees, in fact its a lot easier on the whole body, I find fin sailing hard work these days. The new foil went well, I didn’t push things too hard but was pleasantly surprised by this afternoons speeds especially with the sea pretty big in places, conditions improved as the tide dropped but the wind a fraction off making it patchy so it was time to call it a day. We have NE breezes for the rest of the week but am not sure what I am doing yet, I will make up my mind in the morning?

https://www.facebook.com/media/set?vanity=stephen.squirrell.1&set=a.10228505222308224