THE REAL STORY OF BEING A 'BOARDS' GUESTER As you know Andy-woo was off acting the ijit in Egypt - as an official Boards Magazine guest tester. 2 weeks of constant sailing on 2006 kit - we just couldn't understand why Andy was interested. For the record, he had to pay his own way. Anyway, here in his own words (mostly) is his story : Boards El Tur Normally when you go windsurfing abroad you look forward to the heat, warmth and wind - I mean of the location, not the local women. The plan is to have an enjoyable time windsurfing. You book your centre and pick your board that you hope will be the right choice for your time away. The Boards trip covers the first part of the holiday but when it comes to the kit, it is a little different. The Boards team (Bill Dawes, Ian Leonard, Gregg Dunnett) get there a week before the guesters arrived. I reckon they need a break before we, the guesters, all arrive and give them a hard time. Two flights later I am in El Tur and arrive at the Hotel to meet the team and get ready for the next day. When we reached theCentre we were handed our test packs - we have 30 boards to test and 20 sails to try - it makes Club Mistral look a little dull doesn't it! We had a quick chat about the sailing areas and safety from Rick who owns the Centre then we were let loose on the water. We had a few hours free sailing so we could blow away the travel blues. The scene El Tur has a number of different sailing locations starting with flat water in the bay which is great for practising gybes, tricks and speed. You can then head out through a small channel and into the swell where it was great fun to jump and ride around on. Then 2 miles up the coast you have the wave beach so there is plenty of choice for a number of different sailor abilities. Each day starts at the centre at 9.30 am (bit early if you've had the odd drink the night before). We decide on the best location based on wind and from this we organise boards and sails. The first 3 days of the trip were perfect for waves, so myself and fellow tester Steve went to the wave beach. Now as I mentioned earlier, the wave beach is 2 miles up the coast. Sailing to it is not an option and I was wondering how we were going to get there. However just before I could asked there was this loud noise coming from the distance. It didn't sound like a truck or car as all you could hear was Britney Spears 'hit me baby one more time' booming across the distance. When it came close enough I could see this pick-up truck with large speakers strapped to the roof. This was our lift to the beach. Try that in N.Ireland! The wave beach has onshore waves a bit like Kearney but with a lot more beach area and bigger waves. The sailing was great up here with good jumping on the way out and wave riding on the way back in. The cameras were out and they got some great photo's. We sailed from 10.30 am to about 3 pm for 3 days at this beach - it was really hard work. We didn't need the pickup back down to the centre as we were able to sail back. Now it was about 2 miles of broad reaching in very big swell completely maxed on 5m - so there were some great wipe-outs. Jem Hall, our guru, got a cracker - he said it was a loop but it is the funniest loop I have ever seen. Do you not need to be attached to the board when you loop! Testing You normally stayed with the same sail and try and test as many boards as possible, so there was no blasting around for an hour on the same board. Two upwind runs, gybes or tricks at either end and then 2 downwind runs and out into the swell for some jumps and then straight back to the beach for another board. Now the boards we had on test were everything from wave to freerace boards. As the wind increased it was real fun trying some of them in the swell and I had a real cracker smash on one board that will remain nameless! Each board we test, we have to write down our findings on our feedback sheets. At the start all the boards felt good and it was difficult to find fault, but after a number of goes on the board you could start to feel the differences. We got no help from Ian or Gregg as they didn't want to influence any of our findings. I started to really get into the testing of the boards and got all 30 boards tested with results, so I was pretty pleased. The sails' test was similar and we used the sails in some mental winds holding on to 5.8m in 4.7-5m weather. When you had a bad sail you could have to wait to get a good sail and vice versa.
Andy working hard (!) in Egypt. Well SOMEONE has got to do it. We were working really hard testing boards and sails. We would compare everything from early planing to straps and pads. At home when it gets windy and you are free sailing you would come in change board or sail or both. When you are testing boards however, you have to test them in some serious conditions. For example you will see the Fanatic Hawk in this month's Boards - we had this at the wave beach in full-powered 5m weather. This board is super fast and great fun on the flat but put it out on onshore waves and you are in for a treat - of the brown trouser type! We all had to sail it at least twice, as I mentioned earlier, normally for 4 runs each. Near the end it was one run out and one run back in again and change. It was great to be able to do this and you are really pushing the limits of each board by changing fins, moving footstraps etc. It is amazing how it changes a board. One thing that I have brought away from this trip is better tuning. For example on my 110 ltr board at home the fin is 30 cm, and that was the only fin I owned. Since the trip I now have a 25 cm fin and this has made such a difference in rough water and in waves. By having these two fins, I have increased my board's range and the first thing I do now if I feel overpowered is to change my fin, not my sail. This is what we were doing on the trip and the testing would be based on the fin that comes with the board and a quiver fin from Boards own bag - normally a North Shore 25 cm. Testing is very demanding and you use a lot more energy than if you are free sailing. It was nice to have some time to yourself to blast around without having to think about the kit all the time but after a few days of testing it was hard to switch off. Even when I came home and was sailing in our NI waters, I would be thinking about my own board and sails, moving the mast track, footstraps and changing the fin when I am sailing around. BOARDS - WHAT HAVE YOU DONE! ? Photographs For any magazine, getting really good photographs is key to making the articles (but not necessarily the testers) look attractive. Boards brought a professional photographer with them and a whole pile of extra masts. They actually constructed their own photographic tower out of the masts. It looked rubbish, but the photographer sat safely on the top of this and got some great shots. If you look in the current issue of Boards you will see some examples (don't worry, I'm not in any of this month's). You have no idea how long it took to get 4 windsurfers in the air simultaneously! The tower worked well, but it nearly came a cropper when one of the guesters (not me!) actually rammed it. It shook and we thought that £5k worth of camera (not to mention the cameraman) were going to come crashing down, but the other Boards guys rushed over and pushed on the legs and just managed to keep it from toppling. Hotel For those of you wondering what it was like to stay at El Tur, our hotel was clean and tidy with no beetles or bugs crawling around. The rooms were cleaned every day and there would be rose petals on the bed and the towels would be made into heart shapes - and before you ask, this happened in everyone's room, not just mine! The breakfast and lunch were very good with a good choice in the morning and you could have a nice lunch for £2.50 which was very good value. The evening meals were ok, some better than others but as this is not a tourist place there are no other restaurants. Rik and Jeanette who own the centre have never eaten out in the two years of living in El Tur. If you fancy a change you can always take a trip in Sharm where you have plenty of shopping, water parks and restaurants. The cost of living in El Tur is very cheap. In the two weeks I was here I spent less than a £100. Clearly drink was cheap too! Summary I had a really enjoyable trip and the Boards team are good guys to spend time with. I had 11 days out of 14 sailing in 5.8-4.5m weather which is very good. El Tur is a great windsurfing spot uncrowded with good wind and a nice centre. The local people are friendly but as this is not a tourist place, there are no bars or restaurants and you get a chance to see real people live, which was rather nice. So anyone into egg chips beans and pubs and clubs - this may not be the place for you. If you would like to know more about El Tur I will be more than happy to help. **************************** And a big thanks to Andy for going to the trouble of writing this down, I know many of you will be interested in this inside track on what testing is really like. If you want to know anything more, Andy says it will cost you in Magners.... |
