European Summer Waves

13 September 2010

A report from Constantin Gross

After finishing my Erasmus Semester in Seville, Spain, we started to drive back to Germany. We had 2 month for 2500km, so there was no need to hurry and plenty of time to visit some spots!

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We had incredibly good weather, heaps of wind and scored some waves, even though less than last year. At the beginning, it was super hot in Seville and Tarifa (over 40C). Windsurfing conditions: Typical Tarifa 45 knots hairdryer and chop… damn good workout!

When the wind stopped we headed to Sagres for some flat water sailing in Martinhal. During the last 2 month, a huge high pressure system dominated the Atlantic. Even though it was windy almost every day, the big high pressure system prevented the typical Ireland lows from sending clean groundswells towards Portugal and Galicia. As a consequence, we had great conditions for my sister and my girlfriend who are learning the jibe, and I could improve my Freestyle skills that suffered during my stay in New Zealand, due to supreme wave riding. (I’m definitely not complaining)

At the beginning of August, Windguru finally showed some long period swell rolling towards Galicia. I’m wasn’t the only one that looked at the forecast and arriving in San Xurxo it was hard to find a parking space! Sunday I counted over 40 sailors on the water, everybody was chasing the only waves in Europe. A small Windsurfing invasion on a remote Galician beach: British, German, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch and French (including world cup riders like Thomas Traversa, JB Caste and Camille Juban) were riding (sharing and fighting) the clean summer swell.

I got the first possibility to really test my Carbon Art Thruster in European side-off and play around with the fin setup. While in Tarifa the Thruster felt like a stubborn 5year old that wants to start carving instead of getting smacked by 1,5m chop in 45 knots, the Galician waves brought to live it’s potential.

The three 11cm fins make it very loose without sacrificing any drive in the bottom turn, which hooks the rail to the wave like a women to your heart. And if you start it with a wide bottom, but you spot a nice section that you would like to hit, adjust the turn with the tip of your toe, and hit the lip you’re looking for! I love this board!

After all, a pure wave Board… can’t wait to hit Hoo’kipa with the green beauty end of September!

Cheers

Constantin Gross

A big thank you for the pictures to Vienna Doenni!

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