2012 North sails

Finally we scored a little bit of wind to try out the new toys! A nice sunny day with a 25-30knot Northerly was a good place to test a couple of the 2012 North sail designs

The new ID is a light weight wave sail. I used the 5.4 and it was good. Noticeably light when sailing it, it was very easy to use
The all new model in the range is the Hero. Awesome! Only way to describe it! I used the 5.0. It's a four batten wave sail. It is super balanced and the low centre of gravity let's the sail rotate really quickly... made a huge difference when looping, and even just gybing is easier.
Very soft sail, but even for me (86kg) it got planning just as quick as the 5.4 ID did.
Lots of downhaul allowed the head to twist off in the gusts (close to 30knots) so it felt very controlled even though I was on the overpowered side. Can't wait for some swell to really put it through it's paces....

A couple of shots of the quick session:

Swell of the season

Everything finally came together for the first really epic winter swell of the season..

One of the largest and cleanest swells to hit to Victorian coast in a long time was forecast to hit on a Saturday morning (finally swell when I don’t have to work!) and even more importantly with a forecast 30knots Westerly!

For once the swell actually hit as big as it was forecast to! The whole Victorian coastline was transformed and 4ft waves were breaking in beaches normally that don’t see swell! Places further west such as Princetown were breaking at 30ft+.. Bells Beach was super clean and solid 15ft… The Bells cliffs were packed with photographers and spectators who watched the few hell men who paddled out at Bells!

Point Impossible is a point break just on the East side of Torquay towards Barwon Heads. A great spot to Wavesail in a Westerly. Normally 3 separate breaks, the large swell was joining up and breaking all the way through providing up to 10 turns on the large swells. Out the back the take off was close to mast & half, once on the inside reef (most of the photos are from this spot) the swell got super clean, and the wind got super light, but the swell was still holding clean mast high, peeling right handers!

The wind seemed to stay W-NW so quite offshore for all of Sat and most of Sun, and finally swinging W-SW late Sunday arvo.

A great two days of sailing, as good as anywhere when we get swell like this!
Unfortunately we didn’t have any photographers on hand, but we managed to take a couple of quick shots of the days action

Enjoy
JR

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Maui wowie

OK, OK So I have been super slack lately.. but finally here are some of my favorite shots from the RPS Maui trip back in April. Some really cool shots from the water thanks to Frankie at mauiwatershoot.com

Sorry for the delay but here they are.. Enjoy!


 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Windsurfing on the big screen..

Last Friday night with support from RPS & Windsurf Victoria, I held a movie premiere for 3 new windsurf films – Walls of Perception, Polakow sailing Jaws & Polakow in West Aus.

A great turn out with just under 200 people packed the cinema in Elsternwick to shake of the winter time blues and have a beer with their sailing buddies!

The headline act – Walls of Perception is a film put together for the brand Oxbow by Poor Boyz productions (Windsurf Movie & Windsurf Movie 2) so it’s got a great pedigree! This film was a little different to the last offerings from PBP in that it wasn’t 100% Windsurfing, in fact it covered Kiting, SUP, surfing, longboarding & of course windsurfing. A very interesting look at some sports & athletes that people might not normally follow, it was impressive wave riding no matter what your surf craft of choice is! A very well put together film and some new exotic locations like the Marshall Islands provided a new backdrop than the usual Ho’okipa landscape!

While this film really could have polarized people into the old ‘I don’t do this sport so I am not interested’ mindset, it was awesome to see first hand the acceptance of people in the crowd and more importantly the respect for the action from all sports!

The ‘Walls of Perception’ film will be available as a download from the Oxbow website later this year.

Two more short films were added to the bill.. Guest Jason Polakow organized two short films from his recent trips. The first a 15min movie put together from Perth Based film producer Matt Holder on a recent trip Jason made to Gnaraloo in WA. Some very impressive wave sailing, tow surfing and SUP footage in a beautiful & remote part of the world. Shhh Jason don’t tell everyone how awesome it is over there!

Thanks to Matt Holder for sharing the stoke and letting us put his vid on the bill! Check it out here:

Jason Polakow rediscovers Australia from OXBOW Admin on Vimeo.

The second clip from Jason was a World Premiere short film from one of the cleanest Jaws swells ever ridden. Only a short clip, but some of the most impressive footage and editing I have ever seen on a windsurf film.. even more impressive to see on the big screen! This will be available as a podcast from JP soonish…..

Once again awesome to see some windsurfing on the big screen, and the chance to do so with mates and beer was pretty special. Thanks again RPS & Windsurfing Victoria for their support, Jason Polakow for donating his footage – unfortunately he couldn’t make it due to chasing a huge swell to Fiji (more on that in a minute)

I hope everyone who came along on the night enjoyed it! If you missed out.. make sure you get a ticket next time!
JR