ROUNDHOUND { Steve Thorp - monster air to earn 2nd }
Words BY: Nick Moffatt & Jon Parker PHOTOS BY: Jon Parker | jonparkerphotography.com
Mex icos , 17th Janu ary : The y cam e,
the y saw , the y sur vive d…
The forecast, swell and wind were somewhere off the charts, things were lining up for something big to happen. Emails were pinging back and forth across the country to Wavejam HQ with each shift in the forecast. Where was it going to go off? Who was up for it? In the end Cornwall looked set to dish up the best of what was coming…
B
y noon on Saturday most were in the Bluff car park getting ready, with a ‘power hour’ called for 2pm, to give the best combination of wind, wave and tide. Mexicos was quickly established as the spot to ride, with the Bluff too offshore and fluky, while Gwithian was serving up mast and a half high monsters: for the most part, cleaning up the bay and anyone sailing in it. The crew congregated and as we hit the shoreline I looked round to see everyone was as excited as me; you could just feel the power of the sea unloading over the shallow sandbar underneath. Sadly for Dan Linton the session was short-lived as a broken mast and long walk back to the car park put an end to his session. Luckily, apart from a few beatings in the white water and bombs landing on heads, this was the only casualty of the day. From the beach it looked like Andy King and Steve Thorp were the standout sailors. Andy pulled off some lovely aerials and trademark back loops as well as ‘bail out of the day’. Not to be outdone, Steve had the ‘wave ride of the day’, as well as pulling out some big aerials of his own.
68 WINDSURF MARCH 2009
However, to pick out just two of the Jammers isn’t fair. Looking back at just how brutal the conditions were (it was a struggle to walk back up the beach at the end) it would have been too much for the vast majority of UK sailors. Respect therefore has to be given to ANY sailor who ventured out anywhere along that coastline on Saturday. Colder but sunnier, with the weather swinging more from the west, Sunday was not following its forecast. Rich Potter went out at Daymer bay, looking just powered up some of the time on a 5m and 76l board, making the most of chest high waves. Praying it would fill in, after 20 mins of floating around we admitted defeat and wobbled back in. Thorpy who’d been sat on the cliff was pretty dejected. He’d been up and down from our parking spot with his kit and a load of camera and video gear: “22ft and 30mph my arse!” We truly had been skunked, what can you do? Rider voting for first and second place couldn’t have been tighter between Thorpy and Andy, just one vote separating them for a King win, followed by a tie for Potter and Kit in 3rd.
{ Andy King mid-bail out of the day }
1st Andy King 2nd Steve Thorp, 3rd Rich Potter/Kit Brogan Thanks to RRD/Ezzy and Seasprite Sports for donating our prizes seaspritesports.com. Make sure you check out wavejam.co.uk for more info or to join us on our next storm chase! z