Erin provides Thursday night fun

With Erin over the Texas mainland, we got some good winds on Travis this Thursday. Tim, Brian, myself and a few other AWC club members braved the rain forecast and hit the boat ramp for some of the best winds we've seen for probibly 5 months.

As the evening wore on and the weather seemed to worsen, the wind picked up nicely. We pretty soon went from worthy 9m to hang on 7.8m. I had a Pro Kid formula (a kooky little 117ltr formula style board) and a 160 ltr wood formual setup and ready to go. By 7pm the wind was gusting over 30 and the ProKid was screaming. As black rain clouds came over the Oasis down onto the water, the three of us scanned long reaching runs at almost 90 degrees out from the boat ramp, carving huge formula style jybes in the shadow and smooth water behind the boat dock.

When the rain blown by the wind started to hurt ont he face, it was time to call it a day. We all sailed until 8:15pm and packed and wrapped under car headlights as the darkening storm and increasing storm came in.

Just SUP osin

The last 7 days has been a windsurfin wonderland, well for Austin anyway. I've sailed powered-up formula 4 times and I put it all down to my new SUP (stand Up Paddle) board. What do i hear you say, how can having a SUP mean more time on a formula board...

So it goes something like this. I've got the 12.6 Starboard SUP in for demo (let me know if you want a go - thats why its a demo). Its basically a long board that you stand and paddle if the winds below 5 and stand -on and sail if above. With this new baby in arms, I'm always ready to hit the lake, no excuse, not ever. If there's nothing, I'll practice balance tricks, ride the boat wakes or just get an awesome core workout paddling about. If the wind comes up, I'm right there on the beach ready to go... So I'm at the lake having fun paddling around and you know what, the wind comes up a bit, so I throw on a light weight 7.5m and have some free style fun, rail riding, gliding the waves lovin it, and you know what, the wind come up a bit more so I throw on a big-a** sail and blast around full-on, gap closed rip-roaring rockNroll on my formula gear...

So I guess what I'm saying is, confessional time, YES its true, I'm a long boarder. I'm an old school convert, long in the board and short in the sail - AND proud of it :-)

Now today was a bit of an exception, no SUP required at all. It blew stonkers all day. Maxed out on a 9m - probably blowing 12-20knts (with all the meters down including iWindsurf, bit hard to tell for sure)... Needless to say, about 5 days straight on the water and the August blues just aint there any more, my soul is at peace, at least until my hands stop throbbing any way..

Learn to Windsurf shots

I've uploaded a couple of kid shots from the AWC Learn-2-Windsurf event this year. These are really just some kid shots from the Saturday morning when Elizabeth and Lizzie got some private simulator and OTW time. Photo's available here.

JonP took a few more shots, there are available on the club web site here.

Nice New Phantom

Took out the new Starboard Phantom this weekend. Very interesting little (no big) board. At 222 ltrs, this is a strangely agile board. With 80cm to walk round it felt super stable on the water and the 301cm length gave a mass of water line that made the board glide very nicely.


The most unusual and striking part of the board is the transitional shaping of the hull. At the back under the fin the board is as flat as a French pancake. This unusually, slalom like flatness brings a speed and feel of a much small board when the board rail up. At about a third the length of the board, the hull rounds out and finished with a heavy displacement style to it.
This makes the board run beautifully in light puffs. It has a silent roll through the water reminiscent of the Serenity (no surprise there). In 0-3 knots I was able to move around nicely, the high end actually feeling light and powered.

Can't wait to take her out in a little more wind. At 8knts I bet its a blast. With a huge retractable 50cm dagger board its listed to rail at 5-8.

With a total eva deck, this might just be the perfect entry level intermediate board. Something stable enough to learn, long enough for light winds and controllable enough for transitioning to higher winds...

Short Notice Open Racing on Travis (SNORT)

Results of the last SNORT series races are now available online. the general SNORT info page is available at http://www.austinsailworks.com/snort.html.

In summary we've put together a very informal fun face series here at Travis call ed the SNORT. Quite simply, those interested in racing subscribe to the Austin Windsurfclub-race message board (found here) or email us directly and we'll add you to a direct email post list. When the winds right or the mood takes us, we scramble the team and head for the lake.

Come join us!

Welcome to the ASW Blog

So here it is, a simple no-thrills blog spot for ASW. Come post and report and generally Stay in touch.

Check out Kimo. Remember that cold day back in March, low water, high wind. What a day...