Good morning from the third day at the BWA Tiree Wave Classic. There are light winds today on the island, so it looks unlikely that windsurfing competition will take place.

The plan is now to meet at Balephuil at 12.00 and though the forecast doesn’t look great for the day there is a plan for various on land activities for all sailors today. There is also the potential for a SUP competition later in the day too.

There is however a bit of swell on the island, so even though the wind may not be looking very strong, the good waves means we should only need a little bit of wind to make competition possible. Some of the guys went over to the Maze this morning, no wind but decent waves coming through.

Yesterday some of the pros (Chris Murray, Ben Proffit, Andy Chambers and Phil Horrocks) gave a rigging clinic for the other competitors.

There’s a few main points which came up regularly when setting up your boards, Phil Horrocks runs you through these:

Footstraps too tight; if only your toes are poking through your straps it means you can’t get your feet across the centre line of the board. This means wave riding is a lot harder, you need to be able to get your feet all the way across to turn the board.

Also, footstraps were quite often spread wide apart but too low. The straps should be closer together, so the sides of the straps are touching your feet but then they are nice and high to give your foot room.
It’s also important to squash your feet as far into the straps as possible when you are preparing to wave ride. When you’re just blasting along it’s easy for your feet to come out a little so this is really important.

Today in Tiree unfortunately the wind did not show, however yet again we all made the most of the time. An on land clinic was run by head judge Mark Hosegood, along with some of the other pros, this time talking through wavesailing techniques. The rest of the day was spent on the water for many as they took surf and SUP boards into the over head high waves.

Tomorrow’s forecast is looking changeable, we will provide you with a update in the morning with the latest plan for the day.