Team 15 is all about grass roots windsurfing, giving a place for new people to the sport to develop their talents and to meet other like minded young windsurfers. It’s goes without saying that for many years now the main focus for Team 15 has been racing, well just last week this perception may have just bucked a new trend. One particular T15 club in Scotland managed to ‘blag’ a trip to Tiree to check out the pros who were competing in the BWA event, whilst also learning some wave skills of their own. So is there a future in this, could it be the start of a wave program to develop talent specifically for the international wave tours or maybe it could also work with other disciplines? We caught up with one of the crew that ventured north (well, even further north), to take on Tiree. Over to Lori Provan who gives us an insiders look, by way of a diary update, at what the week was all about.
Tuesday 15th October 5-8 knots throughout the day.
When I arrived at the loch (Tiree’s one and only lake) we were told to rig up kit suitable for shortboards. With there being very little wind I decided to rig a 5.7m sail. Also, as it was my first proper time using shortboards I decided to go windsurfing on a mistral syncro 103l. During the morning session after we had familiarised ourselves with shortboard kit, we were taught how to beach start (which was very convenient as I had wanted to learn how to do this for ages, uphauling the sail in windy conditions wasn’t a very nice experience!). I was pretty pleased with myself when I managed to beach start in around 5 knots of wind; I picked up the skill pretty quickly, although I still need some additional practice.
Around 12:30 we had a quick break for lunch then it was back out on the water where we were introduced to Andy ‘Bubble’ Chambers, Chris ‘Muzza’ Murray and Justyna Sniady. This was pretty cool for us all as it gave us a boost of motivation and determination with our windsurfing lives. After a brief introduction to the pro’s, Bubble and Muzza took us out on the water where they taught us how to heli-tack. After a very wet session, we were invited to the first ever viewing of ‘Below The Surface’ and a meeting with the pro’s. The pro’s held a signing which was pretty cool as I came away with a poster signed by many of them.
