Fun on a hot summers day

Duck Gybe: Mark

Peter Hart training day

Forward loop: Jeff

Any when it blows...

You'll find us out there on our shortboards. Anything from light-wind slaloms and 9.0s down to wave boards and 3.5s.

As is usual with shortboarders, we tend to be there when the wind is blowing force 4 and above, although the new breed of light wind boards means that many of us are out there blasting in light force 3s. For good sailing at Hythe, look out for nasty-looking depressions in the North Atlantic, which bring our favoured south-westerly winds. As low tide is best, we also try to be there a couple of hours before, to make the most of it. High tide can be difficult to launch in stronger winds due to the shore-break, and we only sail then if all else fails.

If you come down and there's no-one out, despite a strong wind, then its likely that its in the wrong direction. If its southerly (straight on-shore) or blowing from the north-east, we tend to go out further down the coast to sail at Dymchurch.

Despite the unstructured nature of shortboard sailing, the this section of HSSC is very popular indeed. Most of our longboard sailors also sail shortboards if its very windy, and there is also a large bunch of dedicated wave-heads! With a wide variety of locations around Kent and regular winds, its not surprising that we have some very experienced sailors at the Club. Sailing with those better than oneself is the best way to improve, and many of our newer sailors have benefited greatly from this.

HSSC has several members who in the past have been instrumental in the development if windsurfing in this country. With contacts like this we are fortunate enough to benefit from regular training days run by the world's most famous windsurfing instructor, Peter Hart. These days really are opportunities not be missed.