Adam Lewis K516

Point-7 Wave Development

2010-02-17T08:09:00.000-08:00

Development at Point-7 is non-stop. Now as the wind gets stronger in the coming months, we will keep you updated on the development of our wave sails. As an introduction of our development, we present our home spot, and with which masts we are testing the wave sails.

(ph: flymount.com)

The spot

It’s now two years since we started to research and develop our wave sails in Tenerife. El Médano more precisely, offers great wave conditions throughout the year. To standout in the waves of Cabezo or the other nearby reefs, fast, radical and highly-technical skills are needed. The waves are not easy and long like the Hawaiian waves. In these ‘real world’ Canarian spots, the waves are concentrated in small narrow bays. Steep, fast and running over very shallow reefs. In these shorter steeper waves two or three radical bottom turns followed by a swift exit away from the rocks is needed. In a short time you need to express yourself and leave, otherwise the reef is right ahead. The wind can be nuclear strong and when it is light it's very gusty. When our riders such as Adam Lewis, Andrea Palazzo, Martin Ten Hoeve, Mike and rest of the team are out in these conditions, they need to be supported by no-compromise performance sails. This is also why top PWA riders such as Alex Mussolini and Dany Bruch have chosen this place as their proving ground. If you can be good here, you can be good pretty much anywhere. Mostly port tack, but often offering starboard tack as well. In the north of the island there are a few spots where the waves can grow to double high mast. The wind is very light; sometimes not even planing on a 5.7m. Extreme launches from cliffs or rocky outcrops and long way downwind to get back on land. If you think that these kind of waves are only available in Hawaii, do not be fooled as we get them here in this little corner of Europe as well.
As the conditions are so varied, being able to develop our sails in this spot gives the chance to obtain great test results and therefore sails. The sail needs to be agile and reactive in fast and explosive riding and manoeuvres. Strong against sharp reefs and shallow water wipeouts. All this and an awesome wind range is necessary to encompass the rough sailing conditions and gusts.
If a sail feels at home handling these conditions, you can be sure it will fit all other wave sailing spots across the globe.

(ph: flymount.com)

Wave Academy: RDM SRDM BICO

Buying masts is always a touchy subject especially because they can have such a big effect on the sails performance. Not only do you have the choice to buy different brands but also length, carbon percentages and even diameters.
Firstly the best choice is to choose the same brand mast as the sail. This way you can be sure that it will have the right curve to give you the right performance. The mast will have been tested in conjunction with the sails and naturally with give you the feel that the brand wanted to the sail to have.
Better to have slightly less carbon percentage, than a mast of a different brand with a higher percentage.
At Point-7 we have developed 3 different wave masts. RDM in 80% and 60% carbon, and the BICO and the SUPER RDM in 100% carbon. No rdm for the 100% carbon, but one step ahead:

The Bico 100%: this mast has a bi-conical shape. This gives it the strength of a rdm mast, if not stronger with the more stability and power of a rdm mast. This means that the sail feels very direct in the hands for entering manouvres or searching for that last squeeze of drive entering the bottom turn while riding waves. If you need fast response and power the bico will follow your immediate demands. A lot of people ask if the bend curve of the mast can be the same as the other Point-7 masts due to the conical shape. The answer is simply yes! This mast gives great advantages especially to medium to heavier weight wave sailors or sailors wanting a more performance feel.

The SRDM 100%: smaller in diameter than the rdm mast, we use extra layers of carbon in the construction to make the walls thicker. Being a smaller diameter the mast feels softer, regardless of the imcs and bend curve. Feeling softer it gives a very light feeling to the sail. As the walls of the mast contain more layers of carbon the mast offers a very fast response this is what makes the sail feel lighter. The soft feeling makes it great in stronger winds as it absorbs gusts faster and feels more comfortable in chop. Due to the faster reaction in the extra carbon, the mast does not loose power. For lighter sailors, this is a great choice. It’s also loved by girls and young sailors due to the easy performance and light feeling it gives to the rig.

The RDM 80%: This mast is hard-core. The RDM 80 has the same carbon content as the 100%. In terms of performance you can barely tell the difference (Andrea and Peter still laugh at me because I couldn’t tell the difference to begin with!) The reason for the lower percentage is because of the bomb-proof re-enforcing that been added to the mast for maximum durability in an uncompromising wave environment. This mast is a great choice if you don’t want to worry about your mast when getting punished by waves or washed over reef. The 80 might not have quite the same performance as the Bico or the Super RDM but this is due the advanced shapes of the previous masts not carbon content. If I had to choose between the RDM 80 and normal RDM100 I would choose the 80 every time. The indestructible nature of the mast far outweighs the slight performance gain you’d get from a normal RDM 100.

The RDM 60%: It’s strong made in Italy with the same pre-peg autoclave system as the 100%. You would need to going pretty radical to notice the extra weight. You feel it as the reaction of the sail and movement is slightly slower. For free sailing it is a good choice to help you improve.
Stay tuned for more academy and test results

(mast ph: Tommy della Frana)

Awesome South Winds and Waves

2010-02-10T09:10:00.000-08:00

Its been a funny winter so far here in Tenerife, although we haven't had as much of the normal prevailing NE winds, last Tuesday all but made up for it. We were gifted with head high perfect right handers reeling into the bay with cross-off. The wind was a little fluky swinging to off-shore at times, but it was plenty on the Swell 5.0 and the Quad convertible 81. Despite the wind the conditions were sick!! I ending up staying in my wetsuit from 10-7.30 when the wind and waves finally dropped. Everyone was out loving the super rare conditions. I think the pics below speak for themselves, a really great day in El Medano!

Thanks to Flymount.com for the pics

Team Rider Blogs

2010-01-29T06:39:00.001-08:00

Check out some of my other Point-7 Team rider blogs, just click the links below to go to the website!

http://meteosailing.it/greta/

http://andreapalazzo.blogspot.com/

I saw this pic somewhere else on the web and I had to put it on here, classic!!

Point 7 Academy

2010-01-18T03:06:00.000-08:00

Point-7 will this January introduce their new technical section on their website, where you will find a list of articles written to improve your windsurfing technique, tactics and tuning. An assembly of their development team will be weekly be updating this new section and will divided it as follows.

Freeride corner; With 25 years of sail designing and many years of successful racing, Peter Munzlinger has now stepped down from the race scene and is enjoying his windsurfing mainly on performance freeride gear. Follow his corner to take your free riding to the next step.

Girls corner; Greta Benvenuti will introduce you girls to the sweet side of windsurfing and show you how windsurfing is not about power, but just a question of technique.

Wave corner; Adam Lewis will be underlining the basic rules of wave sailing. So not only the radical dream world, but also the basics which will improve your trimming, style and technique followed by with facts.

Race corner; To understand how each single part of our gear can tuned to perform at its maximum performance, Andrea Cucchi will teach you all the pro rules of trimming along with knowledge and technique to achieve good racing result. information everyone can use to improve their windsurfing and have more fun when out with their friends on the water

Check It out at

http://www.point-7.com/index.php/it/community/techtips

No Wind Booooo!!!

2010-01-13T08:16:00.000-08:00

Hey Everyone,

Not much wind at the moment, although it seems like its that way for everyone here in the Canaries! Got up early this morning for a surf in the North which was awesome, really good waves and only my mates out! Sadly no photo's but I've put some below from the last batch of south winds.

Take It Easy

Adam

More South Winds

2010-01-03T10:29:00.000-08:00

Hey Everyone,

Still more south winds at the moment, normally we only get

three or four days but we've had nearly 3 weeks of it! Grrr I really want to go jumping on my new Swell 4.4! I've put in a pic from the other day. I managed to sneak out whilst there was still a little swell knocking around.

The Quad 81 was perfect in the conditions, awesome for aerials and it really held its speed when for bottom turns but still loose of the top. I wish the waves got bigger, they were breaking from one side of the bay to the other and the wind was perfect. I guess you cant get everything though!!!

See you on the water

Adam

Happy New Year

2010-01-01T07:14:00.000-08:00

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

I just want to say a huge thank you to everyone that has helped me this year, I am stoked to be part of the point 7 team and am looking forward to a successful 2010.

I hope you all have a great 2010!!

See you on the water!

Adam

New Sponsor, Fresh start!!!

2009-12-27T03:44:00.000-08:00

Hey Everyone,

I hope you've had a great Christmas!

As you might has noticed from the different of pic on the banner above, I've changed sponsor!

I will now be sailing for Point 7 sails.

The guys are out in Tenerife for the winter and are testing and designing the 2011 sail range, I tried some of the sails and they felt great. It just seemed like the right thing to do! As part of my new role I will also be helping with the designing of the new wave sails, I cant wait for new prototypes to arrive. Managing the OTC means that I've tried and tested all of the other sails available and I know what I want from a sail but more importantly I know what you guys the customers want! I'm really excited to put this all into the news sails! I know their going to be awesome! Check out the current 2010 sails www.point-7.com

windy!!!

2009-07-22T02:26:00.000-07:00

Hey Everyone,

Its windy!!! The Centre's been pretty busy recently but still managed to sneak out for some great sessions after work, check out the pics! Thanks to www.windsurfingtenerife.com for the photo's

Take It easy

Ads

Starboard Quad!!!!

2009-07-07T03:03:00.000-07:00

The World’s first Quad fin wave boards - more drive, more traction, the ability to generate more speed on the wave face, turn closer and tighter, ride more vertical with the ability to go where you want, when you want. When going out through waves, the Quads also help you to stay upwind better than single or twin fin boards, thus positioning you to catch more waves.

Quads produce an enormous amount of drive. There’s a lot of fin area spread out over the tail, so when you push the fins, they work together to channel the water’s energy into the board. They create extra drive and speed and they can do this whether you’re making long drawn-out turns, or tight squirty turns. Go where you want, when you want and generate more speed on the wave face. Ride faster, ride more vertical

Summers Here

2009-06-30T12:01:00.000-07:00

After a brief spell of no wind it looks like the summer has arrived, check out the forecast!!

I can't wait!

New Staff/No wind Boredom

2009-06-17T04:12:00.000-07:00

Hey Everyone,

Not much going on at the moment there's been not much wind recently, just got to wait for the summer wind now!

We've got a new staff member for the summer. His name is Darren Mitchell, Graham and myself have competed with him in quite a few UKWA events he's a great sailor and hopefully he can bring alot to the team!! Anyway, we were a little bored in the centre so what better way to welcome him than to cover one of his sails with all the spare stickers in the centre!!

It looks like the wind is starting next week, bring it on I cant wait!!!

Cheeky little Freestyle

2009-03-15T12:40:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone,

The centre's been really busy at the moment, its great it keeps me on my toes I guess. I did manage to sneak out for a cheeky freestyle after we shut for the night and one of the client's took some shots so to thanks Si for the pics!!!

Cape Town Vid

2009-02-14T07:37:00.000-08:00

Hey Guys,

Just finished putting together a little video of my time in Cape Town. Check it out let me know what you think!!!!!

Welcome to my blog!!!

2009-02-08T05:15:00.000-08:00

Hey Everyone!

Welcome to my blog, I've just come back from 2 months training in Cape Town. I am currently working at the Official Test Centre in Tenerife. I hope to keep the blog up to date with pics and whats going here in Tenerife and on my windsurfing travels!! For the time being here a few photos from Cape Town to keep you going!