Ok so it wasn’t 30 odd degrees, the sun wasn’t shining and the water is not a turquoise blue but this was an awesome downwind with great possibilities. Myself and three guys from VOtwo (Andy Dave and Foy) paddled form Swanage to Boscombe on a great south-westerly wind. After work I headed across on the car ferry towards Swanage. We launched from the east corner in Swanage Bay headed out for a few hundred meters then cut across towards the cliffs and “Old Harry’s Rocks”. It is such a beautiful coast line and great views with the cliffs towering above us. The tide was low so we could not get too close to Old Harry but close enough to get some great shots!! After Old Harry there is a great line to Boscombe Pier, leaving you at one stage over 3km out to sea.

When you come around Old Harry you have the whole of Poole Bay in front of you and first is to negotiate the Harbour Channel, you have to keep an eye out for the ferry and the container ships, but that’s all in the fun(yeah?)! Being quite far out to sea you do miss a few landmarks, one is the Sandbanks Peninsula which is one of the most expensive pieces of land in the World behind the likes Hong Kong and Dubai!! But not to worry as you will see it when driving over to start in Swanage!! Ok back to the paddling then……there are a few tall buildings around Bournemouth Pier and Boscombe Pier so its easy to pick out line. You want to be aiming for Boscombe Pier, which is the furthest pier away from you. Once you get into the open water after the channel the runs really pick up and we had a great time screaming past Dave who had the camera on his head trying to cut as close as possible without taking him out to get some great footage.

We left it until quite late to set off and we did finish when it was slightly dark(oops!), but it was great. This would make a fantastic race – rumour has it that on the 8th of May 2011 it will be a fantastic race. Attracting the best paddlers in the world….so watch this space!! Imagine after the Euro Challenge coming over to the UK for this race!! mmmmm got you thinking hey??

In total it was just over 15km of pure downwind!! Hopefully Dave will be putting a video together from the footage off his headcam….soon….no pressure Dave!!

Wind is perfect this week, so we are doing another course run on Tuesday after work.