Even before the snow, it was absolutely freezing conditions with the wind chill plunging the temperatures to around minus 10 degrees Celsius. My fingers were already burning with the cold just setting up my camera gear outside and that was even with gloves on. Ross and Ben were rigged, suited and booted, both bravely smiling before heading into the icy water and the inevitable pain set in. I managed to find a spot in the shelter of the breakwater to set up and breathed enough hot air onto my hands to finally stop the burning; I can only imagine how cold it was actually windsurfing! I remember seeing a wetsuit advert about a system called ‘Ianovated’ that blows your own breath onto your hands with tubes and for weather like this I think it would have actually saved the day! The session lasted less than an hour even though the conditions were staring to really turn on. Come the next morning and I was completely snowed in, unable to make it out of my road let alone drive across the hills to Ventnor. A second session was off the cards therefore, although I did hear Andy Chambers windsurfed in the snow at Sandbanks but had to abandon his van on the way home due to the black ice on the roads!”
“ Our focus out on the water was on sailing, surviving, and blocking out the pain. ”