Team UK - A long Windsurfing History

Windsurfing started in England back in 1958, when the young boy Peter Chilvers assembled a board combined with a sail (even though it did not incorporate the curved boom of the modern windsurf rig). Nowadays, some 50 years later, windsurfing is still a very popular water sport in the UK.

Plenty of Windsurfing Locations

The length of the UK coastline is around 17,820 km (about 5 times the length of the French coastline). Besides, the British winters are not so cold – thanks to the Gulf Stream – and Great Britain is situated on a perfect spot to receive all the (windy) low pressures fronts crossing northern Europe. Though, there are plenty of good windsurfing locations!

Let's start with Cornwall, the most South-westerly County in England. This peninsula offers an awesome selection of Windsurfing locations covering just about every wind direction and water state. One of the top spots to ride the best Atlantic swells, is Gwithian Beach.

The South Coast

England's main windsurfing area is without doubt the South coast, specially the counties of Dorset, Hampshire and West Sussex.

A famous place in the county of Dorset is Weymouth Harbour. It is a world class speed sailing location, known for the international speed competition “Weymouth Speed Week” held every October. Another classic windsurf location is Poole Harbour, suitable for windsurfers of all abilities, with many windsurfing schools and shops.

In the county of Hampshire, the windsurfing – and surfing – enthusiasts will go to Hayling Island, where they will find a good variety of conditions, whatever the wind direction is.

Windsurfers with a more advanced level will prefer the beaches of the county of West Sussex. Shoreham, for example, is very good for windsurfing, with wind and good waves. This spot produced many of the UK's top windsurfers (e.g. Nik Baker, Matt Pearch).

On the East coast, the most famous place is "The Ray", Southend-on-Sea (county of Essex): the protected lagoon offers flat water at low tide. This is perfect for the British speed sailing star Dave White’s attempts to break speed records.

More than 1000 Islands

Did you know that the UK counts more than 1000 islands? Some are permanently inhabited, some are nature reserves with restricted access, and some are perfect for windsurfing!

One of them is Anglesey, an island off the Northwest coast of Wales. The conditions are well known to be some of the best in the UK for both windsurfing and surfing. The recent British National Wave Championships have been held here. The prevailing south-westerly wind brings cross-onshore conditions and high waves.

Last but not least, the Island of Tiree, on the West coast of Scotland. This island offers uninterrupted waves and wind from the Atlantic and is also reported to be the sunniest place in the UK. Even though it was already a well known windsurfing destination for the British (it's actually the windiest spot in the UK), it has now become famous worldwide since an event of the PWA Wave World Tour was held there in 2007.

Team Captain: Nik Baker

Some say that Nik Baker is “the Best all-rounder of the PWA tour”. He started on the world tour more than 18 years ago and competed in almost every windsurfing discipline, even if his favourite is wave. Born in Brighton, he's now living between England and Maui. All these years, Nik has been collecting so many experiences in windsurfing and developing windsurf products for some of the biggest brands that every country would like to have him as a team captain! Thus he is a valuable and irreplaceable captain for the team UK, and still the best of the team in the wave discipline.

Some of the World's best Waveriders

Who would have guessed that John Skye – known as Skyeboy -, who started windsurfing on the Brogborough Lake, would become one of the best windsurfer of the world in the wave discipline? Well, travels and training paid off, because John was in 2007 the second best English on the World Tour, and he is the undisputed leader of the new gang of top British sailors.

Then comes Robby Swift, a talented top waverider; 24 years old (the youngest of the team). Robby has been really close of being a PWA world champion, coming 3rd in three different disciplines over three consecutive years. A couple of injuries have held him back for two years, but now Robby is back and will certainly do everything to win the title of his dreams. Note that Robby also ranked 15^th of the PWA slalom in 2007, not bad for a waverider / freestyler!

The last two waveriders of the team are Phil Horrocks and Ben Proffitt. They are both experienced and all-round competitors. As the perfect outsiders they are capable to cause difficulties to the best sailors.

A Competitive Racing Team

The UK's Slalom armada is composed by Ross Williams, Robby Swift, Dan Ellis and Mat Pearch. The four of them were ranked in the world's top 25 windsurfers of the PWA slalom in 2007. That's a perfect, homogeneous, and competitive slalom team, ready to go faster in 2008!

In the Olympic RS:X discipline, UK will be represented by Bryony Shaw and Nick Dempsey. Those two athletes are both proven winners: Nick won the bronze medal in Athens 2004, and Bryony won the gold medal at the Pre-Olympic Regatta in China 2007. Their ambitions? Winning the Gold Medal in Beijing!

Best Results of British Competitors

If we take a look at the best results of the British competitors, we see a lot of 3^rd places. Well, it's not really a surprise, because most of the top riders of the team are very good versatile windsurfers, some of the best in the world. Thus they are probably not specialized enough to win a world title... Anyway, all of them have been training hard to prepare the 2008 season and after all their versatility – and experience - may finally pay off and bring a gold medal to UK!

Most important titles

2007: Nik Baker, 2^nd PWA Wave Brazil

2006: Zara Davis, Speed World Record Nautical Mile, 34.74 knots

2005: Robby Swift, 3rd PWA Overall Waves

2005: Bryony Shaw, 1^st RS:X World Championship in Cadiz

2004: Robby Swift, 3^rd PWA Overall Super X

2004: John Skye, 3^rd PWA Super X Fuerteventura

2004: Nick Dempsey, 3^rd Summer Olympics Athens

2003: Nik Baker, Indoor World Champion

2003: Robby Swift, 1^st PWA Freestyle Fuerteventura

2003: Robby Swift, 3rd PWA Overall Freestyle

1999: Robby Swift, IFCA Youth World Champion Formula