GO BIG OR GO HOME: TIMO MULLEN

Timo Mullen headed to Newgale, Wales at the weekend and despite the light winds managed to get out epic logo high waves thanks to the mighty Duotone 118L GRIP/3 Thruster and 5.7m D/LAB sail! The question was…would he be able to shred the waves on such big kit in such marginal winds?

Words and photos: Timo Mullen

Timo Mullen

Size matters!

“So, I’m no longer a grom light weight anymore, by a very long way, a few decades and a lot of KG’s away unfortunately!! A lot of the new grom rippers weigh in at below 75kg, so when you see these guys ripping up perfect glassy waves you kind of forget there is pretty much no wind, maybe 10-14 knots!  I weigh in these days between a fighting weight of 85kg and a sofa surfing weight of 90kg!  So even though I’m probably in the ‘pro windsurfing world’ classified as a heavy weight, I would say that is pretty standard weight for the majority of the modern-day male windsurfers.

I love light wind wave riding! I guess wave sailing mostly in Ireland and Cornwall you have to like it, as the spots with the cleanest waves tend to also be in the spots that are most sheltered from the wind and generally light cross offshore conditions.  I’ve therefore become a bit of a guru on ‘Big’ wave boards, my brother weighs in at 95-100kg so we tend to share what we like most about these types of boards.  I think in light winds I have an advantage over say a 70kg guy, as with my weight I can in my opinion hold down a board with bigger rails and have no issue riding a bigger board than say a lighter guy who will struggle with anything more than say 5L more than their body weight.

THE GRIP 3 118L

I’d say my most used boards would be my Duotone 107L Grip 4, but even with such a big board, I have noticed on the super light wind days that it has its limit, where maybe the Wing Foil guys are starting to edge you out of set waves.  So, when I saw that Duotone had put into production a massive 118L Grip 3 Thruster in the mega lightweight D/Lab construction, I put my name down straight away for delivery of one of these Aircraft Carriers!!  I don’t think I have sailed a board this big since I quit wind foiling, so the idea of hitting some lips with this board was kind of an unknown.

Primarily, I bought the board for the summer months, when we get a lot of flat bump and jump days, as well as the odd jumping days at the local reefs with my Duotone 5.7 D/Lab sail.  So I took delivery of this board last week, and out of curiosity, I chucked it in the van for a dubious forecast for wind and waves at a beach break on the West coast of Wales called Newgale.  To be honest, I was pretty sure I’d be using my trusty 107L Grip 4 Quad, but on arrival at the beach, it was clear the wind was at the lower end of the 12-16 knot forecast.  Perfect opportunity to test out the 118L beast!!

I set up my board the same way I would set up my smaller 95L Grip 3, back strap at the back inserts, front straps one from the front, so quite a wide stance.  The board looks very short with a lot of the volume packed in around the middle of the board and the nose, the tail was still pretty normal size, so I knew it should turn pretty good!  On launching, there was way less wind than I thought and a lot more swell, maybe head to logo high on the bigger sets and a quite heavy inside section.  Basically going off if you could catch one!!  Getting out through the break still required some skill as you still had to balance and generate wind in your sail to punch over the bigger sets, but once out the back, I was able to easily work my way into any wave I wanted.

During my first few waves, I wasn’t really prepared for the extra volume in my rails but after 2-3 waves, I soon realised that if you generated enough speed down the line, that volume and thickness from the mast track forward helped to hit some good aerials and land smoothly.  I reckon I had a few of my best aerials in conditions normally reserved for either surfing or very marginal winging!  I love winging, but it is not even a patch on wave sailing, so if there is a chance to ditch the wing, I will take it!!  This board was outside of my allocated sponsored rider allocation, so I had to lay down the $$ for this board, so was it a worthwhile investment?  Oh yes!!  Suddenly thanks to this set up, Windguru 1* forecasts are now firmly on my radar!

https://www.duotonesports.com/en/uk/windsurfing/boards

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