REAL BVI Week #2 will go down as the “Watermen’s Week”, with wind nearly every day, 4 days of quality surf and 7 days of world class standup paddleboarding. Mix in the unbelievable blue waters of the BVI’s, with equal parts first class yachts and crews from The Moorings, and you have a recipe another great week on the water!
REAL BVI 2009 SLIDESHOWS
These slideshows have been assembled through the cooperation of all the REAL BVI participants. It is amazing to see the variety of shots, different angles and different focuses of each group during their stay. Sit back, relax and enjoy the shows!
REAL BVI09 Week 2 Slideshow
REAL BVI09 Week 2 Client Slideshow
Jimmy Buffett Live Concert at REAL BVI09
REAL BVI Session Report: Week#1
REAL BVI09 Week 1 Movie
REAL BVI09 Week 1 Client Slideshow
REAL BVI09 Week 1 Slideshow
KITE
The wind blew consistently throughout Week #2. Depending on whom you asked, some would say 6 of 7, while others would say 7 of 7 days saw wind during the trip. The wind during Week #2 was mostly SE in direction favoring the southside of all the islands we visited and in the 12m-16m range. The use of lightwind boards or surfboards gave riders a great advantage to stay on the water with their already rigged kites if the wind went light for an hour. Many riders tried strapless riding for the first time and nailed their first jibes during the trip. Congrats to Suzie Johnson, who after lessons with REAL Coach Sam Bell, can claim the milestone of her first upwind session!!!!!
“It was awesome! Can’t rave enough about it. Suz was riding upwind both directions by the last day. What a difference! I learned to ride and turn on strapless surf board, rode my short board and jumped with a flight deck. Also saw a 6ft long barracuda while swimming with Suz on Sunday – cool!” – David Johnson
During Week #2, many riders ventured to both the north and south sides of the island for some long downwind runs. Some of these downwind runs were over 10 miles! With the option of both flatwater and waves in the same run, these downwinders were the highlights of many of the riders on the trip. Kites during these runs ranged from 11m to 16m with boards ranging from twin tips to strapped or strapless surfboards.
“I rode the new Slingshot RPM 14m the entire week and I’m not a small guy. Switching between three strapped directional boards- Naish 5’2 and 5’7 Fish and Rawson EVF Sixer 6’1 that I rode stapless and strapped. The wind was a little lighter during Week #2 but is was still ON every day. The best thing about week #2 was the combination of conditions we received, equal parts EPIC kiting, surfing and standup paddleboarding, …oh yea and PARTYING! If you get a chance to try out one of the ’09 Naish Fish, give it a go. Everyone we loaned one to was stoked and many put orders in already.” – Trip Forman
SURF
We caught a small day at Apple Bay (Bomba Shack) early in the morning on Day #2, then headed eastward towards the rest of the week’s itinerary. After that, the swell was on again with a good three day NNE long period groundswell coming in mid week. These long period swells are normally from the NW direction, caused by cold fronts leaving the East Coast. This particular swell was more from the NNE direction (which is rare at that long of a period). This combined with an also rare SSE gave us the perfect combination for extra long waves, the longest we have ever surfed in the BVIs. The three day swell started out at waist high the first day and maxed out at a few feet overhead on the last day. The first two days saw the longest rides at 200-300 yards with the entire point connecting all the way through. We were joined at the point by 4 of the REAL BVI yachts and almost everyone was in the water, enjoying the surf either on surfboards or standup paddleboards.
With the surf being so good, all the surfboards were off our boat and everyone else’s as well. Popular sticks included the Surftech Takayama “In the Pink” 9’3 (probably the most popular longboard on the trip, great for a wide range of longboard conditions, sick noserider!), plus the Jimmy Lewis HP 9’1 and Jimmy Lewis Rocket 5’10 and 6’4.
“I’ve never surfed waves that long in my life, nothing even remotely close. Whether it was the first day at waist high, or the 2nd or 3rd day at head high, the wave just kept going and going and going!” – Steve Meyers Mojo’s Sunset Cafe
“Wow….amazing trip! Thank you for everything you did to make it the best possible for all of us! I cannot begin to say how much fun we had. The boat was great…nice making such great friends. Are you hearing all the stories now that the Real crew is back?? There are some pretty funny things that happened throughout the week!!” – Meg Shipman
STANDUP
The sport of standup paddleboarding is growing FAST. It was pretty easy to see that for ourselves when just two years ago we were the only 2-4 people on the water with standups, and during REAL BVI 2009 we regularly had 10 SUPS or more on the water at once, with the likes of Jimmy Buffett being one of them!
The Standup Paddling in the BVI’s is off the charts. Whether it be long distance (you can paddle from the anchorage to the break or from island to island), flat water cruising or world class waveriding, standup in the BVI is a sport that anyone can do and guarantees everyone is having fun, even if the wind is down. The good thing about kiteboarding and SUP is that they compliment each other perfectly. Kiting is great in winds over 15mph. SUP is great in winds below 15mph. Combine the two and you have 100% coverage!
We had 20 SUPS with us during the trip, including the Jimmy Lewis All Around 11’, Distance 12’6 and Surf 10’8 and 10’4, as well as the Surftech Takayama 10’7. The Surftech Takayama 10’7 was new for the trip and surprised us in that it was smaller than expected, but surfed unbelievably well, akin to the Takayama “In the Pink” 9’3, but with even more performance the more you rode it. We had this board out during the super long point break days and the rides were insane. This was a board that definitely turned heads and is now firmly on our radar.
“Riding a wave on a SUP is a blast. Taking off 300 yards up the point and making the end bowl, half of this on the nose, is unbelievable. I’d have to say these were some of my favorite SUP sessions ever. I’ve had bigger waves, but never consistently longer and so clean. It was like a dream. Definitely best session for me during the 2nd week, hands down. – Trip Forman
The Puerto Ricans
Mira, Mira, Mira! Da Plane,…Da Plane,…Da Plane! Mid way through the second week we were visited by our friends Bryan, Charlie, Eric and Edwin from Puerto Rico. Most come to the BVIs by boat, some by plane and ferry, some even by helicopter. Leave it to these guys to try and convert their plane into a supersonic submarine and buzz the lineup BELOW the upper deck of our Moorings 474 POWERCAT!!! They saw the long period groundswell coming in and knew they could get to the BVIs in time to surf some epic waves and still have the endurance to engage in the REAL BVI Happy Hour. Take off from Aguadilla, PR, land in the BVIs 40 minutes later, Trip picks them up on the beach with the dinghy and they are surfing some of the best waves of the Winter in under 1 hour door to door! These guys are all a blast and are worth looking up if you are ever in PR. Mira Mira!!!
“Great time…good people and loads of fun. Nice boat! Keep up the good work.” – Martin Cutler
Happy Hour XL
The tradition of the roaming Happy Hour continued during Week #2 with 6 different boats hosting Happy Hour Parties throughout the week. This was a great time to get together after a great day on the water and share session stories, Spring travel plans, plan out the next day’s riding or just tie one on! The REAL “Pussycat” hosted the final Happy Hour XL Party (we’re not sure if this stands for Extra Loud, Extra Long or Extra Large) which included the closing ceremonies, group picture, dancing, break dance contest and just about everything else, starting at 6:30PM and wrapping up around 3am when the final contestants swam home. I guess that would be considered one hour “Island Time”? Check out “Sham Wow’s” freestyle rap in the slideshow below, this was taken about mid way thru the “XL Party”…..Special thanks to all the boats and crews that hosted these Happy Hours both weeks!
The Final Session
Our trip in the BVIs normally ends with sending our guests off to the airport, breaking down and cleaning the boats, and finally packing our gear for shipment back to Cape Hatteras, North Carolina. This year, we finished with an afternoon left over, so we took our rental car over to Josiah’s Bay on the northeast side of Tortola for an evening on the beach at sunset. Josiah’s is a cool spot with a beach bar and restaurant, surfboard rental shack and a peeling reefbreak wave with lefts and rights, perfect for surfing or standup paddleboarding. We have scored this wave really good from knee high all the way to several feet overhead. If it’s breaking, it is a really fun wave on anything from a 5’10 fish up to a 12’ paddleboard.
We made the mistake of not bringing any boards with us that night. Thought we would score some bodysurfing waves if the swell was up, then head over to The Tamarind Club for drinks and dinner (this place is a must for anyone on Tortolla!). When we got Josiah’s, there were these perfect little a-frame peelers in the thigh to waist high range with offshore wind! We were jonesing without boards and the rental shack was closed. We did find 4 ocean rescue boards, all around 12’ in length, round bottoms, with rope handles on the side. The perfect craft for our last session! Slezy, Sam, Trip and Steve took these out and proceeded to ride every wave that came in during the last hour of light. Learning to surf something completely new was a challenge (these boards don’t turn at all and the bottoms are very round and unstable) but the guys made it look good and came back to the beach all smiles! For the guys who own the rental shack, we put the boards back clean and owe you 4 free board rentals if you ever make it to North Carolina. If you don’t make it here, we’re buying you guys beers next year when we’re back because that was a BLAST!
Moorings Yachts
We had a great fleet of yachts from The Moorings based out of Road Town in Tortolla. This year saw us on the water with all catamarans designs ranging from 46 feet up to 65 feet. The cats offer a ton of extra room both above and below decks for gear and people. All of the boats in our fleet were under 2 years old and in immaculate condition. This year, we are on a Moorings 474 Powercat, a first for us. Our boat was so new they hadn’t even had time to name it yet ! The 474 Powercat offered great space, extremely easy kite launching and landing from the deck (no mast and rigging to get in the way) and numerous hydraulic storage compartments to organize all of our gear. In fact, Jason and Sammy only launched from land once during the entire trip, the rest were off the deck of the 474 Powercat. For those that prefer sailing, this same hull configuration can be found in the Moorings 4600 Sailing Cat. The monohulls are more fun to sail, but it seems the utility benefits of the cats have definitely taken over.
REAL BVI 2009 WRAP UP
This was the third year of REAL BVI and the 4th year we have traveled to the BVIs for kiting. (The first year we were there for three weeks shooting the footage for the REAL Instructional DVDs Joyride and Surf.) In general, everyone enjoys their time there immensely, whether it be on the water or on the boat. Over the past three years we have seen a positive trend where people are more open to alternate sessions when the conditions are right for them. Whether this is surfing, standup paddleboarding, snorkeling or downwinders, 3 years ago people would sit out and wait for the perfect conditions, whereas now they are sessioning all day, every day and just changing their “tools” to fit the conditions.
This is a great trend to witness because it results in all smiles and people having fun on the water during their valuable time off. We personally witnessed at least 20 people catch their first wave ever on a surfboard or a standup paddleboard this trip. That is an unbelievable experience for the surfer and for anyone who witnesses it. So whether you are in the BVI or Cape Hatteras or anywhere around the world, having two to three tools in your bag will allow you to get more jobs done than just one…..
“Week 2 in the BVI was full of great friends, unforgettable parties and epic sessions. I caught my first wave ever on a surfboard!!!! It was a trip of a lifetime that I will never forget” – Amy Olsen
“It is always amazing to see all of our guests out on the water as much as possible. All the participants took advantage of what Mother Nature provided them; kiting, surfing, or standup paddle boarding allowed everyone to ride everyday! I was personally so stoked to see people trying new things. Whether riding a strapless surfboard with a kite for the first time, making upwind progress for the first time, or venturing into the surf and learning to catch waves on a longboard or SUP. Every day the smiles got bigger and bigger. I am already looking forward to REAL BVI 2010!” – Jason Slezak
REAL BVI 2009 GEAR
We have just returned to Cape Hatteras and are unloading our bags, vans, trucks and cars of REAL BVI Gear. We are selling this gear immediately, all of it in great shape, satisfaction guaranteed, just like all purchases at REAL. This gear is available on a first come, first served basis, with no rainchecks available for these prices once we run out. Save big $$ on 2009 Kite, Surf and SUP Gear!:
2009 Kites and Kiteboards
2009 Surfboards
2009 Standup Paddleboards and Paddles
Call 866-REAL-548 for a detailed list of REAL BVI 2009 Gear available for immediate purchase!
REAL BVI 2010
We are celebrating our 5th Anniversary in the BVIs with a special 2010 trip! “10 Days in 2010!!” REAL BVI 2010 is three days longer than our normal REAL BVI trips and limited number of yachts available.
REAL BVI 2010 is scheduled for January 15th – 24th, 2010.
Call us today if you are interested in coming with us for REAL BVI 2010. It only takes $300 to reserve your yacht and start planning the trip of a lifetime!