We're off to explore the fiji islands by windsurfer!
Yep, this Friday 12th March Adrian Rowe and I fly into Nadi Fiji and will set sail from the mainland on Sunday to island hop our way through the islands for 2 weeks.
In addition to Adrians many talents he is a trained Naval Architect so he helped to design the ultimate board for windsurf touring.
Stuart from Dweller Designs custom made the board for us last year and we've been testing it all summer.
With the assistance of Caramel Creative we even started a new brand called Scarper Windsurfing which will develop and produce boards and equipment for other like minded windsurfers around the world.
The Tour is 373 litres, 4.2m long and has 4 storage compartments providing a total of approx 56 litres of storage volume within the board. We used a Std Neill Pryde RSX daggerboard and mast track and i'll be using a Severne 8.5m Overdrive.
The board handles well even when loaded up with 20 -30 kg of gear and although it's not lightening fast planing is no problem down to approx 12 knots due to it's hard rails and volume in the wide tail. It handles up to 30 knots quite comfortably (with an 8.5m) and points upwind exceptionally well.
Adrian loves travelling light so he'll be sailing a Starboard Phantom 380 with a 8.2m Naish Redline with all his gear strapped to the deck in dry bags.
After this trip we plan on building our next prototype board for touring which will be a little smaller and lighter than the Tour.
Special thanks to everyone at RPS Boardstore in Elwood Vic for all their help and support thus far, along with Overboard for their waterproof bags and Mont Equipment for their great light weight camping equipment.
Will have more pics to add soon!
For more info email Adrian Rowe <adrianrowe75@hotmail.com>
Matt & Adrian
Sounds pretty amazing. Are you using GPS? Have u got a rescue craft available? What do you do if the wind kicks in and you're on an 8m!?
We will be sailing within sight of land almost all of the time but we'll be carrying a GPS, flares, EPIRB and mobile phones and even have the number of the heli operators there as a backup!
We managed to survive a 35 knot NW wind before the southerly change a few weeks ago on Port Phillip Bay but don't plan on leaving dry land in those kind of conditions in Fiji.
For more info and to see pics of the trip go to our blog
windsurftouring.blogspot.com/
Slightly off the topic, but has anyone noticed the media always call it "Nandi" rather than "Nadi"?
excellent stuff guys and all the best for your trip. Very enterprising and good onya for having a go.
Excellent work guys. 
Good luck.
Hope you have a great trip and don't get sucked into that "Fiji time" stuff. Otherwise you may end up just sitting under a local coconut tree sipping Kava.
My last two trips to Fiji and its islands was great. Even better doing it your style.
Who's taking the gear over and how much?
We're 3 days out from our departure for Fiji and have just received a long range forecast suggesting that a tropical cyclone is predicted to be hitting Fiji on our 2nd day of sailing!
You can follow the weather forecast here <a href="www.metvuw.com
Our first objective is to make Malolo Island on Sunday before the tropical cyclone hits us on Monday. There is a small uninhabited island 1.5km north of Malolo that we will head for, which is a 40km sail from our start point beside Nadi Airport. If the cyclone is going to hit hard, we shall shelter on the Lee side of Malolo itself. If however progress is good, we shall just keep going north to the next group of islands that begin 6kms north of Malolo.
We trained for this in Port Philip Bay six weeks ago, when we got hit by 30knot knot winds, gusting 35 within a 12km stretch of open water we were crossing. The large 8.5m rigs outhauled to the max took all our strength to control.
We hope not to have to breakout our four piece kayak paddles in the event of a rig failure due to mast breakage in the middle of a tropical cyclone while crossing open water, so if the storm hits us Sunday we will have to sip G & T’s in Nadi until it passes.
For more info go to windsurftouring.blogspot.com
Excellent idea for an adventure - hope it goes well. Love the board design. It'd be great to see it in action somewhere on the bay. Presumably there will be a story coming out somewhere afterwards - let us all know where it will be published.
Good luck!
Yes, we are trying to make a short film of the expedition. Tropical Cyclone Thomas has delayed our progress (it's currently blowing 30 to 40 knots with vicious squalls out there!). Will update soon, Matt and Adrian.
