GISKE NORDIC WINDSURFING
Is this the most northern windsurfing hire centre in the world at 62.5024°N 6.0396°E? Remote, wild, stunning back drop and some of the keenest community focused windsurfers in the world.
Over the last few years we’ve had many super enthusiast Norwegian windsurfers come and join our Windwise sessions. So we had to take up their special invite to visit and run a Windwise Skills Training Session for these seriously keen, hardy and determined bunch of windsurfers!
Thank you all for making me feel so welcome and for all your enthusiasm on and off the water. Great to visit, coach you and hear all the stories from some of the wildest and most remote windsurfing group on the planet. "Takk Takk Takk"
GISKE ISLAND
Flat and sailable in any wind direction
NORWEGIAN GOOD
GISKE
Sun, sand & stunning surroundings
GISKE VIKINGS
VIGRA-ALESUND-GISKE
Located very close to Vigra airport (2.5hr flight from Gatwick) you’ll find Alesund and then the beautiful island of ‘GISKE’.
Head out of Alesund town, take two massive tunnels (one is 4.2km long 144m under the sea bed), then a quick up and over bridge and you’re onto this tiny island (2.67km2) with the highest point at only 23m’s!
History
In the past, it was where Viking Chief Rollo, an ancestor of William the Conqueror, was born. In fact , settlements stretch back to the Bronze Age and the seams of Giske’s history include Norwegian Royalty who used to rule the country from these North Western Islands.
Today it is a quiet, rustic hamlet with wild vegetation, stunning sandy beaches, rugged rock formations, Viking Pub bands and views of the mountains and Fjord’s stretching as far as you can see.
FREERIDE & FJORDS
Through the ingenuity, collectiveness and ‘Dugnad’ (community effort) the local windsurfers (lead by the effervescent Torkild Skjong + supported by Trond El Alvestad) have created one of the most inclusive, welcoming and community based windsurfing centres I have ever seen.
It’s sufficiently racked with Starboard + Severne beginner-improver-intermediate windsurfing kit – which is available to the local community at a yearly rate of only 1000 Norwegian Krone (about £78 per year!!!) There’s parking, camping, changing facilities, ‘surf bar’, BBQ, rescue cover (On club days), sauna and showers at the next door Giske Football Clubhouse.
Year round rental use of windsurfing equipment is only £78 per YEAR! You can also rent gear as a visitor.
Watersports Centre
Kit Tune UP
Keen to glean
WHAT WE COVERED
Kit Set Up & Skills Training
We ran through priming your Freeride gear and fine tuning to suit levels, kit choices and conditions.
In ‘summer’ the sun barely sets and it’s possible to sail up until midnight! Thankfully I’d worn most people out by then 🙂 So we finished with a wild venison BBQ & local beer.
On Water Warrior Tacks & Gybes
- Touch Points
- Power of Vision
- Warrior Ethos
- Gybe Set Ups
- Shifting & Switching Foot change
- Rig Rotator
Norway windsurfers are now more aware of what ‘low’ really means..
Come and join us for our next Windwise Adventure.
FREERIDE & FJORDS
Stunning island with a community run windsurfing + watersports centre. They run beginner teaching seasons, club days, watersports festivals, open days and celebrate inclusive windsurfing – all on a not for profit basis!
- Multi wind direction options.
- Fabulous atmosphere + welcoming crew
- Board racks + BBQ’s
- Sailing + Sauna
- Windsurfing, Wing + SUP hire
Contact: torkildskjong@gmail.com
Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/gilvannsport/?locale=en_GB
Instagram: GISKE
https://www.instagram.com/p/DY7crQ9NRot/
Windwise DRILLS
Viking WarriorS
Keen to glean
WINDSURFING COMMUNITY
Weather Resistant
Regardless of the weather, the locals head to Giske to share sessions. Sub 10 degrees sailing is pretty common. It was positively tropical in June at 18-20 degrees – something I was particularly grateful for having been extremely spoilt when it comes to the temperature for most of my windsurfing experiences.
It was clear that this windsurfing community had each others backs and were super supportive of newcomers and many had achieved a really great level – including venturing to ‘wave spots’ such as Alnes a few Km offshore, where tales of mast high winter swells with super crowded sessions of 2-3 people!
Come and join us for our next Windwise Adventure.
NORWEGIAN GOOD
ESPEN MORTENSEN
Miracle Man
If it wasn’t for Espen (And lately Trond), I would never have got to known this group of windsurfers in Norway. Espen first joined Windwise over 7 years ago and since then encouraged over 25 fellow Norwegians to become part of Windwise, with trips to Tenerife, Alacati and Mauritius.
What followed no one could have ever imagined…
Tragically Espen suffered a serious spinal injury at a community gymnastics coaching event four years ago. His neck and life were broken in a split second. Initially experts said he would be unable to move unaided again and everyone feared the worst possible outcome. But if you know Espen, you know a fighter with the biggest heart and herculian determination.
Some how, with a combination of Norway’s outstanding health care support and Espen’s sheer raw brutal work ethic, he has fought and fought, trained and trained and rebuilt an astounding amount of progress.
He will sadly never windsurf again and currently is 95% wheel chair bound. But despite severe damage to his nervous system and still having seriously reduced muscle strength and co-ordination, he is now able to be more self sufficient and still not giving up on one day walking unaided. He’s remarkably on crutches racking up metre by metre of progress. He’s able to fire up his camera (super talented behind the lens) and thanks to the ExoQuad he is able to get wild and ‘freer’.
Having spent some incredibly humbling time with Espen on this trip, I know very few people who give such copious amounts of love for the people he knows and can find so much levity given the card he has recently been dealt.
He is adored by so many in the Norwegian windsurfing community and they were the first to raise the funds to deliver him an ExoQuad (He’s now an ambassador for this fabulous life changing 4×4 chariot.)
To Espen and his gorgeous family, no one really understands all the hardship that you all have experienced to get where you are now. Or the pendulum of emotions and challenges that you go through on a daily basis – you’re all remarkable….
Espen Mortensen
ALL WEATHER WINDSURFING
ALL SEASONS IN ONE DAY
FREERIDE & FJORDS
Freeride & Freedom
Action & Adventure
