Ortakent (Nielsen Turkey) in June.

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Graham_U
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Ortakent (Nielsen Turkey) in June.

Post by Graham_U »

Just booked the next overseas trip. 2 weeks at the Nielsen's BeachPlus site at Ortakent in Turkey from 17th.June. The first Week will include an Advanced Clinic from Sam Ross which I can recommend.

For anyone intimidated by the Advance label he is normally very flexible, and the week earlier he is running an intermediate clinic for anyone at the planning/foot-straps stage. This was the stage I was at a bout 10 years back when I first encountered Sam round the corner at Bitez where I made great progress under his guidance.
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dro
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sept

Post by dro »

just booked 2 weeks september
What do you mean not ENOUGH wind ?
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Re: Ortakent (Nielsen Turkey) in June / September.

Post by Brian D »

Hi Dro - Just read your post - I am also off to Orkatent for 2 weeks in September - for me it's the 17th Sept to 1st Oct :D What dates will you be there??? Possibility of 2 Nomads at the same time :D :D
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dro
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Re: Ortakent (Nielsen Turkey) in June.

Post by dro »

Great will be there the same time.
you can not miss me , I am the one with two heads three arms and red underpants
Make sure you say hello


huw
What do you mean not ENOUGH wind ?
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Re: Ortakent (Nielsen Turkey) in June.

Post by Graham_U »

you can not miss me , I am the one with two heads three arms and red underpants
I guess that is what working in the NHS does for you :shock:
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Re: Ortakent (Nielsen Turkey) in June.

Post by dro »

Quite right Graham
Before I worked there I used to be quite strange.

LT
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Re: Ortakent (Nielsen Turkey) in June/ September.

Post by Brian D »

Dro - Will be looking out for you :shock: I arrive late Monday night, so will only surface Tuesday Morning - it will be good to chat to the heads - wave and shake hands with the arms - but unsure what to do about the underpants.
see you there :D
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Re: Ortakent (Nielsen Turkey) in June.

Post by dro »

Just stand back and admire them!!!!

with all my other adoring fans

LT
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Re: Ortakent (Nielsen Turkey) in June.

Post by dro »

Tic toc
Tic toc
12days to go!!!!
What do you mean not ENOUGH wind ?
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Re: Ortakent (Nielsen Turkey) in June.

Post by Graham_U »

We are just back from another 2 weeks in Ortakent including a week's Advance clinic with Sam Ross for me. We both enjoyed it and it was very much the same as last year. Sam's clinic was excellent as usual:
https://vimeo.com/99287150

Ortakent is the smallest Neilson Beachclub+ which leads to a friendly atmosphere which is its great advantage, coupled with the excellent Turkish shore based staff, where as the rest of the Neilson sailing staff mixed. It is also very close to other attractions, unlike other similar resorts that tend to be isolated, indeed the watersports centre/bar next door has just been branded as the Lena Erdil (one of Zara's competitors) windsurf centre.

Hence it the most enjoyable Beachclub+ we have been to, mind you it is expensive. As we don't do Water-skiing or Tennis we are probably missing out on a lot of its value, personally I prefer the old Beachclub format, but that didn't include the Fitness element that Val enjoys. I think some of the beachclub staff are a little too comfortable. this early in the season and they can not fit fins on the slalom boards due to lost/mis-match bolts, and Deck grip worn off others making them dangerous. The later is a common problem since Neilson moved to the Beachclub+ model which really seem to lack a good board inspection/maintenance routine.

When the wind gets up in the afternoon the conditions are very gusty with massive holes. It can get quite choppy, which can get a little confused at time. I assume Lord T does his sailing in the morning as the afternoons can be very non-T conditions. Also the wind is usually out at windy corner which is over a mile from the site, and outside the formal sailing area, although allowed for Intermediate/Advance windsurfers. It can often mean at least half a mile wobble before the wind picks up which makes kit choice impossible.

The wind was not quite as good as last year's 14 out of 14 planning days, with many days planing in both morning and afternoon. This year was 10 out of 14, with only a couple of planing mornings. In the planing condition my boards ranged from 100-130L, favourite was the Kode 103 which really suited the conditions whilst it had enough volume to get through the wobble time. Sail size varied from 5.3 to 7.5 (my self imposed upper limit). Due to the choppy conditions the smaller the better.

The most in demand board was the new AtomIQ which I was not very impressed with. I sailed the whole range 100, 110, 120 and the 2015 130L. Only the 100L was enjoyable, but it was in most demand and I only got to sail it on the last afternoon. The rest are all of the super-wide-style and in my view far too wide for the Ortakent afternoon conditions. The smaller Futura was much better board for the conditions, but it was interesting that some of my course mates who were lake sailors enjoyed the bigger Atomiq much more even if they complained about the chop in general. We also got to sail the new BOLT sails although it was not always easy to get them. They seemed OK but I'm a Tushi fan (particularly the Storm) and am not sure I'm good enough to tell the difference. I wonder if the none to subtle way they have combine the Storm/T4/Lightning into one range with strange sail gaps is quite the seamless one sail range for all condition is quite what they intended.

One bad experience was on a blowy regatta day I was unfortunate to slip off the back of the board on the downwind section of a carve gybe half way to windy corner. My kit was blow down wind and I could not catch it. There was no rescue boat in the windy corner area, which was a fundamental safety issue I had complained about last year and also a complaint by Sam the week before. Little did I know that circumstances that were going to prove me right. Luckily I was not injured and calm enough to stop chasing it when I realised I was getting tired. So I managed to stop one of the other guess who went back to get a rescue boat in a couple of minutes later. I spent 15 minutes in the water (checked on the GPS, it felt longer). Whilst the initial reaction from the Guest Services manager (Paddy) and Activities (Simon) manager was very defensive and quite frankly wrong, talking with the beach manager (Fatih?) was much more constructive and honest. The good news it is it does seem they are changing their safety procedures and there will be more and separate focus on windsurfer in the windy corner. Something that is long over due.
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Re: Ortakent (Nielsen Turkey) in June.

Post by dro »

sorry Graham just noticed this post
ignore the demand for a report

huw

the sail is still great

Interestingly I also had the same experience with losing board and kit in windy corner
Fortunately I was spotted by Uncle Brian (Derrick) who hailed a passing instructor.
The year before exactly the same thing happened to another guest
What do you mean not ENOUGH wind ?
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Re: Ortakent (Nielsen Turkey) in June.

Post by Graham_U »

Thanks Huw,
It funny how Paddy and Simon seem to think this was not an issue if you've seen it happen more than once as well. I was sailing on my own practising some tweaks to the Carve Gybe that Sam had taught us the previous week, hence there was no one close at the time and I was lucky that another guest passed once I had spent ten minutes chasing the kit down wind. Had I not done a half mile swim a few days before and so I was confidence I could make it to the Island I would probably have been in more of a panic.

It always seemed obvious to me that they should post a rescue boat at the down wind at the far end of Windy corner when ever there is any out there. Just like they used to do at Dahab, if anyone was out in Speedy then there had to be a rescue boat out there. The changes Simon said he was going to implement went some way to this, but I really think they need an extra rescue boat on the water, rather than trying to juggle what they had been using.

You mention uncle Brian, reminds me that I met a guy called Mark from Gloucester who was out there at the same time as Brian last year.

Glad you and the Storm6 are getting on well, sorry it was not red, but I always like the bright colours that can easily be seen from a safety point view. Provided of course that you can stay with the kit :(
Graham
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