Windsports

Weston is famous for its windsports. It has become a tourist attraction in its own right with people coming to the beach on breezy days to marvel at the action in the Windzone -  an area at the southern end of the beach, where windsurfers, kite surfers, wingfoilers and Blo-karters perform jaw-dropping feats.  It's also the playground for former world record speed windsurfer Zara Davis who tells us why she loves being on the water at Weston-super-Mare. Read her amazing story below.

Zara Davis 

If you have ever stood on Weston-super-Mare beach and marvelled at the skills of the windsurfers and kite surfers – then the chances are that you will have seen a former double world-record holder in action. Windsurfer Zara Davis, pictured below, is one of the scores of watersports enthusiasts who have become an iconic part of the town’s skyline on breezy days.

Weston’s beach is the three-times world champion and 11-times British champion’s playground and Zara and her friends from the Bristol Channel Windsurfers group can’t get enough of it. She’s got five weather apps on her phone, another for tide times and if the two align, she and husband Pete will dash from their home in Clevedon, park up on the beach and start riding the waves.

She said: “I love Weston beach, I love the sea and I love all the people I have met through it.”

Speed runs in the family. Her father was a rally driver, her grandfather rode in the Isle of Man TT and her grandmother was the first woman in the Exmoor Motor club doing hill climbs on an old Norton motorbike.

She said: “I never think of myself as competitive. I just want to win. I’m at my happiest when I have sailed my best. And I love the water and the peacefulness of it.”

It’s perhaps not surprising that she’s happiest on the water. She virtually grew up on it. Her parents had a share in a sailing boat on the Devon coast. Her early memories are of being a very young passenger in that boat crossing the English Channel for holidays in France.

From seasick to super quick

She was seasick the first time on the 18-20 hour crossing in that ‘teeny yacht’ – but somehow that didn’t put her off. Boats soon became a board, a sail and a £120 wetsuit, which was a small fortune at the time.

She said: “From the moment I started, I just loved being on the water, I loved the sea and the peacefulness of being at sea.”

But the equipment was packed away and left as just a childhood memory after she contracted glandular fever which led to a heart murmur at the age of 15. 
She concentrated on her studies instead, becoming a microbiologist and training as an osteopath. Her first job was in Milton Keynes. Her boss windsurfed and invited her along – more than a decade after she’d last been on the water – and she fell in love with it again. She wanted to be faster than him. And soon was. She met husband Pete, another keen windsurfer. She was hooked and obsessed with beating the person in front of her whoever that person was.

She told Visit Weston: “Even as an absolute beginner I was fast and always wanted to catch the person in front of me.”

Titles and records started coming her way. The 500m world speed record was won in Namibia - clocking 46.49 knots, that’s 55miles per hour, faster than a speedboat cuts through the water. She also held the world mile record until that was broken and was the first woman to hold both records.

Zara Davis racing to the world record in Namibia

She said: “When we go for world record attempts we go to Namibia. We are there for six weeks. Six weeks because we’re waiting for the weather. It’s weather dependent and in that time, there may only be ten minutes when you could break the record.”

She added: “I’m really proud of all I have achieved. I’m just sad that my parents died young and weren’t there to see it. My father would have been as proud as punch to have introduced me to the sport and then seen me become number one in the world.”

Broken bones and sliced shins have all come in pursuit of these records but Zara just shrugs it off as she surveys her mishapen foot. She said: “Speed sailors are tough. You have to be. You have major crashes at speeds that if you were a motorcyclist you’d have a helmet on to protect you, we’ve just got a wetsuit.”

Zara has now retired from competitive action but still can’t get enough of the water and Weston.

Zara Davis in front of Brean Down at Weston-super-Mare

She said: “It’s not a place where any records are going to be broken [the conditions are all wrong for that] but you can still have a fantastic ride there. I love the beach at Weston. There’s something for everyone there, the swimmers, the dog walkers and the Blo-Karters. It’s just such a brilliant place for everyone and amazing to have on the doorstep."

Blo-Karters also head for Weston-super-Mare's Windzone when a breeze whips up

The sea is in her genes and apart from that decade-plus separation after she contracted glandular fever she can’t tear herself away from it – despite one or two scrapes which would turn most people off water for life. She recalled the time she tried to sail across the Atlantic in a boat: “Boat sank but that’s another story for another day. We very lucky to be rescued - initially by a tall ship owned by the Jubilee Sailing Trust, Tenacious. They repaired our rudder and we sailed on until we were absolutely in the middle of the Atlantic - then the rudder failed again and we were rescued by another yacht. We had Ellie the German shepherd on board who was also rescued. It was an adventure - not quite the one we had planned but we have made friends for life!”

After retiring from competitive windsurfing action last year, at the age of 56, Zara who used to run an osteopath’s in Portishead, still gets a buzz on Weston’s beach. She said: “It’s an amazing place to sail. I still get a thrill going there. But it is tough. It’s one of the most difficult places to sail. We don’t speed sail there. We speed sail on flat water. At Weston it is wavy. It's good fun wave riding and carving with the sail driving you, but bump is the thing that kills the speed..”

“On a windy weekend there’s probably 60 of us out, windsurfers, wingfoilers and kiters. When we join up we’re all absolutely thrilled. With football and other sports, you know when you’re going to see your mates, but with windsurfing you never know. It’s dependent on the weather so when we do meet we’re so pleased to see each other again.

A windsurfer in action at Weston-super-Mare with Birnbeck Pier in the background

“It’s an amazing pay-it-forward society, we lend stuff to each other, we give stuff to each other. People who use the sea are special people, we care about each other in a way that I think people who don’t use the sea don’t because the sea can be a dangerous place. We all sail alone but we’re not alone because we all know who is out, what colour sail they’ve got and we look out for each other. We’re a close-knit community. We all use the sea in conditions when most people wouldn’t go to the beach, therefore you have to care about each other.”

Zara Davis first time double world record holder would be known on just about every famous windsurfing beach in the world but when she’s at Weston she’s just Zara. “When I’m there nobody cares that I’m Zara Davis but I’m always happy to help people if they want it,” said Zara who is a mentor at Axbridge reservoir for the Axbridge Animals junior windsurfers.

And when you stand on the beach watching all the different watersports enthusiasts, Zara probably won’t be the fastest you see. The kite surfers will probably be quicker. She tried it but it wasn’t for her. “It’s a very different sport and it didn’t fire my imagination. There are a few people who swap between the two but not many. I just don’t feel that same connection with the water. 

Kite surfers and windsurfers enjoying the challenge of the Bristol Channel at Weston-super-Mare

“For me, speed sailing is nothing to do with anybody else. It’s about me and the conditions. Some of it is innate. I was always fast. As a beginner I was fast. Some of it is desire, you want to go quickly, you master the technique. Some of it is about feel. You have to have commitment to the harness. We have a harness around the waist which is attached to a loop around the boot and with speed sailing you have to stop the board lifting so you have to load the mast foot.

“Windsurfing is a whole-body activity. You’re standing barefoot on a board and working to your very fingertips. Everything is holding on, balanced and working together. It’s the best exercise. You have to be bold and not frightened. I’m never scared and I’ve probably had more crashes than anyone else. I think that’s because I was the most amateur and least experienced there because I had a full-time job."

She said: "I have to pinch myself at what I’ve achieved. I’m proud because I’m just a normal girl from Clevedon. It just shows – and I say this to youngsters – if you want to do it, do it. You can achieve stuff you never thought you could by working at it. Maybe you won’t break the world record. I was really lucky, but I worked for it. I never set out to be a world record holder. I just wanted to be faster than the person in front of me.”

“My husband and I have had the most amazing life because of windsurfing. I’ve travelled to places I would never have travelled to, I met my husband and I’ve made the best of best of friends.”

Zara's husband Pete riding the waves at Weston. He's a pretty sharp windsurfer who also specialised in speed sailing and competed in the ISWC World Championship