Event Report
Event 5 - Smack it Classic - Wanda Beach - Cronulla |
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| Date: February 13-14th 2010 |
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Smack It Classic at Wanda
Proudly supported by Starboard, Severne and Flying Objects and series sponsor Neil Pryde
At 4pm on Sunday the 14th of February the judges made the call to abandon competition in the final event of the NSW WA 2009-2010 series. Unfortunately, those competitors in contention for a top spot in their division would not get their chance as the current rankings after 4 events would stand. Therefore congratulations to winners and place getters and also to those newcomers to the club who have now had a taste of a full season of competition. Hopefully we will see everyone at the Teams event in a few weeks time.
Much of the weekend could have been spent standing under the Neil Pryde tent in the rain willing the wind to come in however 'it is what you make it'. Everyone who turned up took the opportunity to hit the water for as much as surfing and SUPing as possible, caught up on their mag reading, enjoyed a quiet coffee and found out first hand the events and gossip from the recent Australian Wavesailing Nationals.
Congratulations must go to Dave Stafford whose performance in the February Nationals surprised many. He picked off the WA top seed to eventually take 4th overall in the Masters division. Perhaps he'll get picked up by a sponsor for the 2011 season, although after winning a brand new Severne Blade in the raffle he'll be looking for a board sponsor to replace the one damaged travelling home from the Nationals. Thanks to Auswind for the sail and the chance to try out the Starboard Quad during the year.
Saturday's registration closed at 11:00am however, for the first time this season the forecast looked fairly miserable. Sydney was blanked in low cloud and light rain. A pathetic SE was going to be the prevailing wind for the day. After a first briefing at 11:30am the judges decided to play a 'wait and see' game secretly hoping that the NE with Northerly spike would come Sunday allowing some competition to take place. By 2:00 the obvious decision was made to abandon competition for the day and start the evening BBQ early.
The club BBQ was once again hosted by Mike Preswick at his house overlooking the water and the esplanade at Cronulla. The Neil Pryde tent kept off the evening drizzle so that the evening views could be enjoyed. As usual the BBQ was on the gourmet side with Rhys's famous olive oil and caramelised balsamic vinegar making an appearance. Somehow a miscalculation on the beer order resulted in the evening being well lubricated. The kids didn't miss out either as the ice cream fairly delivered desert. The evening also provided the opportunity to award prizes to the winners from the previous event and to discuss tactics for the upcoming teams' event in March.
On Sunday morning Cronulla's now famous "mystery swell" did make an appearance with a soft but clean 2-3' groundswell breaking off a nice little bank making for a fun right hander. Dan Berry showed that he is equally proficient at surfing as he is at wavesailing by picking up numerous waves whilst Jason Cater and Cheryl showed competitors and locals alike what is possible on a 9'6" paddle board. At one point 50% of the lineup was NSWWA members on a mixture of SUPs and surfboards enjoying the warm water and waves.
The judges postponed competition again until 2pm as there was still a faint chance that a 12-13knt NE could still appear. Unfortunately competition sailing sometimes requires patience. Without a fair chance of any heats being sailed many competitors finished up their last surf and headed home for the weekend after a day and half of being "on hold". At 3:55pm it was obvious that not a heat would be sailed however, true to Seabreeze's forecast the NE did appear and by 4:30pm a short free sail was possible. Matt Clife took out a 5.3m and his new JP SUP for some strapless wavesailing while Dave Bassetti and Tim Williams managed half a dozen wave rides between them before the wind dropped below 8 knots. Dave managed one absolute screamer, slaloming his way through the surfers across a peaking 3' wave before launching into a tweaked aerial in only 11knts. Given 5 more knots the session could have been one of the best for the summer.
So the final event closed without any results and with a car overloaded with gear and club equipment packed the final competitor pulled out of the Cronulla car park at 6:00pm. Reflecting on a great weekend, the Teams event to look forward to and thinking to himself "If NSW does host the Nationals next year, I might just give it a shot!"
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