2002 Birubi Event Report
DaKine Mid Winter Bash – By Dan Berry
Holy Jesus!!!!!!!!!!! (Excuse me to the more religious inclined among us) but what a comp!!!!!!!!!!! How often do you get to sail bare away at half-mast and 40kts in the gusts!! I'll start with a day-by-day account.
After looking all week at what was a perfect forecast I must be honest and admit my heart sank to wake up Saturday morning to rain and a 5kt westerly but I must give credit to the brave soles who ventured out early to start rackin' up the points in the true spirit of Aussie wavesailin'. But true to the forecast the wind did come and by early afternoon we were all enjoying 15kts or so and shoulder high surf with all the sailors milking everything they could out of the Birubi surf, keen to impress the anonymous judges. The groms used their weight advantage in the lighter winds with some impressive jumping.
After sailin', some serious plans were made to check out the talent at what was later to be dubbed the "star wars" bar (due to the wonderful array of odd balls this place has to offer) all in good fun, haha. At this stage I passed the notepad to Jimmy Harcourt (nightlife reporter) who promptly left it in the bottom of his schooner at the end of the night so I guess only the lucky few who were there will ever know what the place has to offer late into the night...........
Back to sailing. Sunday kicked off with a 15-20kt westerly and head high sets coming thru. The boys took full advantage of the conditions with the standouts being Andrew Thornton, Andrew Morris, Shane Finnegan (whose results definitely suffered from leaving Sat. night), Aaron Constable, Adrian Kendall (who’s starting to scare a few of us with his rapid improvement) and the ever-present Rohan Cudmore. In the masters, we had Olly Barta (who ALWAYS scares us due the close proximity of his forward loops haha), Jason Juretic whose all round skills are also coming on in leaps and bounds and the other half of the Cudmore syndicate, Matt. In the seniors we had Brad Anderson who I must say impressed the hell out of me with some of the biggest forwards of the weekend, keep rippin' mate! Last but not least the groms who gave us an insight into the future of wavesailing in Australia, and it’s lookin' bright with strong performances from Luke Johnson, Sam & Ben Fawkes and Rhys Herbert.
Sunday night was the BBQ night which was great, imagine all the food you can eat and beer you can drink after a hard day on the water, ahhhhh what more could you asked for, all paid for by our loving NSW Wavesailing assoc. Thanks a million boys, superb!
Finally to the last day of competition which will go down in my books as one of the best ever!!! With the first 2 days of sailing down, no-one really expected to sail on the final day but boy did Birubi turn it on for the boys!!! Some of us were at the beach at 830a.m. to be greeted by 25kts and 2-3ft surf STOKED!!! Straight out there!! Little did we know it would get even better, by mid morning it was gusting thru at 40kts+ with half mast sets.
I’m not going to go thru the standouts name by name because everyone
absolutely ripped!!! It was a showcase of the NSW sailor’s talent, and everyone cut loose to the delight of all the spectators on the headland.
After the final morning session the presentation was held (check out the results page) with the vast array of DaKine and Sonic prizes being distributed to the standout competitors. I’m glad I wasn’t a judge because that would've been a hard job this weekend with not a lot separating the top sailors. I’m sure everyone who was lucky enough to be there drove home with muscles aching with a big smile on there faces, I know I did! (I’m sitting here with a big bag of ice on my ankle writing this!!!) Thanks to our sponsors (DaKine and Sonic) and the NSW Wavesailing Assoc for putting on one of the best competitions I’ve ever been to. Cheers Dan
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