Long Reef Wave Classic Report - Hallidays Pt 2-4 Oct 04
Driving rain from a low pressure system positioned off the NSW north coast made the drive to Halidays an epic for some heading from the South. The forecast was promising for the Saturday morning – Southwesters between 25 and 30 knots and a rising swell – bring it on!
What greeted the early arrivals was enough to lift the pulse rate of most of the competitors. This would not be a light wind grovel – this would be wavesailing at the hardcore end of the scale. With the tide on the way out and the sandbanks beginning to line up on the inside, the call was made to run the new and improved expression session style format in the excellent conditions.
The choice between ripping it up on the inside break and ripping the outside bommy section out the back, meant competitors were well spread out, with a variety of styles emerging as the free for all heats went down.
A standout performance was seen from Josh Adams, who seemed intent on taking off further behind the peak than anyone, dodging the exposed rocks in the impact zone without blinking an eye. Ben Fawkes and Brendan Peterson excelled in the Pool B heats, pushing hard with their distinctive styles. Brendan’s heat winning performance in the first round left him struggling to walk, let alone sail for the remainder of the afternoon. Then the return of Andrew ‘Doogs’ Gibbon to the NSW contest scene, proved that after limited time on the water over the past two seasons, he still has what it takes when the conditions fire.
The atmosphere on the beach was almost as hyped up as it was on the water during the morning heats. Aerial attempts were hooted, near misses had the crew on the beach biting their nails and the inevitable wipe outs were impressive at times. Sailors pushed their boundaries in the expression session format. The longer heats and the impression based scoring allowed for some of the most progressive sailing seen at a contest in some time to go down over the day.
The Saturday night BBQ went down very well again with prizes for every entrant yet again. It’s great to see such big turn outs for mid comp BBQ’s!
Sunday was a great surfing, family and chillin’ day.
And for those who stayed until Monday, were treated to yet another day of action with cross on Southerly 5.3 weather with equally as good waves.
Congratulations should be extended to all who sailed, pushed hard and developed their sailing in some challenging conditions. A fantastic turn out and an excellent display of wavesailing.
Thanks to Long Reef Sailboards for sponsoring this heat 2 of the series.
Let’s hope for more of the same at the next event at Gerroa.
|
|
