Severn Australian Wavesialing Titles 2005
Severn Australian 2005 Wavesailing Titles – from the NSW perspective
No other way to describe it, the Severn Australian 2005 Wavesailing Titles WENT OFF.
The NSW team of Dean Hendrie, Luke Johnson, Ben Fawkes, Logan Haggerston, Jason Juretic, Aaron Constable, Craig Williams and photographer/sailor Tom Hofmann headed over to Lancelin, WA in the days leading up to the event start on 10 Jan 05.
We arrived to witness the end of the Annual Lancelin Classic which is a week long windsurfing event including Slalom, Formula and Wavesailing. Wait until the end of our series to see the fantastic video of our very own Aaron Constable finishing the Ledge to Lancelin race with a spectacular manouvre. The highlight for us was the post event celebration on the Saturday night which challenged even the Mambo partying! The night was kicked off with the unique humour of local Lancelin resident “Kevin Bloody Wilson”, plus it showcased the excellent band “Frigid” (who rocked), a Bikini competition, AU$10,000 worth of fireworks and female Brazilian dancers – we partied way into the morning – excellent laugh.
After a couple of days getting acquainted with the “South Passage” break at Lancelin, the New South Welshmen were just about ready to face the best from Australia and overseas. Some big names were in attendance including newly crowned World Wavesailing Champion Scott McKercher, and other notables, Pete Volwater, Ant Baker and Ben Severn.
Day one of the 5 day event kicked off in half mast high waves with 5.3’s rigged. The Masters and Juniors headed out to fight it out in the man on man format. Ben Fawkes and Logan Haggerston both advanced through to the semis and reigning Australian Junior champion Luke Johnson suffered a loss to the new and upcoming 14 year old from Geraldton – Jaeger Stone (WA). In the masters Jason Juretic also advanced through 2 rounds to qualify for the semis - a thoroughly enjoyable day which proved to be little but a taste of what was to come.
Similar conditions on day 2. In the junior’s final, Ben Fawkes ripped like a man possessed nailing some sweet forwards and shredding for all he was worth to bag second behind Jaeger. Likewise, Logan sailed hard to secure 4th (it’s great to see some depth in the NSW junior wavesailing). In the masters, WA sailors John Koch took out 1st over John Grulich in 2nd and a very happy Jason Juretic (NSW) took out 3rd. Worthy of mention, was Ben Gramps, who at 70 years old, was an inspiration to us all, ripping it up with some slick wave riding.
Then the opens and elites took to the water and what a spectacle it was! Unfortunately our own Deano was knocked out first round by local Jane Seaman. Luke Johnson progressed to the 2nd round. An absolute stand out on the second day was Scottie McKercher with some incredible wave riding on ¾ mast sucky waves – a sight to behold.
And then our resident photographer, Tom Hofmann (aka Sunday driver) impressed us all when he demonstrated the art of digging for sand worms by leaving the car hand brake on whilst trying to exit the beach. Peter Volwater and our own Craig Williams (helping to push the bogged car out) was not impressed either!
Day 3 saw the waves jack up to mast and ½ high but lighter winds and strong currents on the South Passage (Jason can vouch for the wind being light as he trashed his sail and swam for 30mins). So an expression session was held up at the ‘main break”. Many of us NSW Welshmen came away claiming it to be the best wave riding day we had experienced in WA. It was fantastic to see top sailors like Ben Severn pulling off MASSIVE double forward loops and Scottie McKercher doing wave 360’s on 1 ¼ mast wave faces that had most of us trying to outrun the liquid thunder chasing our asses!
The session was brought to an abrupt end as sailors scattered downwind in search of our missing junior Ben Fawkes. We found him 600m downwind with a snapped mast and a mild expression of concern. He was then left to contemplate the sharky waters of Lancelin while we raised the rescue jet ski. He went through the familiar experience of thinking the kit he kicked underwater was a shark (don’t you hate that! ) and then lost all his gear as he was hammered by a monster set of mast and a ½ waves. He was reunited with his mum Debbie (who was fortuitously oblivious to his absence) and then his board and extension were later found way down the beach and we are sure some happy sharks are now using his mast and sail as a tooth pick and floss.
To end the day on a high, we headed back to the apartment to enjoy the BBQ’ed crayfish and oysters – bliss. There endeth the day to be known as the “the day Ben nearly met his maker”
Day 4 kicked off with clear blue skies and up to ¾ mast waves. The day delivered a steady 35 to 40kts with everyone out on 3.0 to 4.5’s. The WA event organizers showed us just how efficient their heat organization was by cranking through the program with a military efficiency even the Germans would admire. Heats were 12 mins long with a 2 min changeover! (NSW, the bar is set for us in 2006!)
The opens first round was decided upon with Scott McKercher lying in first place but pushed hard by Peter Volwater and Ben Severn. With the wind powering all day it also gave the juniors and masters a chance to run the double elimination and have a crack at improving their results still further. Luke Johnson had entered both the Opens and juniors division so he racked up a stack of time on the water working his way through heat after heat. He worked his way through the whole junior’s fleet to beat Ben Fawkes in the semi (unfortunately Ben was struck with bad luck again when his mast foot snapped)
As reigning Junior Australian champion Luke was extremely determined to defend his title, so serious in fact that he forfeited his 3rd opens round to conserve as much energy for the juniors final against Jaeger.
So the scene was set for a clash of the minnows, current junior leader Jaeger versus Luke. The 14 yr old Jaeger started with a big mast and half push loop and a nice wave ride. Then Luke wen tout all gun blazing and sailed the best we have ever seen him sail. We were nothing short of stunned when he went up for a huge double forward and landed it in the water start position! Later he admitted it was the first time he had ever tried one - this lad is gonna go far. Luke took the heat and because they had both won one each, they had to do the whole thing again. It was just about a carbon copy of the first final but Jaeger managed to eek a first place with Luke still achieving an exceptional 2nd place. Our other NSW Juniors also performed extremely well against fierce competition with Ben finishing 3rd and Logan 5th.
In the master’s double elimination, Jason held his third place in round one but dropped to 4th when he fell foul to WA sailor Geoff (who Jase beat in the first round). Jase took solace in seeing Geoff go through to win the Masters – he’s gonna have to work on his wave riding for next year!
We cranked through the opens double elimination and Deano pulled out all stops progressing through 4 rounds with some clean riding and big backies. Deano ended the comp with a very respectable 7th place against a quality field.
The sun went down and believe it or not, we sent the opens finalists Scott McKercher and Peter Volwater out to battle it out. Pete did some enormous one handed backies and Scott showed why he is world number one by consistently hitting the waves in the critical section. His last ride was a fitting end to the competition with near perfect scores awarded. Scott won the riding and Pete the jumping which gave Scott the overall title.
The wind barreled in at 35 knots yet again on last day - Day 5. As the comp was officially over, a freestyle session was organized on the inside – the lads were going off and couldn’t help but head out into the ¾ mast waves to get some he air and wicked wave rides.
All week Peter Volwater had been talking getting a cray fisherman mate to take a bunch of wavesailors out on a trip 1hr off the coast to a secret offshore break. A gang of 12 windsurfers including Scottie McKercher, Peter Volwater, Aaron Constable, Jason Juretic and others headed out to try out this break. All the groms joined us to watch the expected spectacle of 1 ½ mast peeling waves being slashed by the PWA boys. It’s a long story but the break was too shallow to wavesail. It is safe to say that not one of us will forget that trip for the rest of our lives – thanks for the experience Brendan .
The excellent event came to a close with the presentation being conducted by the AWA president Aaron Constable
Thanks go to Severn Sails as the main sponsor of the event plus those people who worked so hard behind the scenes to make it all happen, Fiona, John K, Pedro, Chrissy and all the others (you know who you are) – fantastic effort thanks.
We hope the WA sailors come and join us in Gerroa, NSW this time next year.
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