Freestyle Frenzy at WindsurfnSnow Classic
Mad action shots!
The epic wavesailing mecca of Kurnell (?) played host to the latest and greatest flat water action for the WindsurfnSnow Classic on Saturday, 3rd December. With the wind gods granting us direct offshores on Saturday morning and the familiar catch cry of 'You should have been here yesterday', ringing harshly in some sailors' ears, the decision was made to hold a freestyle comp amongst the groynes at Kurnell; a short drive from Wanda beach. As the Red Bull girls arrived on the scene to amp us all up, and the Starboard travelling road show of great demo gear was put to good use, we were set to see something different to the usual NSWWA comp.
The Masters and Ladies were first out with a demonstration of some old school moves: monkey gybes from Jason Juretic, no hands sailing from Rob Jacobs, boomerang tacks from Steven Meyer and Liz Lueck, power gybes and general chaos from Dave Frame and forward loops from Steve Robinson. Rob Jacobs was also reported to be busting out the odd forward, along with Jason Juretic who was trying them in the dangerously shallow water on the inside. This prompted some speculation on the beach as to how a 6 ft tall, 300 kg man could disappear under 4 inches of water. With the mystery yet to be solved, the crater created by his impact has been opened for recreational diving tours.
The Opens were divided into two expression session heats of fifteen sailors each, running for twenty-five minutes. The wind favoured us and both heats had ample planing time, with numerous old and new school tricks appearing - body drags, spocks, upwind 360s, downwind 360s, vulcans, willy skippers, duck tacks, clew first thingummys and watchahowsyafathers. The Euro brigade of Peter, John, Kelvin and Steve pushed the local boys hard with a nifty little move called the gecko and a dazzling array of 'slidey, spinney stuff' that left most of us just looking plain confused. Not to be outdone, the local team upped the ante, with some sailors pushing themselves well outside their comfort zones. John Redmond's 'no hands' sailing was highly rated by the judges, as was his high speed dismount over the front of the board. Tony Marsh invented a new move involving an underwater sail 360, Tim Knowles was popping shove-its off nothing and John Paget impressed with his reverse body drags. Special mention must go to Craig Williams who amazed us (and himself) pulling off Donald duck tacks, vulcans and upwind 360s to boot - those years of playing around in the westerlies finally paid off (-:. Of particular amusement were the 'dry school' sailing antics - racing along fin first on the exposed mud/weed at low tide saw Logan Haggerston stage a violent dismount when his fin reconnected with the mud, and joining him soon after was Dean Hendrie, who managed to get quite a few metres over the weed with no water under the board at all.
It was decided to run second expression sessions of ten minutes for all divisions. This had the effect of wiping the Masters energy out entirely and they agreed to flag the final and all be first (If only we could do that in the Opens...). As the finalists for the Opens were being tallied, the Triple M girls turned up with a ute full of goodies. Yay! The team gathered round for free toothpaste, muesli bars, magazines and Paul NewmanĄ's Own Romano & Parmesan pasta sauce. Interesting... Also on offer were free tickets to the new Zorro movie. Eager to get the taste of Kurnell mud out of his mouth and score the free tickets, Logan outdid himself by sculling a jar of the pasta sauce; only to discover he had forgotten he lives in Newcastle and that the tickets were for a Sydney cinema. Excellent effort anyway, Logan!
The Opens final consisted of Dan Berry, Craig Williams, Steve Hackey, Peter Puhl, Tim Knowles and John Paget. For fifteen minutes the guys busted out every move they could think of and it was local guru Dan Berry who won the day, with his smooth spocks and clew-first spocks sealing victory. With competition over sailors got right back out there on the Starboard demo gear, capping off a solid days sailing. All in all, it was an excellent event and thoroughly enjoyed by everybody.
Wanda surf club was the venue booked for the night and it was a very pleasant setting with a lovely vista over the beach. And loads of beer and free BBQ - thanks Rob J and Steve M for cooking! There was a great array of prizes, and the sail raffle was once again very popular - Grayson looked very pleased to be walking off with a brand new Neil Pryde sail! DJ AJ warmed up the scene with a selection of tunes from his play list, and was reported to be looking very hip and cool by those who made it to the Lounge Bar after midnight.
Thanks go to all the committee members for putting such a fun event on - Dan and Liz for masses of organising and driving four hours to get all the prizes, Jason and Tim for getting it all to run smoothly and making the hard call to sail the flat water at Kurnell, and Emma Juretic for buying all the food. Thanks also to Red Bull and the girls for giving us our caffeine hits, Triple M for their support and toothpaste donation, and Starboard with Ian Grosse for adding to the whole atmosphere with great demo gear and tales of life on the road from WA. Starboard also put some $$$ towards us securing the Wanda surf club - much appreciated. Muchas gracias must go to WindsurfnSnow, our series sponsor, and the Wanda Classic event sponsor, and who also gave cash to enable us to use the surf club. Thanks very much.
See you all at Gerroa on the 4th-5th February for our next event. Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
Pics here!
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