 |
| Opening party at Wind-NC (get it? wind & sea) |
It was a fun 17 hour drive from Toronto to Cape Hatteras. The outer banks are known for their variety of windsurfing conditions. Avon, North Carolina is the epicentre of Hatteras windsurfing - flat water on the sound side, and waves on the Atlantic side.
 |
| Getting used to the waves - small on the first day |
The American Windsurfing Tour's 6th event of the year was being hosted by Wind-NC and the conditions were looking good. I had brought my sister along to share the driving and cheer me on! We had a fun opening party and headed back to our shared house.
 |
| Happy to be back after my 1st warm up session |
The first day of competition saw us with an 11am meeting in the parking lot. We hitched rides with people who had 4x4s to the competition site on the beach.
I decided to rent a sturdier 6.0 m wave sail as my 6.2 m wasn't designed for rolling in surf. I was excited though to be using the new 116 Free Wave board I purchased earlier in the year and used just once.
Everyone was getting gear ready and dabbling in the waves for the first time. The conditions never materialized with only marginal planing winds and smaller waves. I went out for a quick sail once it started raining and then we were released for the day.
Day two had a early start with 12 amateur heats being run. I came in 3/4 and 2/5 in my two heats. I was not feeling comfortable though in the big waves and gusty offshore conditions. It really felt like survival sailing to me. I wasn't even able to get back to my starting point after each session and had a long walk back upwind each time.
 |
| Survived my first day of competition! |
But since I could make it out to the waves, and even turn on one or two I did advance anyway as some competitors couldn't get out through the shore break or find a single wave to ride back in. So that meant I would be sailing at least one more amateur heat again.
I then sailed my first heat of masters and was heading back to shore when the postponement flag went up - no one had found a wave in the 13 minutes as the conditions were too light.
In the meantime, the conditions had built up at the lighthouse. So the afternoon call was to move over there and run the pro division. What good call by race director Andy!
 |
| Boujmaa's massive wave at the lighthouse - pros only! |
On our way to the competition, we stopped for a sandwich and I bumped into a fellow cottager from Georgian Bay who
I'd windsurfed with two years ago. Small world.
The shore break for the pros was formidable but the waves were awesome. We cheered on Sherkston, Ontario reef warrior Casey who made his way through the brackets to be in the final.
 |
Kevin with a kiter who ignored the request to
stay out of the contest area and then wiped out! |
For the final, it was decided to add 1 jump to the 2 wave rides to be scored. Naturally Boujmaa hit some nice aerials but it was Kevin Pritchard's one footed back loop that scored him the win. (Even after a kiter dropped his lines on Kevin mid-competition.)
 |
| Kevin's awesome one footed back loop for the win! |
It was a super exciting final and the champion was crowned right there on the beach as the sun came out. A terrific day.
 |
| My paparazzi shot with Boujmaa |
 |
| Masters elimination ladder |
 |
| Adjusting my rental sail.. |
Day three of competition saw good waves and wind so we headed back to ramp 55 to complete the other brackets. I was up in the first master heat and headed out still not very comfortable. The waves were bigger and I wound out putting my knee through my sail during a fall in the shore break.
 |
| Found one! |
 |
| My fan club on the right... |
 |
| Yeah! |
I came 3/3 in my first masters' heat, 1/2 in the second so I advanced to the third round in masters.
Next though I had my last amateur heat and came 4/4 against Casey (who the day before came in 4th in the pros - as last year's amateur champ he had a pro wildcard spot) and two other great sailors. I wasn't surprised that I didn't move forward especially since I'd wasted so much energy trying to get out through the shore break.
I was pretty tired but still had one more master's heat to sail. Boujmaa had kindly given me some great tips on getting out through shore break.
So this time I headed out early and got out through it did a long reach and was upwind, rested, and I was on my first wave when the green flag went up. I caught some more waves and even made it back to shore where I started.
My fan club was cheering and my result came in.... 2/4 in round three so I made it into the masters' final!
 |
| Formidable conditions... |
 |
| Heading out through the shore break for the masters' final |
I felt comfortable heading out and sailing in the final but I wasn't surprised by my 4/4 end result considering that I was up against Maui long time pro and windsurfing coach Ferdinando Loffreda and two other great windsurf masters.
 |
| A nice wave |
 |
| The best - last wave ride! |
The
AWT even used this shot of me on my last wave ride on their site (right under the beach group photo) :
 |
| The 4 masters finalists.... |
The results were announced and we celebrated on the sand as the afternoon drew to a close.
Later that night we hosted a pot luck party at our shared house and got to know all the competitors a bit better.
 |
| Beach shot! |
 |
| My sister heading out on the flat sound side |
With all the categories completed, Thursday was a day off. I took my sister back to Wind-NC where we rented 145 and 160 l boards for her to try on the sound side. The wind was light and she was super comfortable on the 4.7 while I planed on my 6.2.
The water was very warm and the soft waist deep bottom makes waterstart practice very easy. She sailed for 2.5 hours and even found her way back during a torrential downpour. A return to Hatteras with a sound side rental house is in order.
The rain started coming down in buckets on Friday and was predicted to continue so we headed home a day early - not a bad thing after a successful week.
Thanks to Andy for hosting, to Si Crowther for the great photos, to Sam for organizing, to Russ for posting, to KP, Bouj and the Schettewi boys for inspiring and everyone else for their stoke and comraderie.
Here's the event video - I'm briefly at 2:29...
No comments:
Post a Comment