Competitions

We have had two competitions in the past couple of weeks - the first was Round 2 of the Victorian Wavesailing Series, held at Point Impossible, Torquay.

Possos is one of my least favourite spots to sail, seeing it is so fickle. On a good day it is super fun, just scoring that good day is very hard - I've had it twice. Ever.
On a small swell the wave is very shifty and sometimes doesn't even break as the tide gets high. The forecast was calling for a swell building to 4-6ft during the day, unfortunately it was less than half that size. Small possos, with a very gusty wind doesn't do it for me. I hate competing in small waves - especially on starboard tack!
Needless to say the comp didn't go great for me, getting knocked out in the semis.
Once the comp was over the conditions actually improved for an hour with some bigger sets starting to appear...

As big as they were getting during the competition.


Jono on a solid one at the end of the day.


The latest comp was the SHQ Sandy Point Melbourne Cup weekend, where amongst other events we had the VWS Round 3 at Waratah Bay. The conditions were shocking, horrible, terrible, crap etc. We probably wouldn't have run a wavesailing round if it wasn't part of an already fixed event. Small wind slop, light and gusty cross to cross on winds and again, starboard tack - this combination is my competition nightmare!! I was on my biggest gear, drifting downwind for the majority of the heats. A few lucky gusts here and there were enough to get me to the final, but still... When your competitors are on 5.7s and 100L waveboards you don't have much chance on a 68! It was a bit disappointing seeing the rest of the event was awesome. We had some good conditions just before the event started, a shame that they didn't turn up when we needed them.

Forward during the heats.



Before the event started, 25 knots cross off and some fun waves - arrrgghh





Man it would be nice to always have decent waves like this for comps...

Victory!!

On the weekend we had the Round 1 of the Victorian Wavesailing Series. The forecast was calling for 20-30 knots cross shore and about half mast high waves at my favourite local spot - Right Point. Typically the contests we have are in fairly average conditions so I was frothing at the opportunity to compete in decent down the line waves.

Due to the tides we had to get in early so a 9am briefing was called. I wanted to sneak in a warm up sail before the comp started so was up at 6am. Checking the wind observations it wasn't really what we hoped for - it was fairly onshore. At least there was wind and the swell was up. I just hoped that it would swing back cross shore as forecast so we could really let loose.

Unfortunately it wasn't to be, the competition kicked off in a gusty 15-25 knots, cross onshore with half mast high waves and 5 surfers clogging the lineup. The expression session did not go well - I hate sailing in cross on conditions especially if the wind is light. It took me until the final few minutes of the heat to get a single decent wave which was enough to scrape through into the next round.

Semis



The surfers obviously got fed up with not getting any waves and left us in peace as we got down to the business end of the competition. The wind went a bit more cross shore and I was able to pull a few aerials and got the one jump required. Through to the finals! I was then up against 2010 Champ Hock and Joel Ryan to battle it out for the top three positions. The wind went back onshore and became patchy, I knew it would be tough as Hock had been sailing well in the onshore conditions.


On the first run out I wanted to get my jump out of the way so pulled a very clean forward only to turn around and see that the judges hadn't actually put the flag up!! Not a good start. I caught a couple of decent waves for the deteriorating conditions but still couldn't find a jump no matter how hard I tried. In the dieing minutes of the heat I knew I was in trouble so dropped a hand on a sick chop hop, hoping the judges actually noticed and would score it (clearly very low). Then I got a small ramp and rotated around another forward only to see that the flag was down and the heat over! Amazingly that chop hop got me over the line combined with my decent wave scores so I took the win by one point over Hock!!

Finals




Wasn't the sick conditions I was hoping for but still stoked to have such a good result so early in the season. Thanks to everyone that helped out - see you at the next one!

Jon was getting some good jumps but was unlucky to get through after helping another sailor with a broken mast into shore.

gnaraloo video + vic wave series round 1

here is the video from the gnaraloo trip.


there were a few issues with people learning how to use the camera! but it worked out ok...

had the first round of the victorian wavesailing series at point impossible today. the conditions were pretty horrible really... super up and down cross shore wind and bumpy, fat waves that were mostly closing out. it was very challenging to sail, i think most people spent 80% of the day bogging around. i ended up 4th which is an ok start to the series but hopefully we get some real conditions at the next event to get everything rolling! james ended up winning with a nice pushy and a few waverides - congrats!