Just got home after spending a week in Gerroa, NSW for the Australian Wavesailing Titles. It was an awesome week with great weather, good surfing and a bit of wind as well. Everything was well organised and a really good crew of people turned up.
On the first day Joel and I arrived after leaving Melbourne at 5am in torrential rain. We had a sail in some small 1-2 ft swell and a gusty 15-20 knots. Over the next few days the wind backed off and we had some sick surfing at Werri beach about 5 minutes north.
The forecast for the Monday and Tuesday was calling for a nice solid swell and strong Southerly winds. The elements were looking epic for Windang, a starboard tack spot 30 minutes north of Gerroa. However in typical competition fashion, the conditions failed to materialise. What was meant to be epic down the line sailing ended up being no wind, small wave onshore mush... With Tuesday meant to be lighter wind than Monday, hopes were down. Suprisingly though the wind picked up and everyone got out in some head high+ waves. It was decided to start the competition and we got through a few heats before conditions deteriorated and it was called off.
The big swell that was meant to hit Tuesday didn't arrive until the next morning. A check of a few of the spots around Gerroa revealed some 8ft bombs coming in. The wind stayed light and we got some good waves. With the forecast looking quite dim for the rest of the waiting period none of us knew what was going to happen. Luck was on our side though, suddenly Thursday was going to be on and seeing the swell had arrived late it was going to coincide with the first bit of wind in a couple of days.
As Thursday dawned we were greeted with a consistent head high swell with half mast sets. The wind was very light and cross shore but was looking promising to get better. Wanting to get a result we started to get into the heats almost straight away. My heat against fellow NP/JP rider Dan Berry who is an awesome competition sailor was first. I left the beach first and just as I got out the back one of the bigger sets of the day, getting close to logo high came in a reamed me just as the green flag went up! It wasn't a good start and everything went downhill from there. It was very hard to get any power in the bottom turn and staying upwind was impossible. Dan ended up smoking me getting one wave were he racked up 7 turns, and a few good ones to back it up. Pretty pissed about the heat, I ended up sitting on the beach watching the Single elmination progress waiting for another turn in the double.
By the time the single was completed with Jaeger Stone in first, Ben Severne second and Dan in third the conditions were improving. The wind shifted more offshore and picked up to around 15 knots. I had a lot of heats to sail if I wanted to get a solid result but the conditions were looking fun so I was keen to get out there and have a crack. After taking out Mick Westra in the first round Joel was also keen to make his way up the ladder, unfortunately we were drawn against each other. I ended up winning and had my next heat against Will from QLD. In that heat the waves were really inconsistent so I had to muck around racking up points on small crappy waves. I saw Will get one or two sets so I was a bit nervous about the result. Back on the beach we found out that there was a judging error with only two judges scoring the heat so we were going to have to resail. I wasn't really sure if this was good or bad seeing I wasn't confident on the result. It turned out I had won by a close margin if the result was to be counted from the two judges but we had to do it again anyway.
The heat went a bit better than the previous one but I still didn't feel like I had a sick wave in the bag. In the last minute of the heat a solid set came my way and walled up perfectly. I knew that this wave was going to be critical, bearing away I accelerated and got two fast turns on the wall before it pitched over. I came up to hit the lip and got thrown out into the flats - stoked! That wave sealed the deal and I had to run straight back upwind to sail out again in the next heat. I was pretty tired by this point as the heats were long but I had a bit of an adrenalin rush keeping me going. The next heat was good with consistent set waves coming in, by half way I felt like I had racked up enough points to get through. Again as the heat ended I had to run straight back upwind to sail out again. By this stage I come back all the way through the double as was now fighting for 4th position. On the way out my forearms started to cramp. I was exhausted. Crashing an aerial on my first wave I knew it was going to be tough. In the end I was too tired and Andrew sailed a good heat so I ended up 5th overall, sailing 6 heats to make my way back up. Pretty happy to end up with a decent result we sat down to watch the final heats.
Unfortunately the swell and wind both dropped for the finals, Ben Severne beat Jaeger who was struggling to get around the break in the light air. A final decider was necessary to determine the 2011 Australian champion. The heat was incredibly close with Jaeger coming in to swap boards a few times just so he could get out the back! He got one pretty good wave with two aerials, one of which was one handed and a few nice turns which probably won it for him. So Jaeger Stone ended up winning and taking home $1000 and a nice trophy!
Jodi from whitecaps photography took thousands of photos over the event so hopefully get some action shots soon...
