Southerly storms

It's been a little warm in Wellington this winter. Like two of the warmest months on record recently.  I'm not complaining. However, we have been missing our beloved southerly storm fixes.  Thankfully we have had a run of them in the past couple of weeks.  Snows falling, roads close, ski fields open and we get action.

Oh, and I have been testing the 2012 Fanatic Quad.  It is now my most favorite thing.

More Windies

Some more photo's from Windies.  Still haven't got back there . . .

Windies exposed

Four pages of coverage in Windsurfer International of my last session at Windies in the Wairarapa. Thanks to Tim Haxell for taking the pictures.

Haven't got back there yet, although there have been several opportunities.

2010 Freewave finale

Awesome out of control conditions for the third and last round of the Wellington Freewave series for 2010.  40 knots plus at Lyall Bay and grunty logo southerly swell saw another reduced amount of entries. But enough for two heats, a repercharge and a final. 

Tweaking in the weekend - photo by Anton

Because the last two previous events were wave events, the last event was earmarked as a freestyle event. A compromise was reached on the beach to run the contest in the waves but with an emphasis on freestyle.Because it was so windy, freestyle moves were limited giving way to wave orientated moves - loops, backside aerials, wave riding and big f..ing jumps. 

Showing off the new board and new sail - pic by Anton

The final was quickly sorted and after a ten minute thrashing in the elements, the round and the freewave series were decided.  Clayton took the round and the crown for a consecutive year with a mix of old school freestyle and sold wave riding and jumps including a landed gu screw. I was runner up for the second round and a second place in the series again for 2010. Tim Haxell freestyle specialist took third place actually managing to hold down some freestyle moves in the extreme conditions.

Anton was photographer of the day - all his shots can be seen here.

Troy Purcell who squeaked into the final and 4th place has written a great account of the day from his perspective.

High times at high tide

After a run of disappointing results I have finally I have got a good result in 2010. Over the weekend I managed to win the 2nd round of the Freewave series.  IN doing so I have recovered from 4th place to 2nd place overall with one round to go.

Just about to pull the trigger

And I very nearly didn't compete at all.

Saturday looked like it would be marginal plimmy at best and I also have got a lot of work on trying to finish our new house, so I was a whisker away from  not going at all. However I came to my senses in the end and was duly rewarded with possibly the best contest conditions seen at plimmy in a very long time.  High tide is usually not the best time for swell at plimmy.  However, today it was a super high tide and combined with a reasonable swell the waves on the beach were of a good contestable size, plus the wind was cranking, easy 4.0 weather for most and super steady (especially so for the inside at Plimmerton).

The body always follows the head 

With a fleet size reduced in size (but not quality) the event kicked off and was run smoothly and quickly over the next hour and a half by Eric (check out the WWA report). Sailing on my new Neil Pryde combats I knotched up wins in my heat and the semi.  As usual my jumping was feeling good but I knew I was going to have to pick up my waveriding to win in the final over Clayton, Tom Taylor and Klaas. In the final I managed to quickly latch onto a couple of great waves and rode them right through to the beach.  In the air I focussed on getting height and tweak and variation of moves.

Clayton, high and tweaked

This combo I think gave me my first win over an in form Clayton in a couple of years. Klaas came in third and Tom had to settle for 4th this time.

Clayton, even higher

Lessons learnt over the weekend.

• Lesson 1 You gotta be in to win - The best way to get over bad results is to keep on competing even if it means risking getting more bad results
• Lesson 2 Contest sailing is exhausting - 15 minutes heats seem to last forever when it is really windy.
• Lesson 3 Brand new gear rocks especially when it makes you sail better. I can't wait to get back out their on the new Combats.

Tom Taylor, shovin it

All pictures by Anton aka fuzzy hedgehog

Wave champs water shots

Another, great set of water shots from Chris Brown. I was really close to him on this shot, he was almost immediately upwind of me.  He told me it felt like I almost looped over the top of him. Great effort and a very different perspective.

Wellington Wave Champs 2010

Rotating through my thousandth push loop? Quite possibly.

From Wellington Wave Champs 2010 All pictures Taken by Dave McPhee Wildwinds

The Wellington Wave Champs 2010 (also the first round of the freewave) was held today at Plimmerton in some pretty extreme conditions at times. The surf was large for plimmy with shoulder to head high waves breaking on the shore and it was windy.  The gusts in excess of 40 knots with most sailors battening down the hatches on flat 4.0s.  I was pretty stoked as I quite like these types of conditions and seem (from previous experience) to have an advantage. On the other hand the competition was going to be stiff. This event is the first time we have seen all the top Wellington sailors together at one time.  Tim Haxell who has been in awesome form recently, Tom Taylor the former international freestyle wizard now back living in Wellington, Tim Bamford just before he moves back to Maui, and of course the always on form Clayton Dougan.

Rubber clad in serious reflection, or perhaps just wondering where the sausages are.

Most of the heats ran through without too many surprises.  I was definitely on form in the air possibly to the detriment of the wave sailing.  I think I landed pretty much 100% of my push loops and sprinkled in a few ok forwards, cheese rolls, and shove-its.

The biggest surprise in the semis was the outing of Tim Haxell, who was one of the main contenders.  However, it was a stacked heat between myself, Tim and Clayton with Clayton taking the other spot in the finals.  The other semi was held in increasingly marginal conditions (especially if you were on a 4.0) and delivered an on form Tom Taylor and Tim Bamford through to the four man final.

Probably the last time this purple monster will be used before I get a new set.

From Wellington Wave Champs 2010

So the final kicked off and the wind backed off. I was screwed, probably getting on the plane a couple of times and having real problems getting out the back with the reduced wind strength, and the down wind current.  In the twelve minute final I got about two waves and no jumps.  made even worse by seeing f the others planning around out the back.

So it was fourth place for me, which was not such an embarrassment against these guys, but I was still really disappointed as I was aiming a lot higher. On the other hand there was not a lot I could have done about it, as it was a real case of the conditions conspiring against me.  Clayton won surprise surprise! Not sure as of writing this what the other places were.

Thanks to Eric and the judges for organising the event, not easy I know.  Kinda like herding cats.