Finally!

Finally won a Freewave series round. It has been a long time since I have won a round, with lots of seconds but no first places for at least a couple of years. The natural talent of Clayton Dougan being my using nemesis.

Last weekend was a ripper of a contest. probably the windiest contest we have ever held at Plimmerton. The wind was so seriously out of control at one stage that there was no one out and most sailors were hiding in the bushes trying to avoid flying objects. Thankfully the banshee conditions relented slightly for the early rounds.

Most rigged 4.0 or smaller and most wished they had smaller sails. Won both my heat and the semi with some strategic and lucky sailing. Managing to nail a big ankle dry pushloop in the semi about 20 feet off the beach enabling me to concentrate on spanking the wasit high shorey for the next nine minutes. The cool thing was is that I could here the crowd hooting as I landed. Cool!

In the final the banshee conditions returned giving us super over powered conditions especially out the back. I went out with the same strategy and almost replicated the semi with another perfect ankle dry push loop this time about 40 feet of the beach. All I need to do is concentrate on getting good waves and a couple of reasonable jumps.

In the end I think it was these push loops that got me through and the fact that Clayton got knocked out in the semi. However, if we were judging on size of jump I would have been well short. The attached photos show second place getter Will Thorp hanging some serious plimmy airtime. On days like this everyone calls plimmy the south pacific pozo.

Some seriously good wave riding going down. Most notably from the boys who have the new twinsers.

My first placing in this round gives me the lead in the series going into the third and final round. To win I need to get a fourth or better. Fingers crossed for good conditions and my roll to hold.