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.