The weekend of the 8th and 9th of December saw Wanda playing host to Event 4 of the 2012-13 NSWWA Severne Sails Waves Series. Remi and The Windsurfing Shed were kind enough to sponsor this event and brought some excellent equipment to demo as well giving away some amazing prizes from Maui Sails, Exocet boards and XO Sails.
The day started slowly with a lot of the competitors taking time to prepare for the contest and warming up with their SUPs and surfboards. With a late noreaster forecast for the day, the Judges called for a 1:30pm start. The wind became more consistent and picked up to around 15 knots with some stronger gusts from time to time. Waves were knee to shoulder high in the bigger sets allowing the contestants to show their skills and have some fun.
With around 30 entrants, the Amateurs were sent out first. In these conditions the judges decided to count the 3 best waves and no jumps in 12 minute heats. The youngsters were the ones on form, especially Kai Bates, Zack Coleman and Jake Juretic making it straight to the final or the semi-final. These are the guys to watch out for in the coming years. The rest of the fleet wasn’t holding back either, pushing hard to get into the semi-final.
The Open Pro division was the next category to hit the waves and the crowd on the beach were happy to see the usual suspects ripping. Tim Knowles, Dean Hendrie and Duncan Osborne were all sailing well but the stand out of the day was Francois Regis-Pialoux, taking out the event. A special mention must go to Jessica Crisp who, competing against the boys is a serious threat!! For the semi-finals and finals Head Judge Michael Preswick called for one jump to be counted allowing a festival of forward loops, cheese rolls and backies.
The Masters showed us how experience is so essential in these wave conditions. Alan Bailey took the division followed by Jason Cater and Warren Holder; these 3 have been battling ferociously all season raising the masters division to an all-time high. Alan took this event with incisive rollers and good wave positioning.
The results are now up on the website and it’s still all to play for! The next, and final event of the 2012-13 NSWWA Severne Sails Waves Series will take place on the 2nd/3rd February at Windang/Gerroa.
Thanks again to the event sponsor The Windsurfing Shed and our series sponsor Severne Sails, for the support and prizes!
Hope to see all of you at the next competition in the Illawarra and again at the Nationals two weeks after.
