Event 4 – Wanda – Wanda Beach

Date: 11th – 12th December 2010

30+ Sailors turned out for the Starboard, Severne and Flying Objects Smack it Classic at Wanda, even with the least inspiring forecast for the Cronulla event in years.

Despite talking up the famous Wanda mystery swell and the likelyhood of a seabreeze the chance of holding an event was slim to none.

Fortunately for competitors the guys from Auswind (WA) had made the Cronulla event a major stop on their Starboard, Severne East Coast Demo Tour. Ian and Marco from Auswind had an extensive range of Starboard SUPs to demo as well a couple of Kodes and EVO IQ quads to try.

After the skippers meeting at 11:00 competition was put on hold until 2:00pm when there would be a possibility of an ‘old school’ light wind freestyle comp if the north easterly seabreeze developed.

From then to the second meeting Jason Juretic had a trailer load of donated gear to sort through to build sets of suitable training rigs for his Venturers and Scout group. A number of sailors pitched in to match sails to masts and booms. There were some excellent kids rigs donated and some very historic examples of mast bases amongst the assortment. Jason’s enthusiasm to get juniors into the sport through his try windsurfing events has nearly a dozen kids now bitten by the windsurfing bug.

The Starboard SUPS proved to be very popular and there were some excellent new shapes to try. Starboard has released a couple of models in carbon layup and the 10’ 5 must weigh around 6kg. There was also a very versatile 8’5 by 29, model that looks to be an excellent supplement for any wavesailor’s quiver. With 3 different screw-in positions for the mast base and footstrap options the 8’5 would double as a light wind waveboard as well as really manoeuvrable quad/tri/single fin SUP.

No mystery swell arrived however the seabreeze was strong enough by 3:30pm to sail and competition began with a combined Groms, Junior, Youth and Ladies expression session. For 15 minutes Oliver Cox and Forest Ladkin picked off the best of the 1-2’ shore break to post some decent rides and continue their ongoing battle for the Youth title. Anne, Cheryl , and Jessie contested the Ladies division while Jake Juretic found the conditions to his liking for the Groms division.

The Amateurs, Masters and Pros divisions each had 15 minute expression sessions and although the small waves were inconsistent and the wind gusty the level of sailing was high.

This event was about maximising what little was on offer and conditions were contestable. Getting manoeuvres would require excellent technique and timing and the better sailors would stand out. Some luck did play a part in who got the waves and at times the drop-in rules were tested.

The top Pro’s made the conditions look better than they were, pulling off forward loops and getting speed down the line. Move of the event must be awarded to Adrien Levy who managed a full tail kick aerial off 1’ of white water during the warm up.

It was a brave but good decision by the judges to fit in enough heats to get a result for the event.

On Sunday there was no swell, not even a wavelet and no chance of any wind so the remaining committee members called off the event at 11:00am. Sydney would be treated to a 10 day flat spell after the competition so hopefully by the time Event 5 begins Huey will take pity and send wind and waves.

A big thankyou to Auswind stayed for the whole event and lent out a couple of Starboard Quad’s and the new S1 and Blade to sample as well as all their SUP’s. Furthermore Auswind’s exceptional generosity meant the NSW WA club awarded $100 gift vouchers to the winners of each division.

See you at the next one – Event 5, let’s hope a big southerly sends us to Windang.

Results