A five discipline event! Well, if you count my free clinic and Friday wave session.
Hatteras OBX Wind once again delivered the goods. A packed start line for the long distance race with 170 racers, competitive slalom heats for the US National Slalom Title, and an insane freestyle level to crown the US Freestyle National Champion.
Although we missed the Canadian contingent that normally make up half the OBX Wind participants due to a closed border, we still had over 150 racers on the start line.
The long distance race was the classic OBX Wind 12 mile race with rabbit start. Out and back two times. We did two races, and for both of them I was on my Sailworks NX 7.8m slalom race sail and Starboard ISonic 77cm wide board. The setup was fast and comfortable, perfect for the long distance.
I managed to finish in 3rd place and 4th place in the races which left me in 3rd overall behind Diony Guadagnino from Venezuela and Olivier Jallais from Texas.
There was no rest for my legs on the long distance day as right after the 2nd race I rigged up my Sailworks Revolution 4.7 and Starboard Ignite 93 for the freestyle contest. The conditions were challenging near the beach, but the crowd was loving the tricks, so I tried the fine balance of landing some easier tricks in front of the cheering crowd on the beach, and some more difficult moves on the outside where the wind was stronger to impress the judges. After the first 3 heats I qualified for the semi final with four other riders: Mike Burns, Youp Schmidt, Bimbi Clappers and Nigel Hart. Everybody was ripping, and somehow Youp and I managed to edge ahead to qualify for the one-on-one final heat.
In the final heat I gave it all I had versus Youp, but I saw out the corner of my eye that he was on fire. In the end it was Youp taking the title this time around. Well done Youp, and good luck at the PWA contest in France next week!
Here is a video from the long distance and freestyle day:
The following day we were rigging the slalom sails again for a four jibe downwind slalom. We did five complete eliminations, each consisting of two qualifying heats of 20 racers each. This was followed by a B final with the bottom 10 from each heat, and an A final with the top 10 from each heat.
The action in the A final heats was INTENSE. Everybody was fast, nailing their starts and jibing aggressively. I had some awesome battles on the race course with Olivier Jallais, Terence Clappers and a few other guys. Diony who eventually won was in a league of his own!
I managed to finish the five slalom eliminations with a 1st, two 2nds, and two 3rds, leaving me in 2nd place in the slalom racing. I raced the first three races on my Sailworks NX 7.8m and Starboard ISonic 77cm board, and then changed down to my NX 7.0m with the Starboard ISonic 67cm. I was running a 40cm and 36cm fins respectively.
Besides all freestyle and racing I held a free clinic covering some racing strategies, general windsurfing tips and freestyle advice. We also toured to the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse for fun windsurfing in the waves.
A huge thanks to Mike Burns, his family and crew for organizing such an awesome windsurfing event! I’m hoping with open borders next year’s event will be bigger than ever and just as much fun! See you then!
