I saw a massive pile up just after the start of one of the races. The guy in front went down pretty hard and about 5 others piled on top of him. It looked pretty full on. Anyone know if there was any injuries or gear damage from it ?
There was a good turnout with 20 to 30 sailors completing 5 rounds in strong winds to work off their hang overs..... It was a very high level of racing with many of the top sailors from the marathon racing. Was really good to watch except for the sand blasting.
The top three was really tight, with all three claiming at least one round.
1st: Chris Lockwood
2nd: Jesper Orth
3rd: Peter Volwater
It was a good pile up at the start line of the last final but fortunately no one was hurt.... or gear damaged.
The full results will be on the WWA website eventually.
Great stuff Slowy and Jesper!
Love to see the locals getting some revenge after the marathon!
Like Greg said, many thanks to ALL involved in putting a great day's slalom together. Fun course, perfect conditions, competitive, and inspiring to have the opportunity to race with some great sailors. The rounds kept coming - well done to Bjorn for keeping the tempo up.
A long arvo requiring bit of endurance, 6? rounds ~36 competitors doing the short downwind slalom with very high standard indeed with the likes of Peter Volwater, Patrick Diethlem, Dan Endgal, Slowie, Jesper Orth and some other very fast gybing internationals and a hoard of Perths best slalom machines, ......very well honed they are over here. My speed was good, lurked at the flying 3 min start seq's and ran with the bunch, didn't have timer, my biggest weakness was consistent hi speed gybes. Also running pointer fin for heats 1&2 and collecting weed didn't help. later changed to weedy.
Was fully lit on the 7.3, 120L and 36 weedy..... another story riding these things very limited practice on this setup, but really happy how I went, sail and board real sweet. Ended up with a 9th overall in the Slalom and which also handed us a 1st in the masters div. Had HD camera on head and got some speccy footage too, flat out stuff! plus nice close up of GBR9XX's? boom end as it smacked me across the head as we all hit the start line at full tilt in one heat.
Made it into SL' final totally exhausted from last heat in round so no time to rest before start of it. It was a mad rush, and the top guys were all going for the windward start bouy. Think of about 6 windsurfers trying to all fit thru a 1m space next to winward start bouy, and yes what happened then was one of the greatest and most brutal hispeed multiple pile ups of windsurfers I've ever seen!!!!
As I was sneaking up from behind and could see what was about to pan out I went downwind a little and watched it all unfold.... 1 down, 2 down, 3 down, 4down now 5&6 as well, hideously painful to see such a mash of sail colour and riders getting pole-axed. I was now in the leed!!!!!...Membrey?olympic style........... as I approached 1st mark, then I got Slowied just befor it. Some how Volwater recoverd from start crash and made up ground thru the gybes, think I finished in the top half of that one.
But race officials decided to re run final due to the pile up and the fact maybe some were over the start line? not sure?, and the fact it was just so horrific. So final was re-run and got a 9th.
Luckily all survived!!!! small hole in Dan E's sail, few other scratches maybe oin others, glad I had a helmut on, battery on HD cam had gone flat for the crash though any one else capture it????
Thanks to organisers for keeping the rounds/heats moving along and doing a good job hopefully this will form part of the LOC media coverage????
Great Racing WA crew!
Cheers
Spotty
Hey Spotty,
would be good to see some of your video footage of the racing.
Any chance you can post some on here?
The slalom was awesome fun despite the less-than-average feeling as a result of the previous evening's indulgence.
Really well organised from the get-go. Bjorn did a great job as race director. Hats off to Gary and the WWA crew for another great effort. Big thanks to all the guys who helped out setting up the course and decomissioning at the end of the day, and thanks to Stuart Bell Sails for providing some great prizes (chinook booms).
Conditions were perfect for slalom. I was well juiced on the 7m. The fleet was divided into 3 heats to start with, with the top 4 from each heat making it into a single final for the round. That meant a lot of sailing for us! In all there were 5 (I think?) rounds. Making that 11(?) races for me (including the rerun of the last final).
Course was a classic 3 mark short course downwind M. Very well set up despite a heavy bias on the upwind end of the start line (but that made the starts really tight).
If I got any of this wrong please correct me. I was feeling a bit retarded on Sunday.
Final one was doninated by Dan. Cant remember who finished after that.
Final 2 saw a battle between Jesper, Peter and Patrik after Dan went down on the first mark. Patrik got pushed downwind to the last mark (seaweeded?) allowing me to sneak in on the inside. In the end Jesper owned that one.
Final 3 I got a good start and was in the lead until I stacked it on the last mark. doh. Peter won that one, with Jesper 2nd and me 3rd.
Final 4 was a cracker. Close racing with Peter in the lead followed by Jesper at the 2nd mark. I put the foot down on that one and got a cracker gybe which slingshot me out in line with Peter, who left me some room to sneak past on the inside of the last mark. Cool.
Final 5 startline was really crowded. I started upwind and realised there was no room so backed off behind the first bunch, who moments later seemed to converge into a single massive wipeout. I swerved hard upwind and just missed the mess. From then it was cruising to the finish with some pressure from James (who noticed the abandonment flag go up but kept racing anyway!). And where did Peter come from???
Final 5 rerun started clean and I dont know what happened behind me, although I did see the nose of Jesper's RRD in my peripheral vision, very close to my head at the first gybe.
In points it was really close at the end between Jesper, Peter and myself.
All up a fantastic day, and a good way to flush the system with some adrenaline.
I have heard the air from car aircon but that's a no go for me.
Great stuff Slowy; you beat the world numbers 8,14 & 20 in PWA Slalom!
So numbers 3 (Dunkerbeck), 9 (Allen) and 15 (Swift) weren't racing?
www.pwaworldtour.com/index.php?id=930
to be honnest it really pisses me off that Swifty, Bjorn and Steve did not race the slalom.
The story garry told me about how he convinced Peter and Patric to race is a real Gem. I have far more time for peter as a person than any of the other crew. The rest are soft as. They only had a hangover. That is not an excuse.
I tallted to Bjorn that morning and told me he did not have the proper kit to race, he could not borrow anything from anyone
, and what he had the previous day was test gear.
I know swifty was "too hung over" to race.
surely bjorns sponsors could have organised some kit for him for the event??? Pete only had 1 slalom board and a few sails with him.
Garry told Peter that it would mean the world to the young boys (Brayden and Jet) if they could have the chance to race against himself. Pete said some thing along the line of " sound like a good enough reason to me" then he made sure patrick and co turned up.
I have heard the air from car aircon but that's a no go for me.
I have no experience with go pro cameras but a solution of baby shampoo in water stops snorkelling goggles from fogging up, perhaps that would work?
I have heard the air from car aircon but that's a no go for me.
