This is an article which appeared in yesterday's Canberra Times:
Because our lake has been closed a lot this year, we have been "forced" to go to the coast.
I'm attaching some photos of Alex "suffering" in the rough ocean waters of Gerroa. These great shots were taken by Jodi Stevenson (White Caps Photography).
It gets worse for him next week when we have to travel over 40 hours to take him to Curacao in the Caribbean to compete in the Slalom World Championships.
Unfortunately he will suffer even further by missing out on 2nd term at school and then being made to watch the PWA Freestyle comp in Bonaire. 
Yeah, poor kid!
Forced to travel to Sanctuary Point instead of Lake Burley Griffin. What a tough life. What with the regular seabreezes on LBG and all.
How does he get his push bike all that way by himself with his boards and sails? That must be one tough kid.
for the three years I sailled there, they frequently closed Burley-Griffen (for swimming) over the summer. the water police would come up and request you leave, but also confessed to not being able to compell us to leave the lake. we sailed it many times while it was closed for algae blooms (of which you'd see no evidence while sailing), and had no ill effects.
are they closing the lake because they fear lawsuits or is it really dangerous?
anyhoo, best of luck Alex in this competition. we know you'll turn it on dude!
Gosh, the poor little fella!
My heart goes out to Alex and his family at this difficult time..
I think this is obviously a big cover up. The lake is closed for repairs to the governments secret missile launch site, hidden in the lake.
We normally keep sailing in the lake too despite the frequent closures over the last few years due to blue-green algae because we figure that we are probably immune to it, are on top of the water much of the time and that the middle of the lake is much better than the edge
BUT...
This year the bacterial counts were 33 times the upper limit in places arising from flooding and sewage discharge incidents upstream at Queanbeyan.
Also, Yarralumla Bay was inaccessible and that's where we launch. First the bay was full of logs and then they pulled them all out onto the beach. They stayed there for 3 months until they chipped them last week. Maybe they'll open the car park once the wood chip mountains have been removed. We're hoping it shouldn't be more than a couple of weeks - just in time for winter...
This is a photo of the beach. That was bad enough but it got ten times worse because they then dragged all the logs from the rest of the lake to the beach too!!
I miss LBG, even though I've moved to Gerroa I still miss the gusty Nor'westers, the solid Easterlies and the blue green algae.....
....At least next summer you guys can crash at my place and get some serious training in at Gerroa, we'll see if the boy can take out the wave sailing next.
Anyways good luck Alex, see you guys when you get back home.
Jase.
all the best for the slalom championships Alex, don't forget to keep us posted and hope to see you guys when you get back
The Canberra Times page 2 article on Alex and his "plight" needed to be read in political context.
The front page carried an article that started with "The National Capital Authority cannot afford to manage Lake Burley Griffin and the ACT Government should take control of the national icon, according to the Chief Minister, Jon Stanhope". And further, "Mr. Stanhope was reacting to revelations that . . . sewage-related bacteria in Lake Burley Griffin rose to 60 times the safe level for human exposure after a spill from the Queanbeyan Sewerage Treatment Plant last year".
Queanbeyan is in NSW, and the Canberra Times / ACT government is, in part, using Alex in making a case for better Federal and/or NSW funding. Have you heard anything like that before? Mining taxes? 
GST revenue sharing between states? Complaints from Adelaide re NSW and Victoria's treatment of the Murray? Hmmm.... I bet that sounds familiar to you.
Alex's article is quite a compliment to our sport; windsurfing has that eco-friendly, clean, green image. (Not talking about algae here).
Good luck, and good winds for your endeavours, Alex!
Thanks guys! We'll keep you posted. And we'll keep the GPSs on....
Dad is trying to talk Mum into keeping a blog while we're away - it's probably going to be a weekly one this time (daily blogging was too much for her last year)...
