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14.03.03
Wellington Freestyle Champs 2003 report
The
event started off perfectly on Saturday the 8th March 2003 in the
Ditch, with top freestyle conditions, being 15-20 knots southeast
and another 15 knots southeast on Sunday,the second event day. Saturday
saw 3 full rounds each featuring a series of 4 sailor elimination
heats (8 mins long) followed by a 20 min expression session to finish
off a hard days sailing. In all there were 21 heats on Saturday. Sunday
featured semifinals for the top 10 qualifiers from Saturday and a
5 man final.
There
were 32 entries total (21 Wellingtonians, 2 international sailors
and the Auckland crew) which made it a very well attended event. It
was good to see junior sailors and four women taking part at this
year's competition.
The whole event venue, plastered with flags, banners and people was
quite a spectactular sight, as numerous local sailors as well as cars,
pedestrians etc. stopped by to have a look and ask what this was all
about. TV1 news filmed a lot of the action and the event actually
made the news on telly that evening for once, which was great publicity
for the sport.
The
judges were kept buys by all the action that was happening on the
water,with lots of sail handling tricks,retro moves like duck tacks,
heli tacks and 360's being performed left right and center, making
them just about dizzy at times. Special mention goes to Tony Knussen
from Auckland pulling off Grubbies (which won him the top kiwi ranking
really).
Michael Rossmeier setting the benchmark
(picture
by D. McPhee)
crowded
Kio Bay beach
(picture by D. McPhee)
The standard
of freestyle from the Kiwi competitors was definitely the best performance
seen so far in any of the Wellington Freestyle contests, with not
a lot separating the top 8 or so Kiwi sailors. The 2 stand out sailors
throughout the whole contest however were the 2 international sailors,
Michael from Austria and Olivier from Canada. These 2 sailors showed
the Kiwis the benchmark in Freestyle by performing perfect willy skippers
and lolly pops, World Tour level
clew first spock 540s and grubby 540s. The move of the day went to
Michael, pulling off a Flaka (Swayze) in the crowded expression session.
The event party on Saturday night was held at the Jet Bar which was
attended by heaps of people. Footage by Chris Brown who did a great
job as usual was shown (thanks Chris). Pete Smith and the boys from
Auckland turned up at Kio Bay on Sunday after having sampled the many
deights of Wellington and doing an all nighter! Many sad asses were
carrying hangovers on Sunday.
Overall,
it was an awesome event with a great turnout, excellent conditions
and good support from local sponsors and the windsurfing community.
All local sailors have been inspired by the contest and the wild tricks
possible as displayed by the international sailors and no doubt there
will be time spent on the water to try and reach these levels.
Result list:
Mens
Open:
1st Michael Rossmeier, Austria
2nd Olivier Matte, Canada
3rd Tony Knussen, Auckland
4th Clayton Dougan
5th Woo Norris
6th Leland Le Breton
6th James Court
6th Mike Brunt, Auckland
6th
Pete Smith, Auckland
6th
Gareth Wood
11th Onno Le Roy, Auckland
11th
Matt Bliss, Auckland
11th
Luke Baillie, UK
11th
Pete Sawyer
Womens Open:
1st Bronwyn Ward
2nd Carmen Sulzberger
2nd Ruth Wallis
2nd Lydia Heard
Novices:
1st equal: Stu Warman, Frank Louie, Auckland
Juniors:
1st Tom Green
2nd Nick Graham
2nd Megan O'Donovan
2nd Rowen Easton
2nd Tim Banford
Olivier Matte in action
(picture by D. McPhee)
Tony Knussen performing a "Grubby"
(picture by D. McPhee)
Link to Stehsegelrevue
where you can find more pictures of the event.
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