Day 1-2
Greetings from the windy island of Maui!
The wind here has been excellent, providing ideal
conditions for the first 2 days of racing at the US
nationals. The race organizers decided to run slalom
right off the back as that’s what they're used to
running. The slalom fleets have been broken up into 8 age
groups with 10-15 sailors in each heat. Over the past
2 days we have ran 14 heats of slalom for each fleet-
making it really east to fall asleep at the end of the
day! In my class, the 19-34 year old men, we have some
real talent with Matt Pritchard, Seth Besse and some
impressive locals sailors taking the top of the pack
each race. I ve been a bit inconsistant with finishes
from 4th to last but more important, it's alot of fun
racing here. I come off the water with a smile on my
face after every race...something about racing in
boardshorts in great wind does that!
One thing noticable about this nationals is the local
spirit. It is more like a regonal event than a
national championships with lots of locals and
especially young kids. It's especially great to see
the younger kids here ripping around on the slalom
course. They are using 4.0- 5.0 small sails making it
look easy!
Next up today is the long distance race. Windsurfers
can't get on the water before 11 am and the wind has
been up up to 20+ before that, so its going to be an
interesting day on the water with perhaps more slalom
after the long distance racing.
To give you an idea of how windy its been, Ive been on
a 5.8 slalom and 29 cm fin fully lit up. My booms have
been slowing making their way down the cut out for
more control, as the well as a bit more downhaul each
race.
You can check out some video here:
http://mauiwind.blogspot.com/
I'll provide some more updates later in the week as we
do more racing.
Steve
USA 4
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