Speed may have given me a great life, but who doesn’t dream of being a wave sailor. Believe it or not I was daft enough to enter the odd wave event years ago. My first was at Rhosneigr, conditions didn’t really play ball and we ended up moving round to another beach for light wind wave. I’m no better today, but being back in Rhosneigr couldn’t have felt better.
The winds been howling all week, hanging onto a five meter is starting to feel normal. We spent most of our time moving between Clacton and Walton, but the best day was waiting for the weekend. Conditions were looking good for Rhosneigr, perfect timing to let the slalom and wave boys show how it’s done.
I arrived on Friday to see the same seen from those years gone by, flat water and zero wind, but as the week switched to weekend the wind kicked in to show what Rhosneigr really has to offer. Slalom was up first, but each time a sailor touched the water to test out his set-up the wind picked up another notch and send he scurrying up the beach for something smaller.
By the time of the first gun most had already run out of race gear and only the hardiest of racers were left with cambers in their sails, watching from the beach it looked more like a packed wave heat as there headed out towards the outer mark with little more than their top battens pocking above the waves.
Last years Slalom was a one horse race with Jamie Hawkins walking his way to victory, in these extreme conditions more of the same was expected, but 2009 looks set to be the best fort events in years. Top honours this weekend went to a dominate Mat Pearch, but with a new buzz in slalom he’s not the only one out there wanting to make Jamie work to retain his crown.
It’s been a while since I’ve watched a wave event and the last time I was in Rhosneigr the forward hadn’t even been conceived. The standard of British wave sailing is truly international, sure we’ve all seen double’s in the Pozo video’s, but to see them being pulled of in our own waters with such predictability was stunning. Timo Mullen set the bar in the opening round with not just one double, but two; from then on everyone was on the game, not happy with just matching Mullet’s two double’s, John Skye looked set to do it in every round.
The competition was so fierce half a point could make the difference of being cast aside or progressing towards the final. Boosted by his win in Ireland last week Jamie Hancock pushed his was through to the final to meet local legend Ben Proffit. Hancock’s solid wave riding saw him edging in front on the riding, but couldn’t reply to Proffit’s aerial display, if you had to pull it down to one move, it had to be Ben’s tweaked push loop that stole the crown.
While credit is undoubtedly due to our stars, the real stars of the day were all those in the ladies, youth and challenge fleets, they headed out along side our pro’s in conditions where they’d been forgiven for stepping away. If you weren’t able to make it to Rhosneigr then you really missed out, but with this being just the start of the season there’s time to sign up for the next stop on the UK tour, or just get to the beach to see it for your self.
For those who I’ve sailed with in the past, I’ve got a great way to give you some idea of just how windy it was, I was getting nailed on a 4.7 and if a 4.2 had been closer to hand I would have jumped on it. And for those who I haven’t had the privilege to sail with, there’s a bunch of beer adds that get king of close to the feeling of the weekend, and if Carlsberg did windsurfing Rhosneigr would probably feature in there advertising.
