A New Year!

Sorry for the long stretch with no news – it’s not that nothing has been going on, it is just been hard to find the time to put it all down.  So here’s the quick recap:

In late October Joanne, Ryan and I drove to Ft. Walton Beach, Florida for the Liquid Surf & Sail Fall Showdown.  We drove 24 hours straight through to New Orleans in the pouring rain (because Ryan had never been to New Orleans) and stopped at Café du Mond for hot chocolate and beignets.  A quick tour of the still hurricane ravaged gulf coast and then we were on to Ft. Walton Beach.   We had three days of racing and it was tons of fun.  From there, Joanne and Ryan flew back to Denver and I drove down to St. Petersburg beach to leave my van for the winter.

The next trip down was for the women's clinic that Dominique Vallee and I ran at the Banana River Windsurfing resort in Cocoa Beach, FL.  We had great wind (but it was a bit chilly) and the women who made the trek down from Colorado had a great time and improved a ton.  A special bonus was the night-time space shuttle launch that took place during the clinic.  And, as if getting to see a night shuttle launch wasn't enough - Dominique and I got to be on the water, windsurfing when it happened!  It was by far one of my most memorable windsurfing sessions ever!

Finally, the week between Christmas and New Year's we held a youth racing camp.  14 kids from the US and Canada spent four intensive days working on their racing skills.  Each day started with a run and stretching on the beach before breakfast and most days the last board wasn't off the water until after dark.  The kids worked on their pumping skills, racing strategy and tactics, did lots of start drills and even held a mock protest.  It was so exciting to be able to sail with and coach these kids - I'm confident that several of them will be finishing well at future world championships and we may even see them at the Olympics in 4 or 8 years!  You can see more about what's going on with the kids at www.teamusa-windsurfing.blogspot.com.  

And to make me feel even luckier than I usually do.... I got to spend a big part of New Year's day on the water, blasting around on small gear in the morning and my RS:X in the evening. Sunshine, wind and good friends to sail with - I can't imagine a better way to start the new year!

Toucan Open

Another Toucan Open has come and gone and once again we were lucky enough to have decent wind and weather. It only rained at night and the sun came out most of the weekend! You just never know who will show up at the Toucan and this year was no exception. Pete DeKay, editor of WindSport magazine stopped by on his way back to Toronto from Hood River, bringing PWA freestyle sailor, Phil Soltysiak with him. Who knew that Ogallala, Nebraska is exactly half way from Hood River to Toronto? Bobby Nabors, owner of Liquid Surf & Sail (with shops in Ft. Walton Beach, Ft. Lauderdale and Miami, FL) came up to escape from the stress of owning three windsurfing shops and hang out on the beach with us. Britt Viehman from North Beach Windsurfing in St. Petersburg, Florida also came to hang out with us and get back to his long board racing roots - actually he thought he was coming to race formula, but the combination of light wind and an F2 380 course board was all the convincing he needed.

We had most of the normal crowd from the Denver area and across Nebraska - it seems like a lot of our friends stayed home this year-I'm sure the cold, rainy forecast put a few folks off. On the other hand, participation has been on a downward trend for the past three or four years. So...does that mean everyone is losing interest? Are high gas prices to blame? Forecasts for cold weather? Or maybe we aren't promoting the event enough and everyone forgets when it is? I don't know what the reason is - but I do know that the Toucan is a pretty special event in a special place and I would hate to see it not happen.

In the last few days I've come up with this vision of the Toucan getting back to its roots. An event that just happens because everyone wants an end of the summer camp out/windsurfing party. No one would really have to organize anything. Anyone with a good idea for a shirt would have a couple dozen made up and bring them out to sell, everyone would bring a flag pole and raise a flag of some kind over their section of beach. The windsurfing clubs of New Mexico, the Rocky Mountains and Nebraska would decide to run a race. A few people from shops and magazines and windsurfing manufacturers would show up with a few things to give away and maybe the kiters would venture down and hang out with us.

Who's in?

Oregon, Washington, Light Wind, Racing and Friends

It's funny really - I went to the Gorge and the Oregon coast, never sailed on anything smaller than a 6.0, sailed an 8.5 when it was the windiest and absolutely had the time of my life!  First up was the last race of the Gorge Cup series, I do love formula racing at the Event Site.  I had some good starts (finally!), used my 8.5 the whole time, realized that I need to learn how to jibe my formula board a LOT more aggressively and finished second to Gorge local Shelly Gimball in the women's class.  I learned several important lessons:

1) There is a submerged piling just upwind of the Event Site and in very close to shore.  I found the piling with the bottom of my board - oops.  Bruce Peterson (Mr. Sailworks) was luckily on hand with magic superglue and mad skills and I only missed one race.

2)Magic superglue is cool!  Ok, maybe it's not really magic - but a Hot Stuff Pro Kit (now on sale at Larson's for only $45) and some fiberglass cloth can probably fix anything.  The huge smack in the bottom of my board got permanently repaired in about 8 minutes and I was back on the water.  

3)Bruce Peterson is super quality guy.  He took time between races to fix my board (and explain what he was doing and what he was using so I could do it myself next time), helped countless other racers during the event who needed board repair, took sails back to the loft at night to fix them in time for racing the next day and spent the week before the race running a race camp for junior sailors.  I know new sails are expensive - but when you buy a Sailworks sail at least you can be 100% sure that you are supporting a really great person behind the brand.

4)I may finally need real race sails if I'm going to keep racing Formula.  So I got a new 9.1 Sailworks NX - I can't wait to use it!

Next was a trip to the Oregon Coast for a Starboard and Severne dealer meeting.  There are some great people involved in the windsurfing industry and we had a great time in a really pretty spot.  The 2009 boards and sails look awesome and sail great.  I'll have to be ordering for next summer pretty soon - so if you know of a 2009 board that you are going to want, let me know and I can try to make sure I have one for you in the spring!  The most fun of the whole week was wave sailing in small waves and light wind on the new Starboard S.U.P and brand new, old school, super light weight, Super Light sail.  I can't wait to get one of my own and work on the new tricks Andy Brandt was trying to teach me.  Next time you're bored at work search for "ABK windsurfing" on youtube - it's inspiring!  Or better yet - sign up for an ABK camp and find out all the cool new tricks Andy is teaching.

US Windsurfing Nationals - Worthington,MN

The Imperfect World of Windsurf Racing

Ok, maybe it's just MY imperfect world.

I see other sailors at races, they always seem to have things figured out. They know which sail to have rigged, exactly how much downhual to have for the wind, how high the boom should be and the exact placement of their harness lines. I, on the other hand, am often a wreck. I have not yet figured out what race sails I should have, or even if I am going to be racing enough to justify getting new race sails. I show up to race with gear I've hardly used, no idea how to get it dialed in and in the frantic rush to get ready I forget the simplest things.

At Nationals for instance, it took me until the last day of racing to have a sail properly rigged, boom at an appropriate height and harness lines adjusted on the first try. The first day of racing it was windy and gusty and got quite a bit windier between rigging and the start of the first race. I did not make it out to the course even in time to get across the start line in time, much less early enough to sail around and see what could be adjusted to improve my performance. The penalty was getting my a** kicked around the course, falling in a lot and wearing out my forearms in record time. By the end of the day though - I almost had it all together, my gear felt good, stuff in the right place, I got to the start line in time to set my watch, I felt like I was actually trying to race instead of trying to survive! De-rigging at the end of the day I was feeling pretty good - until I realized that I spent all day on waaayy to big of a fin and it never even occured to me to do anything about it.

On the second day of racing it was mellow conditions and I was happy to be on a 9.8m (that I've actually sailed on before and already had my sail number on it -woohoo!). Half way through the first race, as my boom slipped down to around my navel, I realized that I had never used that boom with that mast and clearly things were not adjusted correctly. I used a big lull at the upwind mark as an opportunity to raise my boom after carefully weighing the potential gains I might make by having my boom at the right height vs. the potential of missing getting planing in the next puff because I was adjusting my boom. I think I made the right call - I passed a person or two before the finish!

Day three of racing was another windy one - but I was feeling confident. I had worked out all my rigging and tuning issues on the 8.5m sail on the first day, I remembered to use my smaller fin and I was ready to race. I was about as powered up downwind as I've ever been on formula gear, once it was all lit up, flying downwind...confidence disapeared in a flash - I was terrified. Instead of agressively going into a jibe and trying to pass other sailors, I was using jibes as an opportunity to rest, breathe and summon my courage to sheet in again. I was feeling like a total pansy until I saw some of the big, tough, fast guys doing the same thing. Trying to push past my fear of crashing at that speed, I kept reminding myself that the worst thing that happens is falling in the water. As it turns out, I should have been focusing on keeping the board on the water, an over-the-handlebars explosion broke my boom front end and I was done for the day.

The last two days of racing were light wind, 11.0m sail days. There were a few more gear issues to iron out (because, of course, I'd never even rigged the 11.0m before), like hitting the water without popping the bottom cam on the mast and getting the harness lines on yet another boom in the right spot. But it turns out that my biggest issue was just not being physically prepared for the 11.0m sail. It's a super light rig and feels great - but it's still an 11.0m and I was tired.

In the end I has some good races and some bad, I was mostly solidly in the middle of the fleet and of course, had a blast. If I can just remember all the gear lessons I learned and be a little more prepared next time....there's no telling how well I might do! And for all of you who are putting off racing until you really have it all figured out...come join my imperfect world of racing!

Olympic Trials - Finally a Conclusion

 

"Sometimes there are no winners at all.  And sometimes nobody needs to lose"  John LeCarre

 

By now almost all of you are familiar with the controversy surrounding the women’s rs:x Olympic Trials.  There have been accusations of excessive lawyering (heartily disputed by lawyers), lots of taking sides and a small amount (thankfully) of blaming.  You all know the story, Nancy was winning, but got run into and her sail was torn, keeping her from her rightful finish that would win the trials….or wait, is it that Farrah made an amazing come back, the wind picked up just like it needed to, and she won the trials – only to have the prize snatched from her at the last minute from a US Sailing Jury that wanted Nancy to win from the get-go.

 

The truth – good luck figuring that out.  But here’s my version of the truth, for what ever it’s worth.

 

Going into the last day, Nancy was winning the Olympic Trials by a slim margin.  I went into the last race knowing that Nancy either had to beat Farrah in the last race or finish no more than two points behind her to win the regatta.  I don’t imagine this was a mystery to either of them.  Race 16 (infamous race 16) was started in marginal wind, similar to race 15.  Nancy and Farrah both had decent starts near the boat on starboard while USA 71 started at the pin on port.  Why did that sailor start on port at the pin?  Good question – but the wind was oscillating and fairly gusty.  A port start could have been the call – in a fleet of only six sailors how much can go wrong?  However it happened, the port tack sailor managed to collide with Nancy (and Farrah, if my memory serves) and cause the now infamous gash/tear/slit in her sail.

 

Pretty quickly after the start the wind was building, I was thrilled to be fully powered up and making my around the course rapidly catching up to and passing the girls ahead of me.  Farrah was way out in front, I pulled into second place by the second up wind mark with Lisa Kremer behind me and Nancy and the rest of the fleet behind her.  As I crossed the finish line I was totally stoked to have another second place finish for the regatta and I felt awful for Nancy. 

 

When we hit land, Nancy was understandably distraught and Farrah (when she realized what the scores meant) was elated.  My heart broke for Nancy – I’ve been lucky enough to get to know her over the last couple years, and there aren’t words to describe how much I admire her tenacity and spirit.  I’ve even been lucky enough to call her a friend.  As a friend, I wanted her to win more than anything (except of course, a miracle come back of my own).  But when Nancy got redress from the jury and Farrah ended up second, my heart broke for her.  She sailed a hell of a regatta, and one amazing last race.  To watch her have her Olympic berth snatched away from her, moments before the awards ceremony, after seeing how much she had improved over the last few months before the trials- well, you watch that up close and in person and tell me how you feel about it.

 

I drove back home to Denver from southern California counting my lucky stars that I sailed a rotten regatta and wasn’t involved and that I had a job and life waiting for me at home.

 

Fast forward six months, and I’m being asked to appear in person, at a law office in Rhode Island for the re-hearing of Nancy’s redress and the possible hearing for Farrah’s redress.  I could have said no – I could have stayed totally uninvolved.  So what was I doing in Providence?  I felt is was important that the issue be resolved in the best possible way – and that way kind of needed to include all of us who were there and as much information as could be given to the folks who were going to make the decisions.  I also felt like it was important to be there for both Farrah and Nancy.  We’re all pretty close for competitors – and if I were in their shoes I wouldn’t want to go through that without friends around.

 

The first set of hearings was essentially a do-over of Nancy’s redress from the Trials and then an opportunity for Farrah to get a redress hearing of her own.  At the end of two long days (during which a few of us witnesses felt like we were being a little unnecessarily harassed by a US Sailing lawyer) the US Sailing jury stood by their original decision –which gave Nancy Rios the win. 

 

Farrah took the case to the final step, which was an arbitration hearing that was held in Rhode Island about a month and a half after the first round of hearings.  As witnesses, Lisa Kremer and I were not super excited to have a repeat of our first experience where we were so out of our element and feeling so harassed by the process and the lawyering that we wanted to hide in the corner and cry.  Luckily, the process with the arbitrator was much more civilized and brief.  Unfortunately for Lisa – she had appendicitis and got to spend a lovely day at a Providence hospital having her appendix removed. 

 

I was only directly involved in a very brief portion of the arbitration when I was questioned.  So my overall impressions should be taken as purely my opinion, based on only a very secondary hearing of partial facts.  But at the end of the day – the arbitrator dismissed the case because there was not enough reason for him to overturn the decision, but he did feel as though Farrah did get a bit of the short end of the stick at the trials.  So… there you go – I am so proud of Nancy and happy for her to be going to the Olympics. I know she is going to be training and working so hard to be the best she can possibly be at the Olympics – both as a windsurfing competitor and an American.  And I am so proud of Farrah for fighting for what she thinks is right and for the amazing strides she has made in her windsurfing and racing in a short amount of time with limited funds.  I’m not sure you can call either one of them a clear winner – but certainly neither is a loser.

 

 

Bill's Turn - What Happened at Taos

I figured I should at least contribute a couple paragraphs since that is our only picture from Taos and I'm in it.

Eric was considering entering the competition at TAOS and I told him I would join him if he entered. He did enter and I joined him. Its been a few weeks since the comp so the memory has faded a bit but the first day was quite remarkable. The first time I saw the West Basin Ridge first hand I was truly impressed. The conditions on that first day however were quite unremarkable. It was very hard and windblown from the previous storm and the unusual wind direction and was going to require all the ski survival skills I had. This venue was truly a no fall zone.

The mindset is to find the line that will enable you to get the best score possible. Too technical and you get docked in the aggression and fluidity and/or control categories. Too open and easy you get docked in the line and technique categories. So to find that line that is just at the "over your head" level without being over your head is as much or more of the competition than the actual competition is.

I had picked a line that day near the same area Eric had chosen named waterfall with a back up line down the sardozky spine, or the demons throat as I named it. I had to go to the back up line when I falsely assumed my first choice was out of bounds for the venue. Lesson learned - always check with the judges and/or officials when unsure of something. Turned out that line was open and it scored very well if you stuck it.

The greatest part of this event was the addition at the last moment of a masters division thanks to Scott Kennett, Tim Naylor and Leo Van Derbosch. Now this changed everything! I had a chance to go to the semi finals! All I had to do was stay up and ski strong. I had also learned that unlike the rest of the field the masters qualifier run would count in points towards the semi finals. So I figured I had better make a really strong run and not just "stay up".

10 inches of new snow on comp day! What a change a day makes! The start line - the constant questioning of the line I chose. Why do I do this? It is very stressful for me and I have heard of people throwing up. That hasn't happened to me yet but I can see how it does. Eric goes right before me and I watch as he approaches the waterfall area. He looks like everything is going good and then he is out of sight.

At the last minute I make a huge mistake, I see a rock from the start that I like and decide to hit that before I head over to the line I want to finish with.
Skier ready 3,2,1 GO!
I head off with a strong start, I feel ok with my first few turns as I approach that rock. I come off it -hip checking the landing- knowing I was a little loose and coming out with a little more speed then I wanted, but I try to traverse skiers left fast in an unfamiliar section and hit a spine blind going airborne. Time slows to a crawl from this point on. I do not remember much other then the sliding down hill head first towards a tree and the long walk down since my ski was irretrievable at that point.

Turns out that I hit a tree while airborne losing both ski's from that encounter and hitting the tree with my head knocking myself out. Ego damaged but all else good. My regards go out to Roy Leckonby who was not as lucky as I and had to be hospitalized after landing a huge drop hitting his head on a snow covered rock shelf. He is expected to make a full recovery!

Salomon Extreme Freeride Championships at Taos

Bill and Eric made the trek to Taos for some skiing fun and to try their hand at competing. Here is Eric's report on the whole experience!

So you think you can ski?

I thought I knew the answer to that question..... Now I know the answer in a little better detail.

I finally convinced myself to try some competetive skiing to test myself and to be a part of a great skiing event at one of my favorite mountains. Competition is a way of quantifying our ability at something we enjoy, and a way of trying to improve. The Extreme Freeride Championships at Taos is an event that attracts some amazing athletes to challenge themselves and the mountain. Skiers are given an area to ski and they are judged on the following criteria: Fluidity, Aggressiveness, Technique, Control, and Degree of Difficulty of their line. The field is cut each day and the top scores move on to ski the following day.

Did I really belong here with some of the same skiers I read about and watch on TV?

We arrived at Taos a few days early to ski the venue and pick out our lines. Bill entered the event to help me out and to see what Taos is like. Bill has some competition experience and would be a big help and keep me from being too nervous. We got off to a great start when we arrived and met Sara New and Alejadro Blake, the coordinators of the event. Alejandro's grandfather Ernie was the founder of Taos Ski Valley, and the dedication of the Blake family has made Taos a truly special place.

The snow conditions were decent, but could have been better. Bill picked a long run with a few good sized rocks to drop off of, while I picked a shorter but more technical run through a steep, tight chute with little margin for error. We also met some of our competitors on the hill and took a few runs and discussed strategy and the judging. Everyone was super helpful and friendly. After some inspection and practice runs, we were ready for the show.

We woke up to 10 inches of new snow the morning of the competition. This was a good sign. The fresh snow might just make me look like I can ski! We took a few warm-up runs and watched the first runs of the comp. We saw some great skiing and I was excited to take my run. While waiting at the start gate I was a little nervous but still confident. All of the skiers were very supportive of each other and I was impressed by the friendly and mellow atmosphere.

Alright, my number is up. I tell the starter where I'm going so the judges know where to watch.

3,2,1, Go!

I skied along the ridge to the trees and dropped into my line. A few turns through the trees and I was at the top of the chute and could hear the spectators below. A short pause to clear my head, a few precise turns through the steepest part of the chute, let my skis run and catch some air, and I'm down. I got a few cheers from the crowd for my efforts. I hope the judges liked my run.

Bill was up next, but his run didn't turn out so good. He skied well at the top and hit one of his drops, then though some trees.... then spinning around backwards behind the trees (oh no!), then out of sight, then just his skis fly out of the trees without him. Ouch. It takes a few minutes for Bill to reappear. He was OK but he had to walk down without his skis. Bummer.

After the last skier took his run we were allowed to go inspect the area we would get to ski the next day if we qualified. It was going to be tougher the second day. Now for the reality check. While we waited for the scores we watched the videos of the comp. My run looked good, but not as good as I remembered! Then the scores came. I missed qualifying by 1.5 points. Damn. I was only two poitions away from making the semifinals. But I did beat quite a few other skiers, so I was somewhat satisfied. And no one else skied the same line as I did.

The next few days were spent skiing and watching the comp. We were witness to some crazy skiing and huge cliff drops. These guys are spectacular! The whole event was a great experience and I will definitely be back next year to try to improve my skiing some more.