I came down for windsurfing races in Sarasota (yesterday and the day before) and Cocoa Beach (next weekend). My friend Heather flew down to join me this past weekend for her first windsurfing regatta and we had a blast! We both arrived in the Tampa Bay area on Thursday evening and were lucky enough to get to windsurf all day on Friday. I tried out the new Severne Element 7.5m and a Starboard Isonic 133. The element may be my new favorite sail! It's easy to rig, light weight, has good low end power and pumps well. The top end speed doesn't seem to be as good as a race sail - but I wasn't expecting it to be. Most importantly, the consensus from the other girls on the beach is that the sail is super pretty! The ISonic was also an absolute blast. I couldn't believe how relatively easy it was to sail and how much fun it was to go that fast - I came back to the beach grinning from ear to ear.
Jonathan from North Beach Windsurfing (www.nbwindsurfing.com) gave Heather her first harness lesson and she was immediately successful and fully hooked on the whole harness concept.
Saturday and Sunday were racing in Sarasota and we had wind again (well....on Saturday anyway). I was flailing my way around the Formula course on a 10.0 Severne Overdrive and the new Exocet Formula board while Heather was learning what racing is all about on the Kona/Hybrid course. We had a great time at the party on Saturday night (who knew that red wine, girl scout cookies and lots of good friends can be that much fun) and weren't too upset when it was dead calm on Sunday morning. The wind built enough for racing in Heather's division - so she got some more practice in while the rest of us sat around and talked about windsurfing (who does that?!). In the end, both Heather and I won our respective classes (she in sport Hybrid women and I in Formula women) - and we hit the road with trophies in hand.
You can find race reports and pictures at www.miamiwindsurfing.com. More next weekend from the Calema Mid-Winters in Cocoa Beach!
