Pistol River Wave Bash 2010 - Day 3

Pistol River Wave Bash - Day 3 Sat 19 June We have been at Pistol River for a week now, and today was the first day that the wind decided to play games. With

only the Men's, Amateurs and Masters semis and finals to run this was a little frustrating. The skippers meeting was

delayed from 12pm to 2pm to 3pm, but eventually at around 4pm the wind had filled in just enough, and it was decided

to start going through the final heats. It was a case of float out and wave ride in. Kai and Goya headed out and obviously made the light wind conditions look easy and the win went to Goya which then

put him through to the final against Kevin Pritchard. Remembering that Kevin had one the single 2 days earlier, if

Goya won then they would have to go head to head again. And ofcourse Goya won. Head judge, Matt Pritchard decided to

hold off the final head to head until Sunday for which the forecast looks much better.

Pistol River Wave Bash 2010 - Day 2

Day 2 at Pistol River, Friday 18th June

The wind was a touch lighter than the first day of the competition with the guys rigging 4.7 - 5.0 for the first rounds of the double.

The swell had also backed off a little from Thursday so heats started at 8 mins with 2 waves only to count and no jumps.

After a few heats the wind and ramps filled in with the upcoming tide. Sailors rigged down and heats were changed to include 1 jump.

Stand out sailors in the men's are almost too many to mention. Sean Aiken, Skylar, Whit Poor. There is a mix of the old school with the new school battling it out making no heat an easy heat

After day 2 they are left to complete in the semi's where Goya and Kai are to fight it out; the winner of which will take on Kevin Pritchard in the final

Sam Neal managed to hold on for a couple of heats despite slicing his hand open on his fin

and Timo managed to break his 2nd mast in 2 days during one of his heats giving him a couple of mins of downtime which led to being knocked out.

The standard of every fleet is incredible - most of the juniors have flown in from Maui; Morgan, Zane Schweitzer, Bernt, the list goes on but they sail almost flawless heats and can quite often give the pro fleet a run for their money. For this reason some of them are actually competing in both categories and doing pretty well.

Day 1 of the juniors saw Zane take the win, but Bernd managed to win the final in day 2. This meant they had to go back out for a head to head as a decider. By this time it was about 7 pm and the wind was easing up, but Zane managed to pull it out the bag to take the win.

The women's day 2 results leave Ingrid Larouche from the Gorge in 1st thanks to her good jumping and consistent waveriding. Myself (Tanya) in 2nd and Christine Vogt - another Gorge resident in 3rd. Special shout out to Fiona Wylde who is only 13 years old and competing along side the women and doing incredibly well.

As one of the event sponsors Robby Naish turned up as another surprise guest in the largest mobile home we have ever seen (see pic). He was out sailing downwind and putting on an unbelievable display as usual. He has entered the Shadow Box Jump Off so it should be a great show when it happens.

Pistol River Wave Bash 2010 - Day 1

Day 1:

Pistol River is a spot near a town called Gold Beach in the very Southern part of Oregon. USA. The Pistol River Wave Bash used to be a regular pilgrimage for US sailors on their wave tour, but the last time it happened was 10 years ago.

Sam Bittner, Maui resident made the huge leap and commited to make it happen once again.

For those of us who arrived a few days before the start of the event; we have been totally blown away with just how windy this place is non-stop, day after day. The guys have regularly been sailing 3.7's fully powered.

Wednesday was the first day of competition and full single eliminations were run across all categories.

The majority of the entrants have either come from the Gorge or Maui resulting in a star studded event. In addition to that Sam Neal also came over from the UK, and last minute surprise - Timo even came over with JC.

Again the wind did not disappoint - the guys were on 3.7's/4.2's all day and heats were run through until dark. The action was pretty awesome to watch and should get even more interesting when the Shadow Box Jump Off takes place over the weekend.

In the men's the first round results were:

1st Kevin Pritchard

2nd Francisco Goya

3rd Kai Katchadourian

California Dreaming - Heading North: San Francisco!

Next stop was the obvious windy city. Thanks to Matt we also got to take showers and sleep indoors :)

I've always wanted to sail under the Golden Gate Bridge just because it is so picturesque. As much as I hate flat water I enjoyed every second of this session and didn't want it to end. I'm also endlessly fascinated by the huge windsurfing scene here in San Francisco; always good to see.

(Thank you Chris, I love this photo)

California Dreaming - Heading North: Waddell Creek

We carried on cruising up the coast which is just as beautiful as everyone says it is. Fast approaching San Francisco I was keen to get another day of some sort of waves in. We eventually saw the next crew of windsurfers (and unfortunately also kiters) out at Waddell. It was more 4.5 weather with some little waves; more cross-on that Arroya but still super fun.

California Dreaming - Heading North: Arroya Laguna

En route to Pistol River, stop number 1: Arroya laguna, 3 hrs north of Santa Barbara turned out to be down the line shoulder high joy. Getting back into sailing over the past couple of sessions I certainly felt very very rusty after such a long time off. Either way it reminded me why windsurfing is so much FUN.

TIREE - Back to sailing after more than 3 months off the water

My reaction when I found out I'd won the 2nd round

Hamish

Sisterly advice

Thanks as always to Chris Hughes for the shots

So the physio's said I could try and sail Tiree but not to get my hopes up incase the knee swelled up too much after the first session back on the water. Here's how it went:

DAY 1 - Saturday
Firstly, my wonderful sister joined us for the first night on the Island which was super fun.
I was told that the women's would start Monday which gave me Sat and Sun to try sail for the first time and then mega ice my knee in preparation. But we got off the Saturday ferry to find out that they were going to start the heats straight away.

So we headed to Balephuil, and I rigged 5.0 and 4.5; it was marginal planning and 2 waves to count. I had a beautiful new 2010 4.5 Fly to test out and a 5.0 Combat. I was ready ahead of my heat so went and also checked out my new freestyle wave. - The kit was awesome, my knee felt ok during my warm up session, so now I just had to retain body heat on the beach (Which is not easy off the NW Coast of Scotland). All of a sudden I hear a hooter, turn around and the 'heat cancelled' flag was up. Gutted. I was ready, and the judges called to cancel based on the wind dropping off a little too much. Gotta love competition.

DAY 2 - Sunday
Today was the day; a 7.45 am skippers meeting was called, they started with the Men's single elimination and then moved onto the Women's. I rigged a 4.5 and 5.0 again, the wind was really gusty and super light on the inside which left me with a board dilema - 68 litre twinser or 93 litre freestyle wave?? The extra volume will help me get out through the sets, but once on a wave I'll do way better on my twinser.

ROUND 1
Right before the heat I made the call to go with the twinser (my favorite!). Since I hadn't done any other events this year I was seeded bottom so had to 'qualify' for the final. It pretty much went wrong from the start; I tacked to come in when the green flag came up but there were no waves in sight....until I gybed to go back out and there was no wind on the inside = nightmare with such a small board. Eventually I managed to get out, and I caught a pretty good wave, got a few turns and finished up with an aerial onto the back of the wave. But the heat was almost over and I needed a 2nd wave to get a decent score.....my knee was hurting and as I was heading back out for the 2nd wave, the red flag went up and I knew it was all over.
I finished round 1 last. I was pretty upset because I thought I could have won if I had just made the right decisions.

ROUND 2
2 hours later they started the Mens double and another round for the women's. This time I was amped! Luckily Sam Neal rocked up to my rescue with an 82 l real world wave which was the ideal board for these conditions.
I took it out with the 4.5 Fly, got about 3 waves - went for consistency on the first 2 and then an aerial on the last......and I made it through to the final.

I had 16 mins inbetween heats to change streamers and get back up wind (thanks Chris!).
The wind dropped, we all got out and it was FLAT! It felt like a set didn't come through the whole time! I caught a couple of non set waves and tried to make the most of them but I knew it wasn't good enough. I looked at my watch and had 90 seconds left to get back out and find something to make it happen. Time was ticking, I made it out and tacked onto a wave....Joy! IT wasn't amazing, but it was bigger than my first couple. I didn't feel like I'd sailed great but had no idea what the other girls had done either.
When they got us together for the results and announced the winner as ME I was so surprised! Awesome....but at the same time.....doom. Overall this still left me in 4th which really annoyed me. All I needed was another round.

DAY 3 - Monday
No wind....no wind.... went for a surf....still no wind.....Need another round! Damnit

Day 4 - Tuesday
No wind - doesn't even look like it's going to get windy :(
Obvious solution is to party - hard
We partied hard but still no wind

Day 5 - Wednesday
Doesn't look windy. Not gonna get windy; feel rough. Caught the flu that everyone else has had. Went for a surf and felt loads better. Ate far to much for dinner.
Forecast is not good at all and I have a flight back to San Diego in a few days time.

Day 6 - Thursday
Decide to leave the Island early and start the mission back to Cali. Shame no more rounds were run, but I suppose I did ok based on the knee, and not having sailed in so long.

Until next time Beautiful Tiree....