Well a lot has happened since my last post. The contest was put on hold for a few days, so a huge lot of us took the opportunity, and headed out to the coast for some epic surf conditions. The forecast was for 25mph winds and 8 foot surf. We scored the first day at Oceanside with logo high down the line wavesailing. There were lots of jumps and wave slashes to be had. The second two days at Newport produced slightly smaller waves, but bigger winds and higher jumps. It was slightly onshore winds, but still good enough to go down the line.
With a bad forecast for the gorge and the coast set to fire, about half of the Freestyle Frenzy competitors booked it a couple hours over to the coast. We left Monday and returned wednesday night after three long days of wavesailing. As forecasted, the Gorge lit up again thursday morning and the contest was on. We were all a bit tired and the 7:00AM wakeup call seemed really early. It was a fun contest, with varying conditions, from 3.5m to 4.7m winds. I personally didn’t do as well as I had hoped, but it was a good time anyway. My heats were particularly flat, which was bad for me, because I am more of an aerial specialist than a flatwater guy. Everybody had a good time though, and there was a good turnout to watch the event at the Hatchery.
The pics are a back loop sequence from Oceanside and a backloop during the Freestyle Frenzy. Sven Esslinger took the shots at the coast and Chris Boston sent me the contest pic.
That’s it for now.
Keep up the posting! Its great to see a young guys (like myself)presepective about life and sailing in the gorge!