1st place at White Air!!!

Pic Simon Crowther

Well we manged to get a bit of wind and had one round in sketchy conditions.  The full story is in ‘continue reading’!!

Here are the results:

1st Andy Bubble Chambers
2nd Simon Hurrey
3rd Colin Dixon
4th Adam Humphreys
5th Ollie Scott

The British Freestyle Championships have been split into 2 events this year.  The first one being White Air on the Isle of White and the second one being the Animal Poole Windfest where the event has been held for the last 5 years.

This year the White Air was brought forward a couple of months to the end of August and beginning of September.  Which meant that the chance of getting conditions like the previous years was much smaller.  Also with the massive high pressure that has been hanging over the UK meant that our hopes weren’t high for good wind.  However the White Air is a great event and always has loads going on so it’s definitely worth the trip down.

As windsurfers we are the most optimistic people on the planet!  So there is always the chance that the wind will defy all the forecasts and start blowing.  The first 2 days there was no wind!  But we were still optimistic for the last day as the forecast was giving more of a South Westerly direction as apposed to the North Westerly that we had for the first two days.

The first two days were spent watching the other activities going on – Skateboarding, Mountain boarding, Bmx and Thundercat racing.  Also Adam Cropper was there with his Turfdog’s, which are land windsurfing boards and are great for learning new Windsurfing tricks on.  Also the Corona Bus was on hand to keep us topped up with free Corona!

The wind finally starting showing signs of filling in on Sunday morning.  We managed to get a tow in session with a jet ski as well, which involved holding on to a rope and being towed, once you have enough speed let go and try a trick.  We managed to land some Flakas and a few Vulcans!! It was a lot of fun and gave the spectators something to watch.

By 3 o’ Clock it was suitable enough to start.  It was pretty gusty but we were planing on 5.2’s / 5.7’s and 100 litre boards.  The juniors and Youths had an expression session to start before they started the Pro’s event.  With only 5 pro’s entered it didn’t take long to complete a round!  In the first heat Adam Humphreys sailed well to beat competition first timer Ollie Scott from the Club Vass Team.  Both sailors did good forwards and Spocks.  Adam landed his Flaka on the outside and Ollie was too close to the inside for his and didn’t have enough wind to complete the rotation.

Up next was British number 2 from last year Simon Hurrey and Colin Dixon, both part of the Club Vass Team.  There were a few more moves in this heat, Ponches, Switch Chachoos, Esliders and Double Flakas to name a few, which is pretty impressive in the tricky gusty conditions.  There was quite a big lull in the middle of the heat however and it was cancelled.  The re=run was a few minutes later once the gusts started to come back through.  Again the boys showed some great moves and it was Simon that advanced.

Heat 3 was between Adam Humphreys and myself.  I was on my new 5.2 Tushingham Wedge and new Flare 99, which suited the conditions perfectly.  Adam had some good solid moves on both tacks but I managed to sneak in a few switch moves in the gusts, which were enough to sneak me through to the final against Simon.

Simon and I have many finals against each other and they seem to get harder and harder!  We train all the time together so know each other’s strengths and weaknesses.  On the start buzzer we both did Flakas then Spocks, I managed to sneak an Eslider (switch stance grubby) in as well.  Going out it was much the same, Grubbies, Spocks, Switch Chachoos.  The conditions were getting worse and it was getting much harder to get the more technical moves in.  I managed to get a good gust and landed some fast Switch stance moves, which were enough to give me the win on technical difficulty.

In the losers final Adam Humphreys sailed well against Colin who didn’t sail his best ever heat but again it was the technical difficulty that put him through.  Double Flakas, Esliders and good clean Spocks.  Adam sailed well and landed some big Flakas and Forwards but he needs to get some Switch Stance moves in the bag to progress into the top 3.

So the optimism paid off!  We now have a result in the British Freestyle Rankings and hopefully we will get more done at Poole.  Lets hope that next year more Pro’s will be as optimistic as we were and turn up!