What Can I say about the weekend?

It was the best windsurf weekend we've (Megs my partner and I) have ever had!

Saturday morning started out with a weather report from Craig (gusty Nth E) and an hour theory from Allison on weather, gear prepeation, tuning and a practical on how to read the wind.


Then it was time to rig our sails with the assistance of Allison and a couple of the Inverloch windsufing club memebers. Well, it appears none of us had very much idea of how to set our sails correctly! I was amamzed at how little outhaul is required.

Once we were all rigged and down the beach Allison then went through beach starting which had us beginners struggling in the gusty conditions. Jodie was having a ball taking snaps of everyone falling off.

The faster guys were out doing their best in the conditions and once we had the beach starts (well, most of us) we were out there keeping them honest (or mobile markers)

We broke the morning session with a BBQ lunch which only lasted around 45 min.

I'm leaving it here and passing the post for someone else to take over from here.

Just make sure your post has some innovasity

Just one more quick thing:

To all the people there:

You rock!!

We enjoyed your company and hope can can catch up again.


To Allison:

Thank you so much for your advise, watching you on a board is amazing!

Old Salty, Mick, Craig and the Inverloch WSC.

Thank you so much for putting the weekend on. It was just awesome. We can't thank you enough.

Glad you had fun. For me it was a blast watching the first timers sailing off the beach and then returning. Some very big smiles. Some one is also missing a harness so check your gear. You describe it and I,ll get it back to you

Great weekend.
Had to have a day off today, No injury on the water but on dry land yanking my downhaul on Saturday.(broke a boob)

After Allison showed how my Mistral flow can go I Saturday I was determined to improve my very suspect gybing technique on Sunday.

I noticed crowie (steve) was crashing his gybes at the same spot as mine so I made a deal. Race you to the first succesful gybe. We finaily got in a couple and I jumped on Micks boad, big excite ride with a 7m and gybes like a dream (thanks Mick)

So many guys ticked some of their own personal boxes....awsome..and well done to everyone.

It was all about fun and getting on the water and thats just what we all did.
well done

Well I am starting to recover and get my life back again so it is time to give a summary of the weekend with Allison.

AWESOME and AWESOMEMORE!

Firstly thanks go to Seabreeze, Yachting Victoria, Windsurfing Victoria, RPS The Boardstore and SHQ Boardsports for supporting us by advertising and promoting this event.

A big thanks goes to SHQ for supply the Cafe for Friday night and a Van stacked full of gear for Allison and beginners on the weekend.

Big thanks to Mick Green for his personal support( so important to keep me laughing at life) and supplying and setting up sound and video equipment for Friday night and helping out Sat/Sunday.

Big Thanks Craig Hollins who supplied the White board, weather forecasts, beginners kit and general rigging advice on Saturday and Sunday. Ruppert, Dom and the many others that helped out on Sunday.

Big thanks Jodi Stevenson from Whitecaps Photography who also gave me plenty of cheek as she took photographs of the weekend to help us keep the memories alive

Big thanks to the South Gippsland Yacht Club for the supply of a Safety Boat, 2 burly young guys, who Allison got out on Windsurfers later, and radios.

Well the weekend started off with Allison on Friday night at the SHQ Cafe. Jodi provided some general images of windsurfing events in the past 12 months to welcome the crowd of around 20 people. Allison gave a talk on her life as a professional windsurfer, telling us many stories of the almost insurmountable negatives she had to overcome to win her 4 world titles. She then presented two DVDs. The first, a punchy snap shot of her sailing life on the water and the second, video footage of her Bass Strait Challenge. Both where entertaining and enthralling. The evening finished late with the cleaners finally kicking us out.

Saturday was fine and sunny with winds gusting from the NW between 10 - 20 kts. Allison gave a theory lesson for the first hour on weather, reading the wind on the water, using wind gusts to your advantage, rigging, adjustable outhaul and harness lines, speed and equipment. Then it was on the water in the morning with the beginners, a break for a BBQ lunch( a surprise visit by one of the Pit Speed Crew - Daffy) and then on the water again for the intermediates. With the wind direction, we where all sailing across to the sand plug in the middle(100 mtrs) so it was safe and ideal for the beginners and Allison soon had them handling the gusty conditions. For the intermediates Allison demonstrated an aggressive tack which I had been struggling with for a while and (ahem not being modest) nailed it on the first attempt!!(2nd, 3 rd and 4th ended in
the water!!) as well as gybing. At the end of the day Allison awarded two prizes donated by her and SHQ to the most improved sailor - well done George

Saturday night a number of us went out for dinner and it ended up as a pub crawl!! Only because the 2 pubs where booked out and we ended up at the Chinese restaurant. Fun night was had by all and was made even more special by our waitress Pam who was a card and topped the night off by trying to take a photo of us all with the camera pointing at her instead of us!!!!

Sunday the wind swung more to the west and dropped to 10 kts with the promise of it building through the day and swinging to the SW
Again Allison spent the first hour on theory and showed 3 newbies basic board handling techniques. On the water with some help from Mick,Craig, Ruppert and Dom, Allison had the 3 newbs, who had not touched a windsurfer before, on the water and scooting around the Inlet within an hour.
As the wind started to strengthen Craig and Matt from the Pit Speed Crew started to disappear and headed out the back of the sand plugs to lay down a few speed runs. Allison then took the intermediates out and had them working on their tacks, gybes and pumping the sail. The most improved sailor award went to Tania, one of the newbs.
Judging by all the smiles, high fives, whooping up as new manoeuvres where achieved and telephone calls and emails I have received I think the event was a success. Well done everyone.