People started arriving fairly early from the
pilgrimage north, even Southampton arrived
relatively early, and were clearly the most
intoxicated. Sign up was brief with a free event
easyrig for all, and plenty of drinking.
Saturday morning was a cold start, 2 days of snow
was still lying in drifts around the lake. This didn’t
stop the racing for advanced and intermediates
starting with gusto, with tuition for the beginners.
The wind was marginal planning for division 1, on
Technos and Tushingham Express 7.5s. Despite the
cold, the sun stayed out all day to keep the worst of
the bite off the northwesterly wind. After wrapping up
the day with an exciting ‘race off’ for the Intermediate
crown, we decamped back to hosts’ houses to ‘doll’
up in Willy Wonka fancy dress theme.
The SWA has a legendary status for totally
outrageous costumes, constructed from little more
than cardboard boxes and duck tape. Liverpool was
no exception, with Oompa-loompas and students
packed into giant chocolate wrappers. After dinner,
the windsurfers went for a chocolate fountain
dessert, ending the night in the Blue Angel club, the
local for the LUWC crew. A special word should go
to Chloe, our illustrious president, for safeguarding
relations with Tushingham and Starboard for the
imminent future.
Sunday morning was a rather belated start but gave
advent to the disappearance of the snow, and some
WIND!!! Rigging began with a rather faulting
enthusiasm as people prepared for the freestyle and
speed competitions. People also had a chance for a
spot of free sailing, with loads of awesome,
spanking new demo kit kindly looked after by Martin
from Tushingham and Starboard, and advice from
the resident guru ‘Big Mike’. The freestyle began
with some ‘new skool’ gecko tricks, and as the wind
began to freshen, plenty of planning flicky spinny
manoeuvres. A short pause was allowed prior to the
final as a huge front appeared on the horizon.
As the wind freshened the sailors hit the water,
performing some spine wrenching manoeuvres, a
huge hit with the watching spectators.
The speed sailing wasn’t quite as successful with
the top speed of the weekend; 14.5 knots, less than
half of last year, yet well deserved considering the
conditions. With the sailing all done, the wind finally
gave up the ghost just as the prizes were being
presented. These included two wetsuits from
Typhoon; a quiver bag, deck plate and mast foot
from Tushy; and hoodys and t-shirts from 604
distributions and SAS.
The whole weekend was a huge success and
helped raise money for Surfers Against Sewage,
and was completely carbon neutral. A big thanks
goes out to all our helpers, Neil from Surf-Tech and
all our sponsors.
