Yeah, it’s on for third long extra long weekend in June with the launch party the evening of the 16th.  This really is the most excellent possible timing.  The Summer high pressures usually start setting in with solid wind cycles by the first week of June and the Spring swell season usually runs until the beginning of July.  The tides are auspicious with big swings from low to high those afternoons.  It even falls the week before Windfest in the Gorge.  So if you have something else scheduled, you might want to start trying to get out of it now.

The windsurfing contest will be a double elimination, run on the best two days of the four day window.  The stand up paddle board events are designed to run when the wind is light.  You might even want to bring your sand-sailing board because the minus tides early on those days may well deliver epic conditions for that.  Should there be call for yet another light air diversion, I imagine there will also be some skateboard-sailing clinics and expression sessions on the side as Gold Beach has a few prime spots for that too.

The permits and insurance are in place.  The Gold Beach Fairgrounds has been tapped to provide all the room we could possibly need for the opening and closing ceremonies as well as the ensuing riot. What little local resistance there was to having a contest at the Rock has been beaten down.  And just about everybody else in Pistol River and Gold Beach is madd stoked. The industry is jumping in huge with all kinds of support, stoke and plans to be there.  Yeah, looks like a major gathering of the coastal tribe and we certainly are due.

Sam Bittner has been totally slaying the organization of this event from Maui.  Feel welcome to contact her with your support, questions, comments or your entry.  For what it’s worth, many details of the contest will be shaped by input from the early entrants, there is a cutoff at 100 sailors and the early sign up discount expires on the 15th of May.  There’s a web site up if you want to check it out at http://wavebash.weebly.com/ If you can’t make it, look for some heavy coverage by the media as well as a live webcast by David at Epic Sessions.   http://www.epicsessions.tv/livecast/

Current sponsor list: Big Winds, Dakine, Doc Martin, Ezzy, Inn of the Beachcomber, Maui Sails, Maui Ultra Fins, Naish, Nolimitz, Promotion, Real Wind, RRD, Rvs 2 Go, Severn, Starboard, Shadowbox, Starboard, and Windance.  And if you need some local advice, an introduction or a hook up, let me know on that one.  With respect and gratitude.   Dana   Boardhead International

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Just wanted to share with you some of the great fun our family had on Maui with your gear a couple of weeks ago. This is our daughter, Gracey, in her first sailing experience outside of the Columbia River Gorge.  We rented our gear from a fabulous shop near the airport.  Great folks.  We are multiyear owners/users of David Ezzy gear extending > 20 yrs.  I would estimate we have $10K worth of gear (old and used) in our garage.   We know how to rig the gear and we know what to expect from it.  It’s nirvana.

Thank you.

Leslie Root

Portland, OR

PS: image taken with $2.99 waterproof film camera purchased at K-Mart.

Found old, broken downhaul line on the beach and tied it around me neck.  A truly spendy set-up.  Very soon after this image was taken, a whale breeched just in front of us.  Amazing.

thanks for the great shots Bouke!  More located here.

“Please find enclosed some pictures from our latest trip to South Africa.

They still show the “old” 2009 sails but they didn’t feel old at all On the last picture you can see the brand new soccer stadium in the background.

We were extremely lucky with wind, waves and weather during our 3 weeks stay.

The pictures were all taken by Heinrich again.

Kind regards from freezing cold Germany!

Karin”

There are also some photos posted here.

Here I am for the fifth time in this fantastic land….sooner or later I need to stop coming here just for a few days and just move here!

Eccomi per la quinta volta in questa terra fantastica….prima o poi devo smetterla di venirci solo per qualche giorno e inventarmi qualcosa per trasferirmi!

But let’s go straight to the point: the conditions! This year during the classic holiday period Christmas – New Year it was “quite good without the need to move”.

Ma veniamo subito al succo: le condizioni! Quest’anno nel periodo classico Natale-Befana “ha fatto abbastanza buono senza spostarsi”.

What does it mean? It means that it was quite a windy period (approx.60%) and with some good swell without the need to move from the base spot of Sunset Beach. Only a couple of days could have been gained moving north (towards Elands Bay) or south (towards the Cape)

Cosa vuol dire? Vuol dire che ha fatto abbastanza vento (un buon 60%) e qualche swell senza spostarsi molto dalla zona base di Sunset Beach. Solamente un paio di giorni potevano essere guadagnati spostandosi a nord (verso Island Bay) o sud (verso il capo).

Therefore I had the opportunity to surf and do some photo sessions on the classic local spots around Cape Town but with “interesting” conditions

Quindi ho avuto l’opportunità di uscire e avere qualche scatto carino negli spot classici ma con delle condizioni interessanti:

Haakgat

Everybody knows this spot, it is just north of Big Bay on the way to Melkboss. Conditions are: either it works and is big or does not work (flat or just white water). Here we went out on Jan 4^th with marginal wind -better, much less crowded, just me and few friends- with some good waves, and we managed to catch some mast high waves before the wind dropped completely. Adrenaline here is high because these waves suddenly grow and stay high breaking regularly from upwind. But the spot is not easy at all, and even when you think you managed to survive by landing on the beach if you do not run you can still be caught by a big wave that brings you back and chews you up… a friend broke his mast in this way – a nasty surprise!

questo spot lo conoscete, è a nord di Big Bay, andando verso Melkboss. Le condizioni sono: o funziona ed è grosso o non funziona perché è piccolo o perché rompe tutto. Qui sono uscito il 4 Gennaio con vento molto leggero (meglio, così eravamo solo io e un paio di amici) ma onde carine, e siamo riusciti a surfare qualche bella onda prima che il vento mollasse completamente. L’adrenalina qui corre a 1000 perché queste belle ondone si formano e ti trovi in incavi belli profondi che si lasciano surfare bene srotolando da sopravvento. Attenzione però che lo spot non è semplice, e anche quando pensi di avercela fatta arrivando sul bagnoasciuga illeso può sempre arrivarti l’onda da dietro che ti riprende e ti distrugge… il mio amico ci ha rotto l’albero così!

Sunset

Well, everybody knows this spot….but I think not like this. Here I was on Jan 7^th late afternoon, after having checked that the other spots to the north were not working. Waves between 2 and 4 metres were arriving continuously – with no pause, the strong side-off wind was dropping where the waves were breaking and therefore passing the shore-break – not easy! These are not ideal conditions, but since there was nothing better on offer this was a good challenge. Then me and a couple of friends decided to splash our faces in these waves, but we managed to ride some glassy good size waves.  Then, in a spot which is usually overcrowded, we surfed beyond the sunset with sprays getting pink tones…. need to book my next trip soon!!!

Bè, qui lo spot tutti lo conoscono. …ma immagino non così. Qui sono uscito il 7 Gennaio nel pomeriggio, dopo aver verificato che gli altri spot più a nord non ne valevano la pena. Arrivavano di continuo onde da 2 fino a 4 metri, vento side-off forte che però ti mollava in mezzo ai frangenti e quindi superare lo shore break diventava veramente ma veramente impegnativo. Non sono le condizioni ideali, ma comunque visto che non c’era di meglio a nord, la cosa rappresentava comunque una bella sfida. Bè, io e un paio di amici (gli unici sullo spot) abbiamo preso diverse belle facciate nelle onde, ma abbiamo fatto anche qualche bella surfata su onde di buona taglia. E così, in questo spot solitamente affollato, abbiamo fatto il sunset in solitaria con spray che si coloravano di rosa…devo prenotare alla svelta il prossimo surf trip!!!

ciaoooo

Pier

NDR. Tutte le foto nella gallery a fianco