2013 AUSTRALIAN SLALOM NATIONALS

Report Ian Fox // Photos JOHN CARTER

Green. The color of go. And go we most certainly did. To a small island, a mere patch of coral overgrown with a wealth of tropical vegetation, a 45-minute FastCat ride from Cairns in the far north of Queensland, the gateway to Australia’s natural wonderland – the Great Barrier Reef. Home of some of the absolute best flat water sailing Australia has to offer. And one record-sized crocodile.

(This feature originally appeared in the July 2013  issue of Windsurf Magazine. Print and digital subscriptions for readers worldwide are available HERE.)

An unseasonal midwinter championship, never before considered in the land of summer seasons solved one problem – the clash of various state events when organizing a Nationals calendar. Careful and diligent planning obtained permits where permits rarely go and, before most knew it, an event of rather special dimensions and location was underway.

Aptly named “Green Island Nats”, it embodies the Australian Slalom Championships, the inaugural Freestyle Championship, plus an ambitious new Freerace title (a sensationally simple-but-testing GPS-based event sailed “freely” over a fixed time inside a virtual “box” course).

NO XS

Despite the distant location from most windsurfing bases, the event captured the imagination of the ‘who’s who’ of windsurfing competition Australia-wide. Reinvigorated by the potential of some great competition, 45 competitors arrived fully charged in State teams, together with a five-man raiding party from New Caledonia.

Friendly rivalry all through the lead-in weeks ensured a load of fun on and off the water was in store for all. The organisers not only had the course covered, but the restaurants, bars, accommodation and, best of all, the excess baggage. Each competitor flew courtesy of Qantas with 4 x 23kg allowance – better than gold in this day and age.

And it was. Right from the get-go, The Aussies knew they had competition when the NC Team rolled off their Qantas flight wearing custom team T-shirts. Top local seed Sean O’Brien and his wingman Luke Baillie fought back, deploying pirate tactics via their blog channels.

Two days of great wind in the pre-event warm up had everyone flying. Team NC, from the home of flat-water reef sailing, were duly impressed. And very competitive. Bring on the contest.

Day one opened to a marginal tide and slightly bewildered contestants; they simply didn’t know what to make of the great conditions. Freestyle fired the first bullet and Ian Ballantyne had the helm running heats from the top AUS seeds.

Al Bentley was styling on and off the water, while globetrotting instructor and partially reformed party boy Steve Flack cut loose in chase.

Ben Severne set aside his wave title for a few days and enjoyed some fun heats with Max Ploumis , lanky Will Johnston and James “Half” Price. Casual, yes, but competitive in the friendliest possible manner.

BOXING CLEVER

The action switched to Freerace and interestingly the heavy hitters from the Slalom comp weren’t so evident. Right from the outset, it was clear this discipline rewarded a wider range of riders as local ace Kelly Morgan outgunned Tasmanians Kaleb Smith and former 24-hr. record holder Dave Morehead.

A simple 60 minutes sailing around an imaginary box had even grown men crawling ashore, hands and hearts bleeding, but all totally impressed by the challenge of this new format.

BE A SPORT

With a softer wind outlook ahead, organizers scheduled slalom to ensure at least one table was complete. Using a clever non-elimination table, 12 heats were fired of meticulously. The final rounds were seeded, the red flag was up and it was game on for the first final.

Unsuspecting of a fast retreating tide, some contestants didn’t clear the reef quite as expected and barely made the start line. Although late himself, Sean sailed a textbook heat and locked away the final. Back on the beach, some textbook discussion ensued, while the remaining heats closed down the day’s proceedings.

Beers later, it became clear not all were happy with proceedings. Easy, let’s do it the sporting way, and simply race the final again. All agreed. Game on. Again.

Day 3 saw a lightened forecast and the 2-board, 2-sail limit was stretched to a practical minimum. With 15 knots barely holding, another clean table of 16 slalom heats blazed away under blue sunshine and crystal clear water over the shallow reef flats. Always nice to see what you’re going to hit. Thankfully, none did!

Appropriately, the rematch final from the day before was conducted over the same course, to recreate conditions as close as possible to the previously abandoned final.

This time there were a full 8 charging the green flag and Sean neatly repeated his victory from the previous day. 3 heats later, it was the second big final of the day but the third straight final win for Sean as he neatly lead home his wingman Luke Baillie.

Noumea’s Seb Pouillet and Laurent Giovannelli held out local speedster Michel “Vando” van der Plight, who recovered from the worst possible start and netted 3rd overall in the Championship for his trouble.

GIVE US A BREAK

The talk on the ferry that night was a lay-day. Normally that signals disappointment, but there was a genuine air of relief when the 5 a.m. text messages rattled out of cellphones next morning inviting everyone to enjoy a day touring Cairns’ many exciting attractions.

Out on the island, some brave or foolhardy crew enjoyed lunch with Cassius, the world’s largest captive crocodile. Unexpectedly, some found themselves inside the cage. Unexpectedly, all seemed to survive.

Including one well known windsurf photographer. He held his cool. One eye on the lens, the other on the escape gate. 1000kg of angry croc takes more than a Canon to stop …

Super Friday was billed as the final shoot out and delivered an incredible aquatic flat-water arena over the top side reef flats, but sadly the wind was still recovering from its day off. Chances of a third slalom faded, but the second round of Freerace wrapped up the regatta with some tactical light wind planing.

Kaleb Smith became the first ever Freerace champion. But not the last. Late off the water, the mass exodus of kit from the island ensued.

Back in town, the week closed out with a presentation in a boutique marina bar. Qantas anointed class winners with return tickets. Sore hands held sore heads the next day. Everybody smiled. We named champions. But everybody was a winner. IF