The ECWF Long Island 2015 took place last weekend at Heckscher State Park. About 30 windsurfers competed in racing and freestyle over 2 day; made new friends and saw old friends again; and, most importantly, had tons of fun. Here's a video about the event from Mike Burns, who organized the event:
The event crowned a new King and Queen of the East: Eric Skilbred and Deniz Kalaycioglo. Deniz dominated both the women's freestyle and racing, taking two 1st places. Eric came in 2nd in freestyle after Pierre Coupal, who once again was in his own league, and 4th in the 7.5 m racing (full results
here). That put him in a tie with Joe Natalie, who came in 3rd in both 7.5 m racing and freestyle. Eric got the crown because he beat Joe in the majority of the 13 heats racing and freestyle heats that they competed against each other. Congratulations to a well-deserved crown!
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The rest of this post is a rather lengthy description purely from my perspective. You may want to stop reading now. You have been warned.
The event was, once again, a lot of fun. The wind was perfect for longboard racing, with offshore winds on Saturday where planing was possible at times, and slightly lighter onshore wind on Sunday. I had to go without my lovely wife, who is still touring Iceland with her sister. But that left room in the van for Martin, who decided to join me, and got a taste of longboard racing. He did quite well on my Mistral Pandera, coming in 7th despite very limited racing and longboard experience. I just barely placed ahead of him, missing out on the 4th or 5th place trophy that I had taken home at the last 2 events. The top two racers, Pete "The Terminator" and Kurt "The Bonairean", were completely out of my reach in every single race. They both have much better board control, and Kurt, who beat Pete by just 0.5 points, also has a 50 lb weight advantage, which (together with some energetic and skillful pumping) often allowed him to be the only one planing. Joe and Eric also sailed better than I did, especially on the legs where they could use their wave sailing experience to use the chop to go faster - but I managed to beat each of them in at least one race.
It took me quite a while to get my race mojo, though. In the first race, I had a mediocre start, and then took a dive when a gust pushed my Ultra Cat onto a plane - straight at Joe, who was pointing a bit lower. My Cat behaved as if it was of the furry variety - with a strong will of its own. It completely ignored my desperate attempts to change course, and before I could complete my analysis who had the right of way, it was time to go down to avoid the collision. Joe sailed on, not realizing the danger he had just been in...
A couple of better races followed, but then I got to close to the crowd at the start, and a sailor on a Starboard Go (or similar) tried to jibe right in front of me just as the horn went off. He exhibited a lack of control that was remarkably similar to mine a few races earlier, so I had to go around him - upwind, since he was still going downwind. Not a problem, I thought: there were about a dozen windsurfers close to shore who were trying to get started, but there also was a hole in the middle where I could sail through! Ha! Of course, a few sails and sailors went down, and the hole disappeared. So I got an opportunity to practice first my patience, and then my passing skills, which however were insufficient to catch up with the better racers.
Racing on day two started better, without any major mishaps. In the side-on wind, we ended up with a Le Mans style start from the beach. Downwind starters were allowed to go before the sailors further upwind, evening out the angle advantage that the upwind starters had. So for the next race, I went all the way downwind, hoping to he one of the first on the water. Since I'd be pointing higher than the upwind sailors, I'd have the right of way, and I would be able to push them upwind if they tried to pass. Nice theory - and then, the race director announced a "handicap" start. He called out names to start individually based on (a) his idea of what their current standing was, and (b) their upwind-downwind position. He started with the two guys below me, who indeed usually finished near the end of the pack; skipped me; and then moved up and down the line, letting more than half of the fleet go - all of whom had a better starting position than I had! My starting strategy was completely screwed - instead of being the right-of-way boat, I would now have to
pass most of the fleet, while pointing higher than they had to! Not good. But it got worse when he called out the names of some of they guys that I usually was fighting directly with, including the two who would end up directly ahead of me and directly behind me in the final rankings. Not only were they allowed to go first, but they also had an advantage that amounted to several boat length! he finally got back to the bottom of the line where I was waiting, more than half of the fleet was on the water. This also meant that the guys higher upwind got called a lot quicker than they would have been if everybody had still been in line. So now I had almost the entire field ahead of me - this time, without any fault of my own. I ended up passing more than half of them, but since I had already "used" my throwouts the day before, that was not enough to slip into 5th place overall.
Unfortunately, freestyle went perhaps even worse. In the gusty offshore winds on day won, I had done ok, with one good heat and another heat that was at least ok. I did well enough on day 2 to make it into the finals, which included 5 of the 10 freestyle competitors. And then, things really went downhill. I did not have the slightest chance to beat Pierre, but with a very good heat, I might have beaten Eric. I started ok with a Duck Tack right in front of the judges .. and then I went downwind. Straight out of the competition area! I had totally underestimated how far the side-on boat waves would push me. I did a Sleepy Hollow down there, but nobody saw it, since everyone's eyes were on Pierre and Eric
in the competition area. I even sailed around a bit inside the boom with my back to the sail, hoping someone would notice - but that only got me further away from the action! When I finally made it back into visible space, I ended up either too close to shore, or right next to another competitor, without enough room to do much. I realized how less-than-perfect my choices were, which did
not help my emotional balance. Getting desperate, I went for an Ankle Biters .. which even would have worked, if I had not had
balance issues. The sail came back up just fine - but I was in the water. Even my through-the-boom dismount at the end, usually a sure move and crowd please, was poor - a bit late, at the edge of the competition area, and in quite shallow water so that I scraped along the bottom a bit.
After the finals, the first and second place were determined, but the 3rd place was to close to call (perhaps in part because Pierre and Eric certainly demanded attention!). So Rich, Joe, and I were called out again for another two minutes. Joe must have done well, but I suffered what must have been a brain freeze. Even the Duck Tack, which I can typically complete 19 out of 20 tries, needed two attempts. I listened a bit too much to Mike, who said not to do anything easy, and tried mostly harder stuff - without success. When I even fell on a Back-to-Back, another trick that I can do at least 9 out of 10 times, I knew I had lost the 3rd place. This time, I had nobody to blame but myself.
Unfortunately, it looks like this may have been the last ECWF event in Long Island for a while. Between the problems that the Parks department made about accepting our insurance and the dwindling number of participants (with fewer than 10 local competitors), it is likely that next year's event will be moved to another location. That spot will most likely be further away from Cape Cod, so we may not even attend. But I certainly will keep practicing! One of the things I must practice is light wind freestyle in chop. Side-on winds at Heckscher cause a lot more wind that we'd see in Hatteras, where I do most of my light wind practice; if I practice at home, it's usually also on flat locations like Duxbury Bay or East Bay. Looks like the BIC wind SUP will have to come out of the van more often at Kalmus!
