The forecast sure looked great for the first race in the Miami Slalom Series, with the know it all's calling for 20 from the east. There was a decent bit of breeze as we all arrived at the beach, but the storm clouds all around made everyone wonder if it would come true.
The sailors all rigged big as the breeze seemed to be more designed to tease than to please. A three buoy course was set, and a practice race was started. The wind die off just after the start and shifted direction making for more of a formula race than slalom! That one was canceled. Then the rain came, bring at least that 20 that they called for, but it did not last. Hopes began to fade along with the breeze. Those who had traveled from far away like Loic and Beth, or those with other plans like Raphael and Sergio decided to bail out.
The rest of us who stuck it out were rewarded by the disappearance of the clouds and the filling of the breeze. With a slight adjustment to the course, Alex, Mike, John and Rick all headed out to the start. The breeze was moderate but steady and we all had enough juice to get around the course. The wind built as the day went on and by the last of 6 heats, it was enough that Alex and Rick switched down from the big stuff to our 100 liter boards and 7.5 and 7.0 sails. The heats in between had plenty of exciting moments as Mike, John and Rick had some thrills and spills around the first jibe mark, while Alex had the cleanest starts and managed to keep in front on all 6 heats. Once again another successful race production by Miami Windsurfing! here for more pictures
This year the MIAMI SLALOM SERIES 2009 will start with race # 1 and continue building until the final race in October for the great finally MIAMI SLALOM SERIES 2009 IFCA. with IFCA status and international riders from all over the world, like Gonzalo Costa Hoevel - ARG-3 , Gabriel Browne BRA- 50, Jesper Vesterstrom DEN -111, and many more.stay tuned for more
MIAMI SLALOM SERIES--- october 18-19, ,2008
Supported by IFCA, IWA stay tuned for pictures and videos
Thanks to Alex, Simone, Ovideo, the sponsors, and everyone else involved in putting on the event. The turnout was awesome and it was cool to see people just showing up to try out some of the gear that Adventure Sports pulled out of the big windsurfing toy box on wheels. The event format seemed to work quite well for the location and the participants, like it did last year, with no pros showing up, just occasional part time or new slalom racers. I think everyone had a pretty good time and the pace allowed time to chat, fiddle with gear, grab a bite to eat or prepare for the next heat. The weather on Sunday was near ideal, with a mid 7m sail being a good call for most everybody. The first race started about 1 p.m. and the last at 4:30 p.m. I think some interest was dwindling by race 6 where only 10 people showed up for the start, but most races had 15+ people going for it. It was fun for me coming from Fort Lauderdale to Virginia Key, that although not mirror flat, the conditions are way smoother than my normal sailing spot and it was fun to be able to step on it for a change rather than just worrying about keeping the board in the water and in control. I was wearing my GPS and this year's top speeds for me were down a bit from last when it was a bit windier but I hit 31+ mph several races. I covered some distance as well between racing and sailing around, putting in a total of 30.4 miles for the day. It was great too, to see new faces to racing like Nikolai who I see wave sailing in Pompano, or old faces back again, like Diego Domeniani & Kent Marinkovic who were doing well after lengthy absence from the windsurfing race scene. I think that one of the things I enjoy about racing is the forced learning curve. Last year, I was struggling to make jibes. I mentioned to Tinho that I was experiencing my board hopping out midway through the corners. He gave me a tip and told me to keep sheeted in longer through the turn. I practiced after racing and made about 30 jibes in a row whereas during the race I wasn't doing so well. I've been practicing since keeping his tip in mind and only blew one jibe the whole day this year which was in the last race where I was already out of the running by sailing too far from the start and getting caught in a wind hole and couldn't get to the game.
I'm very grateful to Alex who was selected as "windsurfer of the year" by US Windsurfing for keeping the torch of windsurfing enthusiasm lit, held high and visible for everyone to see. He's made some tough decisions and borne the consequences for having strong feelings. This event, and others Alex has made happen, along with his continued energy, has helped show literally the world that windsurfing is a great sport that so many of us feel extremely passionate about. For this I thank him. It was great to see everybody show up and have a good time. Business dealings were rightly left at the office. I hope that we all can continue to rally around the excitement and put the differences we may have aside, show up, enjoy the day, learn something new about our sport and go home with a smile
RON KERN i-to-i.org
Battle Miami 4 pm , the wind teased us out on the water for a couple of attempts at racing. Not much planning actually happened even for the lightest sailors, or those on Formula equipment. The Outlook for Sunday looked good, so our attitudes were hopeful as we packed up at the end of the day.
As we arrived at the beach Sunday and began setting up, we were all happy to see the wind begin to fill in as promised. 22 sailors from all over Florida Florida Kent Martinez Miami Argentina New York Kent Tampa Miami
The great turnout came to a close and we all gathered around race HQ to give a round of applause to all the winners, and give out some prizes from all the great sponsors. Race organizer and ripping sailor Alex Morales announced the winners with the help of race director Ovideo De Leon, and Rick Randall. Prizes from Starboard, Maui Sails, and KA were passed out. Thanks to all the sponsors of the event including Max Muscle, Starboard, KA Sails, Maui Malones.com, Miamiwindsurfing.com as well as Pepin who provided the race committee boat, Harry who assisted with RC, and Simona Madan who kept the event rolling shore side. Thanks to all the sailors who came, thanks Mother Nature for treating us right! See you next time!
By Rick “Maui Malone” Randall
stay tune for pictures, more reports, results and videos durring this week
Miami Slalom Series 2007
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A complete success ……………….
Because this is just a dream sequence, we provided the best possible conditions of consistently perfect winds over 20 knots out of the Northeast all day Saturday. And in our dream, we would have had 9 slalom races and two long distance races in these incredible conditions.
In fact, we would have run 4 figure eight races, which ( Eduardo Owen - Race Director ) thought would be easy for everyone. These races were a bit of a nightmare for many as having all of the sailors screaming into the tight marks fully lit up, then crashing in massive pileups, really got the adrenaline going! The race committee would then have decided to switch to two long distance races, which favored the Formula experts who prevailed even though they were on slalom gear.
