NSW Windsurfing Tour » Sean OBrien

2013-14 Season Arriving!

Sean OBrien — Thu, 05 Sep 2013 12:44:56 +0000

The next exciting season of the NSW Windsurf Tour is upon us in only a few weeks. Check out the updates calendar to find all the Wave, Formula & Slalom events happening in NSW. Get involved!

FW Heat 1 – Results

Sean OBrien — Thu, 27 Sep 2012 07:05:01 +0000

NSW Formula Windsurfing Series 2012-13
Heat 1, 29-30 September
Jimmy’s Beach, Hawks Nest.
Hawks Nest proved again what a special location it is to holiday and the long weekend provided what is predicted to be a hot, dry and windy season ahead. Those of us who choose to take advantage of this beautiful location and the school holidays, headed up early to get in some much needed practice before the racing starts proper, and we were rewarded with 20+ knot NE sea breezes and flat water all week prior to the predicted mismatch of conditions for the weekend.
Saturday: After a long winter the first event of the series is always a bit of a shock to the system. Dusting off equipment or taking shinny new kit out of the bag is the usual state of affairs. Come Saturday morning we had 20+ westerly winds channeling down the beach. Luckily for us, Hawks Nest is one of the only locations we can actually race in a westerly as it is cross on shore and relatively clean and even more importantly, it was warm.
Race 1 kicked off, just as the breeze dropped to the lower end of the range, much to the delight of Steve Floyd AUS-222 who had earlier stated that the wind would not build and it was a big sail day. Steve was looking like a super star after lap 1 until the full force of the wind kicked in, rewarding the small sail contingent. Byron McIlveen AUS-747 absolutely killed it and won by a good distance with Barry Fawkes AUS-2111 cleaning up in the Free Formula division.
Race 2. The wind had now settled down to about 15knots but most of the fleet had succumbed to their smallest sails as the strength of the gusts in the first race had caught a lot of people off guard. Steve Walsh AUS-55 sailed a brilliant race for a good victory in the shifty conditions, with Remi Dunoyer and Steve Floyd making up for their DNF’s in race 1 by taking the minor places. Nathan Hohnberg AUS-11 having returned from a back injury was also on the pace with 2 x 4th. The Free Formula fleet celebrated a victory for the first time to Andrew Vecopoulos AUS-966 with Lewis Pullen AUS-80 in 2nd.
Race 3. The wind was now up to 20+ knots, but was clean i.e. not gusty. Steve Walsh, Remi and Brett Morris AUS-8 rounded the 1st mark only meters apart and locked in for a full on down-wind sleigh ride to the bottom mark, where positions were unchanged until Steve’s hand slipped off the boom, handing the lead to Remi, who had no intention of making the same mistake and muscled out a great victory. James Farley AUS-173 became the 3rd winner in 3 races in the Free Formula.
Race 4. Windiest race of the day! With the wind close to our limit of 25knots and the short but steep chop building up, this had the potential to be a test of seamanship as much as racing pedigree. Brett won in convincing style with Byron in 2nd. Nick Austin AUS-151 and Wayne Bowness AUS-98 had their best results also in the trying conditions. James Farley showed a clean pair of heals to clock up 2 bullets in a row.
After a quick pack up it was off to watch the Sydney Swans give Hawthorn a lesson of how to play AFL. Under dog victories are always sweet…….
Sunday. Sunny with 15mins of 12knots winds every 15mins. This is the perfect scenario for a family day at the beach with lots of family/girlfriend time combined with some windsurfing when the wind came in. Unfortunately it is not ideal conditions to run racing, as every time a race was started, it faded during the race. This resulted in a series of cancellations. One had to feel for Tibor Ferenczy AUS-1, who was rebelling in every race, only to be robbed each time as the wind such off to zero again. Eventually racing was called for the day and a repeat performance of packing up as quickly as possible so we could head off to watch the Rugby League final.

With 4 winners from 4 races in the open and 3 winners from 4 races in the Free Formula, it is obvious that we are in for a competitive season. Congratulations to Brett Morris and James Farley for winning their respective divisions.
Thanks to the new race committee who managed to pull together our first event, and also our guest Race Officer (Jesper Vesterstrom DEN-111) who really made the most of the crazy conditions to give us the maximum amount of racing. Thanks to Sean Dayhew and Adam Craven for the fantastic photos also….Some pretty special shots.
Please remember to pay for the series on line Join

We want to encourage the participation in our facebook page also, where you can comment, post photos and indicate if you are attending the next events as this make organizing so much easier. Facebook

Heat 2 is at one of the best locations in NSW (Huskisson, Jervis Bay 20-21 Oct)…. Huskisson Map

Photos can be found here. Photos(FB)

Results can be found here. Results(pdf)

NSWWA Heat 1 – Port Kembla

Sean OBrien — Thu, 13 Sep 2012 09:43:43 +0000

Heat 1 of the 2012/13 NSW Wave Series was held in Port Kembla over the weekend. Click the poster for photos, report and results!

FW Heat 7 – Report & Photos

Sean OBrien — Mon, 27 Feb 2012 05:30:35 +0000

Rain, rain and more rain. Wind, wind and more wind… You can complain all you like about being wet, but at the end of the day we came to Jervis Bay to race and the wind gods accommodated with perfect 15-18knot NE winds for the entire weekend.

28 hard core Formula races rocked up to the premier windsurfing spot in NSW for the 7th and final race event of the 2011-12 season. The new “drop” rule that stated that you can only drop the 7th event if you competed had the desired effect with all of the top competitors present to battle it out for the series honors.

Saturday: Brett Morris AUS-8 rigged a small sail anticipating the wind to build and was rewarded win in race 1. Remi Dunoyer sailed a killer race winning race 2 before Sam Parker finally pulled his finger out with 3 bullets in a row.

In the Free Formula division David Howe Aus-688, Roger Lucas AUS-303 and Tim Ford AUS-71 took turns at winning races and along with the likes of David Flanagan AUS-057 had amazing close racing often finishing within meters of each other.

5 races were plenty for one day, so it was time to pack up and head to the new and improved Husky Pub for the traditional Saturday night dinner. It is fair to say that dinner will be remembered for a long time for all the wrong reasons. Our picturesque outdoor setting was a good concept, but torrential wind and rain made it all but a farce.

Sunday: 4 more races in exactly the same conditions with race 6 starting right on the strike of 11am. Brett started the same way as the day before with a win. Remi, not to be out done and just to prove that his win yesterday was no fluke took the next 2 races before Brett finished the day off with a victory. The real battle was the ever changing minor places which were being filled by Byron AUS-747, Nathan Hohnberg AUS-11, Murray Towndrow AUS-720 and the fastest yet most inconsistent guy in the fleet Nathan Bowness AUS-70.

I’m not sure what motivated Tim Ford but the Free Formula fleet was dominated by him with 3 bullets.

Overall it was some of the best racing of the season, even if it did rain constantly. Brett secured a victor from the ever consistent Byron and the rapidly improving Remi in 3rd. Free Formula was convincingly won by Tim ford with David Howe and Roger Lucas 2nd and 3rd respectively.

Huge thanks to our race OD, Nick Nelson who ran a slick event in truly miserable conditions. 9 races in 2 days is enough of a testimony, but Sunday was competed by 1.30pm which allowed ample time to get to the prize giving and enjoy lunch before heading home tired, but extremely satisfied.

Heat 6 – Formula Results

Sean OBrien — Sun, 19 Feb 2012 07:08:15 +0000

Heat 6 of the Formula Tour had plenty of action with 9 races over the two-day event in 10-15 knot southerly and north-easterly winds. Sean O’Brien won the event with 6 bullets from 9 starts, with Mike Nelson taking 2nd which gives him a 5-point lead in the series leading in to the last event in Jervis Bay…

Photos are coming shortly, and results can be found here.

Heat 5 Wave Event Coming Up

Sean OBrien — Sun, 12 Feb 2012 07:36:21 +0000

The 5th and final event of the 2011/12 NSW Wavesailing Association season is on next weekend – 18/19 February! We can’t believe it is coming to an end. We will put together a season wrap but suffice to say this has been a standout season. Record numbers of competitors, great conditions (in what has been an average season) and amazing sponsors.

We have some excellent gear up for grabs from all of our sponsors over the season – the support we get from you really is appreciated. Windsurfnsnow, The Windsurfing Shed, Ask Huey, Neil Pryde/JP and Dirty Dog have all been great, thanks.

We will be running a SUCCINCT AGM on Saturday. Please come along if you have views on the association. Adrien and I will be making sure this is a quick affair. If you have something to add, think of what you’re going to say in advance!

Bring your dress thongs as we’ll no doubt be heading to Fishos to finish the night off!

There are a number of Top 3 places still to be contested so make sure you join us!

Wave – Event 4 Results

Sean OBrien — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 04:45:44 +0000

Pro’s, Ams, Ladies, Juniors, Masters and the yet to be decided, NSWWA in association with our event sponsor, The Windsurfing Shed and series sponsor Neil Pryde are proud to bring you Event 4 of the 2011/12 NSWWA season.

Full results and report can be found here – http://nswwavesailing.org/2012/02/07/competition-report/

Formula Heat 3 @ Lake Macquarie

Sean OBrien — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 09:21:59 +0000

Uncle Mikes Report from Heat 3.

32 keen sailors rolled up to the test launch site behind Swansea on the Saturday greeted by a building nor-easter. The location was near perfect – aside from the long shallow to get past, this location was an idyllic paradise. Bit of tide running past the beach – note to all, don’t fall asleep on a couple of flotation noodles for too long unless you’re tethered to something fixed.

And after the debut of the new Starboard at the last event, some more new boards had arrived. Exocet have gone from a very cool looking, manly black board to a lightish grey, pink and purple motif – very, well..umm… french….plus a new JP, with the graphics designed in MS Word (and possibly the shape as well?).

Quite a few new boards….except notably for Brett, who although has a new board, decided that the peculiarities of the forecast meant that his older board would be the go….hmmm, interesting choice…..possibly influenced by his new power band?

The Power band website claims its products use “holograms embedded with frequencies that react positively with your body’s natural energy field” to improve core strength and power. It certainly had some sort of effect on his natural energy field – normally a top 3 competitor, Brett came 7th……….it is possible though that having just one band, on one arm might throw the body out of balance, and what’s really needed is a second band on the other arm. Hopefully Brett isn’t to perturbed by the experiment and will persevere for all our amusements….

The first two races were in an ENE gusting around the 14kn mark. Sam, who didn’t have the option of a 10.7 looked at the wind and decided the 12.0 would be fine, in no way supported by the rest of us smirking at the concept, as we rigged 11’s and 10.7’s. But the smirks flipped around rather quickly as Sam got to the front of the first two races and was never headed, followed by yours truly and Rick in third (who always seems to go really well at lake maq….)

Roger had the best of the ‘Free’ fleet with a 2nd and a 1st to Chris’s win in the first race, and mixed bag of results for the minor placings – showing just how competitive it is.

After lunch we got back out and the wind had swung a bit into a true NE and picked up, gusting to about 18kn. By this stage Sam had stolen a 10.7 from Barry (some sort of strategic alliance by the two? Team Pawkes?) and Remi had busted out a new exocet sail. And the course was now getting really rough from boat wake plus had the horrible inclusion of weed, which effected everybody to various levels at different times, and helped to mix the racing up a bit.

I arguably had the best of the weed in the 3rd race taking it from Byron, but karma caught up with me in the 4th race with weed up the first work, and any slim chance of tying it up with Sam disappeared with him sailing off in the distance.

The Free fleet mixed it up as well with Adam Craven winning the 4th race by a nose hair and Mr Lake Maq, and Team Pawkes Ninja Baz mixing it up for the top places with Baz heading the points overall with morning leader Roger in second and Ad’s 3rd. Four races, four different winners and four runners-ups confirms how keen the lads are taking it – great to see.

Sunday was a lovely day sitting around debating wether the wind was going to come in or not before finally deciding it wasn’t and calling it quits around 3pm. After Sam and I, was the next 8 sailors covered by less than 8 points with Byron taking 3rd overall, just edging out Rick on a count back, and taking the series lead outright heading into the half-way heat at Sydney.

Great to see a Qld contingent with long time friend of the fleet David Middleton and new friend Clayton McDonald making the journey down.

Massive shout out to the Marmong guys who manned the boat and set the biggest course we’ve had in a while.

Heat 3 results:
Heat 3 – Results

Overall Season Pointscore after Heat 3:
Overall after Heat 3

Heat 2 – Waves @ Gerroa/Windang

Sean OBrien — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 10:49:08 +0000

After an amazing event at Woolgoolga where the competitors were greeted with 3/4 mast high waves and 25 knots of wind, the NSWWA competitors are now heading to the Illawarra for Event 2. The always excellent, helpful and all round nice guys (and girl!) at WINDSURF’nSNOW are sponsoring this event so expect some great gear to demo and hopefully win*!

As always with a competition in the Illawarra, please head to Gerroa if the wind is forecast to be from the North East. If the forecast is for a Southerly, then we will utilise our second choice of event location – Windang. A Gerroa sign on will be 10-11. If an early southerly is expected then we can bring the sign on forward to maximise conditions – at Windang. Please keep an eye on our website for latest updates.

Formula Heat 1 @ Hawks Nest

Sean OBrien — Tue, 04 Oct 2011 10:36:04 +0000

Where to start? After what seemed like a long off season of cold and generally average wind the 1st event of the season is always an interesting mix of emotions i.e. “I wish I had trained harder or at least dusted of last year’s equipment before the 1st race”.

With the new format of the tour giving a slightly different dynamic i.e. separate dedicated Formula and Slalom events, it was always going to temp the wind gods to test the new format by giving us extreme conditions i.e high wind Formula straight off the bat. Anyway after a week of nuking conditions, day 1 was a drifter where not a single sail or board made it out of their protective covers.

We did however take advantage of the glassy waters to do a bit of SUP and managed to hang out with dolphins, turtles, stingrays and some large craps! Not really sure so much marine life directly off the beach is a good thing or not, but it was impressive!

Day 2 was a different story, with torrential rain and 25knots on-shore winds coming directly from Sydney and a forecast of thing to get wetter and windier as the day went on. The easy and acceptable decision was to cancel the racing and retire to the golf club to watch the rugby world cup and NRL grand final, but luckily the race committee showed some serious back bone, and choose to run the course racing during the lulls. The Fleet hit the water with their smallest FW sail (generally 9.5m-10m) for a simple windward/leeward course that finished 20meters off the beach.

Race 1. Brett Morris (AUS-8) had a good lead at the top mark only to play it safe on the downwind by trying to only jibe once, where Sam Parker (AUS-3) choose the aggressive route in much stronger winds to take the lead at the bottom mark. On the last up-wind Sam did the opposite taking the calmer inside track, only to be just beaten to the top mark by Brett, for the last time where positions stayed to the finish. In the Free Formula (the old FE+) Barry Fawkes (AUS-2111) continued from last year by managing to beat Mick Saunders (AUS-149).

Race2. In 25+ knots you tend to forget that the wind can shift, but half way up the 1st beat and massif hail storm hit reducing visibility to a few meters and disguising a 20 degree right hand shift. Sam Parker sailed a great race to win, but the real race was for 2nd – 4th where Remi Dunoyer (AUS-773), Justin Lord (AUS-38) and young gun Nick Auston (AUS-151) battled the whole race. Barry and Mick were the only finishers in the Free Formula fleet, as this race was “crazy” challenging!

Race3. 2 x 20mins races may not sound like much, but in these conditions it rally saps your energy and bodies were beginning to hurt. This didn’t stop Byron McIlveen (AUS-747) from becoming the 3rd winner in 3 races ahead of Brett and Sam. In the Free Formula James Farley (AUS-173) and David Howe (AUS-688) made their present felt with a 1st and 3rd.

Race 4. Half way up the 1st beat the wind dropped to zero and was cancelled much to the disappointment of Murray Towndrow (AUS-720) who was well on his way to being the 4th winner in 4 races.
The Race Officer of the Day decided to call racing off as the conditions were becoming unstable and he wisely though we had pushed our luck enough on such an extreme day. Little did we know at the time but this turned out to be the best decision of the day with 30+ knots kicking as we were de-rigging.

A huge thanks to our RO- Glen Rumsford who’s enthusiasm got us on the water, and his decision making produce not only a fantastic days racing but also a safe environment in truly testing conditions.
A reminder that heat2 is close 15-16Oct2011 at one of the best windsurfing locations in NSW. Huskisson, Jervis Bay. Please remember to join a club and pay in advance on www.tour.windsurfingnsw.com.