Notes For Racers And Freestylers For The East Coast Windsurfing Festival

The East Coast Windsurfing Festival starts on Saturday at Hecksher!   Here are some details from the organizers:

If you're competing in either the racing or freestyle, you need to show up at Heckscher at 10am on Saturday June 7th to sign in.  Skippers meeting will be at 11:00.  This way we can set up the freestyle heats and get the racing groups together.  The plan is to start competition at High Noon on Saturday and continue until about 6 PM  then repeat the process on Sunday.  We will alternate between racing heats and freestyle heats.   Sunday afternoon will be the freestyle finals and the races will end.  Trophies will be presented on Sunday evening at the end of competition.  We're looking to hold the Pro Men's freestyle in high wind, so the timing on the pro men's freestyle is subject to change with the forecast. 

 So what's it take to win a freestyle competition?  Other than landing the biggest tricks of course.  Well first off the judges will be looking for a variety of tricks, so instead of doing the same trick over and over, try and mix it up.  Second, it's a lot easier for the judges to spot you close to the beach.  You won't score any higher by doing the trick close to the beach, but you'll be sure to get noticed.  Watch the start flags to know when the heat starts.  You can get that extra move in that makes the difference if you time it right.  Third, start off with the tricks you know. Get those under your belt before going huge on something you probably won't land anyway.  Keep in mind that you will earn some points by going big even though you might not land it.  Go for that first forward, vulcan, whatever.  The last secret is to do really short runs out and back. If you do half the length of your normal run, you end up doing twice as many tricks. 

More details on the East Coast Windsurfing Festival can be found here.

Looking forward to seeing you there!

Comments

[Tony]

Hey gues, are there any good thermals at Hecksher Park? The forecast for the weekend says hot (80F) partially sunny so no cold fronts coming which worries me a little bit. The largest board I have is a 111 liters and the largest sail a 7.4 m2 so you understand my worries.....See you next weekend!!

[michael]

Hecksher is probably the best place on all of Long Island for thermals. But more importantly, it's WAY too early in the week to think the forecast is meaningful.

[Mike Burns]

As long as it's SW and sunny, Heckscher will blow. This time of year we can get 20 mph of pure thermal without any gradient helping out. Throw in a little SW and we're on 4.7s. The forecast on Iwindsurf right now is SW and sunny, a perfect windy setup at Heckscher. The main concern we have is the wind lifting early in the season over the cooler water, but so far the wind has been mixing much better than usual due to the perfectly warm water in the bay. I haven't needed a sail bigger than my 5.9 since April and that was only one day. When it's windy, it's WINDY at Heckscher. Sunday was day 64 of the season for me.

See you this weekend,

Mike

[Tony]

Mike,

That sounds promising! You have convinced me, I'll leave the 7.4 at home ;)
Michael, you are perfectly right about the forecast but since we are all looking forward to a great event, a little paranoia sets in ;)

See you this weekend.

PS: do you have enough gps units for everyone or will we be sharing them?

[Mike Burns]

Tony,

Don't leave anything home!!!!! It's not windy every single day anywhere in the world and if we don't have a sw gradient to couple the thermal, you might need the 7.4. I'm bringing my 8.2 which hasn't seen the water this year yet.

We have 2 GPS units to share. We'll probably give each person 2 runs out and back before giving the units to the next person in line. You can wait in line as many times as you like. We're going to keep a list of people waiting for the unit so after you go, you get moved to the back of the list and become first in line for your second go at the world speed record.

See you on Saturday,

Mike