South West Cup ..by Krafty

What a weekend for sun worshippers and family holidaymakers.

As is the norm for us over easter, we bolted on a couple of days either side of the event to make a proper break of our Kernow adventure. As a break from our normal routine, we decided to check out an old UKBSA venue and extremely well placed campsite at Pentewan Sands.

As campsites go, this one has a cracking location and our pitch was very nearly on the beach itself. It does come with all the other campsite bits and pieces that some love and others travel to avoid, but avoiding peak season meant we scored a peaceful break either side of the event.

Heading over to Marazion was only a short hop from Pentewan, and we arrived early to find the car park filling with eager competitors, despite a forecast offering very little windwise. I guess this is testament to the draw of the venue, although with an RSX event clashing we were expecting a dip in numbers this time around.

As I type this, the event results are up, and from those you can note that we all enjoyed some racing over the course of the weekend. What you can't see from these results is how very close we came to not scoring a full event due to extremely light winds, so credit is certainly due to the event crew for making sure that no opportunities were missed to get some racing in, whenever the wind blew.

An interesting visitor to the event was Starboard's new Serenity, and amongst others I was guilty of being a Hibbard lookalike, although on closer inspection a baldy with barefeet and a hard earned beer belly would be a poor imitator of the helium boned 007 surely ? Brian Tilbury was guilty of ‘cheating' by using the Serenity in a race or two, and I even spied our race officer stealing a ride between races, suitably attired in his (new for 2007) Typhoon UKWA Crew dry suit and (from his personal collection) weathered baseball cap. I'm not sure that we'll see a one design Serenity fleet appear in the UK, and it saddens me to report that the event offered up pretty perfect conditions for the board, but that's the truth, and as bizarre an experience it may have been, it was quite a pleasure to cruise about doing nothing and disturbing no-one, until it was windy enough to use proper kit anyway.

A personal highlight for me was a startline tussle where I was squeezing Xav on the line while he was shouting for right of way over a couple of playful dolphins positioned neatly just upwind of him, patrolling the startline like seasoned racers. I think most of us got the opportunity to sail with, or in very close proximity to the dolphins, and it's certainly an experience that will stay with us all.

There wasn't a lot of freewave action due to the lighter winds, but credit where it's due as these guys got out there and performed freestyle tricks to baffle most of us. So inspired by their efforts, a few of us entered into the sail spinny spirit of things on our formula kit, but alas, the prizes were for the experts alone.

Pictures of the event will appear very soon, and there will be a fair few of these so allocate some time to sit back and enjoy the shots, and also don't forget to check for full event reports / features in forthcoming issues of Windsurf, Boards & Boardseeker (online) magazines.

In the meantime, check your calendars for the next UKWA event. It was good to see lots of youngsters as well as a number of more experienced newcomers at Marazion, and with initiatives happening at many local beaches to re-invigorate the old club windsurfing vibe, I expect to see lots more new faces supporting their local event.

Make 2007 the year that you have a go at some form of windsurfing competition, there is something for all levels and all disciplines.

A big thanks go to all our event sponsors - the industry members and Penwith District Council-whose support helps make the events possible, and a personal thank you from myself goes to the crew at Ultrasport (JP/Neil Pryde) as I was fortunate enough to win a place at the forthcoming Micah Buzianis Slalom Training event, compliments of JP/Pryde.

I hope to see you all at a forthcoming event.

Special thanks to my sponsors - Acutel, DaKine, Vans for Work, 4boards (Gaastra/Tabou/Windsurfing Hawaii), and to my fellow Surfkraft Team Riders for carrying the flag.

Krafty