another exclusive paid for by my lazy job
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The hackers hack the Downwind dash – 15 January 2007
The cream of Zeekoevlei’s windsurfing elite made a bold appearance at the 26th Downind Dash, held at Langebaan on the 13th of January 2007. A motley crew of streetfighters included:
Steven “B1tsh” Rhodes
Dave “Dave dog” Waiting
Geofferson “Dingle” Rhodes
Craig “Rockspider” Sterling
Oliver “Pedro” Fuchs
Steven “Cool Steve” Burnett
Dopey “Dopey” Dopey
Robert “Bob” Gardner
Nicknames aside, we rocked up with a very spiffy trailer with the coolest boards on top to show off, doing our best to psyche out the competition in the parking lot. Tough job when they’re mostly speaking foreign languages, pulling out matching their ’07 kit and Red Bull stickers all over the sails. We brought along a few blondes to try distract them, pity they made a beeline for Pearlies and got stuck into the pizza menu before we could do any real damage.
The conditions were very very extremely touch and go. The race is run in a minimum of 15kts, and we were sitting on about 18. The expected lull in Saldanha would play a crucial part in the final position, and proved to be our Alp D’Huez. We’d left it all a little late, despite coming up the west coast a day early, and no-one really got a decent test run in before the start. The pre-race vibe was a mix of anticipation and nerves. The overall entry was 144 with about 50 boards, 80 kites and a few Hobies thrown in the mix. Nevermind the boards all lined up and jockeying for position, seeing 80+ string puppets lined up as far as the eyes could see was quite spectacular.
The hooter went and a mad dash to get up and going ensued. The best start actually seemed to be from Cool Steve, who had ended up in the kite section, and got flying away with no wind shadow around. Everyone seemed to make it to the first mark no problems, but not really troubling the leaders. Once planing, conditions were alright, but it seemed a seriously problem getting through the lulls and going low enough to make the second mark in a single broad reach. Soon after the Club Mykonos mark, the rot set in. With barely enough horsepower to continue, our heroes were seen languishing in the sea waiting for the all important gusts to get going again. Maybe the 7.4m2 in the parking lot wasn’t such a bad idea after all.
Within the race within a race, positions were changing and at the Iron Ore Jetty it seemed unofficially to be B1tsh, Dopey, Dave, Cool Steve, Craig, Dingle, Pedro and Bob(who had gone back to his oppie days and left it a tad late and not actually started on time). From there on it was a monumental task reaching the next mark, which was almost dead downwind and the wind had left like Jen after uncovering Brangelina. All the kites that had been superbly dodged and dismissed were now bobbing past. It is a lie that the winner did the course in 23mins, David Copperfield must have been involved. Eventually it picked up again, and everyone managed to sneak home(well almost) for our all important scoreboard:
B1tsh (took almost an hour, and is still moaning)
Dave Dog(the tortoise can win the race, he only had a 5.0, but on the XANTOS! managed to keep going)
Craig/Pedro(expletives were heard in a mixture of rock and Deutsch, they came screaming in at the end together once the wind had returned. Both would have killed for more volume)
Cool Steve(managed to hold off the previous two gurus for a while, but forgot the all important process of finishing-probably finished the race in stone last, but finished)
Rescued:
Dopey(was apparently doing OKish, but threw in the towel and hooked up a rescue near the jetty-he gets paid to sail, so wasn’t wasting his time and rep on a sh1tty result)
Bob(sitting in his 4.9 with a lil’ board, got scooped up in a fishing net along the way)
DSQ:
Dingle(only did 2 of the four marks-and even tried to maintain his innocence by claiming to have done the same distance. Despite a long history in dinghies, he doesn’t understand the pulling string tight theory and went the wrong way around the Mykonos keelboat amidst protests from the bridge. Don’t ask him about the Trimaran mark either!)
The fun crowd made their way back for a low-key prizegiving including free snoek and free hunters, the Casino emptied some wallets on the way home too. It’s probably the first time I’ve remembered leaving the Mykonos bar.
All in all, fun of sorts was had by all. We’ll be back…… if there’s wind!
more pics, more folders at
http://picasaweb.google.com/dwaiting
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