Bruce Kendall Windsurfing Olympics - Part 2 – The golden days to Seoul

by Bruce Kendall on 6 Dec 2015 Olympic Gold and Bronze medalist, windsurfer Bruce Kendall tells how the professional side of the sport unfolded after his Bronze medal win in the 1984 Olympics

After winning the Olympic Bronze medal in Windsurfing at the 1984 Games in Los Angeles the next four years of my windsurfing career was a golden era. It was near the height of the popularity of windsurfing and it was at this time I was offered some great sponsorship / employment opportunities. Olympic class windsurfing took a back seat for a few years.

The income allowed me to travel and practice all the other windsurfing disciplines in some of the best windsurfing locations in the world. It also allowed me to compete in some of the biggest windsurfing events ever with generous prize money.

I sailed in all states of Australia, in Hawaii, Lake Garda Italy, Sylt Germany, all coasts of France, Silvaplana Switzerland, Malmo Sweden, Columbia Gorge USA, Curacao Netherland Antilles, and more.

It was a time of invites to events with all expenses paid plus appearance money in many exotic and some unexpected but intriguing places including Papua New Guinea, Fiji, Cook Islands, Noumea, Singapore, Hong Kong, Guam, and more.

Often there were new and modified formats or courses on either custom, production or one design equipment.

My forte was Course racing, similar to Olympic Class racing although generally there was no restriction in pumping the sail. The boards were the same length but flat bottomed with retractable centerboard & sliding mast tracks with a focus on reaching and down wind speed. The starts could be up wind down wind or reaching, on the water or they could be running down the beach carrying the equipment then sailing out through the surf. They could be marathon races or sometimes they were massive starts, all making the tactics during the respective races interesting in a wide range of conditions over the duration of the race.

A favourite was figure 8 reaching or down wind Slalom racing on boards less than 3 meters long, sometimes in and out through surf with small fleets and an elimination ladder. An excellent spectator sport and often with good prize money. The high speeds and board handling around marks helped my course racing.

My most favourite … wave sailing, free expression in the best surf with wind across the face of the waves. Judging in the competitions was for surfing the wave in, jumps on the way out and the transitions from going out to in, as well as in to out. Wave sailing still is my favourite windsurfing discipline by far. Often at the time it seemed as though I was racing just so I could go wave sailing. Hookipa Beach Park on Maui Hawaii, the Taranaki coast [picture below] and the east coast of Australia were my favourite places. The fitness required for wave sailing helped my course racing.

Full time windsurfing across multiple disciplines allowed me to become more dominant over most of my Pacific Rim competitors in course racing. Plus the years of training without a harness often gave me a power to body weight physical advantage.

The lifestyle and sponsorships allowed me to spend a lot of time developing equipment to the point where I often had a clear competitive advantage successfully increasing my prize money earning position. I thoroughly enjoyed constantly helping to design, build, test and develop board shapes and construction, foils, sails and all parts of windsurfing equipment, including wetsuits, harnesses etc.

Highlights included winning the Cannon Open Ocean Marathon from Manly beach inside Sydney Harbour to Long Reef and back winning AU$19,000. This one win allowed me to pay off all my debts and spend some months wave sailing at Hookipa Beach Park on Maui.

I was first Overall Rip Curl multi fins wave classic which included course racing, slalom and wave sailing against many of the top international competitors of the time including a very young and upcoming Bjorn Dunkerbeck and Jason Polakow. The wave sailing final was held at the famous Bells Beach in Victoria Australia, the home of Rip Curl and Quicksilver.

First in the Malibu Cup was a spectaclular long board race from port to port over 10 days around the Balearic Islands of Mallorca, Menorca and Ibiza where we lived on the boats following the race.
Long board racing and slalom at the Peter Jackson Blue Water Classic held in each state of Australia and the Rheineck Series held in 5 locations around New Zealand with the biggest fleets to this day of from 200 to 400 at each event. I was able to dominate both events earning good money every weekend & the over all.

The Tour de France Planche a Voile which was a dynamic event staged over 10 days at different locations around all the coasts of France, police escort leading the show at full speed into each town. 4 trucks the size of 2 x 40 foot containers each filled with equipment and all the sailors in 2 busses. In any day we could use 4 completey different sets of gear to suit the conditions and formats. Great to finish 2nd over all when the prize money was so good.

The Engadin Marathon in the mountains near St Moritz Switzerland had the biggest fleets ever with a start line fleet of over 1000 boards. We raced on different boards including tandem boards. The high altatude meant we needed to use much bigger sails and sailing in Alpine white out conditions made finding marks by dead reconing a good skill to develop.

My sisters Barbara and Wendy and many other kiwis were also racing at some of the same events with good success during the time leading up to the Seoul Olympics. Barbara gained attention with winning the Women’s class international production board world championships in Malmo Sweden. This really launched her onto the world stage attracting good sponsorship.

1988 and back to Olympic racing
In the 1988 NZ Olympic Trials I was caught in a dilemma due to Cyclone Bola. The trials were on a round bottom board on a traditional Olympic triangle course with pumping of the sail restricted. The trials were extended due to the strong winds of Bola postponing racing days. This meant that the trials would overlap the first day of racing for the finals [of which I was leading] for the Rheineck Series on open class equipment which had toured the country with good prize money.

None of the Olympic Windsurfers were competing in the Rheineck Series and would not sail on one of the rest days or sail more than one race a day, which would have allowed the trials to finish before the Rheineck Series final. This meant I would have to win the trials without having to finish the last day of racing. I was stoked to achieve this winning the Olympic selection and also won the final event of the Rheineck Series claiming the overall prize as well.

Due to Grant Beck being unable to go to the ‘84 games in some capacity and knowing his ability to enhance my medal winning potential for the ‘88 Olympic Games I asked him to assist me and he did.
Olympic Sailing Team Manager Mike Clark enhanced the whole ‘88 NZ Olympic sailing teams’ chances by helping us, the the only non-Korean team to train in Pusan for the Korean Olympic Games weeks before the other teams.

The boards we used had changed from the flat bottomed models and fixed fittings of 1984 to round bottom and very tippy boards with an emphasis on light wind performance and upwind speed. We were now allowed to use a harness to reduce arm fatigue, sliding mast track systems for trim and retractable dagger boards.

Considering the hull design it was ironic that this was the windiest ever Olympic Games regatta and remains so to this day. There was a lot of equipment failure of the provided equipment, consequent protests for redress and controversy over the outcomes. Although I wasn’t one of the heavier or taller competitors, I had a wide skill base and was generally fitter and stronger than most. A tactical advantage was due to spending my junior and youth years sailing in the Tamaki River in Auckland so I was good at knowing how to read and use the strong currents better than most. The tide flow changed mid-way through the regatta from going with the wind to against the wind up to 6 knots in some places. This dynamically changed the course strategy mid regatta & caught out some of my competition. .

My mental and daily routine was different to most also. I woke up to punk rock music and listened to it right up to before I went on the water, this gave the “Dead Kennedys” a bigger profile in NZ?. Rather than take the bus transport provided, I skate boarded or biked to the sailing venue to get my heart rate up early in the day. Both got my whole system revved up to race.

These boards were wetter than all the other boards I sailed with stinging spray coming off the bow right at your face. The InSunSport formula was the only sunscreen product I could trust not to sting and blur my eyes. Another advantage I add to the list.

A cautious tactic
Mid way through the event I was winning over all and was very nervous of a getting a disqualification for a collision such as I had in the ‘84 games. As in ‘84, the rules did not include an alternative penalty for a protest between sailors due to even a minor contact between the boards, rigs or sailors which was very common on the start line. So I started several meters downwind and behind the fleet and after the start sailed my way through the fleet. Thankfully nothing went wrong as it had in ‘84 and I didn’t have to sail the last race to win the regatta.

I won the Gold and was nominated to carry the flag for the NZ Olympic Team for the Olympic Closing ceremony. The highlight for me during the medal ceremony wasn’t being presented the medal or the NZ flag being raised. It was the comparatively wild and loudest cheer during the medal ceremony from the rest of the windsurfers and the NZ Sailing team. The NZ sailing team were very successful with a Bronze medal for John Cutler in the Finn class and the Silver medal for Rex Sellers and Chris Timms in the Tornado.

To top off a great year I was presented the Sir Bernard Fergusson Trophy, awarded to the NZ Yachtsman of the year and I was nominated for an MBE for services to sport.

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