US Windsurfing National Championship - Steve Bodner report

by Steve Bodner on 30 Jul 2009 Four days of epic racing on the Columbia River Gorge was enough for local Bruce 'I own this river' Peterson to claim both the course and slalom disciplines for the 2009 US Windsurfing National Championship in Hood River, Oregon.(Hood River, Oregon: windy enough to blow the dogs off the chains).

With 83 competitors registered, it was an event to be remembered as the Gorge delivered nuclear winds on the first day of slalom racing to 10-12k on the final day to test competitors ability in all conditions.

In what seemed like a huge junior contingent from around the country, the 22 strong junior fleet held a two day clinic before the event, tuning in the racing skills with the help of local Sailworks guru Bruce Peterson. The juniors were sailing the Bic Techno 293 board (with some of the older fleet already on the formula boards) which provided an excellent platform for racing. Im sure in a few years, we'll see their results of hard training and will be nipping on the heals of the formula fleet.

Equally impressive, was the huge turn out from the San Francisco fleet with almost 20 sailors making the trip up and pushing at the top of the fleet in both disciplines. Up and coming SF junior racer, Marion Lepert took both the slalom and course title for junior girls while David Wells, Eric Christanson, Jean Rathle, Chris Radkowski, Mike Percy, Al Mirel and myself, Steve Bodner all made the podium on Sunday!

Days 1 and 2 saw the fleet running 11 slalom heats in conditions that can only be described as challenging! On the opening Day, the Gorge went off with gust pushing into the 40's and sailors overpowered on their traditional slalom rigs and switching down to smaller wave gear just to survive! Bruce Peterson dominated the slalom racing with bullets in nine out the 11 heats. Carbon Art maestro James Dinnis from New Zealand was in the heat most of the races sticking some sick laydown gybes at the marks making it look easy. The rest of the fleet struggled to get around the unique 'Gorge Box slalom course' and found their crash tacks to be the best solution getting around the top mark in the course.

On day 2 the fleets were broken up into gold and silver fleets with the top dogs fighting it out around the course. Of course, the event site proved an excellent venue to watch the races as well as well as hear all the comments from the peanut gallery. Everyone on shore can always gybe better than the guy on the water!

Doc Watson provided the commentary to give the event a positive vibe and onlookers a clue to what was going on - on the water.

On day 3, the winds lightened to a gusty 15-20k and gave the fleet a chance to jump into course racing. Again, a unique course was set up to take advantage of the Columbia River's long and narrow site. Four races were run for the three fleets with most sailors setting themselves up on port tack to start and get out to the favorable wind and current along the Washington shore.

Finally on the last day on competition, two more formula course races were run in 10-15k under the black flag as the fleet was anxious to gain any last opportunities. Eric Christanson slipped into second behind Bruce Peterson while I held onto the third place podium finish overall.

The competition at this event couldn't have been closer but local knowledge and experience always seems to pay off with Peterson cleaning up in both disciplines. Next year's nationals will be back in San Francisco and the bragging rights start all over again!

2009 US Windsurfing Nationals Day 4.

With a 1 pm deadline for the last possible start, there was some pressure to get more course racing off. Sunday's forecast was less than stellar but eventually the breeze filled in enough to start. I sailed the course early with my 10.0 and decided there wasnt enough pressure so quickly came in and bumped up to the 11.0. The fleet was anxious and immediately had one general recall before the black flag went up. I got off clean on port and around the top mark in the heat with Al and Bruce. Downwind, the key was to stay in the pressure and like yesterdays previous 4 races, I was able to gain significantly by gybing early and pumping my way down to the leeward mark.
At that point, at the bottom of the course, the winds were less than plane-able and the fleet piled up. Race Director Darren Rogers made the right decision to abandon the race.

20 minutes later, he had the course set up a 1/2 mile upwind in the wind line and we were racing again. The fleet was well set up with the top five guys rounding in front. I was clawing my way through the fleet and pulled off an amazing last downwind leg going from eighth to fourth by splitting tacks after the windward mark and catching a nice puff and finessing my way through Percy, Eric and David just before the finish.

Again, kudos the race director for realizing the time crunch and running the next race back to back. One general recall pulled the fleet back after an anxious start and the last race was run under the blag flag.

The pressure was on. Bruce looked like he had things wrapped up and I was sitting 1.7 points in front of Eric for second.

Again a port tack favored start to get out to the pressure on the Washington side and the favorable current. Al nailed the start and was out to a quick lead in front of Bruce. Eric went down hard on his first gybe so it looked like I had the opportunity to sail safe but on the second upwind I managed to find some weeds and struggled to shake them. Eric was working his way up the middle of the course with pressure as I got caught on the sides. At the top mark, it was Al, Bruce, Eric, Chris and myself.

One more move to make, if it worked I could catch Eric and Chris Prior in third. I split tacks again but this time when I came across Chris and Eric were riding a nice puff down from the inside but it didnt look like they had the layline to the finish line. I overstood and came in with the pressure just behind Eric and Chris in fifth - just not enough to hold on to second as Eric slipped in there.

That left me on the podium for third overall behind Bruce and Eric - two well deserved places by great sailors!

USA 4 Windsurfing Campaign - Steve Bodner website: www.stevebodner.com