WINTER 2006 < back >
January 29, 2007: After 5 days of racing with 10 races in total, the Miami Olympic Classes Regatta is now over, for me anyhow. The top 10 finishers still had a medal race to sail. I finished 16th overall, which was not the result I was aiming for, but came away with plenty of positives from the regatta. We had a total of 10 races, and in seven of those races I rounded the top mark in the top 5. For the first time in my olympic windsurfing career I was really mixing it up with the best girls. I lost places due to still being relatively new to this style of racing, but I feel like I've now got to the point now where I can sail the board well in most conditions, although I do have some weaknesses still in certain conditions, and I need to refine my racing and my board specific tactics. With great coaching and support from Kevin Black, the BC Sailing Coach I was able to work on my starts, which was the main focus for me at this event, but also to identify some of my weaknesses and make an improvement plan from them. My next regatta will be Sail Auckland in New Zealand from February 8-12th.
January 15, 2007: Happy New Year!
This year's season started with the RSX North American Championships in Miami. We had a total of 9 races, 3 races a day for 3 days. It was my first time on the board after the holidays and it was great to be back on the water again. We had great conditions for all days ranging from 13-17 knots, a relatively windy regatta for Miami. We had a great turnout for the girls fleet with 24 boards, including many top European girls. I was using this regatta as a warm-up to next week's Miami Olympic Classes Regatta, trying to work on my starting techniques with BC Sailing coach Kevin Black. Although I couldn't call all my starts stellar, I did get off the line and had some solid finishes. I finished 9th overall and was the first North American woman! MOCR, a Grade 1 regatta that many more Europeans will attend starts Monday.
December 21, 2006: I just returned from 3 weeks of training in Buzios, Brazil, about a two hour drive NE from Rio, a beautiful peninsula which is one of the most sought after destinations in Brazil, with 23 beaches. We sailed from BimbaWind Club on the more protected side, yet just a 15 minute walk would have us on the other side of the peninsula on the beach with open ocean (cold water) and waves for surfing. There was 5 of us girls in total from across the globe (Italy, Spain, Greece, Germany and Canada), meeting here for training. There were also several guys training here as well as the Brazilians and youth kids, which made for a great turnout on the water. We trained diligently both on and off the water, it was a fantastic environment to be in!
I thought I was in windsurfing heaven. The first few days of our stay we sailed in sunny 20 knots with rolling swell in really warm water. They said that it is typical wind and weather and that this could last for 20 days. Wow... Then the weather changed; a "cold front" came through which brought high humidity, no wind and temperatures still in the 30's. We had several days of "no-wind" training in anywhere from 2-5knots and over the course of the next 10 days we saw all conditions but strong wind. Although it rained and was cloudy, I couldn't have asked for better training conditions: offshore, shifty, gusty winds ranging from 7-14 knots. I was able to work on my board handling, pumping and my racing skills. A few days before I flew back home the wind picked up again, but this time to 25-30knots. There was a weekend regatta in these extreme windy conditions, with 5 races total. Having not sailed in these conditions recently and not often, I was fighting my rig and board. I had great speed and the guts to go fast...but then I'd loose control as the wind would get underneath my board and I would blowup. Pretty scary when this happens. I finished 4th in this regatta. I had one day left to train before I flew home....and I really wanted to sail, to figure out how to stay in control in this crazy wind. I changed a few things with the tuning of my sail, and I picked up some pointers from the other girls on how to sail these conditions. We did a 45minute upwind to an island and then back downwind. It just got windier and windier, peaking around 35knots on the downwind as we got closer to shore. I have never sailed in this much wind before on the RSX. I was so happy with my sailing that day, I was in control both upwind and downwind the whole session and never got "chucked". It was the perfect end to my three week training camp in Brazil.
On the way to the airport in Rio, I was able to do a bit of sightseeing. I went to the top of the Sugar Loaf...what an unbelievably beautiful city.
And now home for Christmas!!! In January I will be off to Miami for both the RSX North American Championships and the Rolex Miami Olympic Classes regatta.
I wish you a Merry Christmas and all the best for the Holiday Season!
November 15, 2006:
This is Sailworks latest ad (www.sailworks.com), which can be found in the Winter edition of Windsurfing Magazine! Cool eh!
The RSX World Championships ended on September 30th, which concluded my 2006 season. I came home to Vancouver, was in bed sick needing recuperation for two weeks and then went to Vipassana,(a ten day meditation retreat in Merritt, BC). Vipassana, which means to see things as they really are, is one of India's most ancient techniques of meditation. It was a very interesting and rewarding experience and will most definitely help my mental game in competition. And now...I'm back to planning for the upcoming season and working hard at the gym!
This year I had several new supporters join me on my journey to Beijing. Thank you!
Inventa
NeilPryde Waterwear
Lululemon
Sailworks
Lufthansa (free windsurfing baggage!)
I want to extend my sincere thanks to all those who have supported and stood by me in my transition year from sailing to windsurfing.
Mercedes-Benz Vancouver
Helly Hansen
Kaenon Polarized
Roberts Sailboards
Velocitek
Marlow Ropes
Ronstan
PJ Phelan Sailing Foundation
Canadian Yachting Association
Royal Vancouver Yacht Club
BC Sailing
Pacific Sport
Level 10
and all my friends and family. Thank-you!
This week I head to Cocoa Beach, Florida for a Canadian Sailing Team training camp. Following that I will be going to Buzios, Brazil for another training camp for 3 weeks. We are an international group of 5 girls training together: a Greek, an Italian, a German, a Spanish and myself! They are all top sailors, three of which were in the top 10 at the World Championships, so I will be in great company and will be working very hard to keep up and learn as much as I can.
October 3, 2006: Finishing the Worlds on the 30th of September ended my 6-week stint in Torbole, Lake Garda. Having trained diligently for the weeks prior to the World Championships, I was eager to have the competition start. This was the first World Championship of this new RS:X Olympic Windsurfing Class. The men’s fleet saw upwards of 160 competitors, while the women’s fleet had 80 competitors. This meant that both the men’s and the women’s fleet had to be split up and have qualifying rounds of who gets into the Gold and Silver groups. The men’s group was initially divided into 4 groups of 41 and the women’s into 2 groups of 40. There were 6 races, 2 races a day in the qualifying series. It was my goal to make the Gold fleet.
Racing was really good; for me, the hardest part of each race was getting off the starting line. Because of the way the wind was and which side of the course was favoured, we had numerous port starts...where the whole fleet starts on port (rather than starboard which is the norm). This has made things quite interesting and very difficult when you had a bad start. Each day I pulled off one good start and was in the top 10, while in the other race I had a bad start and I played a game of catch up. All the training I have done was paying off, as my speed and board handling was good and except for the 3 bad starts, I had been sailing quite well. I hit weeds in one race in which I was 7th and lost 4 boards because of it, finishing 11th, so that's a bit of a bummer but at least I was up there until the very end. After the 6 qualifying races, I had made Gold Fleet!!! Next, I wanted to have the best possible finish. Unfortunately I got sick, I spent the lay-day in bed and for the next 3 days of racing I was battling with my lack of energy. Our course area was the area closest to shore, with less wind, more chop and much more gusty and shifty which meant it was both tactical and fluky and we had to pump a lot. I had some brilliant moments, yet I wasn’t able to hold those positions until the end of the race. I ended up finishing 35th overall. I am happy with my result but I am not satisfied. I have much bigger goals than just qualifying for gold fleet!
Helping me keep calm and focused before, during and after the races was the Canadian Sailing Team's Sports Psychologist, Colin Guthrie with whom I spoke to each day after racing. Marc Littee, a CYA coach was there to support all Canadians. Unfortunately with all the splitting into groups, it's was difficult for him to be with everyone. Luckily, since I had been training with Romy, the German girl for the past 6 weeks and we did our pre-start procedures and tuning together, I was able to join in with her and her coach, Michael Fellman (a multiple-time Olympian in the Finn class) and thus got great coaching support. Thank you!
Winning the Worlds in the women's class was Alessandra Sensini from Italy and Casper Bouman of Holland in the men's division. Congratulations!