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Windsurfing National
Championship, Worthington, MN, June 11-15, 2003This is the major, multi-class windsurfing event sanctioned by US Windsurfing. Most commonly it’s held in high wind coastal areas, such as San Francisco, Corpus Christi, etc. This year was a change of pace, as we moved to 785 acre lake Okabena in Southwest Minnesota.
It's usually a windy place, as you can guess from the wind turbine generators all around the area...but for this week the wind was light. Prodigy Class was ok, as our centerboards enabled us to get 9 races in. On a couple of days the wind fell below even our 3 knot minimum, but on a couple of other days we were able to kick the boards up and the tracks back and do some planing, at least on the downwind legs. It was interesting, tactical racing, and tacking at the right moment could make a huge difference. Places changed frequently during the races.
Prodigy Class standouts included Peter Donitz of British Columbia, Bruce Matlack of San Diego, and Al and Susan Simmons of Connecticut. Susan is consistently fast in light conditions, and Al is consistently fast when he pumps like an animal. They took first and second place in the class--another nice result for the "First Couple of Prodigy." Bruce has been in retirement since his run as a Windsurfer (TM) world champion in the early 70s, but he's getting back into it. Once he eased his downhaul a bit, he took a couple of bullets, and started challenging Peter for the third place spot.
Some of the most hotly contested races at the event were unofficial ones, set up on a tiny course in almost no wind, for the US Windsurfing Junior Team. We sent them out on the Prodigy charter boards (which were provided by the House of Minneapolis, Windpower of Madison, and Sailboard Alley of Toledo), with a 6.5 sail limit, and they had a blast. Pepi Gerald, sales director for Mistral, and Will Harper, associate editor of American Windsurfer, got into it, too, mixing it up with the kids and yelling "Starboard" at each other. They were still talking about it over their second and third beers that night, with Will pounding the table and shouting "We kicked the twelve year-old's butts!"
Pepi brought a couple of prototype Club Class 5.5 sails, and they got a good workout. Kevin Jewett, US Windsurfing National IMCO Class Champion and Olympic hopeful, used a 5.5 and a Prodigy to teach his dad to windsurf one afternoon.
Check out the US Windsurfing page for results, and current national tour standings.
The Worthington Daily Globe at www.dglobe.com offers extensive coverage.
In light winds the Prodigys fit right into the traditional longboard fleet.
Photo by Brian Korthals/Daily Globe