A while ago I posted about Olympic sailing and the controversy about what types of boats, windsurfers, kiteboards, etc. should be Olympic classes. This week there was an Olympic Class Regatta in Miami for all the types that will be competing in 2012. The videos from that do a good job of showing what the competition is like for the different kinds of boats. (Day 2 video below.)
It was a good regatta for the American contenders in the RS:X Windsurfing class, led by Robert Willis for the men and Farrah Hall for the women, who were 15th of 31 and 12th of 30 international competitors, respectively. That's pretty amazing, considering that for the last several years the Americans, generally underfunded and lacking national support compared to the windsurfing athletes from other countries, had struggled to break into to the top international level of competition. Their big improvement this year shows that the American athletes, coaches, and various support people are starting to really get it together. Go USA!
PS- There are more pictures of the windsurfing part of the competition on Alex Morales' Miami windsurfing website: windsurfingtour.com.
PPS- There are even more pictures, videos, and lots of detailed reports and analyses at waterhound.com.
Hi James I really enjoy your blog. Just wanted to give you a heads up I put some extra effort in to the RSX, Techno, and Olympic Windsurfing coverage if your interested. When the official press releases fail to mention them I write them up myself. When they get a small mention I try to enhance it signiifcantly. Check it out and let me know anything I can do to improve the coverage.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.waterhound.com/windsurfing-at-rolex-olympic-class-regatta-2011.html
Thanks again an Alex over at Windsurfing Tour rocks too.
Cool, man. Nice write-up! I just updated my post to include your link.
ReplyDeleteThe Narrator's name is Gary Jobson. He's a really good sailor, but a piss poor commentator. He does roughly half or two-thirds of all the sailing commentary, and is boring to listen to. Sailing isn't half as boring to watch with on the water cameras as Golf, except when Jobson is speaking.
ReplyDeleteBut no one has the guts to tell him to retire or tell him no.
hi, i'm a fan of your blog from Portugal.
ReplyDeleteIts a pity that you moved away from florida and that the windsurfing content of the blog got scarce.
Just wanted to point out that the new ad you added that shows up hear is for Brazil Eucalyptus Plantation. This kind of content isn't probably what you wanted related to your blog. I'm not sure but probably they have to cut down rain forest to plant Eucalyptus.
Best regards, hope you can windsurf more and post more great windsurf videos.
JSW- Hmm, I didn't notice Jobson's commentary being boring, but I wasn't really paying attention to the words. Maybe they can get Russell Brand to do the next one.
ReplyDeleteRenato- Yikes, thanks for pointing out the bad ad. Next time you see it, let me know the website it links to and I can set up Adsense to block it. I've already had to do that with some other ads for conservative politics and religious cults. I hope to be back on the water sometime in March.