For results and pictures click here.
I had high expectations for this event after talking to
Boris who was one of the main organizers a few weeks ago. The event had everything to succeed with
great location, warm weather, good wind, many disciplines represented combined
with the support of the AWT. (American Windsurfing Tour). We arrived in Pittsburg on Thursday night. It was raining
slightly which was unusual at this time of the year. Windsurfers are used to
the weather going funny whenever an event is organized. The Friday morning was
easy in terms of schedule with the briefing at 12pm to give time to competitors
to travel to the event. The wind was unusually light for Rio Vista but the top
Slalom racers had taken some big kit anyway. The fist Slalom start was a non-event
as most of us were not planning. The race was cancelled after a few minutes.
The second start went better as most of the fleet got away cleanly.
Jesper Vesterstrom and Tyson Poor were leading the fleet and
I was trying to keep up with them.
The second race was similar. Occasionally I could mix it up
with Tyson. Jesper had a good lead on the two of us.
The next discipline was speed. I had some good gusts for
that session managing to top the charts ahead of the “speed king” Boris and
Jesper believe it or not!
Day two started well with strong winds and clear sky. The
first speed session of the day I did quite well in second place behind Jesper and
ahead of Boris and Tyson.
In the first Slalom of the day I came 3rd. The
next 2 races brought some excitement as I got 2 second places behind Jesper and
ahead of Tyson! By the way… that was the first time I ever got ahead of Tyson in
a Slalom Race!! Unfortunately I was not able to repeat this for the rest of the
event. I got a series of 3rd places except for one bad race. In the
end I finished third overall with Jesper in first and Tyson in second place.
The speed competition
did not go so well for me after the first 2 rounds. It was the first time I was
doing a speed event. It was actually a fun event, since we had to share the GPS
units. So the top few competitors could not always set the speeds during the
same time slots.
All in all the event was incredible. The freestylers
delighting the crowd with some amazing moves.
The free ride race was really well attended and really fun
to watch.
The best of all was to see the kids racing. They were really
competitive despite their your age!
We are looking forward to the Rio Vista Gran Slam next
year!!
A big thank you to the organizers, volunteers and sponsors
who made this event possible.