Winds over 100 km/h, and waves in excess of 5 meters! Perfect conditions for windsurfing! Welcome to the Red Bull Storm Chase 2012!
Photo: Bootz/Red Bull Content Pool
Let’s be clear. I am not a windsurfer. The only time I tried to windsurf, I managed to go 500 meters out with the wind, and ended up having to paddle the huge beast of a board with its massive mast and even larger sail back to the shore. It took me about an hour, to get back to the beach, and to decide that I wasn’t cut out for a career in windsurfing. Based on the difficulties I had in my one experience with the sport, I have to take my hat off to the athletes competing in the Red Bull Storm Chase 2012.
The concept is simple. Take ten of the world’s best windsurfers and put them out in a series of 3 contests with winds measuring more than 10 on the Beaufort scale, which is almost strong enough to blow the roof off a house! It’s being billed as the most challenging windsurfing contest of all time, and from what I’ve seen on the event website, it is set to live up to the hype!
Even better, everybody can participate! Well, take part in the decision making process anyway, by suggesting different locations where you would like to see the contest take place. If you’re a pro, an aspiring pro windsurfer, or just a thrill seeker looking for an adrenaline rush, you can also submit an application to partake in the contest itself! The ten competitors will be decided via a community vote from the pool of applicants. You can already make your voice heard about the venues, and tell your windsurfing friends to submit their entry forms from July 1st via www.redbullstormchase.com. Hunting season opens at the start of August and closes at the end of November. Robby Naish is the patron of Red Bull Storm Chase. He coined the tagline for the event, which still holds true: “Windsurfing in storm surf separates the men from the boys.”
Let the storm chasing begin!
2 Comments
Add YoursJuly 4, 2012
I loved the article you wrote about Baja. If pepole wonder why windsurfers go out when everyone stays in and why they spend a lot of money on travel etc (basically calling us insane) we can now give them the link to this article.Problem with windsurfing is that its impossible to express our feelings towards other who don’t surf. maybe if we could explain, there won’t be any soccer anymore and everyone would live near the beach to go surfing as much as possible Hoping for some more aphorisms soon !Greetings
July 6, 2012
Anon, the main reason is that there’s no many wisefurndrs over here. And the reason for that is that it’s not easy. Very offshore, gusty and light on the inside. Hard to learn windsurfing on the south shore. Hard to learn on the north shore too, I assume. Perfect conditions in Kailua, instead. In fact, THE ONLY windsurf shop is over there (there’s another one, but it’s more focused on surfing).Overall, here surfing is the national sport and that makes sense because surfing is really awesome. The windsurfing community instead is very small. That adds to the enjoyment… as long as you can handle the conditions, which, again, are quite difficult. I broke the mast two days ago, because I got caught on the inside without a breath of wind.Hot, that’s what I mean of course: in case the swell hits. And it actually is hitting. I predict head high sets at Hookipa…