The contest was set up at the Bath House site, just south of the town of Frisco, for day two’s competition. Once again the wind was too light for any heats but that didn’t keep the American Windsurfing tour off the water. First up was a fun four-team relay where competitors had to swim, sail or paddle offshore around photographer/videographer Kevin Pritchard and back to shore before tagging a teammate. With a water temperature here in Hatteras at around 80-degrees (the pros commenting that it was “warmer then Maui”) everyone had a blast taking part in this fun event.
To take advantage of the steady 7-10 knot side-offshore wind and knee to waist-high waves Head judge Andy McKinney made the brilliant call to run a SUP wavesailing contest. It was announced that the prize for the winner would be a Chinook Pro-1 Carbon boom and 32 competitors immediately signed up and where scheduled into heats by a random draw. This was going to be a serious wavesailing contest but on SUP boards! Most of the first round was completed before the tide came up too much for the waves to break consistently. A few of the favorites to win the Chinook boom include Fabrice Beaux, Casey “Reef Warrior” Trichler, Keith McCulloch, Kevin Pritchard and Ian Stokes.
After the full day at the beach everyone headed over to Fox Watersports in Buxton for epic pulled pork BBQ with coleslaw, icecream cake and a tasty keg of beer. It was the perfect way to end a fun day at the beach. We are hoping the upgraded wind forecast for day 3 shows up and we’ll be able to switch into the main competition… fingers are crossed!
