This year’s US National Championship was held at Los Angeles, Cabrillo Beach. 45 competitors from across the nation, some hailing from as far away as New England, Hawaii, Florida and Washington State, descended onto LA’s Cabrillo Beach for the 2013 Windsurfing National Championships with women’s and men’s Formula, slalom and freestyle champions to be crowned over 5 days of competition.

Nicknamed “Hurricane Gulch”, Cabrillo Beach consistently delivers solid thermal afternoon breezes during the summer and the week of Nationals was no exception with the wind blowing between 15 and 20 knots for all of the racing, mainly from 2pm to 5pm daily.

Over the other five days of the regatta, ten formula races were held and one long distance (which counted for 2 course races), allowing competitors to discard their three worst results after 12 races. Phil McGain on his TR9 11m and 10m dominated the racing taking 11 of the races over the 5 days including a dominating win in the long distance. Another consistent performance gave Xavier Ferlet of Southern California second place, the race for third was a real nail biter between five Bay Area sailors with Al Mirel and Soheil Zahedi finishing only 1 point apart for that coveted position.

Tom Purcell on MauiSails for the first year sailed well in 5thth place, while 18 year old Jack Lundquist also on MauiSails TR9 race sails put on a good performance finishing in 6th place overall amongst a fleet dominated by grand masters with 30+ years of windsurf racing experience.

12 Slalom races were held over three of the five days. The men’s fleet raced all together with about 25 racers in the one heat. The sprint to the first downwind mark, set only about a hundred or so yards off shore was exhilarating to watch and must have been nerve-racking to be in as a dense pack of blasting windsurfers charged towards the beach bearing down for that first critical gybe.

Tyson Poor sailed consistently well taking an early lead in the regatta and held onto it throughout the week in spite of pressure from Phil McGain on his TR9 8.4 who took second. A very close battle for third place developed between Xavier and MauiSails Casey Hauser . The tie was broken based on the best scores of each to Xavier’s advantage. While Phil Soltyziak was clearly in 5th place with a series of very consistent results around that position,

The women’s slalom races followed immediately after each men’s start. Sarah Delaunay from France dominated the races except for races 4 through 6 which she obtained DNFs for failing to finish correctly. Tammy Bockius on her TR9s sailed consistently and placed in a solid second while a close race for third place between local sailors Johanna Yee and Kay Monteleone (MauiSails) was developing. Sheri Nelson was not far behind even scoring a bullet in one of the races.

Six freestyle sailors duked it out just a few yards from the beach in spite of the inconsistent wind pressure when close to shore. Pro sailor Phil Soltysiak took first place with an unparalleled repertoire of airborne spins and maneuvers. Wyatt Miller was judged in second place with Casey Hauser in third using his MauiSails Loco’s.

At the awards ceremony, in addition to recognizing the top three finishers for the various age and gender divisions of each event, the overall National Champion was declared based on the combined performance of both the Formula and the Slalom Races. Phil McGain was thus crowned 2013 US National Champion for the second year running.

For more photos and information check out links below.
Daniel - http://www.flickr.com/photos/frenchyphoto/
Dominik - http://dominikphoto.photoshelter.com
Results and more stories can be found at:
http://www.cbyc.org/race/results/2013/USWindsurf13_formula.htm
http://www.cbyc.org/race/results/2013/USWindsurf13_slalom.htm
http://www.cbyc.org/race/results/2013/USWindsurf13_slalomW.htm

Hope to see you all at the 2014 US Windsurfing Nationals in Worthington, MN from June 11-15, 2014!