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UKWA 2021 SLALOM CHAMPIONSHIPS-END OF SEASON REPORT

Freshly crowned UK Pro Slalom Champion – Scotty Stallman – gives us a report on the 2021 UK slalom season. Photos by @radicalxposure from a very windy last event at the OTC Weymouth!

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“After a year out due to COVID, 2021 allowed the UK slalom circuit to get back up and running in the form of five events. The original plan for the year was six events however due to COVID and local government laws two events therefore had to be cancelled without the option of postponing or rearranging. Now you might be wondering where the fifth event is… Nearing the end of the season Tris Best from ‘The Official Test Centre’ turned around and proposed that they hosted another slalom event from the WPNSA (Weymouth and Portland National Sailing Academy) to try and make up for the shortened calendar.

The race crew agreed and a season finale was put on. At the start of the season we had two consecutive Weymouth events, the first one allowing two days of championship racing (results going towards the overall title) in the form of a lightwind day on the Saturday with kit choices being in or around an 8.6m sail and 85 wide (140ish litre) board and the second day brought us a much stronger wind with most people on 7.0m sails and 72 wide (115ish litre) boards. Over the weekend both the Pro and Am fleet’s completed 4 rounds of championships racing and just like that the season had started. It was awesome to have an opening event which delivered relatively strong winds and allowed all of the sailors to dust off the cobwebs and get their racing craft back up to scratch.

Unfortunately in the next two events in the season we didn’t get so lucky… We had some awesome weather in the form of sun but as usual along with the nice weather of course came a real lack of wind. No championship racing was completed at either two of the events but fortunately with the aid of foils it saw us get out on the water and make the most of what we had in the form of Lightwind Foil Races. Foiling has had a huge impact on the amount of racing we have been able to achieve and has really opened up an new opportunity that was once not there. Foiling’s here and it’s here to stay – there’s absolutely no doubt about that!! It’s great to see the fleets adopting to this new form of windsurfing whether they’ve just started their windsurfing career or have been avid racers for many a years.

Going into the penultimate event at Sandbanks, Poole, there was a pretty awesome forecast lined up and the competitors were getting excited. The UK tour hasn’t been to Sandbanks for many years so it was awesome to be competing at a new place for most and for some riders to be revisiting a once popular and heavily contested spot.

However the excitement must of been a bit too much as the forecast didn’t quite live up to expectations with the first day only being enough to compete in some Light Wind Foiling. The second day however, was much more promising and after a solid day of racing on 8.6’s we managed to complete four rounds of championship racing and put another score towards the overall title.

Going into the slalom finale at Weymouth with only two rounds of racing and no discards it was still all to play for in both fleets. With the last minute event being put on at Weymouth so late in the year it did mean the weather may or may not be on our side and as expected we pulled the short straw with the weekend bringing northerly winds, zero to fifty knots and chilling temperature’s no more than four degrees. The Saturday morning came along with a steady fifty knots providing us with some nearly un-sailable condition’s. This only meant for one thing… head out on your smallest sail and try to nail the first Portland Harbour backloop! There were some very close attempts considering they were off some knee high chop!! After a bit of fun in the morning, the wind had eased slightly and the race crew headed out to lay a course. With the conditions still in mind, the crew made a decision to only send the Pro Fleet out to race and then as the afternoon would progress they would then make a decision on sending the Amateur Fleet out.

Unfortunately the conditions remained pretty unforgiving throughout the day and only allowed the Pro Fleet to compete. On the water the sailors had a big call on what kit to go out on, most opted for a 5.6m or 6.2m with a couple going for a 7.0m!! With such a big range in kit choices this gives you an idea of the conditions, very variable! In the chilling conditions three rounds were completed in the form of three straight finals, the crew decided to run it like this to reduce the time waiting around in the cold. With a slightly disappointing Saturday on the race side of things, fingers were double crossed for the Sunday… The big blow out on the Saturday unfortunately meant Sunday came through a lot lighter than expected only allowing us to finish the season off with five Lightwind Foil races.

It hasn’t been the easiest year for the UKWA race crew and despite the hurdles they managed to put on an awesome season of racing and crown the UK Champions for 2021. A big thank you must go to them for their efforts at events and behind the scenes. Moving forward there has already been talks of combining the two disciplines, fin and foil, into one… General consensus was very positive and for next year it’s definitely going to be considered…Date’s for the 2022 calendar are yet to be confirmed but keep your eye’s peeled and we will see you on the beach ready to start the season!!”

Full UKWA Slalom 2021 overall rankings here – https://results.ukwindsurfing.com/2021/slalom-rankings.html