UKWA WINDSURFER OF THE YEAR
Roll Up Roll up the wait is over to see who has been nominated by the UKWA in their discipline as the most outstanding competitor and to put them forward to you, for a public vote to decide who will be the UKWA windsurfer of the year 2022.
Last year’s winner was Scotty Stallman who has made the most of his reign with a fantastic year. Unfortunately for him and all the previous worthy winners, winning this coveted trophy is a once in a lifetime opportunity. Individuals can be nominated as best Windsurfer in their discipline many times but once they have won it, that’s it. They then make way for the up and coming stars.
The nominees will encompass the full range of windsurfing skills and are selected based on their outstanding performance in the current year. It’s then up to you the general public to decide who will have the honour of putting their name on it for 2022.
The outstanding nominees for 2022 are……
Racing: Charlie Dixon
This year he has been presented with iQFoil Youth European Champion! iQFoil International Games Gold Medalist! iQFoil World Champ and World Sailing Official Youth World Champ! Charlie is on the cusp of entering the senior racing circuit at this pivotal time in his life. Charlie, who has the Olympic Games in Los Angeles in 2028 firmly on his radar deserves all the accolades for all his hard work and commitment to this exciting Olympic class.
Wave: Lucas Meldrum
Lucas started his wave sailing career climbing quickly up from the Future Pros project supported by Mailing Room. After winning the Youths fleet in 2016, he was promoted into the Amateur fleet which he won the very next year which put him automatically into the Pro fleet.
This year saw Lucas put in a commanding display at in challenging Tiree Wave Classic conditions where he beat the current Champ, Phil Horrocks in one round and narrowly missed taking down the final winner and PWA regular, Julian Salmonn finishing Vice Champion.
An amazing result for a sailor that won the Youths event only 6 years previously. A consummate professional he is a great ambassador and inspiration to other young wave sailors. Lucas was the unanimous vote for WOTY by the BWA selection team.
Slalom: James Faley
Windsurfing in 2022 has been incredible for James. This year he has not only managed to become UKWA Vice National Champion, but he has also attended his first PWA event in Croatia where he placed 24th, this meant he was a first-time youth. James started windsurfing at 10 with the OTC and was immediately hooked. He passionately and enthusiastically promotes windsurfing to everyone and the reason behind this is a real grateful acknowledgement of everything windsurfing has done for him. In his own words, ‘windsurfing sets him free.’ James is an incredibly inspirational young man inspired by his late father.
Speed: Jim Crossley
Nominated for the 4rd time in the speed category. Jim won the 2021 UKWA GPS speed challenge again this year for the 6th year in a row with an amazing speed of 48.03 knots over 250m. As we announce this nomination Jim is on his way back from Luderitz in Namibia where he was taking part in a World speed record attempt.
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- Jim full power
Unfortunately Jim had to return to the UK before the end as he had to return to work so missed the strong winds in the last few days of the event.
There is normally a Nominee for freestyle in the UKWA windsurfer of the year but due to lack of events this year nationally and Internationally, there has been no competition from the Brits to speak of, so unfortunately this year there will be no Freestyle nominee.
Please vote for your favourite (one person one vote) by going to the UKWA website under Windsurfer of the year (WOTY) and get voting. Good luck to all the very worthy nominees this year. Voting opens on Monday the 5th of December and will close at the end of December and the winner announced in the 1st week of January 2022.
The direct link to vote from the 5th onwards is https://ukwindsurfing.com/woty/ or email [email protected]