A casual history of recent U.S. National Championships

2010  San Francisco  This year, the National Championship had it's own website courtesy of David Well's Waterhound. David set a new standard for event reporting.  Not to be outdone, Shawn Davis Photography provided a massive photo record. New this year was a freestyle competition. Also new this year was the awarding of the M9 Bill Weir Memorial Trophy for overall champion.

2009 Hood River   Steve Bodner reported: 4 days of epic racing on the Columbia River Gorge was enough for local Bruce "It's my river" Peterson to claim both the course and slalom disciplines for the 2009 US Windsurfing National Championship... This iWindsurf thread caught most of the reporting.

2008 Worthington 

Allison Shreeve reports: Worthington certainly knows how to put on a regatta for the 65 competitors who made their way from all over the country and beyond for the US Nationals. From Tornados to glorious sunny conditions, a beautiful lake just perfect for windsurfing, and the lively sounds of the Unvarnished Music Festival made this a most memorable week. The US Nationals have just concluded for 2008 with 17 spectacular races in Formula and 19 races in the open Raceboard fleets. Results Here's a 30 minute video report:

2007 San Francisco  Bryan McDonald reports First Day of racing: Light breeze...with most people on 10m sails. Seth Besse, whose Dr. forbid him to sail (due to a recently dislocated shoulder from slalom training), is winning the event. Second place is going to Hansen sailor Ben Bamer. Listen to interviews with Seth, Ben, olympic hopeful Denise Parris, Steve Bodner... learn why Mike Zajichek is not racing... The Podcast dominated the reporting. Find all of them on this WindSurfing Mag forum thread.

2006 Maui  MattPritchard dominated his 19-39 age group winning 14 slalom races, five course races and the long distance race. To determine the final standings in each age group, race officials used a formula that allowed the slalom to account for 40 percent of a total score, course racing to account for another 40 percent and long distance racing to make up the remaining 20 percent. Results

2005 Hood River  ESPN showed up to film the first day of competition for their 50 Days in 50 States series and there was no wind. Gorge based VMG Events reported 120 competitors. Steve Bodner reported on Thursday July 28: The nuclear gorge winds finally arrived this morning. By the time we arrived at the site, the river was full of white caps and 25-30k. The organizer started off with slalom right away and we ran 2 heats of the modified Gorge slalom course... Steve's full report.

2004 San Francisco  Steve Bodner reported:
started out slow this morning while the wind was still building but by the end of the 4th race I was feeling in form. I made several small mistakes that set me back but at the finish of Day 1, I am sitting in 15th. My goal is top 10 so I've got a few more guys to knock off before it's all over...Results


2003 Worthington  This NPR piece tells a little. This was the first National Championship in Worthington.

2002 Corpus Christi  From the NOR: To all you US amateur racers, or wannabe/wannatry racers, out there, mark your calendars and start making plans to attend this year's USWA Nationals over May 22-27. Kevin Pritchard won this National Championship. More photos.


2001 Hood River   Bruce Peterson reports: For those who haven't yet seen a report or any results from the nationals, the short story is this. We raced nine races over two days of a five day event. Winds ranged from 10 knots to gusts over 30. Phil McGain dominated the event winning six of the nine races, followed by (in order of fleet finishing position) Micah Buzainis, Jimmy Diaz, Matt Pritchard, Devon Boulon, Alex Aguera, Dale Cook, Rob Hartman, Mike Zajicek, and Bill Weir rounding out the top ten. I finished in 11th place racing on camberless Retro sails. More

2000 Martha's Vineyard  In August 2000, the US Windsurfing National Championship on Martha’s Vineyard was cancelled. Too late to reschedule, Kent came up with a solution. In conjunction with Adventure Sports, Kent provided 50 Techno (One-Design) windsurf boards for the Islamorada Pro-Am in the Keys. He convinced the event director that they could host the first ever US Windsurfing National Techno Championships.