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Pistol River Wave Bash · June 12 - 16 ·  The various reports have been compiled here so the story can be conveniently read in one place. The text below, not in quotes, belongs to the AWT and can be found on their Press release page. Photos belong to Vinnie Armato of Globalshots unless noted.

Wednesday  The Day Before

The Bash was bigger than last year with 81 riders registered for the competition. The day before the official start saw plenty of action on the water with tons of sailors dialing in their biggest tricks. Former world champion Josh Stone was throwing huge push loops (photo left) and Kai Katchadourian (photo right) was hitting the lip backside harder then anyone else. Josh Sampiero added: "The day before competition began was packed with action as pro sailors and amateurs from all over the world  grabbed some practice waves down at the Rock. Well over thirty sails were on the water today, with BIG jumps from KP, Josh Stone, Bryan Metcalf-Perez, and others. Skipper’s meeting: 9 a.m. tomorrow as head judge Matt Pritchard hopes for an early start." Photos Trudy Lary Pre Event & Day 1 |  Dana Miller

Thursday · Single Elimination · AWT Pistol River Day One is in the books and it was a great day with 25+ knot winds and waist to logo high waves. Here are the results from the single elimination. Boujmaa arrived just in time to put in a solid day finishing 2nd... the Kanaha Kid, Casey Rehrer's Ho'okipa training paid off with a 1st place finish in the Amateur division... Makoto Iwasaki and Miho Tanaka came all the way from Japan to put in impressive results... Robby Naish had some solid time on the water throwing down some signature huge push loops and wave smacks... Photos  AWT Day 1 | Dana Miller Day 1 | Trudy Lary Pre Event & Day 1 | Vinnie Armato Day 1

Friday · Double Elimination · The wind kicked in nicely just as the skippers meeting started at 11 a.m....it was go time. The action was intense in all divisions with everybody enjoying a second chance to win their way back into title contention.

EXPERT DIVISION: Kai Lenny showed up fresh from his high school graduation to join the double elimination. He battled his way through the bracket winning four heats in a row before being knocked out in the quarter-finals by Graham Ezzy and Josh Stone. Ezzy put on a clinic on Day 2 with his waverides throwing down countless takas but lost out in the semi-finals to Boujmaa Guilloul and Stone in a heat that saw the wind lull at times. Stone was on fire late in the day advancing past Boujmaa to set up a final against Nathan Mershon. Stone and Mershon impressed all despite the setting sun and diminishing winds. They matched forwards and back loops and made the most of the waist to shoulder high sets that came through. When the final ended...it didn't really end. Stone won the heat forcing a re-match as Mershon would have to lose twice before giving up the title. The re-match was even better than the first!

Josh Sampiero added: "With judges pushing competi-tors to milk the last bit of dying wind, the double elimination was completed on the second day of competition with the final heat sailing until nearly 9:30 at night. It was an epic battle between Josh Stone and Santa Cruz winner Nathan Mershon, with each sailor matching each other, move for move, as they racked up wave rides in the lessening light. Mershon, who had been standing on the beach all day, lost to Stone in the first final after Josh battled his way up through the double bracket, but was able to reclaim his title to make him the event winner.

Another tight battle went down between Casey Rehrer and McRae Wylde in the Amateur division, with McRae, the double-elimination seeded contestant, beating Rehrer twice to take the title.

For the women, Ingrid Larouche claimed it against Miho Tanaka from Japan, and in the youth, Morgan Noireaux beat Bernd Roediger, and in the masters class, local sailors Dwight Bode lost to Bay Area wavesailor Attila 'The Killa' Tivadar."    Photos  AWT Day 2  

Saturday  · SUP Competition ·  There was a great turn out for the SUP contest (Results) with $1,500 up for grabs thanks to the Inn of the Beachcomber in Gold Beach, OR. It came down to a epic battle between world champ Kai Lenny and Maui ripper Zane Schweitzer with Lenny getting the title in the end. Photos  AWT Day 3 

KDRV-TV of Medford, Oregon ran a Pistol River Wave Bash  report Saturday evening and added this one (PRWB starts at 3:05) to the late night news.

photo by Dana Miller

Sunday · Expression Session ·   The wind, waves and sun were all back for a final day 30-minute expression session with a Chinook carbon boom up for grabs. Riders were going huge with back loops, push loops, doubles and even an air spock attempt on display. After the scores were calculated the winner was Boujmaa Guilloul just ahead of Nathan Mershon and Sean Aiken. The women's winner (who took home an AWT sweatshirt) was Miho Tanaka from Japan!

photo by Dana Miller

Dana Miller added, "...it was bedlam out there. The crew was throwing down heavily in spite of what were flat conditions, at least by the local standards.  It seemed like Boujmaa was taking it easy too, and that’s understandable considering the beating he took a couple months ago at Hookipa.  The last thing he needs is another concussion.  The dude was still going large though.  As were the rest of the crew for sure.  I’m just glad I didn’t have to judge that as it would have been a tough call...it seemed a bit of a shame to bring so much of the sports most excellent talent together for less than totally radical conditions.  But at least we had wind and great parties.  Maybe next year for the mast high plus on the final day." Photos Dana Miller 

Postcript  Aaron Vieira of the Human Catapult Blog wrote: "I'm probably not alone in looking at the top 10 list for the Pistol River Wave Bash and being somewhat surprised to see Mershon's name on top"...there's a lot of praise to go around. Read  This Facebook photographer, Kathy Lane, took some photos. More photos in The Windsurfer gallery. The Curry Coastal Pilot of Brookings, OR wrote a Day 1 report. This shaky video had a lot of potential.

Windsurfing history was made on June 24, 2011. For the very first time, 2 separate events broadcast live webcasts at the same time: the PWA from Aruba and the Red Bull Rockets from Pozo.

David Troup's, American company, Epicsessions.tv, made a last minute decision to webcast the one day event. Epicsessions had only contracted to provide the data that recorded the participants' jump heights. To be able to do this, a new GPS device was used that now allows the jump heights to be streamed in real time to the judges and the online viewers at the same time. It was cool to watch someone jump and then immediately see how high. If you're wondering, this new technology is headed for other extreme sports and TV, so David hopes.

What became of the Red Bull Rockets event? Dario Ojeda won. John Skye reported: "I have to be honest and say I am totally broken right now. Today was the Red Bull Rockets contest. Conditions were not epic, but the action was still pretty amazing. I managed to get a lucky ramp in the 2nd heat and posted the highest jump of the day with 32ft, which at the time was nearly 10ft higher than anything else. I then lead the whole day and at one point the day was almost cancelled, but then they had one more go and in the final 5 minutes of the last heat of the day, the wind picked up a few extra knots I lost out by 4ft. Pretty gutted as there was a nice healthy cheque to be won and I had already been working out where to spend it! Still congratulations to Dario, who was putting his new RRD boards to good use. The best move category was won by Philip and Ricardo took the best crash." Here's a report from Epic Sessions.


Harry Wiewel videos from the June 18, Dakine Classic Slalom Race, Kanaha Park, Maui:










Defi Wind  Gruissan, 2011 official event video:




Too cool for school  Maybe you've seen this or maybe you know who created it. I found it on The Windsurfer with this quote: " The Wind is my friend, but friendship needs Time"