Kevin Trejo: Solo Sports & the Cactus Cup · PWA Live

The American Windsurfing Tour heads south, across the border, into Baja California, Mexico for the third and longest event of the tour: a full week from July 30 - August 6. Kevin Trejo, owner and founder of Solo Sports, habla acerca de este famoso wave sailing destination.

Kevin, you are hosting the AWT San Carlos Cactus Cup at Solo Sports for a week. How many people can you accommodate? Are you sold out?

My staff and camp can handle over 40 people. I have windsurfing gear for over 20 people but since most of the competitors will be bringing their own gear we can handle about 40+ people. We have over 25 people confirmed and lots of last minute requests but I'm sure we will sell out before contest time.

A while ago you were only flying in guests. Is it safe to travel by land again?



The old sign.
Its replacement is being readied.

I've been traveling the Baja all my life and now with a business in Mexico I spend even more time in Tijuana, Ensenada and Rosarito and I have not once seen anything like what the news is reporting. I actually feel safer traveling through Baja then many parts of Los Angeles. Our guests are using our fly in service for the convenience and to spend more time enjoying all that is Punta San Carlos not because they are afraid to drive through Baja. Do the math, an all day drive or a 2 hour flight!

If it's an average year, what should the AWT expect for wind and waves. What about water temps? Air temps?

So far this year has been well over an average year! The wind has blown everyday except one, since March and we've had plenty of great swells. July is one of my favorite months as it blows almost everyday and we get great south swells with little to no crowds! Of course we are talking about Mother Nature here and anything can happen but here is the latest on the potential surf from Surfline. We could see a series of fun size SSW swells starting around July 29th and then potentially continuing into the first couple days of August. I just got back today (Wednesday July 20th) and the air temps have been great in the high 70's and low 80's while the water is a cool 60 degrees F. I'm sure the competitors will be way stoked on 60 degree water after the first events in the frigid waters of Santa Cruz and Pistol River!

Any surprise guest for the Cactus Cup?

I just got this message from Quatro shaper and Punta San Carlos Tropical Energy Challenge winner Keith Teboul: "Only potential other person would be Levi Siver with us but this is a maybe...swell is looking pretty promising so I might convince him to come..."

Punta San Carlos is pretty isolated, do you have a good Internet connection...will the Tour go dark during the event?

You are absolutely right that PSC is pretty isolated. We do have Internet via satellite and it's pretty reliable, reliably slow that is! Actually it's not that bad with only a few users but when we have 20+ people in camp we sure put a big strain on the system. We are only allowed 425 MB per day of usage and we can go through that pretty quick, then throw in the fact that everybody wants to send large file photos and video and we run out of bandwidth really quick. The AWT might just have to go dark unless those hard working photographers, videographers and writers stay up past Baja Midnight (9:00 pm) and send out their work after 11:00 pm as we have unlimited broadband from 11:00 pm - 4:00 am.

Solo Sports is a dream destination for many Norte Americanos. Educate us on the wave and wind season at Punta San Carlos.

For those in the know, PSC is a year round location! If you are like me and do more then just windsurf, you'll never get skunked! With world class mountain biking, surfing, stand up paddle boarding & kiteboarding there's no reason to sit on the beach hoping for wind. The wind season starts off with a bang in March/April and May with 30-40+ mph winds and large NW swells and the start of the south swell season. The summer months of June - July and into August see high winds and great south swells while Sept./Oct. and into Nov. is my favorite time to be in Punta San Carlos for the warmest air & water temps of the year, insanely good south swells and true wave sailing winds in the 18-25+ mph range. We're talking over 80% sailable days from March through Oct. and the winter months still see 50-70% sailable days.

Jem Hall

Jem Hall did wave camps last year. What were Jem and his British invasion like?

Jem is Awesome and tons of fun! We've hosted Jem for the last several years and he brings a world wide clientele base so I wouldn't call it a British invasion but always a fun and lively bunch. Jem is definitely one for not letting his group sit on the beach waiting for wind. He gets them out surfing, SUPing and mountain biking as well as all kind of dry land windsurf training. Never a dull moment when Jem is in camp!

Your calling card is Adventure Holidays. Here's a chance to share some of the 20+ years of stories you've heard and told.

Plenty of adventure over the last 25+ years in Baja for sure but these are reserved for the campfire so if you want stories you'll just have to come experience the magic Punta San Carlos and hang with us at the campfire or wait for the book to come out! We have more then enough entertaining stories to fill several hundred pages!

Funniest thing that ever happened to you: While you were on the water? At night? On the way to the bathroom (outhouse)? In the desert?

Man, that's another one for the campfire but one funny moment on my first trip to Punta San Carlos in 1985 was the seals fell in love with one of my friends and kept following him and playing with him in the water. They were just curious and having fun with him but my friend was totally spooked and they chased him out of the water. They didn't pay any attention to any of us but every time my friend Wayne would go surfing about 6 or so seals would all circle him and tug on his leash and tease him. We all thought it was hilarious but poor old Wayne didn't think it was so funny. The good news was Wayne was a complete wave hog so with him out of the water we all caught tons of waves!

I hate to ask, but what do you do when there is no wind?

Punta San Carlos is so much more then windsurfing! In fact the windsurfing sucks in San Carlos, it's all about wave sailing! If you are coming to Punta San Carlos just for the wind you will not be disappointed but you will be missing out on a ton of other world class sports and adventure not to mention the history, culture and people of this magical land!



Most Famous Guests ever? Which guests did you least expect to see at SoloSports?

Tough question and we like to give our guests a bit of privacy but we've had top professionals from surfing, windsurfing, SUPing, mountain biking, top industry professions from the tech industry, TV stars, photographers and more. As far as windsurfers go we've had just about every top pro except Robby Naish!

Kevin Trejo

Something we don't know about you that will make us more comfortable at night?

I'm always watching over Punta San Carlos so this magical place will be protected for us to enjoy!

Music you like to hear around the camp fire?

Just what ever live music we play on our own!

Where do you go on vacation?

Wherever the wind, waves, snow or trails take me!

Link up with Solo Sports & American Windsurfing Tour

PWA Live Webcasts Continue ·  Fuerteventura started July 22 and runs through August 1: an 11 day event. Freestyle is set to conclude early afternoon on Wednesday, July 27. Slalom will begin the next morning, on Thursday. More reporting at the PWA website.

I've enjoyed being able to embed the Live Player on this blog. It must be annoying, to visit this page and hear voices. The idea of someone chasing down the unwanted disruption of silence only to find that the voices are from a live broadcast of a windsurfing event makes me smile.

U.S. Championship Rewind · Techno 293 Worlds · PWA Live · Jaws

Steve Sylvester

Rewind · Berkeley Yacht Club hosted the 2011 U.S. Windsurfing National Championship. Waterhound reported: "The winds here in Berkeley apparently work on a schedule and 2:30 pm is the go time. True to local lore, at exactly 2:30, the fleet was sent off the beach ready for some Formula Course racing action. Most of the sailors were on 9.5's or 10.0's with a smattering of 10.7's/11's as they headed out to greet race committee lead, Darren Rogers. Rogers had set a flawless windward leeward race course against the dramatic backdrop of the San Francisco skyline featuring two laps for the adults while the juniors course had a shortened weather mark." Bodner added: "Day 1...with 39 competitors from the US, Australia, Brazil, England, Finland, Latvia and New Zealand, 4 course races were run in winds from 12-28k with the foreign sailors taking the top 3 spots. Paulo Des Reis, BRA-3333 walked away from his competition by taking the 1st four bullets of the regatta with Wilhelm Schurman, BRA-999 holding on for 2nd in all the races. Xavier Ferlet, GBR-451 holds onto to 3rd place with myself in 4th as the top American. Waterhound Day 1 | Bodner Day 1 | Waterhound Photos Day 1 

Paulo Dos Reis

Day 2 ..."picked up where day one left off with solid winds and a full racing agenda...A solid sea breeze kicked in a bit earlier than usual allowing for the race committee to set up the two for one special: the Formula and Slalom windsurfing double bill...As the Formula racing kicked in to gear the winds once again blew in the 15-22mph range with some lulls and gusts on each side of the range. The infamous San Francisco Fog bank once again performed the in and out dance with the Golden Gate Bridge just off in the distance." Reported Waterhound.

Phil McGain

With 2 formula races done, they moved to slalom. Again, Waterhound: "Race one of the slalom saw Phil McGain burst out to an early lead with Wilhelm Schurmann and Tyson Poor in hot pursuit. McGain however simply had the better board speed and looked to have the win wrapped up. The key word here is 'looked'. Unfortunately McGain headed down to the wrong mark taking himself completely out of the picture while nearly simultaneously Schurmann stumbled during a jibe allowing Tyson Poor to capitalize. Poor cruised on to victory..."  Waterhound Day 2 | Bodner Day 2 | Waterhound Photos Day 2

Wilhelm Schurmann

Day 3  "...of the US National Champs saw the Brazillians dominate both the formula and slalom courses in classic SF Bay conditions. 3 formula races were run in 18-24k followed by 3 rounds of slalom in 20-25k. Paulo Dos Reis collected another string of bullets as he's on par to sail a perfect regatta, something that I'm not sure has ever been done at the US Windsurfing National Championship. Not to be outdone, Wilhelm Schurmann collected 3 bullets on the slalom course followed by a string of 2nds on the formula course." Reported Bodner.

Bodner continued: "After 3 races we switched to slalom but at that point I was glad to listen to my body after having been in race mode for the past 16/17 days. I gladly made my slalom gear available to Paulo as he currently wasn't entered in the slalom competition and showed he's pretty solid around any race course. I'm not sure I've ever seen my gear go that fast! He gave Wilhelm and Phil a run in the 2/4 races but called it quits to save strength for tomorrow and Saturday's long distance and course racing. 3 races were run in 20-25k with the San Francisco city front and Golden Gate Bridge in the background - an amazing backdrop for slalom racing. Schurmann clearly dominated with better gybes around the course..."

Tyson Poor

 Freestyle · Pete Dekay reported: "I joined Wyatt Miller and Kevin Kan in judging the freestyle in which you couldn't ask for a better day to have these sailors throwing down their biggest tricks.The double elimination winners final came down to an epic battle between Tyson Poor and Jordan Reid...Poor isn't guaranteed victory despite landing a Double Spock in the choppy conditions as Reid sailed the heat of his life. The fight for bronze came down to Sophien Sehiri and Chris "Muzza" Murray (from the UK) and saw these guys exchanging huge forwards, Flakas and Spocks in the building swell." Bodner Day 3 | Shawn Davis Photos | Windsport Day 3 | Tim Martin Freestyle Photos | Tyson Poor Report

Day 4 · Waterhound reported: "The fog bank that has been powering the wind all week long was a bit more persistent than in previous days causing wind speeds to soften a bit in to the 18-22mph range. The wind however was near ideal for Formula racing and with that, the race committee ordered up a heaping serving of long distance racing...To equalize a bit of local knowledge the ever innovative race committee lead, Darren Rogers, and his crew set up a course never seen before on these waters. To mix things up even further Rogers threw a rabbit start at the fleet – something not used here in a decade or more...For many of the racers it was the first ever rabbit start – and it showed. The race committee executed the prerace plan to the letter that started with a dropping of the AP flag some 35 minutes earlier. As the boat powered up the line signaling the start, many racers just looked like deer in the headlights, including yours truly who was hanging out with Paulo Dos Reis as the boat went flying by us both. Are we starting?...McGain however was in the back of the pack of good starters but used his superior speed to overtake Sylvester and Schurmann and claim the bullet. Schurmann took a comfortable second."

Chris Muzza Murray

Jordan Reid

Waterhound continued: "With not enough wind for slalom the action moved on to freestyle. The freestylers however were also struggling a bit in the low winds. Low being a now gusty and shifty 12-20mph breeze . Tyson Poor made the best of it capitalizing on his wins the day prior. Jordan Reid also sailed well but the lower wind made it tough to gain any ground on the solid performance of Poor." Waterhound Day 4 | Bodner Day 4 | Shawn Davis Photos | Tyson Poor Report

McGain - Shurmann - Ferlet

 Day 5 · Racing got off to a late start on the last day and Steve Bodner needed to make up just a few positions to finish as the best Formula from the U.S. He reported: "It wouldn't be easy as the clock was ticking down to the last possible start by 4 pm and the possibility of only 2 races. The setup couldn't be more ideal- a chance to race in light wind after having raced in mostly powered up conditionals all week. At 2:45 we hit the water. I was ready- armed with my best light-medium air set up..." It was drama for the eventual overall 5th place finisher, Bodner, and Sylvester who ended up 6th by a 1/2 point after 2 tough races, a protest hearing and a tie breaker rule. Read : Bodner Day 5 | Waterhound Results Report | Awards Photos

Waterhound's  2011 US Windsurfing National Championships Final Report

Thank You  David Wells of Waterhound, Steve Bodner, Shawn Davis and Pete DeKay of Windsport for all the reporting  Results

San Francisco ·  The Bic Techno 293 World Championships begins this Tuesday, July 19 - 24, hosted by the St. Francis Yacht Club. 200+ competitors from over 30 countries, representing 5 continents will participate. Almost all have signed up for charter equipment provided by Bic Sport; 150 complete kits are coming from France. Actual racing will be at Crissy Fields, beginning at 10:00 a.m. everyday, Wednesday through Saturday.

The event features divisions segregated by age with the biggest fleet comprised of the Under  17 (U17) age division. Sailing right alongside U17 fleet will be the Under 15 (U15) division and the increasingly popular Open Age division that allows for competitors 17 years old and older to still get in on the racing. All the competitors, in both Girls and Boys fleets, will be riding the Bic Techno 293 One Design Windsurfing race board.

You will find more information, news and the all important results at the official event website. The Exploratorium Roofcam will allow you a chance to see some of the racing live.

Farrah Hall, U.S. Sailing's Olympic Team Member for the RS:X Class, recently held a clinic for the junior racers of Team USA in San Francisco. From her blog: "Under the leadership of youth coach, Britt Viehman, I assisted in coaching a Bic Techno clinic last week for American kids competing at the Worlds. Nine kids showed up, from both San Francisco and Florida...Sailors from Florida were wide-eyed after the first day of training in San Francisco. For many of them, it was the coldest and windiest conditions they had ever experienced...All the kids tuned up their equipment in the breeze, and learned more about San Francisco's famous currents - how to start in big current, and which side of the course would be favored by observing the action of the current in various stages of ebb and flood tides." A video from the clinic:

Tenerife

PWA Livecast · Tenerife is scheduled to end on Wednesday, July 20. Koster and Daida Moreno won the wave competition. On Sunday the live broadcast was a Super Session. What they will do with the remaining 3 days in Tenerife is to be determined but when they do finish it's going to be a mad dash for the PWA tour crew to the next event. There will be Freestyle for men & women and Slalom for men in Fuerteventura, set to begin on Friday, July 22 - Aug 1. This too will be another first time for live webcasting from the PWA at Sotaventa, Fuerteventura. (Video Player has been removed)

Kevin Pritchard, of Maui Nerds Production, put a lot of time into this Jaws video of Jason Polakow and is glad it's finally online.

U.S. Championship - Formula Carnage - PWA Live

New Year, New Place ·  U.S. Windsurfing will hold their 2011 National Championship at Berkeley, CA from July 11 - 16. Phil McGain won last year and is returning to defend his title. Can't tell the players without a program. If you want to put a name to a face, go to this Waterhound reference guide. So what else is new? A non windsurfing industry Title Sponsor: Double Tree by Hilton at Berkeley Marina. Its been 35 years since the National Championship was held in Berkeley.

CalCup 3 at  BYC by Colvin

What to expect from Berkeley? Waterhound's, David Wells says, reliable big wind and big, significantly warmer water than San Francisco. All the racing will take place in the Olympic Circle sailing area directly in front of the Berkeley Yacht Club.  Kimball Livingston (racers, read all of this link; he describes how the wind works at the Circle) explains: "On San Francisco Bay the best patch of water for championship racing lies on the eastern reach of the bay. This area is relatively shallow and relatively tide-protected. It is free of the narrow rivers of current and counter current found in deeper parts of the bay and clear of the shipping channels. The locals call the area, fronting the cities of Berkeley, Emeryville and Richmond, the Olympic Circle, the Berkeley Circle, or just the Circle. U.S. Olympic Trials have been sailed here, and yes, there is a kinda-sorta circle of buoys that can be used for racing, but championship courses do not use those buoys.  Championship courses employ a larger field of play. You should anticipate start lines placed relatively close to the shore, with upwind legs sailed toward the Golden Gate and a weather mark placed short of the North/South shipping lane."


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What makes up a championship? The NOR says Slalom, Course and a possible long distance race. There was freestyle last year; expect both modern and old school on longboards this year. Wyatt Miller assures that Double Tree by Hilton at the Berkeley Marina has paid the wind bill. It's all good to go.

Racing is scheduled to start on Tuesday. The skippers meeting begins 10 a.m., daily, at the BYC. Shorebird Park is the rigging area. Freestyle is planned for 3 days, beginning Thursday. If you're looking for race results or anything else follow the links.

Official Event Website courtesy of Waterhound and David Wells.

A BIG thank you to Jane Morson who has worked behind the scenes for the last 10 months on an insane amount of detail from government permits, gas for committee boats, catering food, designing trophies, fund raising and way more...Securing the Title Sponsor has been huge in making the event possible. And kudos to all the others who have contributed to make this event a reality. Thanks Again !!!

In memory of Bill Weir (US M9), the M9 Bill Weir Memorial Trophy will be awarded to the top performing sailor at this year’s US Windsurfing National Championships when the results of slalom, formula, and long distance are combined into a single overall score.

Bill Weir passed away in October 2009 after a valiant battle with cancer.  Bill was a windsurfer who embraced all disciplines and could often be found just under the Golden Gate Bridge sailing the waves before heading down to St. Francis Yacht Club to race his Formula gear.  He was also one of the top Slalom Racers in the country. More on Bill's life. At Thursday's dinner there will be a showing of Bill's documentary, Wind and Water.

Phil's kit ready for US Nationals

Hard charging triathalon warrior, Phil McGain, tuned up his preparations for the Nationals with a victory at the July 2 Maui Fin Company Open. The Maui News reported: McGain won two of four heats to claim the 40-49 year old division and also took two of four heats in the open races to win that division for the first time. The Haiku resident lost to Peter Slate of Kula in the DaKine Classic, and missed the season opening Starboard Slalom so he could race in the Half-Ironman triathlon on the Big Island.

Formula Worlds end on a Saturday, July 9, in Puerto Rico and for those planning to race in the U.S.Nationals the mad scramble begins: get into SFO and then out to Berkely, no later than Tuesday morning, before racing begins. They will be hoping and praying those big boards, sails and booms will not be put on later flights.

The stories from the Worlds will be told over and over: the insane carnage the racers inflicted on themselves and their compatriots during the high wind opening day. Sean O'Brien reported: "Race 1 kicked off on the scheduled start of 2pm and despite Bruno calling it 16 knots on his Facebook tonight the wind was around 22-25 knots with a viscious chop/swell running through the course over the various reefs. The start line was insanely port biased and it was clear the port start was the favoured route so after about 4 massive crashes which ended with 2 split boards and Casper Bouman taken away in an ambulance we were into Race 1..." Bouman said, "I could see a collision was about to happen and I bore away a bit to try to avoid it. I went over this wave as I bore away and thinking I would clip his boom in my FACE I ducked under my front arm and the boom to shield my face from his boom and as this happened the back end of his boom sliced my forearm clean to the bone." 40 stitches later, the complete story. O'Brien continues, "...Arnon crashing, trying to avoid someone, Steve having to hit the brakes and nearly drop the sail, losing places trying to avoid me on starboard! And then one of the french guys getting his JP split in half literally by Victor Melo was on port. Somebody is going to DIE here this week however the racing is pretty exciting as a result!"

Steve Bodner reported in Race 3: "I made the worst mistake I have ever made trying to cross a starboard tacker and failing miserably. I put a huge hole in mine and his board. I immediately retired from the race and tried to find POL 10 a board to use for the next race. I've never felt so bad racing boards knowing I was at fault but in the end that's all part of racing. We all make mistakes but it how you recover that determines the winners...Ron Kern ran into the reef and basically broke his board in 1/2 hinging just in front of the fin box."

Surprise Pozo Livecast · Just when you thought you'd figured out how it all works, a non-windsurfing entity decides a windsurfing wave contest is content regular folks would like to see. I guess windsurfers are regular folks too. The company that did the live webcast of the PWA at Pozo was ACN Press, a Canary Island News Agency, that supplies news content in all forms (video, audio, text, photos) to television and newspapers. Because they used internet platform provider Ustream, it was possible to watch the live broadcast on Facebook. While going through my Facbook news beat on Saturday, I saw the livecast player linked up on a dozen pages. Those dozen pages reached around 15 - 20,000 individuals. The next 2 videos are samples of the hours of live streaming.

Watching the Koster vs. Fernandez single elimination final live was indeed a special treat. Thankfully, Continent Seven recorded it. The first video below shows mostly Koster. The second video by Cutre, from the same final, by focuses on Fernandez.

PWA Livecast · As mentioned last week, Tour Director Rich Page said there will be another Livecast from the PWA at Tenerife July 14 - 20. If all goes well, it should start on Thursday, with another round of wave sailing for the men and women. The darkened player below awaits the live feed...if you come by and hear someone talking, it means, they're broadcasting from Tenerife... (Live video player has been removed)

Maui Maids · Formula Worlds · Busy Summer · Big Loops

Kerfuffle  ·  Windsurfing Magazine just published the July issue, their 4th and last of the year. Page 12, Should Windsurfing Be Sexy?, starts with a photo (similar to the one on the left). The photo has no caption saying who is in it. Shawna Cropas is in the middle and she wants you to know: "Windsurfing ran only a fragment of an article I put together about some of the ladies who sail here at Ho'okipa year round. The magazine only published the group shot of us girls with the title, Should Windsurfing Be Sexy? I was asked to defend the photo, which is completely taken out of context if it's not followed up with the article we wrote to go with it."

What the Mag decided not to publish were the 5 stories of the these 5 women who all sail Ho'okipa and lead remarkable lives. Nori Hubbs: "Aside from being the best sport in the world, I also love windsurfing because people who windsurf are just great people." Shawna Cropas: "...seeing other girls ripping it up, inspired me to just get out there and go for it. I love waves and I'm not trying to prove anything other than having a damn good time. There's no better way to stay in shape and keep the 'joie de vivre' bounce in your footsteps than by getting that rush from being out on the water." Tiffany Ward: "I'm fully inspired and driven by riding big waves, it's like dropping into moving mountains. It makes me feel alive and thankful for the world that surrounds me." Tatiana Howard: " Windsurfing itself has influenced my whole life. Windsurfing brought me out to see the world, it taught me respect for the ocean while maintaining a healthy lifestyle, created new friendships worldwide and blessed me with the enjoyment of work." Anne-Marie Reichman: "The love of windsurfing is within me. It's not measured by others or frequent sessions, but by the sessions that make me come off the water stoked and smiling."

The quotes were taken from Shawna's original article she submitted to Windsurfing. That article ended with this salutation: Happy Hawaiian Breezy Kisses. Don't you wish you could have read it in the Mag? Next best is you can read it online: Maui Maids

Formula Worlds in San Juan, Puerto Rico will run June 4 - 9  with $40,000 in prize money.  Miami's Alex Morales sets the stage: "The world’s finest Formula sailors have been slowly gathering here in San Juan to prepare for the 2011 Formula World Championship.  For many, this is their first visit to the island paradise of Puerto Rico, for others it is a regular stop in their year's travel calendar.  Top names here already are:  Antoine Albeau (defending Champion), Wojtech Brzozowski, Arnon Dagan, Gonzalo Costa Hoevel, Paulo Dos Reis, Steve Allen, Dennis Little, Sean O’Brien, and Gabriel Browne.  Many more are scheduled to arrive in the days leading up to the event." Steve Bodner adds: "A lot of the top pros have been training here for some time and many amateurs like myself have been showing up steadily all this week. It looks like at least 50 sailors for the event with Marion Lepert and myself from the SF Bay and a 1/2 dozen US sailors from Florida." 

The Formula Class held their first World Championship in 1999. The PWA even raced Formula for a short time. Through the years, undeterred, the Class has moved forward, survived and actually flourished. Racing the 3 foot wide boards has a hard core loyal and faithful following. It is windsurfing's most popular racing class: great for course racing and loved just for the pure fun of recreational sailing. The board is technical, takes practice to learn and tune and excels in light wind. Too bad it wasn't chosen for the Olympics way back when.   

San Juan is going to see a lot of pros and a lot of great amateurs; good stuff for a racing class that thrives on strong grass roots support. And you've got to admire their tour this year with $100,00+ in prize money.


Busy Summer · Take a deep breath 'cause 2 days later it's the start of the US Nationals in San Francisco from July 11 - 16. More on that next week.

The PWA is having a banner year, which translates into the most ever number of events in a single season.  The back to back return of the World Tour to Bonaire and Aruba was a great warm up for the busiest month of the year. With 4 stops in July, the Canary Islands will mark the peak of this year's tour. Tour Director, Rich Page, reported: "We had about 250,000 views of the live stream in June, equates to somewhere in the region of at least 65,000 unique viewers. We will also have live coverage from Tenerife (July 14 - 20, Men & Women Wave) and Fuerteventura (July 22 - Aug 1, Men & Women Slalom)." Psych yourself up for Pozo because Dave White just reported: "The triple forward was landed today in Gran Canaria, Philip Koster was just short on one and water started the other. Not sure if there is a video or picture sequence but if he did it in practice today when the wind wasn't so strong, you've got to be thinking its going to happen during the event."

After 2 complete contests, guess who is is leading 2 divisions of the American Windsurfing Tour? Ingrid Larouche. She leads the Women and the Amateur. And yes, she is the only female in the latter. Now we're all paying more attention. Learn more about Ingrid in this interview.

The AWT will meet up again for an entire week at the San Carlos Cactus Cup, July 30 in Baja, Mexico 275 miles south of San Diego.


Rewind · Big Winds Big Loop Contest · The just finished loopers gone wild celebration put on by Big Winds and WINDSURFING left in its wake a week long video record of the best flippin' aerialist in the Gorge. When it was all said and done, Big Winds gave away lots and lots of swag. And the winners are...  

Experts Division | Best FWD Loop: Sean Aiken - Best Back Loop: Tyson Poor - Best Double Forward: Tyson Poor :: Womens Division | Best FWD Loop: Ingrid Larouche :: Amateur Division | Best FWD Loop: Jay Watermeyer :: Never Looped Before | Best: Brodie Sutherland

AWT leading super man, Nathan Mershon is the last video. Here's another one by Mike Godsey from Arlington. There are more videos on Windsurfing FB.