The first ever Sprite IWA Freestyle Championship was hosted by Rusheen Bay
Windsurfing in Galway this August. Rusheen is the premier flat-water spot
for freestyle in Ireland having spawned a whole generation of young
freestylers, all eager to prove themselves.

With a healthy fleet of 24 competitors competition was soon underway.
The gusty WNW wind made competition difficult at times but eventually the
first elimination was completed with Oisin Van Gelderen holding off Tim to
take top honors with an array of switch-stance vulcans, spocks and spock
540s. However with another day of competition to go and a bunch of fired up
youngsters determined not to be beaten on their home turf Sunday could see
some major shake-ups.

Sunday morning dawned windy but again very gusty and everybody got
stuck in again for another day of competition, everybody except one with
Evan King having to pull out after hurting his ear the previous day.
Sunday saw some more sliding with Dan King finding form and pushing to
the final to join Gwilym Williams who found himself in his second final of
the event. Enrolling in the final alongside these two were the competition
hardy Oisin and the happy go lucky winner of the losers final Pat Kavanagh.
With 3 locals to beat in the final things it was bound to be a tough 8
minutes for Oisin. However his years of competition around the UK paid off
and he took the win to claim the event victory.

In the ladies fleet Noelle Doran impressively took the title, fending
off the synchronised light wind trickery of Ursula Concannon and Laura Bree
with a display of gybes and sail spinning.

In the silver fleet Alex stole the show with Mark Killeen in second
and Eoin O’ Reilly in third.

But that’s not it for Irish freestyle this year as the series will be
continued at any of the IWA wave events when the waves don’t show themselves.

Overall Results:

Gold Fleet   Silver Fleet   Ladies Fleet
1 Oisín Van Gelderen 1 Alex 1 Noelle Doran
2 Gwilym Williams 2 Mark kileen 2 Ursula Concannon
3 Tim 3 Eoin O Reilly 3 Laura Bree

Thanks to the IWA for their support, sponsors Sprite for providing the
liquid energy as well as www.flyingobjectsuk.co.uk
www.seaspritesports.co.uk www.rusheenbay.com, Wind and Wave and
Tushingham for the prizes.

Morgan McGuire