IWA O’NEILL IRISH WAVE SAILING TOUR – ROUND 1
Round 1 of the O”Neill Irish wavesailing tour was held in
Co Mayo. While most of the country was out watching the parades,
admiring the dyed green rivers of knocking back green beer a
dedicated bunch of windsurfers completed four rounds of competition.
Due to the howling easterlies being almost dead offshore in
the sea was flat with only the smallest of wavelets reaching the
shore, wave competition was off the cards.
A freestyle competition was run in its place with each round
going towards the O’Neill Irish Freestyle Championship at the end of
the year. With the air temperature dropping to as low as four degrees
every sailor deserved a prize just for surviving the weekend! As the
competion progressed it was Oisin Van Geldern (JP/Pryde) and Morgan
Mc Guire (RRD/Ezzy) who emerged as the two contenders for the overall
event win.
After 3 rounds of competition completed Morgan was clinging onto
first palce with Oisin right behind him. The final of the fourth
round was the deciding round and while Oisin took the round win
Morgan managed to retain first place to secure overall victory by 0.3 points.
Other performances of note were Neil Turpin,who made most finals of the
competition with his consistent repotoire of old skool and not so old skool tricks,
and Dan Gardner(RRD/Simmer), who learnt goiters in a day in a bid not
to be outdone by Oisin!
Also the ladies showed their mettle over the weekend and stuck it
out in the mind numbing cold to get through their rounds. Anna Ryan
put up a good fight but it was the
finsihed in top spot.
In the fun fleet “Dangerous” Dave Norman secured glory with his
powerful repotoire to finish first. See fellow fun fleet competitor
Mikey Clancy’s website at
The next IWA event is the Fleadh Seoil, a fun event for
windsurfers of all ages and abilities held in Belmullet from Friday
April 28 to Monday May 1.
The O’Neill IWA Freestyle tour continues with a dedicated
freestyle competition on August 19/20 in
The next stop for the O’Neill IWA wave tour is Achill, Co Mayo on
the 16/17 of September. See www.sailing.ie/windsurf for more details.
Overall Results :
1. Morgan Mc Guire (RRD/Ezzy)
2. Oisin Van Geldern (JP/Pryde)
3. Dan Gardner (RRD/Simmer)
4. Neill Turpin
Ladies:
1. Noelle Doran
2. Anna Ryan
Fun Fleet:
1. Dave Norman
2. Mikey Clancy
3. Barry Loughran
Photos By: George Allen
