Finn Mellon reports from the first stop of the Irish Wavesailing Association 2015… where he took the silver fleet and youth win!

The first wave event of the Irish Windsurfing Association’s year took place on the 29th of March, and was supported by Jamie Knox. We had fantastic conditions for the event, which was a great relief to get 2015 of to a great start. Last year the IWA had 4 events but neither one was run due to the lack of wind on each date which was is very odd for the west coast of ireland not to have wind at least on one of the dates.

We had a good forecast for the weekend of the event. The day before the event was super windy, I sailed fully powered up on a 3.3 sail as did most of the others sailing that day, at Gowlane.

After a quick briefing at Jamie’s shop it was off to Fermoyle which was clean head high sideshore and Blowing ! I quickly rigged up my 3.3, 3.6 and 4.0 GA Sails, Which was a first for any comp I have done! The first heat was to be of the gold fleet,The Heats were scored on 3 waves and 2 jumps in 13 minutes which meant quite a rush to get everything in. Dan Gardner was one of the Standouts of the day landing big stalled forwards and big backloops all the way into the final in which he had to beat off tough competition from Dan Kealy and Niall Mellon. The final was really close, Niall Mellon scored some brilliant waves including a 9 as wave of the day and Dan Kealy pulling of some great stalled forwards but both were outdone by Dan Gardner who managed to take his first event win with the highest scoring jump of the day from a super high stalled forward.

I was competing in the Sliver Fleet and the Youths. I was very happy with my heats, My first heat was the one best heats that i have sailed, As i got 3 very good waves and also got one of the highest scoring jumps of the day as I pulled of a perfect bolt upright forward loop which i was super stoked to do as i have been practicing them this winter.

I was very happy to win the youth and the sliver fleet!

I would like to thank Hannes and Jamie Knox for organising the event, Marco Cavalleri for taking pictures of the event and to everyone that helped make it happen.

I would also like to thank my sponsors: Soloshot, Jamie Knox Watersports, GA Sails, K4 fins and especially Kathleen McAuliffe, who always takes me to the beach!