Last weekend saw plenty of slalom action over in the Emerald Isle and the guys from the Irish Slalom Series have posted this report.

The October Bank holiday weekend saw over 40 windsurfers gather in the quaint village of Kinvara on the edge of the Burren for the last and final round of the 2012 Irish Slalom Series hosted by Rusheen Bay Windsurfing. Those who travelled on the Friday were rewarded with a warm reception, an open fire and live Jazz in Connellys pub. Saturday dawned without a breath of wind nor a cloud in the sky, regardless the crew got set up on Tracht Beach and started the day with the more experienced sailors passing on their knowledge with a series of rigging demos, Q&A’s and Intro to slalom clinic.

After a gourmet lunch kindly provided by Cully & Sully the breeze started to fill and both fleets made to the water for some practice starts and some fun races.

Saturday night and the standard flowery shirt attire was unleashed to enjoy the social side to kinvara, to keep everyone together a nautical table quiz was organised in Tullys Bar, for obvious reasons neither team names nor scores can be repeated! Lets just hope that the standard of knot identification improves for next year.

Sunday was quite the opposite of Saturday with overcast and drizzle but lots of wind. When the wind settled in strength and direction the racing got started under the watchful OD Danny Mulryan. Five countable downwind slalom races were held for the Gold fleet with Hannes Louet-Feisser, Robert Jones, Maurice Owens and Gareth Nihill taking the honours respectfully. The even larger silver fleet completed 4 races in the high winds and rolling seas making the racing challenging to say the least, standout performances included Steve Lawless, Keith Gorman, Gary Browne and Keith Ryan who finished top 4 respectfully.

Sunday evening saw a successful AGM with a big thanks going to the outgoing committee and a warm welcome to those who took up the new positions, all the Gang at Irish Slalom wish Hannes and his team the best of luck for the coming seasons. After the AGM it was onto the Pierhead Restaurant hotel for the now annual fabulous Prize giving dinner. Prizes were given for the weekends racing with generous sponsorship from RBW followed by the prize giving for the 2012 season.

The 2012 champions are:

Gold Fleet

• 1st Overall Maurice Owens
• 2nd Overall Hannes Louet-Feisser
• 3rd Overall Rob Jones
• 1st Men    Gareth Nihill
• 1st Master    Barry Whitelaw

Silver Fleet

• 1st Overall Stephen Lawless
• 2nd Overall Paul Green
• 3rd Overall Keith Ryan
• 1st Lady Johanne Murphy
• 1st Master  Robert Polak

More pics here