Downings 2010

Fun for all the Family and the biggest windsurfing event in Ireland which attracts all standards and ages of competitors from the complete beginner to the expert and from the young (5 years of age ) to the old (over 70) This event is a ranking event for the Irish Windsurfing Association (IWA) slalom series.

Event Information
Saturday 17th July – Registration on Beach at 9.00am Racing starts at 11.00am.

Sunday 18th July – Racing starts at 10.30am. Prize giving on the Beach at 4.30pm.

www.irishslalom.ie

Photo by Claire Metcalfe

After a long windless winter, and the postponements of round’s 1 & 2 of the Irish Speed Sailing Championship due to a lack of wind, the Irish Speed crew were finally in luck for Round 3 with a good wind forecast. The race organisers were monitoring the wind forecast earlier in the week and with good winds on the cards for Ireland’s West Coast, it was decided to try out Brandon Bay in Kerry. Brandon Bay being better known for its legendary wave sailing spots such as Gowlane and Garry William Point, proved that it also has speed potential when the swells are low for Speed Sailing. Fermoyle with its close proximity to the Connor Pass and its unique thermal effects in a S-SW wind was location of choice for the weekends action. (more…)

Fleadh 2010

Its that fun time of year again the WINDSURFING  FLEADH !!!! As most of you know this year Fingal Sailing School & Wind & Wave have kindly been nominated to hold the festival from Malahide! We’re hoping it will be as successful as other years & will ensure everyone has a great time!

The dates were selected as usual for the May Bank holiday weekend, 1st, 2nd & 3rd May.

The Plan for the weekend so far is as follows:
It will kick off on Sat a.m with some sessions and dedicated clinics for all levels: these will be hugely popular as there have been loads of requests from people looking to learn & perfect gybing / start procedures & also to get some rules for racing. Then in the afternoon we can put this into practice with some full on racing!

Throughout the whole weekend we’ll have the speed wall in use with the KING and QUEEN of the lake prize coming back!!!

Then Sunday will we’ll have some more clinics / coaching sessions in the am followed with some more racing in the afternoon: with prizes on offer!

Round 2 of the BWA wave competition will be held at Brandon Bay, Kerry from the 17th to 21st of May. Everyone is welcome and the event is open to all level of sailors. For more info check out www.britishwavesailingassociation.com/ireland.php

And don’t forget if your down that way the 2nd round of the Irish Slalom starts on the Saturday 22nd at Brandon too.  www.irishslalom.ie for more details.

That’s a full week…..

Slalom 2010

We’re back……!!!!!
The final events of the 2010 Irish Slalom Series Calendar have been put in place.

Due to the current situation and the big “R” word we have kept the number of events to a minimum. We have also attempted to space the events out as much as possible. On this calendar you will see the return of some familiar locations. The first event of the season will take us North to the new venue of Newtownards, Co. Down. Another new addition to the calendar is the moving of the Galway event back west to the legendary location of Roundstone…

The ISS rules and guidelines documents are currently being updated. A full set of 2010 rules will be released soon…

The following are the events which have been confirmed on the 2010 Irish Slalom Series calendar:

Event 1   March 27th /28th     Newtownards, Co.  Down
Event 2   May 22nd/ 23rd       Castlegregory, Co. Kerry
Event 3   July 17th/ 18th        Downings, Co. Donegal
Event 4   August 14th/ 15th   Garylucas, Co. Cork
Event 5   Oct 23rd/24th/25th  Roundstone, Co. Galway

There will also be several fun Irish Slalom Series Events in 2010. These will include the 2010 Fleadh, Masterblasts, local weekly racing and some coaching weekends…

Free Introduction to the Irish Slalom Series clinics will take place on March 6th 2010. Locations will include Dublin (Fintan Day), Donegal (Maurice Owens), Cork (Pearse Geaney) and Galway (Danny Mulryan). Details will be posted this week.

Keep your eyes on www.irishslalom.ie for more information..

Mr. Fast!

John Kenny has been named Irish Independent /Afloat.ie “Sailor of the Month” for January after pushing the bounds of waterborne wind-powered speed in Ireland in winter’s big breezes.

Kenny achieved a personal best of a burst of 45.3 knots (it’s 84 kph) and averaged 42.52 for the 500 metres at Burrows Beach Malahide.

http://www.afloat.ie/news/sailor-of-the-month-john-kenny/

http://www.independent.ie/sport/other-sports/speedking-kenny-breezes-to-sailor-of-the-month-award-2040418.html

Alan Harris

The I.W.A. and the windsurfing community would like to express their deepest sympathies to the family and friends of Alan Harris.  He will be greatly missed by everyone.

Gareth Nihill
President I.W.A.

Download 2010 Membership Form

Please send this completed application form, with the payment to:

Paul Reid,
IWA Secretary,
39 Bloomfield,
Annacotty,
Limerick

Following the 2010 AGM, a wave sub-committee was developed when inconsistencies were uncovered in the calculation of results. The problems occured in 2008 when there was no person looking after the wave events. This position has now been taken up by Katie McAnnena and Daniel Gardiner. The first task to ensure the 2010 IWA Wave Series runs smoothly, was to ensure we have a complete set of RULES, SAILING INSTRUCTIONS & COMPETITORS GUIDELINES.

A big thank you to 2009 IWA Wave Champion Finn Mullen who spent endless hours compiling the draft documents. Our thanks also to Katie and Daniel King who advised on certain aspects of the drafts. Also a mention to Peter Gallagher who compiled the previous set of documentation.

As an IWA member – you now have 4 weeks until January 9th 2010 to submit any feedback or changes you would like to see made to the three documents which can be found below. Please send your feedback to me (ir555 at hotmail dot com). Failure to give any feedback, on the documents by the deadline will result in the three documents being deemed accepted, as the offical documentation for the all future IWA Wave Series. Documents maybe subject to change by the IWA committee.

The three documents can be found here at:
IWA Wave/ Freestyle Championship Rules
IWA Wave/ Freestyle Competitors Guide
IWA Wave/ Freestyle Sailing Instructions

As volunteers we would really appreciate any feedback – do not be afraid to be negative!

Yours in Sport
Danny Mulryan
IWA Events Team

Steve Flanagan IR11

Last week saw the arrival of some of the world’s top windsurfers and kitesurfers to the newly discovered speed strip, in the town of Dungaravan, Co. Waterford. Organised by Irish speed sailor Martin Waldron, the event provided an ideal opportunity for some of Ireland’s top windsurfers and kitesurfers, to battle it out with the big names for the European Speed titles.

Speeds were measured using handheld GPS units.  Two sessions were held for the windsurfer’s throughout the weeklong event. Results were decided upon Saturday’s session. After a long wait the correct conditions finally allowed entrants to see how good the speed strip really was. A 250M course was set and within seconds of the course opening – competitors were blasting down the strip at speeds in excess of 35 knots.

Dublin man Steve Flanagan took third position just behind legendary windsurfer and 13 times World Champion; Bjorn Dunkerbeck.  Organiser of the Irish Speed Sailing Series and regular competitor on the Irish Slalom Series, Steve managed to beat several well know international competitors.  With an average run of 35.22 knots, the Dubliner was less than three knots of claiming the European title.

Pearse Geaney, the Irish national slalom champion also performed very well, claiming fifth position.  The winner of the European event was Andrea Baldini from Italy. The top speed of the week was claimed by kitesurfer Dave Williams, clocking a 44.2 knot average speed over the 250m course. More info on the event is available at www.speedworldcup.com