THE STARS COME OUT
by Sam Moses, Senior Editor
Every day has been different here. There has been sailing for 19 of 21 days during the test, and no two days have been the same, especially that one day in strong, ragged Kona winds-a day for "experts and idiots," said Mark Archer.
On Friday there were scores of sails on the water. Wind was in the 5.0 to 6.0 range and bigger boards were being tried, with some guys screaming at high speeds, others playing on clean swells. In the middle of it all was speed sailor Eric Beale, hanging onto a 7.5 Pryde sail, a six-batten three-cam StreetRacer V8. He couldn't weigh much more than 140 pounds. Most of the 190-pounders were on 6.0 sails.
Club Paradise is getting popular as the place to sail this month. Jason Polakow showed up, and was playing in the waves on one of his JP boards with a Zone sail, one of his own signature models in the series by Pryde. It's kind of a shock to be carefully sliding out through the waves and have KA111 pass you in the air, back-looping over your mast. On the beach, he was cheerily saying hi to people he didn't know-not all of whom even recognized him. It's pretty rare to have a sport that's so free and casual that a pro star drops by and plays with regular Joes.
Saturday turned into a full-blown party on the water. Apparently word has now spread around the island that the American Windsurfer test at Club Paradise is the fun place, and a happening. The huge grassy area at Club Paradise was jammed with cars under the trees and equipment on the lawn. There were only tiny waves at Hookipa, so they all came down here. Great tradewinds, 100 or more sails in the water, from our launch and the others along the beach. Too many pro stars to name. Josh Stone and family are regulars here now. Gorgeous women, many of whom are great sailors; the ones who aren't great sailors are drawn by all the good-looking guys. The water was smooth inside, the waves were mostly low, but occasionally a clean set of four-footers would break over the reef, and the freestylers and loopers went crazy. The wind was really ripping outside, and the swells out there were so big you could get great rides on them-like Los Barriles in Baja, on a good day.
All kinds of gear was being used, from wave boards and 4.5 sails to freestyle and freeride boards with 6.5s. The two yellow Kinetic El Nino freestyle boards were popular. Roberto Ricci stopped by to check out how his RRD boards are doing. The AvantRide 70, a thin, wide, 270 cm, 120-liter board, was doing great. More than great. It's easy to see why it was named ' 99 Board of the Year by a couple of the European windsurfing magazines. It may be wide, but it sure does handle-it can actually jump and carve in the waves.
Guest testers have been slow to discover the new Loft RAF sails, but their designer, the highly-regarded Monty Spindler, has recently shown folks here how to tune them, and in the last few days the sails have drawn praise for their comfort and range. I had great sessions with the 5.9 on Friday and 6.6 on Saturday, after other sailors had said, You gotta try these. Monty is here with his striking new Italian bride, whose name is as long as she is high, the very petite Maria Sabrina Victoria Roberta (otherwise known as Robbie), whom he met windsurfing on the beach in Spain, where they live now, and where his Loft loft is located. The sails are so new they're really still prototypes, with some detail changes to be made before they go into production. While Monty is here, he's shopping for a U.S. distributor. He made his name designing sails for ART and Pryde, and is now on his own.
On Sunday the wind backed off just a touch, and got a little bit holey. It shut down at 5:00 and everybody packed up. But at 6:00, well into dusk, it came back, and brought some big beautiful waves with it. Bill Hansen of Windwing had been watching, waiting and hoping. Opportunist that he is, he jumped. He went out on a 5.7 Catalyst Air and came back after dark. He said it was the best session he's had in the three weeks he's been here. Half-mast-high waves. And his hair was still dry.
Obviously, a very special thing about the scene that American Windsurfer is spawning here with the open atmosphere, is the mix of creative and accomplished people, and their exchange of ideas. A couple of nights ago, when I left the patio of Club Paradise to make the one-block walk back to my own cottage and put my kids to bed, I said goodnight to a quiet but not private conversation between Chad Fleischer, the U.S. Ski Team's high hope for gold medals in the Downhill and Super G at the next Winter Olympics, and Tony Cicale, the Indy car engineer who guided Jacques Villeneuve to the CART championship (Villeneuve later won the Formula 1 title), and is now mentor to Paul Tracy, winner of three CART races this year with his Team Kool Green Reynard-Honda. Chad is the son of Bill Fleischer, who owns Club Paradise, and was here for R&R between training in New Zealand and the first World Cup in France next weekend. Tony had arrived on Monday, after his team driver Dario Franchitti won the CART race at Surfers Paradise in Australia, putting him into the points lead for the final race in California, to which Tony will be going straight from here. Chad actually considered becoming a pro windsurfer before dedicating himself to skiing; Tony lives and sails on the Gulf Coast of Florida and on Long Island.
What were the two of them talking about? The approach to mental discipline that's needed to become a champion-actually, Tony was talking and Chad was listening. Tony is known not only for his engineering ability, but for his talent in turning around young drivers, by adjusting their approach-reaching them, is the special trick. Chad was all ears because his own history has not been unlike Paul Tracy's: blindingly fast for three-quarters of a race, then crashing into a fence. But in '99, like Tracy, he matured, and the brain stuff that makes champions finally surfaced.
What else were they talking about? The parallels between trying to harness the dynamics of an Indy car and a windsurfing rig. This is one of Tony's favorite subjects, as it fascinates him.
I interviewed him Saturday, and will have an upcoming Postcard from the Water's Edge on the subject. I know I've also promised Postcards on Randy French and his new boards, as well as a visit to the Neil Pryde loft. Others, such as Roberto Ricci, are also on the list. They're coming, they're coming. If only this damn wind would stop blowing, I could get some work done.
Ha. Ha.
