Coolmaine beach in the heart of Courtmacsherry Bay, Co. Cork, played host to Round 4 of the Irish Slalom Series over the weekend of 23-24th August 2008. A fleet of 30 entrants were presented with a playground of strong winds, varying sea states and four seasons all mixed into one fun filled weekend of windsurf racing. Still full of enthusiasm after the event, we hand the event report over to our guest writer, the very capable, Dublin based, Stephen Williams - IR66,

fresh from his world wide travels from South Africa and Maui, Hawaii, and returning to a slalom event after a ten year absence.

"For me, it all started in Maui in May, when the infamous Jimmy Diaz kindly lent me his slalom equipment for an hours blast across the bay. Having not sailed on anything other than wave and freestyle equipment in over ten years, I had forgotten the speed and power feeling you get from slalom kit! And how much better the slalom kit had improved in all those years! Maintaining a close eye on the resurgence of the racing scene in Ireland, I decided it was time to give it another shot on my return home.

Roll forward to August and after a number of phone calls to one of my best mates Mark Cullinane, I persuaded him to attend the first proper racing event in Cork for years. We keenly watched the forecast in the days running up to the competition and were getting excited as Gerald Fleming (weather guy) was forecasting a proper small sails windy forecast. I had picked up a old JP slalom board and two North Ram's, while Mark had an old Starboard slalom board and two Naish no cam race sails, the perfect set up we hoped for some fun racing!

After a good nights sleep in a trusty LIDL tent (although it did flood the next night�) we headed to the event site. Our eagerness shining through, we were first there, albeit an hour ahead of schedule. Being there early, it was easy to see how much effort people were putting in to both attend and run the event. The tone was set, everyone was in great form and the atmosphere was super laid back. Peter McNutt, Hugh McBride and a team of youngsters drove all the way down from Donegal, a 10 hour hellish journey from the very north of the country. Pearse, Danny, Maurice and Ralph were setting the course and getting the IWA flags up. Much to our delight, the Cully & Sully catering van arrived and set up to serve us beautiful soup and sandwiches over the 2 days - we wouldn't go hungry here!

Briefing was held once everyone was rigged up and with the onset of "refreshing" rain (twas down for the day, although it didn't dampen spirits at all) and the wind blowing straight in the bay (cross shore wind) a solid force 5, racing was now in focus. The gold fleet were rigging 7-8m; unfortunately my 7.6m ripped while rigging so I had to settle for my trusty 6.6m. This turned out to be a good choice as the wind picked up nicely to Force 6 come the first race start. Fair play to the OOD and his crew, who did a great job sitting in the boat running race after race in the driving rain, howling wind and rolling swell for us!

Now the good part - the racing. We had 3 races before lunch, figure of 8 slalom around 2 marker buoys, with a floating start and finish. I was nervous on the start line for the first race, with nearly 30 other entrants all charging for the line, it must have looked brilliant from the beach. A reasonable start found me in the leading pack of about 8 sailors and much to my delight, a 5th position finish for race one. I really settled into the conditions in Race 2 and 3 - its amazing once it starts you really get into it! The race for 10th is as good as for 1st, with positions changing at every gybe mark!

By the afternoon, the racing had really heated up; it was all to play for with Danny, Fintan and Pearse all having won races. I found myself consistently around 5th / 6th position, although drop a gybe and the placing dropped like a stone in water to 12-14th position. Mmmm, I was beginning to realise that fast gybing was a great advantage. Later in the afternoon, the racing was fully hardcore with the last marker sitting nicely in 2-3 foot breaking surf. The gybe mark was pure carnage - if you weren't in first or second place coming into that mark, it was very likely that you'd have to gybe around 3 of 4 sailors waterstarting in the surf, hairy stuff. On one occasion, rounding the mark just as Alan Harris (event sponsor and "the boss man" at www.surfdock.ie) was water starting on the other side, I crashed out to avoid colliding with Alan, a small price to pay for safety, but the laughing between us was infectious.

The start line is the other place of entertainment, were sailors pushing hard for positions easily over stepped the line early. It showed how competitive everybody was, and how good technique and a good start was essential for good final positions! I found myself in first place heading to the marker in Race 7 with Pearse and Fintan hot on my heals. Not sure if I may have been over the line early, I kept the power on to see if I could hold first place round the first mark. Turns out I couldn't, as both Pearse and Fintan are really fast gyber's and overtook me at the first bouy. I held on to get 3rd position, but it turned out both Pearse and I were disqualified for being over early, oh well, the rest of the race was worth it!

So by Saturday evening, the exhausted fleet had sailed a total of 8 races in strong Force 6 winds through 2-3 foot surf. The younger members of the fleet were amazing - each of them finished all the races and handled the challenging conditions really well. I had a number of tussles with young Matthew McNutt (IR888) from Downings, Donegal. I have no doubt he may be Irish Champion in a few years - his board speed and gybing skills were sick, awarding him a very respectable 6th place finish overall. Other standout performances from the U15 and U17 categories were from Ben McNutt, Luke and Amy McBride, Dylan Boyce and Eamon (3 broken masts-1 month) Kelly, all Downings competitors.

Saturday evening saw the sailors and race committee converge in the picturesque village o f Courtmacsherry for a grub and a few pints to cool the soar hands. Talk of the days racing and antics was all the form, until Fintan removed his jumper to reveal a flowery shirt that could only be described as 60's curtain material!

Sunday mornings greeted the competitors with sun shine and light onshore winds. Bummer, as I only had a 6.6m and most of the competitors were rigging there biggest 7.5m - 10m sails, except the youngsters who were rigging anything from 5m to 7m - big sails for them! Four races were run on Sunday morning, with a repeat of the start line fun and gybe mark chaos! The slalom organization crew ran a number of fun races in the afternoon, giving bias to the youngsters off the start line, encouraging them to power around the course and adding a duck type rule to the top mark! Great to see the top sailors falling like flies around the marks!

With sunny spells, a bustling car park and a visual display of flags and windsurfers, the day drew a spectator crowd to the beach on Sunday. Even the Courtmacsherry lifeboat came out for a look on both days! It was also fantastic to meet up with old friends, talk windsurfing kit and enjoy the atmosphere. Well done to all and I hope to see ye in Galway!"

Congratulations to category winners Pearse Geaney (1st Mens and 1st overall), Hannes Louet-Feisser (1st Master), Matthew McNutt (U-17), Alan Harris (Grand Master), Ben McNutt (U-15), Amy McBride (U-17 Ladies), and Geraldine O'Shea (Ladies).

Special thanks must go to Ralph Ferguson for organizing the event, and to Surfdock www.surfdock.ie for event sponsorship. Local sponsorship thanks must also go to CH Marine www.chmarine.com, Skibbereen Computers and a very big thank you to Cully and Sully www.cullyandsully.com for the fantastic gourmet soup and sandwiches on the beach. Special thanks must also go to the boat crew, our photographers Kathyrn and Alessia, and Danny and Alessia for compiling the results.

The next event is at Silver Strand in Galway, over the weekend of the 6th-7th September and is the "finale" round of a very successful 2008 Irish Slalom Series.

See you all in Galway!