I’m a little late in getting this out, but it’s been a really hectic week.  Not only has the regatta concluded well, but I’ve been busy planning out next year and seeing how all the World Cup regattas and my training will fit in my schedule.  There have been some interesting developments to my campaign plan, and it looks like 2009 will be my best-planned year to date.  

Overall, the regatta left me with a great starting point for the season, and I had many “first time” experiences that I hope will continue for the rest of the season.  The most important aspect of the regatta was that I hired Scott Steele to give me coaching support with video analysis for the first time.  Most of the conditions for the OCR were marginal, meaning planing and pumping downwind and daggerboard down sailing upwind.  These conditions are my weakest, so it was a great opportunity for improvement and with the video, I could see exactly what I need to work on for the future. We took so much video that I’m still going through it all!  For me, coaching is the most important first step in becoming a world-class competitor.   

Although conditions were tough for most of the regatta, we finally had some big breeze for the last day of racing.  A rain squall came through at the start of a cold front, which brought a huge wind shift and 25-30 knot gusts.  This is really my favorite kind of day and an opportunity for a little “real windsurfing,” or full planing, fast and exciting racing.  A friend of mine described it as “Nascar sailing….” going around and around in circles as fast as you can drive!   

The final day of the regatta ended on a good note, and I’m now ranked first on the US Sailing team in RS:X Women.  More importantly, US Sailing is also attempting to become competitive with the European programs by initiating development and coaching programs for its sailors. Although financial support is still on a performance-based scale, we now have a greater opportunity to learn and grow as a team with several training camps and clearly-defined team goals for the year.  We can only hope that over the next decade, the team’s situation will continue to improve, US Sailing will continue to look to the future, and the United States will discover its full potential for performance in all Olympic sailing classes.

Again two races were on the schedule for the Miami OCR.  We started out with about 11-15 knots of breeze, meaning planing conditions. The highlight of the regatta so far has been my great starts.  One of my biggest weaknesses last year was starting.  It is a very intricate and crucial skill that is not easily learned.  The goal of a start is to create the best situation possible for the race; having clean air, great boardspeed, and a good position relative to the other boards and the favored side of the course.  Some elements of a good start include defending your position on the line for up to 3 minutes, choosing the favored end of the line, and positioning for a fast launch in clear air. My first start was so close that I thought I was over early, which is a typical feeling when you are planing fast and pushing the limits. I started in the middle of the line, and to correct for line sag, I started heading up a few seconds before the gun.  It is great to see that my starts have gotten so much better over the course of the last year, but there are many things to work on, the biggest being boardspeed. In another year, I will make big improvements in that area as well.   

Boardspeed was a big element in today’s racing, as the wind lightened to marginal planing conditions, and the girls were daggerboard down the second race.  The weeds were about the worst I have ever seen on Biscayne Bay, and huge floating islands of Sargassum and Syringodium were all over the course.  The tactics of the day included weed avoidance, and not a competitor made it around the course without stopping three or four times to clear huge rhizomes from the fin.  I took a technique from Formula and during the downwinds, hopped waves to get the fin out of the water and drop weeds.   

We are looking forward to light wind tomorrow from the south, meaning a warm day with lots of pumping!

The first day of this Grade 1 World Cup event showed a great turnout for all Olympic classes, proving that all countries are very serious about performing well during the next quadrennium.  This matches my commitment to improve and learn the game of Olympic sailing, and I’m excited to begin the journey.  This is the first step of my comprehensive four-year plan. The most outward sign of this is that Scott Steele, 1984 silver medalist in boardsailing, is here as my coach.   

We had two races on Biscayne Bay, on a sunny day with light to marginal wind strength. This was perfect for me because these are the conditions that I need to most improve in.  Today I had solid tactics but am still working on speed. I’m happy to report that my starts have greatly improved from last year.  My coach and I are working on video analysis after every day of racing, which is the first time I’ve had this benefit to my program.  I’m looking forward to learning a lot this regatta. 

After a lot of training, testing, and tuning on the Formula board, it was finally time to give my new skills a try at the Caviglia Bluewater Classic regatta.  Hosted by Shake-a-Leg Miami, a community sailing center in Coconut Grove, the regatta included several different sailing classes. Besides Formula, Kona boards are racing, keel boats, and most notably the Bic O’Pen, a kids’ dinghy class that doesn’t do conventional racing and incorporates games and freestyle into low-key, fun competition. In addition to the O’Pen kids, the US junior windsurfing team is sailing in the Kona fleet, and it’s great to have young people around who are enthusiastic about racing boards.  It makes for an interesting crowd on the beach.  

I just received brand-new sails from my newest equipment sponsor, KA Sails.  I am very enthusiastic about getting to test and race the sails.  So far they have proved to be versatile and quick sails that I can handle in a wide variety of conditions.  They aren’t heavy and are responsive to minor adjustments.  The range of these sails was an important factor that contributed to my success on the first day of the regatta.  

The conditions on the first day of racing were about 10-15 knots of northwest breeze.  These conditions are tricky, as is normal for any northerly direction on Biscayne Bay.  There were many shifts, big gusts, and lulls, and in Formula with its emphasis on pure speed, it was a big effort to keep the board moving efficiently while deciding what direction to go.  Sometimes it paid to go to the windier side of the course, even though it wasn’t necessarily the favored side.  All in all it was a day of focused decisions and technical effort.  

The first race made me realize that my efforts over the past few months have really paid off.  I had rigged my KA 9.8 with a Kashy 66 XXS fin, which proved to be an ideal combination for the gusty conditions.  We had a long windward-leeward gate course with a windward mark in the lee of some tall buildings, making it particularly difficult to keep boardspeed and angle in that area.  The line was short and the entire fleet started on port.  I had a great start with Dave Kashy at the boat end of the line, and we planed away while most of the sailors floundered around trying to get going.  We went hard right where the wind had filled in a bit more near the Rickenbacker bridge span.  At the top mark I was in 4^th or 5^th, but I’m still working a lot on my downwind technique and I wasn’t quite fast enough and lost a few places.  During the second race, the line had been made longer, and even though port was still favored, most of the fleet including myself elected to start on starboard.  We started in a bit of a lull, and I didn’t have enough boardspeed to get out quickly, and ended up slogging over the line.  I tacked away from the fleet to get clean air and hit the right side of the course again.  By that time, the wind was filling in a bit and the right was still windier, but the left was favored.  However, I didn’t want to risk going left and not planing.  Again I finished mid-fleet.  I started the last race on port again with Alex Morales and Eric Rahnenfuehrer, getting an interesting view of Eric narrowly escaping hitting the committee boat.  Going right again in this race didn’t pay off, but it was windy enough that I was able to maintain good boardspeed. The fight at the upwind finish was always interesting. I tried to tack on a layline underneath a few boards and quickly get away from them.  However, the wind near the finish was really gusty, and unfortunately I got stuck in a hole only to have them plane right over me.  I was fighting until the end with some fast sailors, and am happy with how I placed.   

The second day of racing was cancelled for lack of wind!  

Our third day of racing started bright and early with an 8:30 skippers’ meeting.  The wind was warm and light from the southwest. Having seen a forecast for big breeze later in the afternoon, most of the sailors were at a loss as to what to rig. Most went with their light-wind setups, and I did the same, rigging my 9.8 with a big 70 cm fin.  As we were going out, the narrow launch platforms became crowded with boards and several 2.4 meter one-design boats, causing a delay. As we waited our turns to launch, a race official let us know that the start would be postponed to give us a few more minutes to reach the line.  However, an official on the committee boat decided to run the sequence anyway, causing half the fleet to miss the start!  Needless to say, this made a few sailors rather frustrated, and it was decided among a few of us that we would file for redress when we returned to the beach.  

Meanwhile, the breeze had started to build, and we ran the second race in about 15 knots of wind gusting to 20.  I pulled off a pretty clean port start, trying to get to the right, landward side of the course where it looked like there was a lift.  The water was also flatter and the breeze wasn’t so strong, which was better for me, since I was rigged for light air.  The big fin I was using had far too much lift, and I spent both windward legs fighting to hold it in the water.  This wasn’t too fast, but it did get me around the course.  The breeze continued to build for the third and final race.  After a few abandoned starts by the race committee (the pin boat was dragging anchor) the breeze had reached 25 knots and most of us were having trouble controlling our equipment.  Only about half the fleet started the final race, and the line was heavily port favored, so most of us started there.  I was about 30 seconds late, having trouble holding my equipment down.  There were more than a few late, uncontrolled, crazy starts, most notably by Ron Kern, who broke a batten and started a minute late, holding his board down “starfish” style as he crossed the line.  I lost control of my sail shortly after I crossed the line, causing me to drop it and lose time.  By the time I reached the windward mark, the wind was easily gusting to 30 knots and with the big fin, I couldn’t get downwind.  I had to bail on the race, along with most of the fleet. It was even a big struggle to get back in to the dock.  Only 7 sailors finished!  However, I was surprised at how long I could maintain a comfort level with my KA 9.8 sail, and this really increased my confidence with it in breezy conditions.   

Upon reaching shore, Ron Kern and I gathered a few sailors to work on our request for redress.  We filed under rule 62.1 (a) which requests redress based on the fact of a sailor’s score being made significantly worse through no fault of their own, by the improper action of a race committee. Because we were simply late for a start, we felt that the request for redress would perhaps not be granted to us, but we felt that we truly had been wronged by the race committee.  Four of us were questioned by US Sailing certified jurists, including one international judge.  Our core argument was that a race official on land had informed us that since the launch was backed up enough to create an unsafe situation, the race committee would postpone the start a few minutes to wait for the remainder of the Formula fleet to launch safely.  The official was called as a witness, and she informed the jury that she had indeed requested, more than once, that the officials on the committee boat to postpone the start.  In addition to her testimony, the official running the starts was given time to give his side of the story.  In the end, the jury granted the fleet redress of average points for the missed race. It was a long shot for we sailors, but all sides of the case were heard impartially by the jury, all available witnesses were called, and the jury considered all the evidence carefully. The jury created a great example of an impartial, well-executed decision.
 

Next week I begin the Miami Olympic Classes Regatta, the qualifier for the 2009 US Sailing Team. The Formula board will be retired for a few weeks while I concentrate on the RS:X.  My program is slowly coming together and I’m looking forward to a great regatta.

As the new year rolls in, I find myself in St. Petersburg, Florida, visiting family for the holidays. However, I'm also training with a few other boardsailors on the RS:X in preparation for the Miami OCR, which begins January 25.  I feel much fitter than I did this fall, and it's paying off on the water.  I'm getting dialed in on the RS:X again after so much time with the Formula equipment, but the cross training has already paid off in strength and technique.  I'm looking forward to a hectic and intense January with lots of training, the Caviglia Bluewater Classic regatta (Formula) on Jan 17-18, a US Sailing camp, and of course, the Rolex Miami Olympic Classes regatta that will be our team qualifier.

The Miami Pro-Am regatta was the end of a long journey for me this week.  I just arrived from Maryland to spend a few months here training and racing, and one of my focuses is Formula sailing.  The Pro-Am was the perfect place to get warmed up with Formula, check out some new equipment, and figure out my training schedule for the winter.

The Miami sailors are very welcoming and really enjoy helping newcomers get started. Since I don’t have any gear yet, I borrowed a new Gaastra Vapor board from Rick Randall, and some 2009 KA prototype sails from Alex Morales.  I was excited to try out the new equipment as it’s been a while since I’ve been on Formula gear and everything changes quickly.

I spent Friday afternoon and Saturday morning setting up the equipment, which included figuring out how to rig the sails, scrounging for random parts, putting footstraps on the board, and finding a good fin.  I borrowed a 70 cm extra extra soft fin from Peter Ifju, who has been making custom fins for a few years and is now starting to sell them.  I was lucky that there wasn’t much wind on Saturday morning, and I had lots of time to set up. 

Saturday’s conditions were hot and sunny, with a light southeast breeze.  The Kona fleet, which consisted of mostly Britt Viehman’s youth team from the Tampa Bay area, got a number of races off, while the Formula fleet waited at the US Sailing Center.  Eventually the wind picked up a bit, and expecting to race, we all left the beach.  However, the wind dropped again and we were left slogging around watching the Konas race.  Rick ran a light-wind practice start for us and we raced to an upwind mark.  However, the wind switched to WSW and we were left with an upwind slog back to the sailing center.  We did get a little planing in though!

Sunday’s forecast was for lots of breeze from the NW, and the temperature dropped quite a bit with the incoming cold front.  In anticipation everyone rigged smaller sails, and I thought my Ifju fin would be too big, so I found a 60 cm Tectonics fin and switched them out.  We had three races before lunch, and I spent that time getting dialed in with the equipment.  The wind was actually a lot lighter than I thought it would be, and I wished I had taken the bigger fin as I was slow upwind.  I spent a lot of time adjusting my technique and moving my harness lines around with the help of Alex, who gave me some pointers between races.  It was difficult to concentrate so much on technique, because it definitely affected my tactical game.  However, it was a great warm-up. 

After lunch, the wind died considerably, and Rick shortened the course.  Gusts were coming through the course at a maximum of 10 knots, and probably averaged around 7.  I had put the Ifju fin back on again and let downhaul off of my 9.0.  Although I wished I had rigged up a sail size, the fin was working some magic and I was planing easily and pointing well with good speed.  (Eventually, my glowing report of the fin’s performance got it sold to another competitor at the end of the day!) I began to feel the upwind technique more as well.  On the second upwind, I caught a huge shift and ended up duking it out on the last downwind with Ron Kern, the regatta winner.  What fun! 

For me the regatta was very successful.  I accomplished the goal of tuning up the gear, and also figuring out what equipment I’d like to use for the rest of the season.  I’ll be doing some board testing this week which I’m looking forward to. Thanks to the Miami Windsurfing crew for running a great event, and being so welcoming and helpful!

Annapolis, Md
April 4th 2008

 John White, Chairman & CEO of Compass Marketing, Inc., today announced his company’s sponsorship of Annapolis windsurfer Farrah Hall, one of two contenders to represent the USA at the 2008 Olympic Games in August.

Farrah Hall & John White -- Photo: David Hartcorn

Check out my new blog, "The Epic Road" about life as a professional windsurfer...and just life in general.  I'm still learning a few advanced techniques but it has plenty of content, especially sailing in Poland.

Olympic class windsurfing is the most challenging but rewarding sport that I have ever been involved in. It requires bringing together three major elements:  equipment-specific sailing technique, racecourse management and tactical sailing, and IronMan-level physical fitness. I am grateful for my ability to rise to elite levels of competition, mental strength, and physical fitness. I am also grateful to be able to the travel around the world and represent the United States on an international level of competition. As an athlete, this has been my lifelong dream. 

• Allegro Cup - Leba, Poland
  July 30-August 3
• Polish RS:X Championship, Gdynia, Poland
  September  18-22