Great photo! I'm very jelly bags of you guys! Lap it up and enjoy, forecasted conditions look's like a great solid week ahead.
How's the 'KA' shadow from Ben's sail onto your board!! bet you couldn't do that again if you tried!
Just noticed that Day 1 results are up:
http://www.fw-australia.com/greenisland/results/
And some photos up on Billy Craigs Green Island Windsurfing facebook page:
www.facebook.com/BillyCraigPhotography/
Awesome hour Kel! Good luck to all those up there competing this year looks like your in for some great conditions.
A great couple of days so far!
A full elimination run in Slalom yesterday in about 20-22knots. Slightly more tricky conditions today, a few slalom rounds completed and the freestylers got through the first single elimination and have the semi final and final of the first double elim to finish tomorrow. Currently WA crew are leading the rankings-bring on the next few days!
What was the issue with the slalom finals being rerun? Can't get much info on the website.
Select to expand quotesausage said..
What's the deal with the slalom finals being rerun? Can't get much info on the website.
This is what a certain competitor wrote this morning:
"Keep Rerunning the finals until a certain individual and brand does well and then it's a fair race. Amateur hour in the tropics. Let's see what comedy we get today"
It's just the same cheating that's been going on for years by the same brand and people are now just starting to get sick of it!
Common these people put their personal time and effort into running these events without people like that we wouldn’t have any events. From what Ive heard from the locals its was very gusty with wind shifts, anyone that has runs events knows how difficult it is to run in those conditions. Hard enough just to lay the coarse.
It’s hard to keep everyone happy
.
Big call for someone not even there to come out and accuse others of cheating.
Time to move on maybe?
The races that were re-run had 4-6 (out of 8) people over the line early at the start... as per the PWA rules the race director opted to re-run the final as they couldn't determine exactly who was over (even with video footage). Pretty annoying for us sailors cause we were all pretty bloody tired... but I think in the end everyone was ok with it?
Today we reduced the number of heats to get to the final (one heat, then a final) so we got more rounds in. Super windy and great fun!!
Select to expand quotehoop said..
Big call for someone not even there to come out and accuse others of cheating.
Time to move on maybe?
The claims of cheating came from a Severne sponsored rider in his post on Facebook, I was just copying the text. There must be something seriously wrong if a Severne sponsored rider makes accusations of cheating against his own sponsors event!
I didn't see you attack Isaac for making those comments, maybe you should direct your anger towards Isaac who just outed you guys for doing something you've been doing for years instead of coming on a forum and looking like a fool for supporting cheating.
"Cheating" (race rerunning) has been a blight on windsurfing for a long time and in any other sport the perpetrators would have received life bans but in windsurfing they get supported!
SOURCE: Wikipedia
Sailing
In sailing, the race committee decides at the preparatory signal (usually 4 minutes before the start) what the rules on false starting will be by display the P, I, Z or Black Flags. A P Flag means any boat on the course side (OCS) of the start line at the starting signal must return, clear the start line and then restart. The I Flag means a boat which is OCS must round either end of the start line by coming back to the pre-start side and then restarting (the 'round the ends' rule). The Z Flag means a boat which is OCS in the minute leading up to the start or at the start itself is given a 20% scoring penalty. The Black Flag means a boat which is OCS in the minute leading up to the start or at the start itself is disqualified. Failing to return to start correctly under the P or I Flag rules means the boat is scored O.C.S and receives points equivalent to disqualification.
Swimming
In swimming, any swimmer who starts before the starting signal is given an automatic disqualification.[9] If a step-down command is given before the race starts, the swimmer is not disqualified. A notable example during the 2008 Olympics occurred when Jiaying Pang was disqualified due to a false start. This allowed Libby Trickett to advance to the final round, in which she won a silver medal. At the 2012 London Olympics, Chinese swimmer Sun Yang jumped into the water too early in the 1500m final, but was not judged to have false started as the starter had aborted the initial start due to crowd noise, causing Yang to fall into the pool. Yang went on to win the race and the gold medal, setting a new world record. A similar incident occurred in the women's 100m breaststroke final.
Not sure how applicable these are to windsurfing (a 4 minute penalty pretty much writes you out of a slalom race), but food for thought. What are the official rules for windsurfing false starts... is there any international rules?
BTW, I'm not passing judgement either way as I know nothing about the events that occurred on GI.
Select to expand quoteHF said...hoop said..
Big call for someone not even there to come out and accuse others of cheating.
Time to move on maybe?
The claims of cheating came from a Severne sponsored rider in his post on Facebook, I was just copying the text. There must be something seriously wrong if a Severne sponsored rider makes accusations of cheating against his own sponsors event!
I didn't see you attack Isaac for making those comments, maybe you should direct your anger towards Isaac who just outed you guys for doing something you've been doing for years instead of coming on a forum and looking like a fool for supporting cheating.
"Cheating" (race rerunning) has been a blight on windsurfing for a long time and in any other sport the perpetrators would have received life bans but in windsurfing they get supported!
Col I think you have taken this comment out of context just a little. Severne are a great brand and very supportive and ptoffessional company in Australia and around the world for over a decade.
If you view the photo that the post was with, it had 3 starboard riders I'm the lead. The post did not point to any brand in particularly not severne.
The event rules need an overhaul on the starts that's all I'm going to say. To have 4 or more over early for a rerun is crap and open to manipulation by sailors and officials.
Select to expand quoteizymiester said..HF said...hoop said..
Big call for someone not even there to come out and accuse others of cheating.
Time to move on maybe?
The claims of cheating came from a Severne sponsored rider in his post on Facebook, I was just copying the text. There must be something seriously wrong if a Severne sponsored rider makes accusations of cheating against his own sponsors event!
I didn't see you attack Isaac for making those comments, maybe you should direct your anger towards Isaac who just outed you guys for doing something you've been doing for years instead of coming on a forum and looking like a fool for supporting cheating.
"Cheating" (race rerunning) has been a blight on windsurfing for a long time and in any other sport the perpetrators would have received life bans but in windsurfing they get supported!
Col I think you have taken this comment out of context just a little. Severne are a great brand and very supportive and ptoffessional company in Australia and around the world for over a decade.
If you view the photo that the post was with, it had 3 starboard riders I'm the lead. The post did not point to any brand in particularly not severne.
The event rules need an overhaul on the starts that's all I'm going to say. To have 4 or more over early for a rerun is crap and open to manipulation by sailors and officials.
Is there another Col ?
I just want to know if there is any video of the racing. Plenty of still photos.
Point taken Isaac, it takes a lot of courage to speak up at an event and about how it's run. I actually had messages from 3 other competitors who all voiced the same concerns as you.
Here's your reply from above; "The event rules need an overhaul on the starts that's all I'm going to say. To have 4 or more over early for a rerun is crap and open to manipulation by sailors and officials."
What you said is correct, it is so easy to manipulate results.
Select to expand quoteHF said...
Point taken Isaac, it takes a lot of courage to speak up at an event and about how it's run. I actually had messages from 3 other competitors who all voiced the same concerns as you.
Here's your reply from above; "The event rules need an overhaul on the starts that's all I'm going to say. To have 4 or more over early for a rerun is crap and open to manipulation by sailors and officials."
What you said is correct, it is so easy to manipulate results.
Here are the facts until proven or explained otherwise:
Both first finals before the reruns, that I placed well ahead of Sean Obrien on round 2 and 3 would of given me second place Australian. I am not allowed to see video from the start line. Not looking very honest and open to a protest. So I can only assume dodgy decisions. Let's put the starts on YouTube, unedited, no shift on the sound of the start watch and let's decide for ourselves. I actually pulled back on the start of final 3 and from the back of the pack managed to race past everyone and infront of Sean to place 3rd. I raced with everything and was told of a rerun. Many guys in the top 6 were affected. Its not until we finish the heat that we know if there is a rerun. I
According to ifca we should be picking who.is over early and if.you cant pick more than 3 than don't assume anyone else. We should not be re running finals at a national level it will mean sailors will have to be smarter on the start line.
Jesper Orth won both the round 2 and 3 finals and he lost points and probably overall title on these re races.
Today when the awards were given out the Australian title was given to Danish jesper vesterstrom. Second was jesper Orth and third controversially third. I was fourth but I was actually third Australian.
After inquiring this simple technicality Ian was just shrugging it off and I said well I'm third aussie where is my medal it's the Australian titles? After doing nothing, I walked away point made and no attempt to change the situation that conveniently suited the manipulator.
the placing was changed after I had to cause a scene and jesper Orth was first aussie. I didnt get my deserved second place but you can't always beat cheating and I placed third aussie.
If we can see the videos of race finals round 2 and 3. And while we are at it let's see round 4 final as someone ran up to see if over early after a good race 
maybe this footage will disappear.
People organise events for a reason, Green Island is an amazing place to spend time in winter and promoting your brand is always great when you are in the market.
I don't like to see any kind of funny business in sport. I will not sit back and let it be.....
Freerace was great and is growing but to he honest we wasted a lot of time on that when we only got 5 slalom tables completed in 5 days. There is only small windows for the tide to race slalom and there is a lot of green algae on the south side of the island where the flatware slalom was attempted on the first day. I attempted to change.the course out of the algae when there was stacks of it on each leg we were stopping to get it off 4 times per race and we had issues on the final which was affected by weed. We should of moved the course before the final to not affect the results but the race crew wanted to persist for the round.
Anyway team WA dominated great effort guys, it was great fun and Cairns is an amazing place to hang with the windsurf crowd.
Can someone explain to me how rerunning heats enables sailors to manipulate the outcome, because I'm struggling to see the logic behind that suggestion?
On the whole I think it's pretty poor form to slander the race organisers in a public forum when we should be acknowledging the huge effort that goes into staging this event. Sounds like sour grapes to me 
Select to expand quotePointman said..
Can someone explain to me how rerunning heats enables sailors to manipulate the outcome, because I'm struggling to see the logic behind that suggestion?
On the whole I think it's pretty poor form to slander the race organisers in a public forum when we should be acknowledging the huge effort that goes into staging this event. Sounds like sour grapes to me
This rerunning has been around for 30 plus years, I first saw it at the Sony in Sydney in 1985 when a certain pro Australian windsurfer went balistic at the organisers and at the time I thought he was the biggest wanker until someone explained to me years later what was going on.
It basically involves starting the heat or running the heat/final and if your best friend/son or sponsored sailor either didn't get through or didn't place they would come up with some excuse to rerun. (gybe mark drifted, lack of wind etc).
We had a big problem with it in the mid 90's in W.A with a certain organiser and I can remember several great windsurfers quitting the sport.
Select to expand quotePointman said...
Can someone explain to me how rerunning heats enables sailors to manipulate the outcome, because I'm struggling to see the logic behind that suggestion?
On the whole I think it's pretty poor form to slander the race organisers in a public forum when we should be acknowledging the huge effort that goes into staging this event. Sounds like sour grapes to me
I'll just agree with you pointman your a massive dude 
After doing all the slalom racing here at GI, I really don't think riders slightly over to start line make much of a difference to the podium anyway, maybe the top guys, but in my heats how you went at the start didn't make much difference because I lot can happen in between the rest of the course. 
What an awesome event!!! Big congrats to all competitors and the top place getters. The organisation and running of the event was second to none. All races were run with fairness to all in mind. Once again a great event and run very professionally.
I am a volunteer and this was my third year on the start boat. I cannot believe some of these posts, and personally appalled of the accusations.
The conduct of the races has been the same each year, it is fair and equal. To accuse organisers of anything else is disgraceful.
This was an amazing competition and everyone sailed exceptionally well. Well done to all involved, I'm already looking forward to next year . Congrats to everyone who took part and were involved in this exceptional event in an amazing location.
Looking at the results from the PDF link. Only 5 rounds in 5 days seems the event was cursed by lack of wind.
I take it a round comprises of two heats?
I remember at the Aust slalom championships held twice at South Beach 5-10 years ago,you got to race in 7-8 heats per day,though it was windy when both events were held.
On the other issue....
If three go over early they get disqualified, but if four or more go over early then its a re-run 
Does seem a bit unfair on the rest.
Select to expand quotepetermac33 said..
Looking at the results from the PDF link. Only 5 rounds in 5 days seems the event was cursed by lack of wind.
I take it a round comprises of two heats?
I remember at the Aust slalom championships held twice at South Beach 5-10 years ago,you got to race in 7-8 heats per day,though it was windy when both events were held.
On the other issue....
If three go over early they get disqualified, but if four or more go over early then its a re-run
Does seem a bit unfair on the rest.
are you on drugs! 
its been windy to very windy every day for 5 straight days and still more to come.
www.bom.gov.au/products/IDQ60801/IDQ60801.94284.shtml
Have a troll through the data for the week...Arlington is not far from the site , take a couple of knots off and you get the real winds at GI
FNQ in winter is consistently windy, there has been a bucket load of sailing going on.
As for results...who really cares? The credit is great, but the experience of being there is so much more than that.
If you have ever sailed there it's a surreal experience, to be blasting around on the great barrier reef in the middle of winter in boardies and rashie..just too good for words.. and the vibe on and off the island is fantastic...no matter what brand you sail...it's seriously the best week you can have, it's a shame that so many people get worked up on their keyboards from thousands of km's away, instead of celebrating what a great event it is, there are a lot of 'volunteers' that put a lot of work into pulling off this great event...it's a bit rude and a kick in the guts to those people some of the comments on here...they would be personally offended and without them it simply wouldn't happen. Myself, I'm just shattered I couldn't go this year. 
As they say in Hawaii...bit of 'Aloha' spirit wouldn't go astray here.
