Where's ct249? 
In Italy! 
(Probably back by now!)
The Italian Windsurfer Class Nationals were held on the 5th and 6th of September 2015. There were 65 competitors making up four men's divisions and a women's division.
Aussie ct249 competes at Italian Nationals. Source:www.windsurferclass.com
Visit the Italian Windsurfer Class website to view event results, photos of the scenic location and Chris (#9) working to windward amongst many others. CT, a windsurfing veteran, came in with an awesome result of 4th in his weight division!
One day we'll get some Continental sailors to the WS Class Aussie Nationals.
The RB are leading the way with that, with the RB Worlds in Qld next year!! 
Ciao! WindsurferOD
It was a bit of an unlucky regatta in an amazing place; after not windsurfing much for a year (old injuries and illness), I beat myself up writing off my bike in a crash the day before the regatta started (it's really hard to limp on both legs at once :-) ) then dropped from =2 on points after a board problem caused a bad start in the last race.
The Italian fleet is doing really well. Most of them live further south so the 60 entries at Torbole was lower than usual - they've recently had over 100 to the nationals. Carlos and Maurizio, who run the class, are doing a great job and attracting lots of juniors and a strong component of sailors around 30 years old. Apparently the Windsurfer and the Techno are now the only two board classes with any real numbers in Italy. There were two former Olympians in the fleet and the standard at the top end was high.
There were sailors from Spain and France at the regatta as well, and they are trying to arrange a European championship soon. There's also a lot of Italians who are interested in coming to race out here.
It was interesting to see how strong windsurfing still is at Lake Garda; the kites are only 20-25% as popular as the poleys. I spent a few days before the regatta riding some of the great Tour de France climbs a few hours away by train, before meeting my wife and riding part way to Venice after the regatta - there can't be anywhere in the world where you can combine cycling, sailing, history and scenery like that!
You're back! Well you're somewhere. Brilliant work Chris. Really interesting info there too.
Yes, the association here is talking with the association there Hopefully we'll be able to increase tourism in Oz by a few sailors in next season or two. Select to expand quoteChris 249 said..
(it's really hard to limp on both legs at once :-) )
Glad you're feeling better. That sad tradition of sailors getting catapulted off cycles. 
Cheers.
Lake Garda looks like a brilliant place to sail, so different from anywhere in Australia and lots of other things to do there.
Do they still make Wally windsurfers in Italy? I am imagining a factory filled with Super Mario dudes making windsurfers......though when I tried to google any connection between windsurfers and Super Mario all I got was photos this weird sail brand produced by some random company that was trying to hard to be cool.. 
( hey....its a two batten sail so they were a long way ahead of the curve)
The Italians are still importing 25 boards or so from Australia each year. I thought they had already got one of the moulds from here but that has still to happen.
They also have lots of old boards that are still completely competitive, like we do here. Boards from the mid '80s are as fast as the latest boards if they are well cared for. The Italians do have a different mast but it seems to be basically identical in use.
Garda is an amazing place. You really need to see pics of the surrounding mountains and the villages hanging half way up them to get the full impact. It snowed on a peak about 2000m above the lake but just a few km away on the Saturday night, but it was nice and warm down on the lake.
Select to expand quoteChris 249 said..
The Italians are still importing 25 boards or so from Australia each year. I thought they had already got one of the moulds from here but that has still to happen.
They also have lots of old boards that are still completely competitive, like we do here. Boards from the mid '80s are as fast as the latest boards if they are well cared for. The Italians do have a different mast but it seems to be basically identical in use.
Garda is an amazing place. You really need to see pics of the surrounding mountains and the villages hanging half way up them to get the full impact. It snowed on a peak about 2000m above the lake but just a few km away on the Saturday night, but it was nice and warm down on the lake.
We're still exporting stuff .......I thought Hawk and Keating got rid of all that stuff with their neo-liberal trade revolution.
