Leo Sharpe (AUS-840) is Australia's #1 Formula Windsurfer, and has a cupboard full of trophies covering every discipline from Raceboarding, to Slalom, to Formula, to GPS. WQ caught up with Leo to explore the skills needed to be able to seamlessly jump between disciplines, in times where windsurfers tend to focus on one or two disciplines.
Leo: I guess it all comes back to years and years of sailing in all the different disciplines. I grew up sailing at Lake Cootharaba in Minnows and then on Arrow cats, while my dad raced an A Class cat. My dad bought a Windsurfer One Design when I was eight years old and started to learn how to windsurf. I had my first lesson at ten years of age and it wasn't long before my entire family was windsurfing ... dad, mum, my two sisters and I. It got to the stage where all I wanted to do was windsurf and the boats became superfluous. Slalom was our discipline of choice as a family for a long time, before Dad acquired a Raceboard to course race and re-kindle his desire to compete. I soon followed Dad and before we knew it, the garage was full of Raceboard kit ..... Mistral Equipe's, Astro-surf Eliminator's, F2 Lightnings etc. etc. Looking back at it, the Raceboard grounding was instrumental to my windsurfing career. It taught me multiple skills, most importantly; techniques to sail fast upwind, playing wind shifts, starting tactics and strategies to win in fleets. Raceboard fleets were quite large with races everywhere, including a number of high profile marathon events like the "Old Woman Island Marathon", "Hervey Bay to Fraser Island Marathon" and the "Goodtime Bay Islands Marathon" .... all of which would attract up to 100 competitors.
WQ: How much of your success Leo comes from your renowned physical prowess vs the amount of time you spend on the water ("TOW")?
Leo: Thirty years of windsurfing is really the biggest factor in any success I have managed to achieve in windsurfing. Strength has obviously come with age, especially given I run a business that incorporates a lot of physical activity. Strong wind conditions has always been my favourite (its fast and exciting) .... and consequently that is where I tend to achieve my best results. I have had feedback over the years that I can be more emotional in light airs ??
WQ: Over the years, you have attracted a lot of support from manufacturers and windsurfing retailers ..... how much feedback finds its way back into R&D from team riders?
Leo: It is always difficult to measure. I have been fortunate to have had a lot of support with gear over the years, which, I am forever grateful for. In my early days, it was Gail Austin from Goodtime which supplied me with my boards and Neil Pryde supplied me with sails, masts and booms ..... both of whom were extremely generous. In more recent years, I have had fantastic support from Simon Fyfe at Board Crazy and the team at Severne Sails. I try and give back to my sponsors by helping local sailors on the beach, supporting the brand by being on the water, and getting the best results I can at all times when racing.
WQ: What are your plans for the 17/18 sailing season?
Leo: More TOW with a clear focus on defending my Formula Australian Windsurfing Title, which will be on my home turf at Royal Queensland Yacht Squadron at Manly in January 2018. Foiling is something I definitely want to have a go at too .... it looks like a blast, so that will be on the agenda too.
WQ: Speaking of foiling, where do you see it going?
Leo: Foiling is the future of windsurfing, however, it won't displace every windsurfing discipline. Realistically, foiling needs 8 to 10 knots, whereas Raceboarding races can be run in as low as 3 to 5 knots ... this is the reason that Raceboarding has prospered for so many years. We always raced, we always got a result whether it was a Saturday afternoon club race, or a 3-day event. Even with the 12.5 metre sails we use in Formula, we are much like foiling ... we need 8 to 10 knots of breeze to race. Like the A Class cats, where there continues to be a strong following of non-foilers, there is room for both. After all, we don't want to discourage people who don't want to learn how to foil for whatever reason. But just Imagine .... an entire racing fleet, flying around Waterloo Bay at 25 knots board speed, in 15 knots of breeze, up on foils, dodging around Opti's with kids with eyes wide open dreaming about the day they progress up to a foiling windsurfer. I'm excited to see where it's heading. Foiling .... it's fast, flashy and fashionable ... a guaranteed winner.
WQ: Speak to any random person in Queen St Brisbane and if you mention the word windsurfer, they will ask you whether you know Leo Sharpe ..... you are a household name for your daring windsurfing adventures .... what is the most memorable one?
Leo: Back in '92 season, I was competing in the Singapore Open on a Raceboard. After the event, a bunch of us sailed from Singapore to Malaysia, slept the night and then sailed back home the next day crossing the busiest shipping channel in the world both times. It was a downwind blast to Malaysia, and upwind all the way back to Singapore. Steve Allen and I got a breakaway from the rest of the pack and ended up in a tacking duel for hours. Up ahead, there was a massive Container Ship crossing our path, and if we didn't cross it, we'd lose our lead whilst we waited in its wind shadow. We both decided to go for it, and the skipper of the ship saw that we were not going to wait and blew her horn; non-stop. The ship approached us doing 20 knots plus and was not altering course for a windsurfer. We knew we'd be okay, but it was always going to be with a fine margin .... in the end it was only about 50 metres!
WQ: Thanks Leo .... on behalf of the Queensland windsurfing community, thank you for the goodwill and camaraderie that you generate .... whether that be on the beach at Wynnum, or at a big regatta as you proudly represent Queensland or Australia. You are odd's on favourite to win the Formula title back-to-back .... surely that must be an incentive for Steve Allen (AUS-0) and Sean O'Brien (AUS-120) to join you on the start line at RQ in January 2018?
Yours sincerely,
Mark Harper
Windsurfing Queensland
