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Lancelin Ocean Classic 2011 – Severne Sails Domination

The event’s legendary status continues.  A new swell arrived on cue for the wave competition and a solid 25knot sea breeze cranked in for the marathon.  The Severne team were ready to rock.

Waves

The Women:

On Friday, the swell was solid, but with only a light breeze blowing, the lighter category of women hit the water.  The conditions were light and tricky with the girls dodging mast high bombs and pumping only some open faces and sizey closeouts, to lay down some turns.  Utilising her contest experience, Karin caught the best waves, flowing through some full face gouges and sealing the victory.

Aptly named 23yr old Kirra Young from Geraldton stepped up and took second place.

1. Karin Jaggi (Severne S-1 5.0)
2. Kirra Young (Severne S-1 5.0)

The Men:

The men’s competition was run directly after the race, not ideal for the guys that had completed the gruelling marathon.  Last year’s winner, Ben Severne was keen to keep his title but with Peter Volwater, Jaeger Stone, Scott McKercher, Luke Walmsley, Glen Alexander and Ty Bodycoat all hungry, the winner was not to be pre determined.

Conditions were cranking with 20-25knots and head to logo high sets.  Due to the short time and the 16 strong fleet, the early stages were run as expression sessions with the only the most impressive riders advancing.  Huge hacks displacing large sections of every wave and massive jumps made for an impressive spectacle.  Advancing through 3 x 20 minute expression session/endurance heats were Jaeger Stone, Luke Walmsley, Ben Severne and surprisingly; Simon Hurrey.

Jaeger and Ben faced off against each other with the rookie boosting some massive tweaked pushies and the veteran narrowly missing out on a goiter on the shallow end section of the wave.  Jaeger advanced to the final.

On the other side of the draw, local ripper Luke put together 3 solid waves and jumps to defeat Simon who was busy busting out backside 3s into the foam and boosting backies.

This left Jeager and Luke to fight it out for the prize money.  From the outset, Jaeger dominated with huge, over the horizon stalled forwards, tweaked pushies and some impressive hacks and tail drifts.

In the loser’s final, Ben edged out his product manager to take the victory (allowing Simon to keep his job)

1          Jaeger Stone (Severne S-1 4.7)

2         Luke Walmsley (Severne S-1 4.7)

3         Ben Severne (Severne S-1 4.7 & 5.0)

4         Simon Hurrey (Severne S-1 4.7 & 5.0)

So what happened to Scott, Glen and Peter?  Scott looked underpowered and despite burying the rail in his usual fashion, failed to get any jump scores.  Peter’s bad luck continued as he failed to impress, despite catching some good waves and doing a couple of big jumps.  And Glen, the danger man from Greenhead seemed to be underpowered and failed to clock up any big scores.  I’m sure they will be back next year to exact revenge….

The Marathon

Shiny new race gear was rolled out, stickers were applied, tuning tips were offered and that was just at the Severne demo tent.

The racers rigged and tuned setting up multiple rigs (some with professional caddy assistance), arming themselves with the weapons to take on the 25 knots, the seaweed, the larger than usual swell and of course the other international, national and local sailors.  Whatever class or reason for competing, there was a buzz of activity surrounding the beach.

Moments before the start, Peter Volwater broke his mast and was advised that there was more time to re rig than there really was.  He unfortunately missed the start which is critical.

As soon as the horn sounded, it was clear the long legs of Dan Engdahl allowed him to lift his board clear of the seaweed and get going first.  At the end of the first leg, Bjoern and Jesper Orth were chasing Dan down.

On the second leg Bjoern pulled away leaving everyone in his wake.  He completed the longer than usual course in 33:11, 44 seconds clear of the speed specialist Chris Lockwood in 2^nd, Jesper in 3^rd and Dan in 4^th.

Karin Jaggi romped home in 11^th place, an incredible performance considering the field.

1^st Elite men’s division – Bjoern Dunkerbeck (Severne REFLEX II 7.8)

1^st Elite women’s division – Karin Jaggi (Severne REFLEX II 7.0)

1^st Open men’s division – Marcus Brockhurst (Severne SSR)

Pictures courtesy of John Carter & article from Team Severne