Aloha Classic, November 11, 2005

.“It was beautiful! The conditions today were about as good as you can have them for a contest Ho'okipa!” said Josh Stone, who also sailed into the final. “There was a great vibe there during the whole week, it made it really relaxing and a lot of fun, said 34-year old Stone, who hold titles such as 1997 European Wavesailing Production Champion, 1999/2000 PWA Freestyle World Champion, 2001PWA Freestyle Vice-World Champion. For him, the “number one thing was seeing all the kids out there, sensational, they are all so cool! It is really important for Maui that we have these kind of events here. There are so many good guys out here, having Pro-Am events where you bring the community together is great!

Doug Hunt added:” We had the youngest competitor at age 9 and the oldest with 61 – this is true sports spirit!”

Alex Aguera, who won the first ever Aloha Classic back in 1984, sailed in today’s heats and was stoked: ”It was such a great event! We were so fortunate to have these excellent conditions, today they were just great for the OPEN MEN, every day it was great! The event was even better than last year, the huge crowd watching from up at the hill was really special, so many people came today!” Aguera was also happy for the kids, one of, if not THE most important part of the entire event:” To see them out there in those big waves, man, it was the biggest I have ever seen kids sail and some were just learning earlier this year!”

 

1997 Aloha Classic winner Sean Ordonez had been coaching some of those kids earlier this year: “I was coaching Zane Schweitzer earlier this year and he could not get the sail up in winds over 20 knots and today he was really good out there today! These kids are great! When I saw them out there, I saw myself in their eyes. I had a great time, this even had a lot Aloha. It was almost back to the roots, great windsurfing, I hope this week’s great event helps showing the people out there what windsurfing is about – a lot of fun and a great sport! I am already looking forward to tomorrow’s expression session and, of course, next year’s Aloha Classic!”

Whilst their parents may have been a little bit worried, the kids loved being out there, even after getting washed close to the rocks, they had a huge smile on their faces. Kai Lenny ripped on some huge sets and ended his final heat with a nice aerial:” It was calling for me, I had to do it!” he told everyone on the beach, “I loved being out there; just sailing here at Ho’okipa at these conditions with all the great guys was wonderful! The waves were perfect and I was planning all the time!” Connor Baxter showed some great wave riding and summed his day up:” I was on my 3.7 sail, and I think I would have liked to be a bit more powered up, but it was great and really cool out there!”

RESULTS 4th day:

MENEHUNE:
In Round 1, Heat 1, Connor Baxter and Jake Golm advanced into Round 2-FINAL.
In Round 1, Heat 2, Kai Lenny and Baker Grant advanced into Round 2-FINAL.

In Round 2-Final, Kai Lenny got 1st place, Connor Baxter got 2nd place, Jake Golm got 3rd place, and Baker Grant got 4th place.

JUNIOR:
In Round 1, Heat 1, Juban Camille and Kai Lenny advanced into Round 2-FINAL.
In Round 1, Heat 2, Skyler Haywood and Connor Baxter advanced into Round 2-FINAL.

In Round 2-FINAL, Kai Lenny got 1st place, Juban Camille got 2nd place, Connor Baxter got 3rd place, and Skyler Haywood got 4th place.

OPEN MEN:
In Round 2, Heat 24, Josh Stone and Frederick Steineck advanced into Round 3

In Round 3, Heat 25, Jesse Brown and Patrick Bergeron advanced into Round 4-Semi Finals. In Round 3, Heat 26, Alex Mussolini and Takaharu Kamaguchi advanced into Round 4-Semi Finals. In Round 3, Heat 27, Sean Ordonez and Alex Aguera advanced into Round 4-Semi Finals. In Round 3, Heat 28, Josh Stone and Frederick Steineck advanced into Round 4-Semi Finals.

In Round 4, Heat 29, Alex Mussolini and Jesse Brown advanced into Round 5-Finals. In Round 4, Heat 30, Sean Ordonez and Josh Stone advanced into Round 5-Finals.

The Men OPEN Winner will be announced at the Awards Ceremony, Saturday Nov 12th 5:00pm at Livewire Café/Simmer Hawaii on Saturday after the Expression-Session at Ho'okipa Beach Park.

With the 20th anniversary of the Aloha Classic moving forward smoothly and perfectly on-schedule, we want to invite ALL sailors for a free-entry open expression session at Ho’okipa Beach Park. We are looking for the most extreme and agro moves to award a special prize of a $160.00 gift certificate to Mamas Fish House, the sponsor of the Aloha Classic Expression Session.

Sign in at Ho’okipa Beach Park on Saturday morning at 11:00am and keep your fingers crossed for more of the huge conditions that have blessed this event thus far.

OFFICIAL WEBSITE: http://www.alohaclassicwindsurfing.com/

MEDIA PRODUCTION: Paul Ehman
RACE DIRECTOR: Doug Hunt