New Jersey Windsurfing &
Watersports Association
Bayview Park "Fun Fest 2"
On July 11th, NJWWA held its 2nd annual “Funfest” at Bayview Park, Brant Beach, LBI. in association with Island Surf and Sail (ISS). This was the third event organized by NJWWA, at Bayview Park, since its inception and it was evident to everyone that there is an increasing interest in such events as there was more than double the number of participants taking part compared to last year. Indeed, we had to close the registration early due to the large number of people wanting to attend. In the end, we had over 60 participants taking part in the Funfest during the course of the day. By all accounts it ended up being a tremendous success.
As last year, this event was designed to introduce “beginners” to various watersports that are popular at the Jersey Shore and, in particular, Bayview Park; namely kayaking, stand up paddling (SUP, and windsurfing. This was achieved through clinics and “on water” experience under the close guidance of Anna Marchefka for Kayaking and volunteers from NJWWA and ISS for windsurfing and SUP. They all did a great job sharing their passion for these sports. For more experienced sailors, SUPers, and kayakers, a series of fun races were held in the afternoon.
The event commenced at 9.00 a.m. and, due to the overwhelming interest, it was necessary to stagger registration, under the charge of Jeff and Barb, to allow participants to attend the clinics in smaller groups. The morning was dedicated to instruction and for allowing attendees to test their newfound skills on the water. The conditions were perfect with bright blue skies, warm shallow water, and a gentle breeze. The three windsurfing clinics/tutorials were led by Brian, Tom, and Jack, with others helping the students once on the water. Concurrently with the windsurfing clinics, Anna held a clinic describing the finer points of the Kayaking. The conditions on the water were ideal for the SUP clinic which followed. This was led by AnnMarie from ISS and it gave participants of all ages a chance to try this increasingly popular watersport. A number of participants were overheard stating how much fun it was.
After lunch purchased from Joey’s Pizza, in Brant Beach, a number of fun races were held. This year, because of the light easterly winds, races in all three categories (kayaking, SUP and windsurfing) could be held close to shore; allowing audience encouragement from the beach. In keeping with the “sand castle” theme of the Funfest, participants of the kayak and SUP races were required to build two sand castles on the south beach under the watchful eyes of Eileen and Kay. Another feature of the races were the sprint finishes which, in the cases of the Kayak and SUP races, involved carrying/dragging the equipment onto the beach then running across the finishing line. In the case of the SUP races this involved dismounting off the boards in the knee deep water in front of the beach then sprinting across the finish line. This format produced exciting close finishes.
First up was the women’s kayak race. The course was round the north end no-wake marker in the bay, around the outside of the small island, around the outside of the south end no-wake marker, onto the south beach for sandcastle building then back to the north beach and the finish line. Gift was first across the line with Mackenzie and Kerry closely following. The men’s event was a very closely fought event made all the more exciting by the presence of a lady entrant. As Eve had missed the women’s event, a decision was made to allow her to compete against the men. In the end, she put up a really strong challenge finishing third just behind Thermal Bob, who placed first just in front of John in a sprint finish.
Kayak Women
1st: Gift Maxino
2nd: Makenzie Smith
3rd: Kerry Sorenson
Kayak Men
1st: Thermal Bob
2nd: John Horn
3rd: Eve Tomczak (ladies entrant)
Both the SUP and windsurfing races were mixed entrant events. The SUP race took place over the same course as the kayak events. Chris and Jeff both had strong starts and never relinquished their respective 1st and 2nd places over the race course. Alasdair, having problems staying on the board, finished a distant third. Barb finished first amongst the ladies with Gift and Eve finishing closely behind in 2nd and 3rd places respectively adding to their medal positions from the Kayak races.
SUP women
1st: Barb Bauer
2nd: Gift Maxino
3rd: Eve Tomczak
SUP men
1st: Chris Ciuffreda
2nd: Jeff Bauer
3rd: Alasdair Gilfillan
The light afternoon easterly breeze set the stage for the windsurfing
race. Big boards, and even bigger sails, dominated. Although the winds
were light, the course maximized the light winds to actually produce an
exciting race where tacking skills and tactics played as much in the end
results as did speed on the water. Wallace and Tom headed out to an
early lead while, on the women’s side, Joanna was clearly ahead of the
other women’s participants at the first turn. This turn proved to be
challenging as several sailors in the following pack fell due to
collisions tacking round the marker buoy. The second to last turn proved
to be decisive in dictating the final outcome of the race. Wallace and
Tom opted to take a close heading in rounding the small island towards the
final marker buoy, while Jeff and Alasdair respectively in 3rd and 4th
positions opted to make a much wider tack to allow a more downwind
stretch to the last mark. As a result, both Wallace and Tom were
required to make additional tacks to get round the mark, whereas,
Alasdair and Jeff took a more direct route. Despite this, however,
Wallace managed to hold on to his lead while Alasdair just managed to
sneak past Tom as the three carried their rigs through the
shallows, up the beach, and across the line drawn in the sand. On the
woman’s side, Joanna never relinquished her lead and
finished in first place ahead of Dianne. Third place for women’s
windsurfing was again closely fought with Barb just beating out Corinne
at the finish line.
Final Results
Windsurfing Women
1st: Joanne Szypula
2nd: Dianne
3rd: Barb Bauer
Windsurfing Men
1st: Wallace DaPron
2nd: Alasdair Gilfillan
3rd: Tom Latham
At the conclusion of the races an awards ceremony was held at the
Gazebo. Medals were presented to the top three men and women finishers
in the three different watersports events. Following the awards ceremony
various door prizes, kindly provided by our sponsors and Terry and
AnnMarie from ISS, were given out to lucky draw winners.
We would like to thank Terry and AnnMarie from Island Surf and Sail for their support of the event, providing SUP boards and kayaks for our participants to demo and to compete on, and for providing the generous door prizes. For SUP lessons or rental, AnnMarie can be contacted at ISS 609- 494-5553 www.islandsurf-sail.com. We would also like to thank Anna Marchefka for providing the kayak clinic. Special thanks go out to Jack Bushko, who volunteered his services, and supplied a variety of beginner equipment. Jack has been teaching windsurfing for over 25 years and teaches all levels of windsurfing. He can be reached at lbisurfsailor@hotmail.com or lessons can be arranged through ISS.
Finally, we would like to make a special thanks to Joni who, as always, did a terrific job managing the park during the event and her efforts were greatly appreciated by all. We look forward to see everyone at future NJWWA events!
